Ceasefire.ca’s F-35 campaign enters critical phase

 

Stephen Harper promoting the F-35

If you would gladly give $7 each month to stop Harper’s stealth fighters, click here.

 

Dear Ceasefire.ca supporter,

We are entering a critical phase of our campaign to stop Harper. Thank you so much for your support, and let me tell you how we are using donations from our supporters to Ceasefire.ca.

A few days ago I was on Parliament Hill once again to try to stop Harper’s pro-war lobby and the multi-billion-dollar F-35 stealth fighter fiasco.

I wasn’t alone. This time, I was joined by the highest ranking former Canadian military officer to come out publicly against Harper’s war planes.

Colonel Paul Maillet (ret.) had a distinguished 33-year career in the air force. He is an expert in military aircraft, an aerospace engineer who worked on Canada’s current CF-18 aircraft fleet starting in the 1980s, and who rose to become engineering and maintenance manager of the entire fleet in the 90s.

Together, we held a press conference inside the Parliament Buildings and spoke to a room full of journalists from every new media network in the country.

Colonel Maillet, in a calm, matter-of-fact way, laid out a devastating critique of the F-35, arguing that it is a complete mismatch for Canada’s needs, will be terribly expensive, and will likely perform very poorly compared to other available aircraft.

Our press conference was broadcast live across Canada by GlobalTV, and Colonel Maillet was invited onto CBC Radio’s As It Happens that evening. His remarks were carried in nearly every major newspaper in Canada.

Harper’s pro-war lobbyists and their allies in the media are alarmed by our campaign. The notorious Sun TV took aim at Colonel Maillet and tried to malign him for standing for election in the past for the Green Party, for saying the billions of dollars for the F-35 should be used for education or hospitals, for being opposed to a war against Iran, and even for being associated with “Steven Staples who runs a website called Ceasefire.ca….”

Your support has allowed us to push this issue to the top of the political agenda.

More than 400 Ceasefire.ca supporters have joined our Peacekeepers monthly donor club already. Would you gladly give $7  each month to stop Harper’s F-35 stealth fighter, too?

I hope you answered “Yes!”

In my letter to you earlier this year, I promised we would confront Harper’s agenda at every turn.

I made a commitment to you that we would

  • release a damning new study on the F-35,
  • speak to Members of Parliament urging them to stop the waste, and
  • bring Canadians together to send thousands of letters to Harper and other MPs.

 

And that’s what we did!

In March, Ceasefire.ca supporters and friends like you came together and sent more than 5,000 emails against the F-35s to Harper, opposition party leaders and their own MPs through Ceasefire.ca. A massive outpouring!

And now the government appears to be in trouble.

Harper was exposed by the Auditor General, who released a report on the F-35 debacle proving that Canadians have been lied to by Harper and his pro-war lobby.

  • Harper said there is a contract for the jets. There isn’t!
  • Harper said they’d be $75 million each. They won’t!
  • Harper said it will be the only plane that can meet the military’s needs. It falls far short!

Our campaign has put Harper in a tight spot – but he still refuses to back away from the F-35s.

We must keep up the pressure on Stephen Harper.

There are only a few weeks left before Parliament breaks for the summer. Will you help us raise $15,000 before June 8?

We are planning more meetings with MPs.

We will be publishing news articles, speaking to journalists and appearing on national television.

And we will mobilize Canadians again on the F-35!

Now, would you gladly give $7 each month to stop Harper?

 

Thank you for everything you do for peace.

 

In peace,

Steven Staples, Ceasefire.ca

 

P.S. Please help us to stop Harper by making a small gift of $7 every month to Ceasefire.ca.  If you choose, we will also send you a free copy of Noah Richler’s book, What We Talk About When We talk About War.

Tags: Canadian military spending, F-35, Paul Maillet