Last week saw the first Canadian street protest over the planned purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The protest took place on Tuesday, October 26th outside of the Westin Ottawa hotel, where the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada was meeting. Shown above, the Raging Grannies, supported by ceasefire.ca, perform outside the convention as Minister […]
Archive | October, 2010
Schwarzenegger calls for New START ratification
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called in his inimitable style for the quick ratification of the New START treaty to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons (Governor Delivers Remarks at USRBC Annual Meeting, 21 October 2010): Well, let me just tell you that the most excited I’m about is — and I’m asking Congress to […]
Auditor-General: F-35 purchase poses "risks"
Auditor-General Sheila Fraser’s latest report describes the acquisition of Cyclone and Chinook helicopters as “troubling”, and details how government agencies presented the purchases as simple and low risk while continuously lowballing estimated costs in order have them approved. This resulted in seven- and five-year-long delays, respectively, and huge price increases — of approximately 80% in […]
New poll shows Canadians committed to peacekeeping
A new Nanos research poll conducted for the Globe and Mail indicates that Canadians think peacekeeping is more important than combat missions (Campbell Clark, ”Canadians pick peacekeeping over combat,” Globe and Mail, 25 October 2010). According to the poll, Canadians are strongly opposed to sending troops on any future missions reminiscent of Canada’s role in […]
Canada backs NATO missile defence
The Harper government has pledged its support for a proposed NATO missile defence system for Europe (Juliet O’Neill, “Canada backs European missile defence program,” Postmedia News, 20 October 2010): The Conservative government says it supports a European ballistic missile defence system proposed for approval by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the other NATO leaders at […]
Aerospace companies jump into the fray over F-35s
From the Department of Dog-Bites-Man: The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada is warning Canadians not to cancel the Harper government’s plan to purchase F-35 fighters (“Cancelation [sic] of F-35 purchase threatens Canadian jobs,” Aerospace Industries Association of Canada communique, 14 October 2010). Just in case anyone thought they were in favour of cancelling the purchase. […]