CANADA: Behind Chretien's token opposition to US war

April 2, 2003
Issue 

BY BRAVE BEAR

ONTARIO — The US-led invasion of Iraq has raised huge questions and created deep confusion within both the population and the political and economic elite in Canada. The government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien has repeatedly refused, in media statements and in parliament, to join the US war. At the same time he has sent 1500 naval personnel to the Persian Gulf and 3000 ground troops to Afghanistan to relieve US troops.

Chretien has assured everyone that this is in the name of the "War on terror" and not in support for the US-British-Australian invasion of Iraq. The gaping gulf between the words and actions of the Chretien's Liberal Party government highlights the deep rift opening up within Canada. With provincial elections looming in Quebec and Ontario, simmering trade disputes with the United States, the coming retirement of Chretien and the vast and growing opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq, the bubbling political cauldron may overflow and scald the electoral political establishment, as well as Canada-US relations.

Since the beginning of the war, US war propaganda has largely consumed many of the media outlets in Canada, providing carefully sanctioned reports from Canadian journalists "embedded" (or is that in bed?) with the US military machine. Even the traditionally more liberal media — such the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star newspapers — have spent much more reporting the claims of the US military than they have the anti-war movement or what is happening to the Iraqi people.

There have been huge mobilisations of people against the war across the country. Quebec province has seen massive and regular anti-war demonstrations of up to 250,000 people in Montreal (the city's March 22 protest possibly Canada's largest demonstration in history). Other provinces also have a growing majority opposed to the war, which is involving more and more of Canada's recently arrived populations. The only province with a minority of anti-war sentiment is oil-rich Alberta, which sells much of its oil to the USA.

Chretien has stuck to his January 23 statement that Canada would not support a war against Iraq without UN approval, even after the US invasion. A March 21 poll published by the Toronto Star put backing for Chretien's stance at 71%, with 60% opposed to Bush's military action. Chretien has since stated in parliament that the war is "not justified".

But when Bloc Quebecois (BQ) and New Democratic Party (NDP) MPs pressed him in federal parliament to declare it illegal, he dodged the question, saying: "Some people did not agree with me and decided to proceed [to war] and I will respect their judgment."

Chretien's weak rhetoric of opposition to the US invasion is in sharp contrast by his government's modest but important support for the US operations in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. In any case, it is unlikely that Canada had many troops available for the invasion of Iraq after its commitment of troops to the US-installed, US-backed regime in Afghanistan.

Chretien's government vocally supports the US government's bogus "war on terrorism" and has drafted new security legislation aimed at increasing the power of the Canadian state and the intelligence services to act against dissenters. Despite this, many in the business class and the conservative political opposition have viciously criticised Chretien's "lack of support" for the US invasion, claiming it has damaged economic relations with the USA, Canada's largest trading partner.

While such damage is very unlikely, Chretien is obviously acting against his interests, which lie in appeasing these groups. He has been forced to voice token opposition to the US-led invasion by the growing anti-war movement.

Demonstrations, pickets, student walkouts, town meetings, local government motions and canvassing have all been building in intensity. The opposition to the invasion of Iraq has been able to unify groups from the anti-poverty and anti-corporate movements, the peace movement, Christian church peace groups, Muslim congregations, student radicals, environmentalists, migrant groups, as well as attracting and involving many others the massive demonstrations. While the numbers attending protests in many cities and small towns in Canada have fluctuated, the protests in Montreal, the capital of Quebec have been immense.

The Liberal Party is the parliamentary opposition in two key provinces which it wants to win. Elections are due on April 14 in Quebec and possibly in early May in Ontario. The ruling Parti Quebecois (PQ) government of Quebec is riding high due to its social-democratic policies and firm anti-war stance. It is once again threatening to hold a referendum on independence for Quebec. The Conservative Party (PC), which rules in Ontario, faces stiff opposition for its pro-war stance as well as its unpopular neo-liberal policies.

By voicing token opposition to war, the Liberal Party hopes it can at least win Ontario and possibly stave off a landslide secessionist victory in Quebec. At the same time, the Liberals are trying to do without losing support from the corporate elite throughout Canada. This group would rather appease US foreign policy pursuits and enter into joint security measures in return for more favourable trade relations. Recent disputes over softwood lumber (timber) as well as other agricultural exports has been straining the North American Free Trade Agreement and the possibilities for the North and South America-wide Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

The unprecedentedly huge opposition to the Iraq war in the Francophone province of Quebec is also reviving the aspirations for Quebecois independence. Fuelled by the electoral wings of the PQ and their federal allies in the BQ, the movement has been able to ally both conservatives and radicals in a common cause. The PQ and BQ's political trajectories are largely social democratic, but they are divided over whether to campaign for total independence from Canada or sovereignty within Canada.

The anti-war electoral representation for in the other Canadian provinces has largely been taken up by the rejuvenated NDP [a party similar to the Australian Labor Party]. With overwhelming trade union support and a new leader in the left-populist Jack Layton, the NDP has doubled its national support in opinion polls to 17% and rising.

From Green Left Weekly, April 2, 2003.
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