‘Shut Down This War Machine’: Peace Activists Block Entrances to Major Weapons Fair in Canada

More than a hundred anti-war campaigners traveled to Ottawa on Wednesday to protest outside of the E.Y. Center, where they obstructed access to the opening of CANSEC, North America’s largest weapons and “defense industry” convention.

Carrying 40-foot banners with messages such as “Blood On Your Hands,” “Stop Profiting From War,” and “Arms Dealers Not Welcome,” peace activists blocked multiple driveways and pedestrian entrances as attendees attempted to register for and enter the meeting just before Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand’s scheduled opening keynote address.

“The same conflicts around the world which have brought misery to millions have brought record profits to arms manufacturers this year,” Rachel Small, an organizer with World Beyond War, said in a statement. “These war profiteers have blood on their hands, and we are making it impossible for anyone to attend their weapons fair without directly confronting the violence and bloodshed they are complicit in.”

The CANSEC arms expo is expected to bring 12,000 people, along with 55 international delegations, to Canada’s capital, where attendees will hear from an estimated 306 exhibitors, including weapons manufacturers, military technology and supply companies, media outlets, and government agencies. The annual gathering in Ottawa is organized by the Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries (CADSI), which represents more than 900 Canadian defense and security corporations.

Small said that “we’re disrupting CANSEC in solidarity with the millions of people around the world who are being killed, who are suffering, who are being displaced as a result of the weapons sold and military deals made by the people and corporations inside this convention.”

“While more than six million refugees fled Ukraine this year, while more than 400,000 civilians have been killed in seven years of war in Yemen, while at least 13 Palestinian children were killed in the West Bank since the start of 2022, the weapons companies sponsoring and exhibiting in CANSEC are raking in record billions in profits,” said Small. “They are the only people who win these wars.”

Since the start of 2022, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have watched their stocks surge by nearly 25% and 20%, respectively, while Raytheon and General Dynamics have enjoyed almost double-digit growth in their share prices.

Military contractors could hardly contain their excitement in the weeks leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the chief executive officers of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon—both major sponsors of CANSEC—predicting during their January earnings calls that the looming war would lead to inflated military budgets and increased sales.

With “renewed great power competition” comes windfall profits, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet told investors at the beginning of the year. At the same time, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes—whose annual compensation package reached $23 million in 2021, up 11% from the previous year—told shareholders that “we’re going to see some benefit from” increased “opportunities for international sales.”

“The weapons, vehicles, and technologies promoted at this arms show have profound implications for human rights in this country and around the world,” said Brent Patterson, director of Peace Brigades International Canada. “What is celebrated and sold here means human rights violations, surveillance, and death.”

Canada has become one of the world’s leading arms dealers, and it is the second-largest supplier of weapons to the Middle East region, trailing only the United States.

“Outside its borders, Canadian corporations plunder the oppressed nations of the world while Canadian imperialism benefits from its role as a junior partner in U.S.-led imperialism’s vast complex of military and economic warfare,” said Aiyanas Ormond of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle.

“From its plunder of the mineral wealth of the Philippines, to its support for Israeli occupation, apartheid, and war crimes in Palestine, to its criminal role in the occupation and plunder of Haiti, to its sanctions and regime change machinations against Venezuela, to arms exports to other imperialist states and client regimes, Canadian imperialism uses its military and police to attack the people, suppress their just struggles for self-determination and for national and social liberation, and to maintain its regime of exploitation and plunder,” Ormond added. “Let’s join together to shut down this war machine!”

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Kenny Stancil.