This Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 4:00 pm, the leader of the Green Party of Quebec, Alex Tyrrell, demonstrated for the closure of General Dynamics, a plant located in Valleyfield, southwest of Montreal.
Alex Tyrrell is an eco-socialist activist elected leader of the Quebec Green Party in 2013 at the age of 25. He is running in this year's by-election in the Marie-Victorin riding of Longueuil. The General Dynamics plant, which manufactures bombs, explosives and rockets, is located southwest of Montreal. Alex Tyrrell has always been a militant pacifist, and has repeatedly indicated that avoiding war with Russia would be his top priority. Indeed, his anti-war stance recently came in for some harsh criticism. Today, he once again spoke out against violence and in favor of peace.
"As war continues in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere, we must speak out for world peace. This is not a dream or a fantasy. By 2022, achieving world peace should be a goal shared by all countries and all human beings. We must not accept the diplomatic failures that led to this war. We should not accept that our governments advocate war while arming civilians halfway around the world. We should not accept that Quebec be used as a hub for the production of war materiel. We should not profit from death and destruction. We should not accept the presence of arms manufacturers on our territory, and I'm here to call for the immediate closure of this factory."
" The military-industrial complex is a danger to society. It makes us fight unnecessary and avoidable wars. It causes death, destruction and environmental collapse worldwide. It wastes our industrial capacity on bombs while we struggle to find people to work in the energy transition sector. Every morning, thousands of Quebec workers get up and go to work making bombs that will be used to kill people rather than making a positive contribution to society and humanity. We don't need these factories. We don't need to produce bombs. We have more important and useful things to build. We don't need to contribute to the endless cycle of war. What we need to do is defend peace. We need to close these factories and elect anti-war activists to our parliament and democratic institutions right now."
Alex Tyrrell then called on Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, and her colleagues: "The escalation of the war with Russia is a major mistake. Your actions to date have contributed to the diplomatic failure that has led to this war. The arms shipments you have sent to the battlefield have intensified hostilities and led to death, the enlistment of innocent civilians and the perpetuation of war. Your latest call to increase military spending in Canada is a disgrace to our country."
The values of environmental protection, multiculturalism, feminism, social justice and peace are an integral part of the Green Party of Quebec, and that's why Alex Tyrrell would be honoured to be able to count on the support of Marie-Victorin voters in this by-election.
" A vote for the Green Party of Quebec is a vote to end war, to invest in the energy transition and to build a Quebec that corresponds to what we want to be as a people, as a society and as human beings."
