On Friday, April 1, 2022 at 10:00 AM, Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec and candidate in the Marie-Victorin by-election, continued his tour of Quebec’s arms plants. He was accompanied by Halimatou Bah, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Quebec and Marlene Hale, Chief of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. In front of the Lockheed Martin and Bombardier plants, they demonstrated against the Liberal government’s purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets at a cost of $20 billion and lifetime operating costs of about $80 billion.
Alex Tyrrell is an eco-socialist activist who was elected leader of the Green Party of Quebec in 2013 at the age of 25. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science degree from Concordia University as well as a college degree from Dawson College in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Under his leadership, the Green Party of Quebec has positioned itself on the left of the Quebec political scene, while adopting a comprehensive program for Quebec, the new Green Plan, which contains progressive proposals on all issues of Quebec politics.
In front of the Lockheed Martin and Bombardier plants he said: “In the buildings behind me, Lockheed Martin and Bombardier maintain and rebuild jet engines for fighter jets used by the U.S. military and others to drop bombs around the world. Lockheed Martin is one of the largest producers of fighter jets and helicopters in the world. I stand here today with a clear message: the parts of these plants that produce engines for fighter jets should be closed immediately and Canada should immediately cancel its purchase of Lockheed Martin fighter jets.”
Halimatou Bah, deputy leader of the Green Party of Quebec supported Alex Tyrrell’s position by stating that: “In the context of a deteriorating international situation and in an environment where there is a growing sense of insecurity and instability, we must have the courage to denounce and work against the production of weapons of war. A brief look at the world shows that as the opportunities for political, ethnic, religious and other conflicts seem to be increasing in the world, the production and sale of weapons is also increasing. It is clear that the horrors of armed conflict almost always lead to the acquisition of more and more sophisticated and dangerous weapons.
Finally, the leader of the Green Party of Quebec recalled, “A vote for the Green Party of Quebec is a vote to end the 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. We must leave our children a peaceful and sustainable planet.”
