« Yesterday I spoke at a peace rally in Montreal organized by the Quebec Movement for Peace/Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix. In my speech I condemned the toxic masculinity displayed by Trudeau and the G7 leaders who were literally joking to the media about ripping off their shirts to look tough for Putin before sending more weapons to Ukraine, which will only lead to war and more death and destruction. Our leaders are obsessed with image, they want to look tough and beat their chests.
I condemned Canada’s efforts to sabotage the peace talks. Taking back Crimea and the Donbass at this stage would be suicide. We need to escalate, negotiate and compromise. We do not need a nuclear conflict or a war with Russia.
Our foreign minister Melanie Joly says her goal is « not to talk to Russia ». NATO is not a defensive orginization – it is looking for new territory. The invasion of Russia must be condemned, they had other ways to negotiate. War can never be justified. It is a failure. Diplomacy should have prevailed.
This war is for money. This is the military industrial complex. Even here in Canada, politicians are using this war to defend a new frontier – a pipeline that the environmental movement has worked very hard to stop. Quebec is complacent in the cycle of war. Every morning, thousands of workers in this province go to work making bombs, rockets, grenades and fighter plane components.
World peace is not a dream. It is a realistic goal if we can activate an anti-war movement here in Canada and around the world. End nuclear weapons. Disarm. Negotiate peace in Donbass, Crimea, Ukraine, Europe and the world. Demilitarize, decolonize.
Yes to peace! No to war!
Alex Tyrrell
Leader of the Green Party of Quebec »
