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A contingency plan for the death of American democracy
Can democracy live on here if dictatorship fully wins the day south of the border? The biggest obstacle is what’s in our heads. It is ingrained among Canadians that the United States is our greatest friend and will always champion democracy. That can no longer be taken for granted. Can we pivot to seeing the US as our biggest potential threat?
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Pacific Peace Network challenges RIMPAC
RIMPAC 2022 comes at a sensitive moment when the US and its allies have stepped up provocative actions in East Asia, aimed mainly at China, a rising power that seemingly challenges US hegemony in the Pacific. However, for many people including Indigenous Pacific Islanders, US militarism remains front and centre in their fight for sovereignty and peace.
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Canadian Armed Forces impinge on Okinawa
The fight to reclaim Okinawa continues despite ferocious opposition from the ruling parties in Japan who take advantage of their power and the fact some Okinawans’ livelihoods depend on base-related employment or business. This resistance is part of a larger movement for Indigenous rights, peace, and justice across the Asia Pacific region.
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Canada joins US in militarizing the Pacific
Okinawans, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, have been fighting to rid Okinawa of US bases for decades, giving rise to one of the strongest peace movements in the world, attracting broad international support. Thus, we were doubly shocked to learn that the Canadian Armed Forces are regularly using US military installations on Okinawa today.
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Indigenizing Canadian foreign policy
From Oka to Wedzin Kwa in Canada; from Wounded Knee to Standing Rock in the US; from Kahoolawe to Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, Indigenous peoples are confronting white settler colonialism in the Anglosphere. These ongoing contestations are having huge ramifications globally, revolutionizing international relations, and helping realize “a better world is possible.”
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Canada must prepare for America’s rapid decline
In a true democracy, government policy generally reflects the will of the people and prioritizes the interests of the most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the United States is no democracy at all. Indeed, we Canadians should stop describing and thinking of America as a “democracy.” Instead, we should acknowledge the reality of what our neighbour to the south has become.
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Why Québec’s big bet on hydropower is bad news for the climate
Hydro-Québec’s goal to be “the battery of North America” recently received a setback in Maine, where voters in a referendum decided to protect their environment from the clear-cutting that would be needed to erect a massive hydroelectric corridor, but they may also have been responding to current scientific thinking that no longer sees all hydropower as ‘green.’
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The three Ms are free. What now?
China wields enormous power, economic and coercive, and how it uses that power matters. As the war drums beat on, misinformation will proliferate and the danger of conflict will also escalate. Finding a path for peace is possible but not easy given that the world is already facing a climate crisis, an enduring pandemic, and the continuing effects of two centuries of settler colonialism.
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The ‘new Cold War’ and the hegemony of global capitalism
A double-barrelled ‘new Cold War’ is on, with the US-led empire of capital on one side and its rivals in China on one front and Russia on the other. The Canadian ruling class has enthusiastically enlisted to fight alongside its American partners. This camp has been the primary instigators of tensions with China and Russia that could culminate in a disastrous war between major world powers.
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It’s time for Canada to restore relations with China
The arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was a colossal blunder by the Trudeau government, executed at the request of the now almost universally discredited Trump administration, which blatantly admitted that she was being held hostage as a bargaining chip in the former president’s trade war with China. Canada should release Meng and chart a new course for relations with China—before it’s too late.