Resistance is essential, but at the moment the anti-war movement is not in a position to bring large numbers into the street to protest NATO expansion and Canada’s role in prolonging the conflict in Ukraine. But we should at least be challenging politicians where we can and chipping away at progressives supporting the continuation of this horrible war.

Haitians’ are right to be angry at Canada. In the last two decades alone Canada helped destabilize Haiti’s elected government, planned a coup, and participated in an invasion to topple a president. Ottawa also trained and financed a highly repressive police force, enabling a litany of politically motivated arrests and killings.

In response to appeals from many NDP supporters expressing concern about human rights for Palestinians, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has sent an email including a strong statement of NDP demands, denouncing the Trudeau government for “failing to call out Israel for breaching international law and for violating the human rights of the Palestinian people.”

There are no good options available at this point in the Ukraine-Russia war. Except to warmongers and war profiteers, a negotiated solution with unpleasant compromises appears preferable to prolonging the fighting for years or risking the unthinkable. Millions of Canadians support peaceful solutions to the Ukraine war. A left wing party should be their voice.

Gustavo Petro’s election victory in Colombia is a major blow to Justin Trudeau’s bid to bolster reactionary and pro-Washington governments in the hemisphere. Sunday’s presidential vote strengthens the socialist and regional integrationist forces Ottawa has sought to undercut. An ex-rebel fighter, Petro is widely considered Colombia’s first ever left wing leader.

Over the past decade, Canadian aid has been used to pacify local opposition to mining projects in Burkina Faso. Ottawa has also financed various mining initiatives and signed an undemocratic investment accord to protect Canadian mining companies. All this suggests that Ottawa’s primary objective in the small Western African nation is to help Canadian firms profit from its vast mineral wealth.

Underpinning the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and B’nai B’rith’s campaign against Khaled Barakat and the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a stark double standard in Canada’s disproportionate treatment of the colonized and colonizer. Until the federal government severs its ties to the Israeli military, no one should support any effort to further criminalize Palestinians within Canada.

While more details on the scope of Western involvement will likely emerge, there is enough information in the public record to conclude that, despite falling below the threshold of direct confrontation with Russia, Canada’s contribution of arms means that we are indeed at war in Ukraine. This reality is compounded by the other retaliatory measures Ottawa has wielded to destroy the Russian economy.

The militarists’ narrative goes something like this: despite not facing any imminent conventional military threats to its Arctic, Canada must significantly bolster the defence of its northernmost borders, otherwise the Russians could cross more than a thousand kilometres of usually icy ocean to take ‘our’ land and resources. But whose land is it, anyway? And to whom do these resources belong?

Ottawa’s primary objective in Ukraine has long been to promote neoliberalism and support Washington’s bid to create conflict between Ukraine and its powerful neighbour. While Canadians should sympathize with Ukrainians who reject Russian influence, and condemn Putin’s criminal invasion, we also need to consider Canada’s considerable role in this unfolding tragedy.