What should progressive Canadians expect from the defence critic representing the country’s only left wing party? An easy answer might be legitimate criticism of cost overruns within the military, or the army’s participation in dubious combat operations at the behest of our southern neighbour. Yet, in the case of the New Democratic Party, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Beyond specific campaigns, we need social movements and political parties to challenge Canada’s destructive arms economy and the upward flow of wealth spurred by intellectual property rights accords and other forms of exploitation. We need urgently to build a peaceful, fair world where aid is given—not to maintain existing conditions, but to upend them completely.

In a clash of ideological paradigms, Abiy Ahmed’s administration has embarked on a path of neoliberalism that has placed Ethiopia in direct conflict with the Chinese-backed developmental state initiated by former leader Meles Zenawi. In part, the military intervention in Tigray is a push by Abiy to integrate the rebellious region into the neoliberal fold.

What are the prospects for peace at what appears to be the beginning of a protracted civil war in Ethiopia? What can be expected from other Horn of Africa countries? Canadian Dimension put these questions to Eritrean human rights activist Paulos Tesfagiorgis, who has been carefully observing the situation by keeping in touch with many of his former comrades and friends in Ethiopia, Tigray and Eritrea.

Amidst growing criticism, NDP Defence Critic Randall Garrison has said nothing regarding the runaway costs of the Canadian Surface Combatant project, the secrecy surrounding it, or the offensive weaponry set to be equipped on the warships. What is the point of having a defence critic if they are unwilling to question or challenge the largest military procurement in Canadian history?

Despite Canada’s long-standing support for the Ukrainian army, there has been almost no coverage of recent peace talks in the war-ravaged Donbas. More concerningly, few have analyzed the implications of stalled progress towards ending the civil war, even as the Trudeau government continues to fund a military mission in an active conflict most have all but forgotten.

Despite Justin Trudeau’s promise to support a global ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems, Canadian companies continue to profit from exporting software or components for killer robots. There is still no domestic regulation around the manufacture of these technologies, and little in the way of public debate around their development and export.

There are numerous reasons Canada should not spend $19 billion on a fleet of warplanes, starting with the colossal cost. In what would be the second most expensive government procurement program ever, these funds could pay for light rail infrastructure in many cities, tens of thousands of units of social housing, and guarantee healthy drinking water on every Indigenous reserve.

With practically any major power it would care to engage, the US must count the cost of their retaliation and those of their increasingly powerful allies. The danger of war lies in the very real possibility that, in the prosecution of their internal civil war, the US executive will be unable or unwilling to count it. It also lies in the pervasive tendency in of the media, the political leadership and the intelligentsia to subordinate themselves to the needs of the war machine.

Last month, two conferences were scheduled in Montréal as part of Vanessa Beeley’s Canadian tour. As soon as they were announced, the speaker was subjected to volleys of slander from the proponents of the official narrative on Syria. The strategy was clear: smear the person to distract attention from what she was saying, attack the messenger so that the message would not be heard.