The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute collaborated as part of the No New Fighter Jets Coalition to create a Parliamentary Petition sponsored by Green MP Paul Manly. We believe the second largest procurement in Canadian history deserves time in the House of Commons.
Our petition was read in Parliament! Watch it here https://twitter.com/VOWPeace/status/1410404176295862272
See the petition text below
Petition to the House of Commons e-3433 (National defence and military operations)
Whereas:
- The Government of Canada plans to purchase 88 new fighter jets for a cost of $19 billion;
- The No New Fighter Jets Coalition has estimated the full life-cycle costs of these new fighter jets to be $76.8 billion;
- Public spending on new fighter jets would divert resources away from critical social services, environmental protection and Indigenous communities;
- Canadian fighter jets have been used to bomb infrastructure and kill people;
- Former Deputy Minister of National Defence, Charles Nixon, asserted that purchasing new fighter jets were unnecessary to protect Canadian national security or sovereignty;
- There is no plan to offset the greenhouse gases from the new fighter jets, which will prevent the Government of Canada from decarbonizing and meeting its Paris Agreement target;
- The Department of National Defence is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) among all federal departments, yet all military vehicles and operations are exempt from the federal government’s GHG emission reduction plan; and
- Recently, more than 100 Canadians across the country engaged in a fast to oppose the federal government’s plans to purchase new fighter jets.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to:1- Cancel the $19 billion competition to purchase the 88 new combat aircraft;2- Include all of the carbon emissions from the Department of National Defence’s military vehicles and operations in the federal government’s GHG emission reduction plan and net-zero plan; and3- Invest in a conversion plan that will create thousands of jobs in the green economy and the care economy to help transition Canada away from fossil fuels and armed force.