Condemn Major Military Deployment in Halifax on Labour Day! No Harbour for War!

A major NATO naval exercise was staged in Nova Scotia on Labour Day. Known as Cutlass Fury 2021, the military exercise was promoted as entertainment for working people to take in on Labour Day.

A line of nine Canadian warships and five visiting warships from the U.S., UK and France sailed to Bedford Basin and departed Halifax Harbour. The U.S. Navy ships are USS Thomas Hudner and USS Forrest Sherman, both of which are Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. The show of 14 warships is ostensibly “to simulate surveillance and boarding of a civilian ship and will include operations with the Canadian submarine HMCS Windsor.”

Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft including Cyclone helicopters, an Aurora as well as Alpha Jets conducted a “flypast” over the ships as they departed the harbour, at an altitude of 150 metres.

Canadian Armed Forces’ Maritime Command promotes the fiction that the exercise is “Canadian-led,” as if this is an exercise in sovereignty and legitimate defence, not one that is in the service of U.S. war preparations. Through NATO, Canada’s Maritime Command is under the control of the U.S. Second Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia.

All of it underscores the necessity for Canadians to fight to extricate Canada from the U.S. war machine and the aggressive alliance NATO. Canada needs an anti-war government more than ever before.