Make Canada a Zone for Peace

Break the Taboo on Discussion about NATO

– Margaret Villamizar –

One of the most pernicious myths spread by the United States and Canada is that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a peaceful alliance, that it promotes peace and security internationally, and has no other intention. The facts however show that the purpose of NATO is not to defend peace or uphold international law. The more Canada promotes NATO as a force for peace, the more crucial it is to smash the silence on discussion about NATO.

The government is currently promoting a so-called rules-based international order with NATO as its guardian. In this construct, the U.S. gets to set the “rules” the rest of the world must follow, and decide as it sees fit who to punish, and how, when its rules are not followed. Punishments run the gamut from countries being targeted for a range of coercive measures such as economic sanctions and blockades through to the threat of invasion or actual invasion and occupation. All of it is in violation of the rule of law as established in the Charter of the United Nations and its conventions, drawn up and agreed upon by the nations of the world coming out of two terrible world wars in order to “eliminate the scourge of war.”

The danger of embroiling Canada in U.S. worldwide wars of aggression and occupation is so ominous that it is important that Canadians not be bound by the taboo that prevails in Parliament and the official media against any questioning or discussion of the role played by NATO, Canada’s membership in it, or why such an alliance should even exist. Nobody should be cowed by threats that if they speak out against NATO they are an enemy of the state or threaten the cause of peace or national security. Smashing the silence about what the facts overwhelmingly reveal — that NATO is not a force for peace or the security of Canadians and other peoples of the world — and what to do about that is vital.

In light of the Trudeau government’s support for establishing a NATO think tank in Canada, described as a “centre of excellence to study the security threats posed by climate change,” it is worth considering what NATO means when it talks about security threats. Speaking of its Climate Change and Security Action Plan, NATO calls climate change “a threat multiplier that impacts Allied security, both in the Euro-Atlantic area and in the Alliance’s broader neighbourhood.” Its stated concern is that “the effects of climate change can potentially exacerbate state fragility, fuel conflicts, and lead to displacement, migration, and human mobility, creating conditions that can be exploited by state and non-state actors that threaten or challenge the Alliance.”

In other words, it is the security of NATO, an aggressive alliance in the service of the U.S. aim to dominate the world, not the security of the world’s peoples, that is threatened by the resistance of the peoples of the world to the consequences of climate change. This is the same NATO that has had a hand in the wholesale destruction of countries at the behest of the U.S. and its self-serving “rules-based order” that has given rise to the massive and deadly displacement of millions of peoples from parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America that we are witnessing on a daily basis.

The pressure to maintain the taboo is such that today opposition to NATO and calling for it to be dismantled is enough to get one branded as an extremist, an agent of a foreign power and threat to national security, and to be treated accordingly. This cannot be allowed. Limitations on freedom of speech deemed to be reasonable beg the question of who deems them to be reasonable and who decides? Whereas the civil right to speech can be curtailed according to the constitution and self-serving laws passed without involving the people in discussion and decision-making, the human right to speech can never be taken away or forfeited because without communication by means of speech, humanity would not exist. It is a matter of affirming the right to be.

NATO is not a force for peace. Get Canada Out of NATO! Dismantle NATO!

This article was published in:

Renewal Update No. 67, November 24, 2021

Article Link:
Make Canada a Zone for Peace: Break the Taboo on Discussion about NATO – Margaret Villamizar