Every year on February 14, people across Turtle Island gather for the Women's Memorial March to honour the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S), and to demand justice that has long been denied. The march began in 1992 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside following the murder of Cheryl Ann Joe of the Shíshálh Nation on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. This march has grown into an annual act of remembrance and resistance held across Turtle Island. The Women's Memorial March is not only about remembering those missing and murdered, it is about demanding justice, an end to impunity, and an end to violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Colonial Genocide and Targeting of Indigenous Women

The genocide of Indigenous women and girls is not something that began recently. Since colonization, Indigenous women have been purposely targeted and attacked by the Crown, the Canadian state and settlers egged on by the state. In many Nations, Indigenous women and girls held respected roles within communities and were involved in political decision-making. Furthermore, Indigenous women held inherent and distinct rights by virtue of being women, and actively participated in all aspects of society, unlike women in many other countries during the same period. Colonial violence sought to dismantle this power by attacking Indigenous women's bodies, identities, and roles, recognizing that the targeting of Indigenous women was a way to attack Indigenous Nations, their political systems and therefore their self-determination and self-governance.

Mass murder, sexual violence, the Indian Act and its enduring implications for Indigenous women, forced sterilization, the child welfare system, exploitation of the land, state violence, and police impunity, are all ways in which Indigenous women have been put into vulnerable positions and seen as fair game and less than human. These interconnected forms of violence are not isolated incidents, but part of an ongoing colonial, racist, and sexist structure that dehumanizes Indigenous women's lives and bodies, and negates Indigenous women's right to decide.

National Inquiry and Calls for Justice

Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, was released on June 3, 2019 after two years of public hearings and testimony. The report contains 231 Calls for Justice aimed at governments, institutions, industries and Canadians. These calls were designed to address systemic root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls. Yet, in 2024, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) found that out of the 231 Calls for Justice, only two have been fully implemented. Furthermore, many remain with minimal or no progress.

Security and Safety Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!

An end to the violence faced by Indigenous women and girls goes beyond laws and bureaucracy. It requires the removal of colonial systems that continue to oppress Indigenous Peoples, and the full exercise of self-determination and self-governance by Indigenous Peoples. This means encouraging Indigenous women and girls to lead the design of services that meet their needs and ensure their safety and dignity. This includes guaranteeing that adequate programs and social supports are available and accessible, grounded in the specific needs of Indigenous women and girls; recognizing the inherent, hereditary, and human rights of Indigenous peoples; and keeping Indigenous children with their families and communities by investing in Nation-building rather than Nation-destruction.

Justice matters and ending impunity is essential. Remembrance and honouring are equally vital, because missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are not statistics, they are human beings with voices, knowledge, and lived experience that should be at the forefront, alongside all Indigenous women, girls, and Indigenous Peoples as a whole.

May the Canadian working class join Indigenous Peoples in the fight to break the shackles of oppression and exploitation.

Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!

Say Their Names, Honour Their Lives!

End Impunity for Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls!

End the Genocide Against Indigenous Women and Girls!

Women's Memorial March, Victoria, February 10, 2024

Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All

No to Canadian Collusion with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Its Violation of Rights

Canadians and Quebeckers have been outraged to find out that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is operating in five cities in Canada, through the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and the consulates in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. These offices are among the 90 international offices ICE operates in over 50 countries, staffed by roughly 500 special agents, analysts and support personnel, according to the ICE website.

ICE officers have a key role in what are called anti-terrorist investigations. But who defines what is terrorist when the U.S. is attacking the people at home and abroad, committing assassinations, mass killing, bombing and wreaking destruction? It is of major concern that in this period of counter-revolution anyone who does not go along with U.S. President Donald Trump can be labeled a terrorist. Trump has given himself and his cabinet the authority to decide what "domestic terrorism" is and who is a "domestic terrorist" and fair game to be killed as took place in Minneapolis.

It has now come to light that Canada uses a list known as Tipoff U.S./Canada (TUSCAN), operated by the FBI. TUSCAN is apparently a subset of the U.S. Terrorist Watchlist which has at least one million names. The list was established in 1997 and greatly expanded after 9/11. Police, ICE, the FBI, CIA and who knows who else can add anyone to the list on "reasonable suspicion" that the person has participated in "terrorist activities."

The Toronto Star describes the list as a "secret, expansive, junk-ridden database of suspected terrorists" and reports that it is even more difficult to get one's name removed than was the case with the notorious "no-fly" list which even listed small kids as terrorists. Canada established its own "no fly" list in 2007 but continues to use and contribute to TUSCAN, the Star report informs. TUSCAN is used by both Canadian and U.S. border and immigration officials for screening travelers entering either country by land, sea or air.

People have no way of knowing they are on the TUSCAN list, or what they are accused of, much less getting removed. The FBI can add anyone with no legal process, without evidence, trial, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, or any standards of domestic law whatsoever. It can be used to interrogate and detain people, deny entry to Canada, work permits, visas, and refugee claims or applications for permanent residency, and it is all arbitrary and subject to prerogative executive powers.

Together with Canada's cooperation and material assistance to ICE, TUSCAN is a prime example of the extent to which Canada is thoroughly integrated into the U.S. security, policing and military agencies and cooperates in a manner which endangers all who live and work in Canada.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and those before him speak in the name of high ideals about human rights, democracy, and freedom. Facilitating secret arrangements to share and provide unproven and unverified "information" for purposes over which it has absolutely no control is an egregious violation of the human rights of all who live and work in Canada.

Canada must stop sharing information about Canadian citizens and residents with the U.S. secret agencies and the notorious Five Eyes. Canada must end the integration of its police, security and military forces with the U.S. ICE and all U.S. "Intelligence" agencies must get out of Canada and Canada must get out of NATO and NORAD.

The problem does not end with Canada's collusion with the U.S. to violate the rights of Canadian citizens and residents. In Canada those who challenge the official line on crucial questions are also targeted. People who support the Palestinian resistance are accused of anti-Semitism; those who oppose Canada's warmongering and participation in NATO and NORAD are called agents of a foreign power.

No one can find safety under the U.S. Constitution or the rule of law under such arrangements. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will not make us safe either. Our security lies in the fight for the rights of all, the collective actions and organized resistance of the people. It is the people who are the makers of history!

Petition Demands Canada Stop All Exports to
U.S. for "Immigration Enforcement"

A petition calling on Canada to revoke permission for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to operate offices on Canadian soil has been opened for signature on the House of Commons website.

Petition e-7146 was initiated by Amadea Morrow, New Westminster, British Columbia, sponsored by NDP MP Heather McPherson.

The petition points out that ICE has been widely documented as engaging in serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, family separation, detention of children, medical neglect and deaths in custody, and that Canadians, including children, have been detained in ICE custody.

The Government of Canada has provided public funding, contracts, subsidies, or export permits to companies that contract with ICE or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which oversees ICE, the petition informs. Canada is in violation of its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and the Export and Import Permits Act to prevent exports where there is a substantial risk of serious human rights violations.

The petition also points out that Canadian companies have supplied goods, services, technology and security services to ICE or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The petition calls for cancellation of all public funding to Canadian companies contracting with ICE or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and denial or revocation of export permits for armoured vehicles, surveillance technology and other controlled goods destined for ICE.

The petition further calls for Canada to terminate the Safe Third Country Agreement and take the necessary steps to ensure that Canada does not support, enable, or legitimize human rights abuses committed by ICE. Under the Safe Third Countries Agreement refugees must claim refugee status in the first of the two countries (Canada or the U.S.) they arrive in, subject to some exceptions.

The petition is open for signatures from February 6, 2026 to June 6, 2026. The petition can be found here.

Quebec

Assembly of First Nations of Quebec
and Labrador Calls for Withdrawal of
Quebec "Constitution Act"

– Pierre Soublière –

The Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (APNQL), considering that the bill on the Constitution of Quebec (Bill 1) denies the political status, rights and systems of governance of Indigenous Peoples, is calling for its immediate withdrawal. This position was stated during its presentation before a parliamentary committee on Bill 1 on Thursday, February 5.

The APNQL also denounced the complete absence of consultations with Indigenous Peoples' governments. It regrets that, despite its repeated efforts, Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette has not engaged in any formal dialogue with Indigenous Peoples. As a result, they have been systematically excluded from all discussions, negotiations, and decisions concerning a bill that directly affects them.

The APNQL further notes that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government's approach runs counter to the principles of free, prior, and informed consent recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The notion of Quebec's territorial integrity, invoked in the legislative text, is also contested. By sweeping aside ancestral title, it compromises the right of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination.

What the Exclusion of the Eagle Staff in Favour of the Royal Mace Means

Representatives of Indigenous Peoples in Quebec travel to Quebec City to participate in discussions on the Constitution of Quebec bill, February 5, 2026.

The condescending reception given to the APNQL delegation by the Minister of Justice during the hearing was matched only by the contemptuous act of refusing entry to the National Assembly to members of the delegation carrying an Eagle Staff.

The insulting exclusion of the Eagle Staff shows that the constitutional monarchy of which the National Assembly is a part operates solely through regulations that serve the needs of the royal prerogative rather than those of the people. Refusing to swear allegiance to the King and removing a few crowns from coats of arms does not change the fact that this institution and the cartel parties that make it up are increasingly well-practiced at excluding the people from decision-making power.

Where power truly resides is illustrated by this description on the National Assembly website of the mace representing the Crown: "The mace represents the power to assemble in order to legislate, conferred on the Assembly by the King or Queen, as well as the authority of the presidency of the Assembly. Of large dimensions and made of worked gold, the mace also symbolizes the power to enforce the constitutional rights of the Assembly and of parliamentarians against any external threat, a role entrusted to the Sergeant-at-Arms.

"At each sitting, the President of the Assembly enters, followed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, who carries the mace to the clerks' table. During parliamentary proceedings, for laws adopted to be valid, the mace must remain on this table as long as the President remains in the chair."

As for the chair in the National Assembly chamber where the President sits: "The term 'throne' is given to the ensemble composed of the chair and the structure against which it rests. Like the mace, the throne symbolizes the power of the presidency, which derives from royal power. This is why the same expression is used to designate the place occupied by the King or Queen and by the President. The top of the chair is surmounted by a carved wooden crown that recalls the link with the British monarchy."

The Chief of the APNQL, Francis Verreault-Paul, was right to point out that the committee could, as an exceptional measure, have accepted the Eagle Staff under the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. The fact that it did not do so highlights the limits of this so-called parliamentary sovereignty, which is nothing more than a limited autonomy subject to the legal constraints of the Canadian Constitution and which in no way calls into question where decision-making power truly resides.

This, moreover, is the greatest criticism levelled at Bill 1: it was designed without consulting either the Quebec people or the Indigenous Peoples. The issue of a new constitution and of new arrangements to empower the people arising from genuine dialogue within the political body is the pressing problem that needs to be addressed and resolved.

Not a Single Youth for Imperialist War

Unacceptable War Games at St. Mike's
Hospital in Toronto

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) vehemently protests the "mass casualty war-game" carried out at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto recently. Code-named Exercise Canada Paratus, the game simulated hundreds of casualties with various injuries, including burns and shrapnel wounds, arriving by boat and plane from Eastern Europe. The mock patients included injured Canadian and NATO soldiers as well as civilians and prisoners of war. The war game also involved a cyber attack that knocked out operations at Pearson International Airport.

This was the third edition of Exercise Canada Paratus. Besides logistical considerations of bringing in casualties "from Eastern Europe," its stated goals included identifying "weaknesses in Canada's civilian health care system" -- not in response to severe cutbacks and the privatization of health care but "in response to a major military conflict overseas."

Following the prior edition of Exercise Canada Paratus in September 2025, also held at St. Mike's, a post-exercise report was issued which contained close to 50 recommendations. These included increasing civilian-military health care collaboration, exploring the use of Canadian Armed Forces Reserves to support the health care sector, developing a casualty-tracking system, reinstating a national trauma registry and scouting airlift or sealift options to evacuate casualties. Other recommendations included building up a domestic supply chain for blood, skin and prosthetics, including setting up more skin banks for grafts for burn victims.

Again, the everyday and emergency needs of the people due to causes not related to military conflict are ignored. It is an unconscionable way to militarize life in preparation for an eventual militarization of Canada.

Every day, Canadians and Quebeckers are confronted in profound ways by the "weaknesses in Canada's civilian health care system," namely that the economic and social arrangements do not recognize people's right to health care and pay-the-rich schemes divert public resources in ways that systematically diminish the expectations, quality and humanity of human beings who are left to fend for themselves in navigating the private systems.

Health care workers themselves are literally battle-hardened from fighting unacceptable working conditions as they seek to meet the needs of patients as well as their own and those of their families. No "simulations" are needed to see where the problems in the health care system lie, about which the workers in the health care sector are fully cognizant.

The casualties from this anti-social offensive, namely all those who have died because they did not receive adequate care or even any care at all, or who continue to suffer because the system cannot provide adequate care and services are ignored while these war games take place under the pretext of high ideals. This is to say nothing about mass casualties among the workers themselves, who are injured and made ill on the job or forced out of their professions by the untenable conditions or because they fight for change.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed Canada's lack of self-reliance for necessary health care equipment, medication and other supplies such as personal protective equipment. Far from correcting this situation, in 2023 it was reported that 90 per cent of businesses involved in the production of personal protective equipment in Canada had closed or switched to other production, in part because government granted major contracts to manufacturers in the U.S. financed by incurring huge debts from private sources for which the interest payments are onerous.

"Health care war games" like those being held in Toronto are a matter of serious concern. They are part of preparations for militarizing all of life and must be discussed and rejected.

More and more of the social wealth created by working people in Canada is misappropriated for military spending which does not favour the people or their cause of making Canada a Zone for Peace.

No Means No! No to War Preparations!

Military-Industrial Complex, Online Gaming,
and Recruitment

– Alexandre Cubaynes –

It is no state secret that the U.S. military-industrial complex is hungry for money, public money, the people's money. Canada's pro-war government is eager to serve. Carney continues his work in service of the oligarchs. Canada has been integrated into the U.S. imperialist war machine, while the U.S., NATO, and their allies expand their interference and aggression, threatening war on countries that do not submit to their dictates. At the same time, the Canadian government, serving this agenda, is preparing the ground to use its police powers to declare that opposition to war and aggressive alliances like NATO is a threat to national security.

Arms companies are expanding and increasingly seeking employees and labour to keep the machine running, producing weapons to meet the needs of those conspiring against the peace of nations. We are not talking about cannon fodder here, but about manufacturing the very weapons that will be used to kill as many young people and workers as possible!

Many young people gather in the evenings to play games on their servers and chat. Youth for Democratic Renewal (YDR) recently received a letter from a youth whose username is "The Journalist" about an experience he and his friends had on their game server. An acquaintance of one of them, nicknamed "The Mechanic," joined their group to play various games. It wasn't long before he started telling the group about his job. He said he was an industrial mechanic at General Dynamics -- Defense Products and Tactical Systems -- Canada in Valleyfield, Quebec.

Not only did he extol the virtues of his job -- stable hours, highly competitive wages, benefits, and so on – but he also encouraged the group to send their resumes, being quite insistent.

The Journalist's friends, who were chatting on their server, have ordinary, humble jobs with generally unpleasant conditions, such as working in a hospital laundry, as supermarket clerks, or in the restaurant industry. The moment someone mentioned something they disliked about their job, The Mechanic immediately replied, "That wouldn't happen if you worked here," "Send your resume to my job, we're hiring," "Working evenings is a drag; here we work eight hours a day and I have money to go out on weekends," and so forth.

The Journalist decided to play along to learn more about this fabulous job. He informed YDR that the machines the mechanic works on produce 155mm shells for howitzer-type artillery guns (such as the M777 used by most NATO forces). The Mechanic said he talks about his job a lot and recommends it to the group because "it's a great job with great conditions." But when the discussion continued, The Mechanic explained that he receives a bonus for each referral that leads to a job offer.

The Mechanic explained that most of the ammunition produced is for training purposes only, and that only a small portion of it is used in combat, despite the fact that some ammunition could be used in Palestine, for example. The company teaches this during paid training courses: "If it weren't 'us' making the shells, it would be 'someone else,' and it's better that our shells fall on others than theirs on us."

Other friends informed YDR that The Mechanic uses similar recruitment methods on other servers with other groups of young workers, as well as within his own circle at public and real-life events.

General Dynamics employees are therefore financially motivated to recruit young workers from among their online friends and acquaintances for their weapons factories. They are taught not to feel guilty about the results of their work and are even indoctrinated with a misanthropic and nihilistic worldview to justify their labour.

With the popularity of online war games and the desensitization of young men to these issues through culture, these methods of approaching young people in their online environment become very effective, both through the lure of money and by minimizing the anti-social consequences of such work.

The Journalist informed his friends about The Mechanic's role, as they were bothered by his persistence. The friends replied they no longer intend to work in "his dirty factory."

The new generation of young people born after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the division of the world into two camps during the Cold War is not infected by the anti-communist propaganda of the Cold War. This generation is characterized by its desire for a world that lives in peace and protects the natural and social environment for the benefit of the world's people, not for narrow private interests.

For its part, YDR is working to raise awareness, inform, and mobilize young people to ensure that they are not drafted into imperialist wars and do not serve as cannon fodder for the hegemonic wars of oligarchs and their governments, or support military spending in place of funding for social programs and civilian search and rescue operations, etc.

Canada must not participate in the U.S./NATO imperialist war preparations. Canada must also defend its sovereignty in a meaningful way. YDR will not allow U.S. imperialists to exert their command and control over the airspace and land of Quebec and Canada, over their waters, over governments (even if we despise them), and certainly not over their military assets.

The youth slogan on this front is: Not a Single Youth for Imperialist War! Make Quebec and Canada a Zone for Peace! An anti-war government is needed so that Canada can be a force for peace, not predatory war. An anti-war government will withdraw Canada from NATO, NORAD and all other aggressive military organizations and arrangements and will end interference in the affairs of sovereign nations. An anti-war government will work to end the displacement of peoples resulting from wars of aggression and occupation and will provide humanitarian aid to refugees and victims of natural disasters.

Southern Ontario Communities Organize Opposition to Military's Plan for Radar Installations

Proposed Clearview receiver site for the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar

Residents in two rural communities in Southern Ontario, Kawartha Lakes and Clearview Township are organizing in opposition to the plans of the Department of National Defence (DND) to use their communities as sites for receiving and transmitting for its new Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar (A-OTHR) project. Residents and local councils are greatly concerned that the land was purchased and plans made without notifying them and these major military installations are being presented as a done deal.

A-OTHR is part of the modernization plan for the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). Canada has pledged to spend over $38 billion on the modernization which is under the command of the U.S. military. The Department of National Defence (DND) determined in 2022 that it would establish the over-the-horizon radar project to cover the area from the U.S. border to the Arctic and that the suitable locations for its receivers and transmitters was in Southern Ontario. Canada is purchasing its A-OTHR system from the Australian firm BAE Systems Australia for $6 billion.

Over-the-horizon radar is a long-range surveillance technology that can detect targets from a distance of thousands of kilometres. It operates by refracting high-frequency (HF) radio waves off the ionosphere, allowing them to bend around the earth's curvatures.

The project requires two "receive" sites and two "transmit" sites for antennas and supporting infrastructure. Privately-owned land was purchased by DND in 2023, the transmit site at 0 Thistle Trail, Kawartha Lakes, Ontario and a preliminary receive site at 2225 Sideroad 15 & 16, Clearview Township, Ontario. The Clearview land is 288 hectares of agricultural land that was in production at the time of the purchase, while surrounding land is also predominantly agricultural. The antennas at the receive site will be six metres tall, at the transmit site up to 45 metres tall. The installations will be heavily fortified. To date the other transmit and receive sites have not been identified.

DND carried out what it called "consultations" in September in both communities and online but residents point out that they can't be called consultations when decisions are already made and land purchased, and that landowners in the surrounding area are fearful that if they do not agree to sell their properties they will be expropriated. They are also raising concerns about the impact of the project on surrounding agricultural land and residences, including impacts on safety, health impacts from electromagnetic radiation, reduction in property values, noise pollution and damage to local ecosystems.

Opponents of the plan in the Clearview Area have established a Facebook page for Clearview ROAR (Resident Owners Against Radar) which is campaigning against the destruction of some of Canada's best agricultural land for the radar site. A petition initiated by a resident of the area with 1632 signatures was presented to the House of Commons on February 4. The petition noted that the DND had purchased 700+ acres of prime farmland for an A-OTHR site in Clearview Township and sent "Solicitation of Interest in Land Sale in Clearview Township" packages to residents over a large area of prime farmland asking if they are interested in selling their land, noted that Ontario farmland is disappearing at the rate of 319 acres per day, and that the project would overlap the Minesing Wetlands which provides irrigation of crops, cleans drinking water, helps control flooding of surrounding areas including the 25,000 residents of Wasaga Beach, and provides recreational and economic benefits to the region. The petition calls on the government to stop the building of any A-OTHR site on the already purchased property, prevent future acquisition of prime farmland and the building of any A-OTHR sites on prime farmland in Clearview Township, and register the previously purchased property with the Ontario Farmland Trust.

The blackmail that patriotic Canadians should sacrifice for the defence of the country as justification for such projects that serve only the interest of the U.S. war economy by having Canada play an even bigger part in the U.S. striving for world hegemony is beneath contempt. Our security lies in the fight for Canada to be a force for peace in the world starting with getting Canada out of NATO and NORAD! The security of Canadians does not lie in militarization and the integration of Canada into the U.S. war machine, with all its adverse consequences. Our security lies in our fight for the rights of all, including the right to decide what happens in our communities.

(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)

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