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NATO's Friends of Women, Peace and Security Group Canada's Machiavellian Position on WomenOne of the Trudeau government's big assertions since coming to power in 2015 is that it champions the rights of women, both at home and abroad. Given its treatment of women's claims on society, nobody believes that this is anything more than identity politics posturing. Evidence of what the assertion in fact means shows the government to be machiavellian indeed. Machiavelli was the Renaissance philosopher who wrote things such as "It is much safer to be feared than loved" and "If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." According to Wikipedia, "When Machiavelli's first works were published, they were seen by some to be dangerous and amoral, and the word machiavellian was coined." It adds that "[m]odern psychiatrists even use it to describe a kind of personality disorder, a cold selfishness."
Canada is the handmaiden of U.S. imperialism. It has placed women in three key ministries, besides others -- foreign affairs, defence, and finance, whose minister doubles as Deputy Prime Minister. To their shame, these ministers toe the line of integration into the U.S. war economy and armed forces and do yeoman's service for U.S. imperialist striving for world domination through NATO. What NATO says regarding what it means by women's "participation" is perfectly clear. Speaking at the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives Annual Conference (NCGP) on December 7, 2021, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoan said, "The Women, Peace and Security agenda is partly about increasing the representation of women at every level, on both the political and the military side, from more female boots on the ground, to more seats for women at NATO's table in positions of leadership. As I mentioned last year, the numbers are going in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go." In response, the Canadian Armed Forces' action plan for Women, Peace and Security restated its aims to increase the number of women in the armed forces from 15 per cent in 2016 to 25 per cent in 2026, and to put more women in leading positions in NATO. For its part the RCMP plan calls for more Canadian women police in high positions in international operations. As part of its Friends of Women, Peace and Security agenda, NATO hosts a Civil Society Advisory Panel which held its fourth annual meeting in 2019. It also hosts frequent unreported meetings. The aim of the panel is said to be to find out what women think of NATO, how women view certain questions of security and defence, and women's thoughts about their own security needs. Of course, no NATO panel or government official at any level ever takes the word of all the Canadian women in whose name they speak. The information, NATO says, will be used in "refining NATO's external communications strategies vis-à-vis female audiences in particular." In other words, how to convince women to support NATO's aggression and war, or at least to neutralize women's opposition. Members of the panel are said to represent "civil society" but what exactly does this mean? A representative of Forum Dvorah, a Zionist organization which seeks to increase women's participation in the genocidal Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is a member of the Panel. An organization which claims to represent the women of Ukraine and is beating the drums of war and speaking of "confronting Russian aggression," is also a member. These are just two examples. Canada's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland herself is proud of the achievements of her Nazi-collaborator Ukrainian grandfather. NATO's "table" it turns out is not a peace table at all. It is all about recruiting women for imperialist war. NATO is an aggressive military-political alliance conceived and brought into being in 1949 based on the Cold War claim that it was defending Europe and the "western world" against the "threat of communism." Then it was recast as "fighting terrorism" and now the threat of "Russian aggression" is front and centre. In all of this, Canada acts as the appeaser of U.S. aggression. Its pragmatic leadership, in true machiavellian fashion, is self-serving, unscrupulous and underhanded, and it fools no one. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly went on a whirlwind tour of Europe the week of January 16 to 22. Her first stop was Kyiv, Ukraine, where the Minister met with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna. She went on to meet with Jean-Yves Le Drian, France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs; Sophie Wilmès, Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General; and Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Global Affairs Canada hailed the tour as Canada being "actively engaged with our U.S. and European partners as part of coordinated efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine and to encourage de-escalation." It would be more accurate to describe it as Canada being the handmaiden of the Biden administration to shore up support for the dangerous game the U.S. is playing at the expense of Ukraine and all of Europe, in its contention with Russia. Minister Joly wasted no time in briefing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on her meetings. On January 22, the very day of her return she tweeted, "We shared perspectives on our trips to Europe and agree that Russia must de-escalate & stop any further aggression. Canada is fully engaged on the diplomatic front and actively working with allies." Is this an example of women preventing and resolving conflicts, of negotiating, building and keeping peace, and of a humanitarian response? No. It makes a mockery of the demands for peace of the women of Canada and the world. The Minister's tour came precisely as the U.S. announced a further $200 million in sales and shipments of lethal weapons to Ukraine and Prime Minister Trudeau has announced that Canada will lend the Ukraine government $120 million. Trudeau said only, "This loan will help support Ukraine's economic resilience" and that "we're also exploring other options to provide financial and other supports." The money may well go to help Ukraine pay for lethal weapons purchased from the U.S.
The warmongering of the Trudeau war government will not smell sweeter because women are its spokespersons. On the contrary, it serves as a great reminder that women from coast to coast to coast must stand in the front ranks of making Canada a zone for peace and establish an anti-war government in which they themselves and all Canadians can speak in their own name!
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The Trudeau
government, among other things, claims to be a leader in implementing
the Women, Peace and Security agenda adopted by the UN Security Council
in 2000, and that it is the "de facto leader" of the
NATO Friends of Women, Peace and Security group. Even as it fuels wars
of aggression and occupation, it claims that its agenda for Women,
Peace and Security recognizes the important role of women in the
prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations,
peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in
post-conflict reconstruction. It stresses the importance of their equal
participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance
and promotion of peace and security.
If Canada was on
a mission of peace and stability it would have made sense to stop for
talks in Moscow as well. The Minister was given an open invitation for
talks by the Russian Foreign Minister back in December 2021. Russia's
Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov remarked upon Joly's return, "Canada
is a really vocal player right now in NATO camp, in the situation
around Ukraine" and encouraged Canada to take up the offer to talk
peace with Russia.