Unacceptable Attempts to Convince Canadian Workers that War Production Creates "Good Jobs"
Working people are broadly condemning the Canadian government for its complicity in Israel's genocidal crimes, and demanding that the government implement a two-way arms embargo with Israel that includes arms sent indirectly to Israel through the U.S. At the same time, the Carney government is intensifying its attempts to convince workers to tie their livelihood to its schemes for stepped-up war production.
The latest remarks from
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly follow those she made a month ago
during a Liberal cabinet retreat and are part of ongoing
attempts to soften up workers and set the stage for the Carney
government's full-blown Defence Industrial Strategy to come in
November. This strategy is a key part of its nation-wrecking
agenda carried out in the name of "nation-building" and
defending the "national interest" against U.S. economic
aggression.
In a speech to the Canadian Club Toronto on October 9, Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly reiterated the Carney government's plans as a three-point strategy to "protect jobs, create new employment and attract talent and investment" in the face of economic threats from the U.S.
A CTV report said of the speech, "The minister detailed Canada's updated industrial strategy and how the Liberals intend to bolster key sectors, including steel, aluminum, lumber and auto, which are struggling under U.S. President Donald Trump's unrelenting tariffs." The strategy has "the aim of unlocking Canada's economic potential through building up this country's industrial base." According to Joly, the strategy is "a way to solidify Canadian sovereignty at a time of considerable global instability and shifting dynamics around trade, defence, and security," CTV reported.
In an interview before the speech, Joly told the Globe and Mail that the three-point plan is "a result of hundreds of conversations with corporate executives, pension fund managers, business associations and university and high-tech leaders" whose interests the government serves. Besides federal funding to sectors hit by tariffs, including auto, steel, aluminum, copper and lumber, she said that short-term protection of the market also needs to ensure that companies can "pivot." She gave the examples of federal funding for Algoma Steel, $1.25 billion to the softwood lumber sector, and the $13 billion Build Canada Homes scheme to pay developers. She emphasized that the housing plans, the Buy Canadian policy and the new Defence Investment Agency, announced on October 2, would attract investment and create jobs. This would enable Canadian monopolies tied to war production to compete internationally using Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber.
She said specifically that companies such as General Dynamics and CAE can count on long-term defence contracts. General Dynamics in particular has been singled out by the people's movement in support of Palestine as one of the companies that Canada permits to ship arms to Israel. As recently as July, shipping data from Montreal's Dorval Airport indicates that ammunition from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Cartridge Manufacturing Plant in Repentigny, Quebec was shipped directly to Israel.
According to Joly, under the Carney government's schemes, "For the first time in decades, we will be re-creating a military industry in our country. Canada has one of the most important capacities in terms of shipbuilding within NATO so I want our shipyards to be able to export and sell to the world."
She added, "We can really create
good manufacturing jobs in the [defence] sector. We can create
good tech jobs in that sector and we can have great researchers
doing dual-use research." She said that the government will be
unveiling measures to attract foreign investors and
"high-quality talent and researchers" from the U.S.
Again, Minister Joly shows the opportunism and utter detachment of the Carney government from reality and the concerns of working people, youth and students. The Carney government only sees the opportunity to use the situation for its own narrow aims, which include bowing to U.S. demands for war production and participation in Trump's Golden Dome missile system. Canada, which incessantly declares itself a "defender of human rights" has said nothing about the broad violation of rights in the U.S. through raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deployment of the military, including raids against university researchers, faculty and students.
Meanwhile, university faculty and students have been fighting for the past two years to hold their universities to account to get them out of research that supports war production, especially research that supports Israel's genocide in Gaza. They have been fighting for students from Gaza accepted into Canadian institutions to actually be able to come to Canada. Canada's racist immigration policies and appeasement of Israel mean that none have yet been able to come. On all of this, Minister Joly is silent.
People from all walks of life have repeatedly said they don't want Canada to be part of wars of aggression, including war production. It is unacceptable that the Carney government is claiming that, based on its consultations with private industry, war production will shore up Canada's economy and defend its sovereignty.
Meanwhile the democratic will of the people to oppose imperialist aggression and war can be ignored. Negation of the right of those who produce all the wealth in society to have a say in the direction of the economy in the name of "sovereignty" is an insult to working people.
This article was published in
Volume 55
Number 10 - October 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/M550105.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca