PUSH TO SCRAP JETS
Celebrities press Trudeau
More than 100 authors, academics and celebrities are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap his plan to spend billions on new fighter jets, which they say are useless in protecting Canada from security threats such as pandemics and natural disasters.
The letter was signed by authors Michael Ondaatje, Yann Martel and Gabor Maté, musicians Neil Young, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, Sarah Harmer, Tegan and Sara, former diplomat Stephen Lewis, actress Daryl Hannah, environmentalists David Suzuki and Naomi Klein, as well as two sitting Green Party MPs, four former MPs, Senator Marilou McPhedran and union leaders.
“The expensive weapons are largely useless in responding to natural disasters, providing international humanitarian relief or in peacekeeping operations,” the letter to Trudeau points out. “Nor can they (fighter jets) protect us from a pandemic or the climate and other ecological crises.”
While the project to buy the 88 aircraft is expected to cost around $19 billion, activists who are against the purchase have noted the full life-cycle cost for the planes is estimated at $77 billion.
The letter comes as the country is still trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and areas in Western Canada, which recently faced an unprecedented heat wave, are now dealing with numerous forest fires. The letter was sponsored by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.
The Liberal government expects to announce a winning bidder for the fighter jet competition next year.
Those who signed note that such a large amount of money could be used to improve health care for Canadians, provide clean water on First Nations reserves, build social housing and light rail transportation, help with pandemic recovery and fund a nationwide transition away from fossil fuels.
Others who are against the purchase have noted that while the Liberal government has the money to buy new fighter jets, it has put on hold a program to upgrade searchand-rescue helicopters, which are used directly to help Canadians. That helicopter project is estimated to cost more than $1 billion but there isn't enough funding for it to proceed at this point.
One of the roles for the new fighter jets is patrolling Canadian airspace. But critics have pointed out that the new-generation fighters being considered by Canada are not needed for such a job.
Bianca Mugyenyi, director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, said the new aircraft “are designed to fight in future U.S. and NATO-led wars.”
Canada's current CF-18 jet fleet was used in bombing missions in Iraq, Libya, Kosovo and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Liberal government, however, is committed to the fighter jet purchase.
A recent Department of National Defence update on the project noted that contracts have already been awarded to build new infrastructure to support the aircraft. The department expects the delivery of the first planes, to replace the current CF-18 fighter jet fleet, sometime in the mid-2020s.
The Liberal government is also spending another $339 million to buy 18 used Australian fighter jets to bolster the air force until the new-generation planes arrive.
The previous Conservative government had selected the F-35 stealth fighter as the air force's new jet but backed away from that plan after concerns about the technology and growing cost.
In the 2015 election campaign, Trudeau vowed that his government wouldn't purchase the F-35. At the same time, he said his government would hold an open competition for the fighter purchase.
But the Liberal government backed away from its promise to freeze out the F-35 and the aircraft is now seen as a front-runner in the competition as it has many supporters in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The three aircraft being considered are the F-35, the Super Hornet and the Gripen.