Canada’s New Role in the
Service of U.S. Imperialism
Until the end of
the First World War, Canada
was an economic dependency of Britain
and its foreign policy was set in London.
Thus, when Britain declared
war on Germany in 1914 Canada was automatically at war with Germany as
well. The economic decline of Britain
following the war and the corresponding rise of U.S.
economic power led to a shift in Canada’s
economic dependency from Britain
to the U.S.
Following the
Second World War Canada’s foreign policy also shifted from serving British
imperialism to serving U.S.
imperialism. This became particularly apparent during the 1956 Suez Crisis when
Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson sided with the U.S. against Britain,
France and Israel. Pearson
proposed the creation of a UN peacekeeping force to separate the Egyptian and
Israeli armies. However, the main purpose of the proposal was to assist U.S. imperialism in displacing the British and
French imperialists as the dominant powers in the Middle
East. Pearson was rewarded for his service to U.S.
imperialism by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
From 1956 until
1990 the Canadian military played a special role as “peacekeepers” in the
service of U.S imperialism. Canadian peacekeepers were deployed to Cyprus to prevent the conflict there from
splitting the NATO alliance and to keep Turkey
in the U.S.
orbit. Canada sent
peacekeepers to the Golan Heights following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war in order
to keep that conflict from undermining support for U.S. imperialism in the rest of the
Arab world. At the same time, its role as a “peacekeeper” gave Canada a level
of influence and prestige in international affairs far beyond its economic and
military power. This, in turn, allowed Canada
to play a diplomatic role in which it represented the interests of U.S. imperialism in situations where the latter
could not intervene directly, especially in cases involving the conflicting
interests of the Soviet Union.
With the
collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989-91, the role of Canada
as an “honest broker” on behalf of the U.S. was no longer needed.
Furthermore, the U.S.
was determined to establish a unipolar “new world
order” with itself at the centre. While the United Nations has never lived up
to the aspirations of the world’s people for it to be a force for peace and
security, the U.S. feared that it could potentially emerge as a rival to U.S.
authority, either in the hands of the smaller countries or, more likely, in the
hands of its imperialist rivals. Therefore, beginning with the first Bush administration
and continuing through the Clinton and second
Bush administrations, the U.S.
has taken systematic measures to undermine the authority of the UN. The First
Gulf War and the various wars in the Balkans were waged by NATO forces without
the authorization of the UN Security Council. Peacekeeping operations in Africa
were sabotaged, leading to the disaster in Rwanda and elsewhere.
In response to
the changing needs of U.S.
imperialism, the role of the Canadian armed forces also began to change.
Canadian forces participated in the First Gulf War in a supporting role and then
took on a combat ole in the Kosovo War. The Canadian government stopped talking
about “peacekeeping” and began to talk about “peacemaking”. Now with the invasion
and occupation of Afghanistan
the role of the Canadian military has been transformed completely from
“peacekeeping” or even “peacemaking”, into an aggressive role alongside the
invading armies.
The Harper
Conservatives, with the full support of a section of the Liberal Party, is now
consolidating this new role for the Canadian military. Even the pretence of an
independent foreign or military policy is being abandoned and the Canadian
Armed Forces are being more and more integrated into the U.S. command
structure. The Canadian mission in Afghanistan
is not an anomaly but the new model for Canada’s
military subservience to U.S.
imperialism.