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Canada’s best defence against US aggression

To lead a successful effort to confront Trump, leaders must uphold international law consistently and invest in diplomacy

U.S. President Donald Trump’s violent intervention in Venezuela represents a grave threat to the entire hemisphere, including Canada.

The Council of Canadians calls on the Canadian government to denounce the U.S. attack on Venezuela and its ongoing violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. Canada must cease all collaboration with U.S. operations in the Caribbean, which clearly violate international law.

But we cannot stop here. No sooner had President Maduro been abducted than Trump turned to issuing threats to Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia, and insisting that Greenland must be annexed—by military force if necessary. 

The Trump administration’s explicitly stated aim is domination over the Western Hemisphere and international waters, with no regard for international law or national sovereignty.

Under this regime, if a country has ties to governments the U.S. does not like, they can be overthrown. If a country has natural resources that the U.S. deems essential to its national security, they can be seized. If a country runs afoul of U.S. corporations, they can be coerced into paying damages.

We need a fundamental reappraisal of Canada’s role in the world, in light of the increasingly violent and authoritarian turn of our closest neighbour and trading partner. To ensure security for ourselves and the other one billion inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, Canada must put its weight into existing commitments to an international order, upholding the UN Charter, the Law of the Sea, and the Genocide Convention, among others.

Here are some steps we would expect from a Canada poised to protect its sovereignty:

  • Withdraw from arms deals with the United States. There is no military option for resisting the US, a nuclear power that spends nearly half of Canada’s GDP on its military every year. Canada’s integration into the US military industrial complex, both as a supplier and a buyer, leaves Canada vulnerable to U.S. pressure. The Carney government’s pursuit of an industrial strategy centred on defence could make this dependency worse. If we are serious about disentangling ourselves from the U.S., the F-35 purchase and Golden Dome should be taken off the table as a matter of priority.
  • Invest in diplomacy. Canada underspends on its diplomatic corps, even as the country is sending more money to the military than they know what to do with. Canada’s per capita spending on diplomacy, for example, is only two thirds that of Germany, and well below the UK. A strong, well-trained diplomatic presence could help shift an attitude of complacency—in Europe, for example—that is enabling aggressive tendencies within the Trump regime.  
  • Uphold international law consistently. We must stop selectively applying international law, reaching for its principles only when it is geopolitically convenient. We cannot credibly denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while sidestepping prosecution of Israel under the Genocide Convention or the UAE’s backing of a genocide in Sudan. It is in Canada’s direct security interests for international law to be upheld, for friend and foe alike. Enforcing human rights standards on all of our military exports—as called for in the “No Loopholes Act”—would be a key first step in this direction.
  • Confront Trump collectively. US aggression is heavily dependent on classic divide and conquer methods. Faced with a united community of nations willing to mete out consequences, none of the current aggression would be possible. Confronting Trump is a problem of coordination among countries that would benefit from reasserting international law. Geopolitical courage, paired with diplomatic capacity and principled application of laws, are the key elements of a true “rules based order.”

Too often, Canada has played the role of holding the bully’s coat, in the expectation that the bully would never turn on us. In Venezuela, Canadian governments have backed two anti-democratic coups and participated in a devastating sanctions regime. Canada has also supported US anti-democratic coups in Haiti, Honduras and Bolivia, among others. 

Some Canadian business and political leaders have cheered on Trump’s intervention in Venezuela, presuming that Canada is exempt from such bullying. But most Canadians realize we cannot afford to entertain such illusions.

When Canada has stood up to U.S. actions, it has been because ordinary people demanded it. Chretien’s refusal to join the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq or Trudeau’s acceptance of refugees from Pinochet’s Chile in the 1970s are rightly celebrated, but they would never have happened without Canadians going into the streets to demand our government take a different path. The groundswell of opposition from unions and civil society groups to Trump’s actions gives reason for hope.   

With the United States now signalling an intention to attack Iran, Canada’s commitment to the most basic principles of international law will be tested again soon. The steps our government can take to ensure our own security, as well as regional and global stability, are clear.

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