Sent for Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) Canada,
This supports the No Fighter Jet Coalition of which Just Peace Advocates is a member
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2022
New report and webinar on the harms and risks of fighter jets and why Canada must not buy a new fleet
(Vancouver / Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh) As the Trudeau government is planning to buy 88 new fighter jets for a price tag of $19 billion, the second most expensive procurement in Canadian history, the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) Canada is sounding the alarm.
Today, WILPF Canada is releasing a new 48-page report Soaring: The Harms and Risks of Fighter Jets and Why Canada Must Not Buy a New Fleet. The report examines the past and present harmful impacts, including environmental, climate, nuclear, financial, socio-cultural and gender-based, of fighter jets and the air force bases where they are stationed across the country. A special focus of the report is on the negative effects of the militarization of Indigenous land in Canada.
With this report, the women’s peace organization is also calling on the federal government to be transparent with Canadians and with Indigenous communities about the adverse impacts of a new fleet of fighter jets. WILPF Canada is asking the federal government to conduct and publicize a full life-cycle cost analysis, an environmental assessment, a public health study and a gender-based analysis of the fighter jet procurement before any final decision is made.
Currently, the Trudeau government is evaluating two bids: the F-35 stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin, an American company; and the Gripen multi-role fighter jet made by SAAB, a Swedish company. WILPF Canada expects that the federal government will choose the F-35 to maintain interoperability and the defence relationship with the United States. However, as WILPF Canada explains in the new report, the F-35 is an even costlier and riskier warplane. No matter what warplane is chosen, the report makes the case that the escalating risks and costs of a new fleet of fighter jets should cause the federal government to cancel the procurement.
Tomorrow, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. ET, WILPF Canada will co-host with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute a webinar, Harms & Risks: Why Canada Shouldn’t Buy the F-35, which features retired U.S. Marine Corps Captain Dan Grazier, a defense expert with Project on Government Oversight (POGO). Grazier is a leading critic of the F-35 program in the United States. He has written extensively about the problems in U.S. military procurement and has appeared before Congress to testify on the stealth fighter program. He will discuss the history of the F-35 and the prime contractor Lockheed Martin and will give an update. POGO is an independent watchdog based in Washington D.C. and investigates and exposes waste, corruption and abuse of power in government, especially in the U.S. Department of Defense. The webinar will be held online and registration information can be found on the WILPF Canada web site: wilpfcanada.ca
WILPF Canada is a membership-led organization committed to a feminist peace, social justice, and gender equality. WILPF Canada is active in the No New Fighter Jets Coalition, the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network, and the Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada. WILPF Canada is a national section of WILPF International, which is the world’s longest standing women peace organization founded in 1915. The new report Soaring and summaries in English and French can be found here: https://wilpfcanada.ca/index.php/2022/02/09/soaring/
For more information or for interviews, please contact: Tamara Lorincz, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) Canada, Email: tlorincz@dal.ca / Phone: 226-505-9469 / https://wilpfcanada.ca/
