[*Organizing meeting for Tibet demonstration is this Thursday, April 3 at 7pm at 6050 University Avenue at Dalhousie, Room 142 (Teaching Lab 3) to plan and to make a banner.]
Steve Staples Public Talk - The Americanization of the Canadian Military
Wednesday January 25, 7:30 pm
Weldon Law Building, 6061 University
Ave. Rm 105
Free public talk by the director of Ottawa's Polaris Institute.
Also lunchtime public talk from 12
-1:30 at the Dalhousie MacDonald Building, University Hall.
"The Americanization of Canada's Military"
Steven Staples, Polaris Institute
Two public lectures:
Wednesday, January 25
7:30-9:00 PM
Room 105
Weldon Law School
Dalhousie University
6061 University Avenue
Thursday, January 26
12:00-1:30 PM
University Hall
MacDonald Building
Dalhousie University
(next to Henry Hicks A&A clock tower building: http://www.dal.ca/visit/index.html)
Co-hosted with the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies
Description:
We have heard little about this during the election, but Canada's military
is being quietly transformed from a U.N. peacekeeper to a U.S.
warfighter.Canada's $14 billion in defence spending is the seventh highest
in NATO, and will soon grow to the highest level since the Second World War.
Hundreds of Canadian secret commandos and snipers are fighting with U.S.
soldiers in Afghanistan, and 2000 more troops are being sent to relieve U.S.
forces in Kandahar. Meanwhile, Canada has slipped to the 36 highest
contributor of soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping, on par with Peru and
Guatemala. Do Canadians know what our military is being sent to do? Is this
the international role that Canadians want for our military?
Biography:
Steven Staples is the Director of Security Programs for the Polaris
Institute, a public interest research organization based in Ottawa. The
Polaris Institute is widely credited as playing a key role in preventing the
Canadian government from joining the U.S. missile defence program in 2005.
Steven is a frequent contributor to journals, magazines, and conferences,
and is often called upon to comment on defence and public policy-related
issues by the national and international news media including the Globe and
Mail, the National Post, Time, CTV National News and CBC Television's The
National and the BBC. He is regularly invited to appear before federal
government committees and departments to speak about defence and foreign
policy issues, including the Standing Committee on National Defence and
Veterans Affairs, and the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, and the Standing Committee on Finance. His years of
work with popular organizations, including the Council of Canadians, has
made him well-known amongst civil society organizations, and he speaks
regularly to audiences in Canada and the United States, and around the
world. Born in the Maritimes and a long-time resident of Vancouver, Steven
now lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children. He holds a Bachelors of
Education (Hon. History) from the University of New Brunswick.
Organized by the Society for Corporate Environmental and Social
Responsibility (CESR), the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) and
the Halifax Peace Coalition (HPC) Web site:www.hfxpeace.chebucto.org /
Email:
Register at www.ceasefire.ca and receive complimentary background
information from the Polaris Institute.
Current HPC Campaigns
HPC acts on Canadian policy that fosters
inequity or injustice, root causes of violence. Living in the shadow of
empire, we want a foreign policy that promotes justice, equity, and
peace. We are currently working on Canada's involvement
in:
Students Coalition Against War
(SCAW)