Vancouver activists plan to bang pots and pans to disrupt military display on Canada Day

by Charlie Smith on Jun 30, 2012 at 11:08 pm
Comments
At previous Canada Day festivities, kids have crowded around gun-toting soldiers.
Tanya Fink

Vancouver's StopWar activists will be out in force to protest the glorification of war on Canada Day.

In a bulletin sent out to its supporters, StopWar maintains that the country's birthday celebrations "have been strongly co-opted over the years by the Harper government's pursuit of militarism and the presence of the Canadian Armed Forces".

"This is just one of the ways in which the social justice and antiwar values held dearly by so many Canadians are being dismantled," the group stated.

This year, StopWar is urging people to "fight back against this militarized 'War and Austerity' vision".

"Wear your Red Squares, bring your pots and pans and musical instruments," StopWar declared. "Let's dance and march for 'Peace and Prosperity', universal education and democracy."

The activists plan to meet at noon on Canada Day at the Waves Coffee House (1198 West Pender Street) near Harbour Green Park.

From there, they will go to the Canadian Armed Forces display to offer "alternative views to violence & war-making".

Comments (17) Add New Comment
RIeignbowGirl
Jul 1, 2012 at 12:23 am
Way to respect the people who are willing to put their lives on the line to preserve your freedom. It's only because of those people who've done so in the past that these pot bangers can even dream of doing this without being shot at and/or hauled off to jail for an indeterminate time. Morons.
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Mrjim374
Jul 1, 2012 at 7:12 am
You have to be able to have respect for the people who serve in the armed forces and at the same time question how they are being used by our political leaders. Too many fine young men and women have been killed or scarred in the past years for no good reason. The people of Afghanistan pose no theat to me or my freedom.
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Jinho Choi
Jul 1, 2012 at 7:53 am
RIeignbowGirl, I suggest you actually read the short article. There is an alternative to state-run mass murder that is war.
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factcheck please
Jul 1, 2012 at 9:00 am
How does Canadian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan protect our freedom?
When have we ever uses are army in our own defense?
Our freedoms were not won by soldiers. We never had a war of independence. Our rights didn't come about as a result of any war. Do your homework and stop making lazy comments like suggesting soldiers won our freedom. In Canada this has never happened.
Activists are more responsible for our freedoms than any military campaign and I fully respect our forces. If the time ever comes that we are attacked on our own soil then yes we will be able to say soldiers are fighting for our freedom.
The war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with freedom. If we truly loved our soldiers we would bring them home and instead of spending money procuring pricy jets we don't need we should be taking care of our soldiers, which currently we do not.
Protest is how we won our freedom not war. Read your history.
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Fat Guy
Jul 1, 2012 at 9:49 am
The problem with RleignbowGirl's argument is that it confuses things... is RG talking about the military which helped defeat Hitler fascism? If so, good point. But that was 70 years ago. Today's CAF are basically hired out by Harper & co. to defend the interests of big oil and our Yankee bosses. In Afghanistan they were sent to protect one gang of `good`anti-woman reactionary drug lords (Karzai) against the `bad` anti-woman reactionary drug lords on the other side. Wow, great victory for democracy. RG`s thinks this somehow makes it safe for us to express our views without getting arrested. However, the period since the escalation of the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan has also seen an escalation of mass arrests and repression against freedom of speech in Canada. Remember the G20 fiasco? And how about today in Quebec? People can't even walk the streets wearing a Red Square patch without running the danger of being arrested or pepper-sprayed. I think the opposite is true, RG - support for the military in Canada today means support for repression of free speech.
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Joe black
Jul 1, 2012 at 10:26 am
Respect our troops and respect stopwar activists, the problem is the politicians who are tying to turn us against each other.
War is lack of communication, uncivilized way to promote your believes.
Stop spending money on war and spend it on education
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RP
Jul 1, 2012 at 10:59 am
We already have a day to honour the military. Canada Day shouldn't be about kids fondling bazookas. Something went wrong here.
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Xtina
Jul 1, 2012 at 11:10 am

Yo RleignbowGirl! and let's hope the military is there for the citizens when a government goes wrong.
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SPY vs SPY
Jul 1, 2012 at 11:43 am
In the last 50 years Canada's Military has been used for Peace Keeping Duties. Upwards of Tens of Millions of Soldier / Days.
The only war we have been in since Korea has been Afghanistan, you know the country where 90% of the women have a lower status than cattle.

The Stop-War group needs to grow up and educate themselves as to just what Canada uses its Military for.
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Natty
Jul 1, 2012 at 11:46 am
Let's not forget that the military isn't all about war, guns and killing s#$%. What about the rescue missions and deployment during natural disasters?
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Gord
Jul 1, 2012 at 1:35 pm
I agree with this article, Harper has co-opted Canada Day over the past few years, glorifying its current actions in war and needlessly putting Canada and Canadians at risk.
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Fat Guy
Jul 1, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Xtina - are you calling for a military coup against the Harper Tories? Or are you hinting that you want the armed forces to block an NDP government from taking office? What the heck are you really saying? And Spy vs.Spy... check out the anti-woman attitudes of the Karzai coalition, not the PR fluff spread by the Harperites. Also, remember a few little episodes such as the regime change operations in Yugoslavia, Haiti, Libya???
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Cyril the cyclist
Jul 1, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Joe black Sun, 2012-07-01 10:26
War is lack of communication, uncivilized way to promote your believes
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How do you think wars get started. Lack of communication.

Go to Berlin in the late 30s and communicate with Hitler.
Go to Afghanistan and communicate with the Taliban or El Quida.
Go talk to their leaders and promote peace. Sing "Give peace a chance" I'm sure they will all be in tears and denounce the reason for war.
Go pet a rabid dog and prove he isn't dangerous to anyone. "It's easy".
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FR
Jul 1, 2012 at 7:37 pm
@Cyril

Time to move beyond John Wayne cartoonery and put your brain into it. When did Afghanistan declare war on Canada? Who declared war on who? Did they invade Poland? Did they threaten to overrun the planet? Christ - we gave the Nazis more leeway than we gave them, thanks to another phony War on a Noun.

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factcheck please
Jul 2, 2012 at 3:00 am
The war in Afghanistan has accomplished nothing. 6 months after all NATO forces leave the Taliban will resume power in their Pashtun strongholds. The military knows this in fact which is why they are also negotiating with the Taliban. All those Canadian soldiers you claim to love died for nothing. The only people who seem to respect the lives of these soldiers are the anti-war people like stopwar.ca.
We should go back to being peacekeepers.
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GuessWho?
Jul 2, 2012 at 10:20 am
I guess you protestors would prefer history's most heinous people like Sadam Hussein, Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. to run rampant in this world. Yeah, I thought so.
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Xtina
Jul 2, 2012 at 10:36 am
Yo! Fat Guy- my Praetorian Guard fantasies aside, I'm trying to find a relevant application for our ever increasing military. That line of reasoning that the troops put their lives on the line for my freedom hasn't been proven out in any war since WWII...
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