Halifax Peace Coalition: Press Release

HALIFAX PEACE COALITION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release, July 4, 2007

HARPER TO SNUB NS PREMIER, IGNORE CALLS FOR DND SPENDING FREEZE

Parliamentary Calls for Defence Spending Freeze Based Upon Review of

No-Bid Contracts

HALIFAX - Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s expected defence spending announcements during his visit to Halifax will come at a time of Parliamentary calls for a freeze in new contracts. According to a report released last month by the Rideau Institute, 40% of military contracts in the year 2006-2007 have been classified by Business Access Canada as “non-competitive,” more than double the number from

the previous year. In response, the opposition Liberal and New Democratic parties have publicly called for a moratorium on major defence spending announcements until the release of a report by the Auditor General reviewing Canadian defence contracts in September.

In the midst of the Federal-Provincial row over the Atlantic Accords, Harper’s visit to Halifax this week appears to have offered yet another public snub to NS Premier Rodney Macdonald, whose office has been left in the dark regarding the details of the visit. But accountability has hardly been Stephen Harper’s strong suit. “One year after the government announced more than $17 billion in

military equipment programs, the process in awarding these contracts has been fraught with charges of unfair competition, favouritism, and secrecy,” wrote Steven Staples, author of the Rideau Institute’s report No Bang for the Buck, in an op-ed published in the Hill Times on June 18th.

In June of 2006, Canadian Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor announced over $17 billion in new defence spending. As part of this announcement, a $3.4 billion contract for strategic airlift was later designated for Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN), meaning that the “winner” of the contract is largely pre-determined. Given Gordon

“Cheney Jr” O’Connor’s background as a lobbyist for defence firms, and the increasing use of ACANs within DND procurement contracts, such large announcements appear geared towards rewarding politically connected defence contractors such as American firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing rather than responsibly using Canadian tax-dollars to

provide Canadian military personnel with adequate equipment.

Harper has also played a major role in shifting Canadian foreign policy as a whole in a heavily militaristic direction. Canadian forces are increasingly engaging in disastrously ineffective counter-insurgency operations in Southern Afghanistan and have encouraged similar operations from UN forces in Haiti. These operations, although perhaps advantageous for military contractors, have resulted

in high civilian death tolls, as well as dwindling public support for the presence of international forces in both nations.

An airstrike carried out by NATO killed between 45 and 80 civilians last Friday in Helmand Province, Afghanistan . Similarly, UN soldiers killed at least 22 civilians in the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil, Haiti, last December according to international journalists and witnesses, in a raid that was later applauded by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay in a parliamentary paper presented to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The Halifax Peace Coalition will be organizing an information picket against the expected defence spending announcements once the shadowy details of Harper’s schedule become public.

For More Information

Steven Staples, Director, Rideau Institute, (613) 565-9449, (c) (613)

290-2695, sstaples@rideauinstitute.ca

Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, (902) 443-2423, (c) (902)

478-1379, tlorincz@dal.ca

Stuart Neatby, Halifax Peace Coalition, (902) 405-9480,

stu.neatby@gmail.com