Open Letter
to the Prime Minister

of Canada Stephen Harper

with copies to select members of the Canadian Parliament, the Ottawa Citizen, Iskra, and several other papers.

March 15, 2006


The Editor
Ottawa Citizen
1101 Baxter Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M4

Dear Editor:

An Open Letter to Canadian Political and Military Leaders

Talk of military superiority for waging wars, supporting a ballistic missile defence strategy, and exporting violence through heavy-handed military measures shows us that our foreign policy has gone astray. Our leaders and generals are marching to the beat of the drum, but going the wrong way.

Violence invites violence as our giant philosophers and social activists Lev Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have shown humanity. Soldiers, tanks, bombs and missiles will not create democracy and more security, but will raise a fortress society and more fear. Let us remember that war does not solve the problems of poverty, inequality, and injustice. As citizens we know that the military industrial complex robs us of the resources we need for our basic rights of universal health care, clean air and water, education, and well-paid jobs for all.

Canada's tradition of peacekeeping is the courageous and smart way to go; and that's why it is supported by the majority of Canadians.

Canada as a nation does not have a clear vision why we are in Afghanistan and what our interest is in it and why our coalition troops are there. We should threrefore get out of Afghanistan at the earliest opportunity. The political and social goals of Canada as a state can be reached much better without war. Ideally, too, the US superpower ought to close down its 700 military bases on foreign soil and begin to see the world as a friendly place where neighbours are respected.

Foreign policy is not a one party issue in a democratic country. It has to be discussed fully by all parties. Moreover, foreign policy is an issue of human survival. We need to change our outlived habits of assuming that war is inevitable. We need to find a better alternative to violence through such mechanisms as cooperation in discovering a common ground for action, negotiations across boundaries, inventions in bridgebuilding, education and respect for the culture and the needs of other nationals. In brief, we urgently need the moral strength and compassion to create a nonkilling society.

The idea of looking for an alternative strategy has come. We need to redefine our role in the 21st century. As Victor Hugo once wrote: 'Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come!' The power and creativity of nonviolence is needed now. Let's bring home our troops and reclaim the supremacy of moral law, justice, truth and love.

Koozma J. Tarasoff
Ottawa, Ontario

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