KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Here is a little update of Nova Scotians’ future participation in the arms trade and the ongoing attention peace activists across Canada are beaming onto the $19 billion purchase of 88 new fighter jets. Military spending on endless warfare must change when the causes and conditions of our world have done a 360.
Bomb carrying jet makers are clinking their glasses as they hope to bring the fighter jet ‘deal’ to Enfield, Nova Scotia! We will be the gateway to the entry of SAAB’s weapons manufacturing industry if the Gripen contract goes through. Under the new agreement, the assembly of the bombers would take place in Enfield, Nova Scotia, by IMP Aerospace and Defence. The company doing the spineless leg work is owned by Nova Scotia billionaire Ken Rowe.
So imagine the executives sitting around the table brainstorming for the sweetest deal possible for shareholders. Not the ‘stakeholders’ running for shelter with children in their arms. Not the ‘stakeholders’ in gutted hospitals in countries ‘from away’.
Here we are in the back boardrooms, spending for what? Against whom? If Canada spends our killing billions on the SAAB Gripen fighter jet contract we commit to an industry. Saab promises to build a ‘Gripen Centre” in Canada. Montreal would be handed two research facilities to sweeten the deal, clawing us into a future of arming the potentiality of warfare indefinitely.
So, stepping back for a little perspective this is what I see. The bonus offered by Sweden’s SAAB is an active, expanded, committed inclusion in their arms dealing, ranked 4th in the world. Fighter jets, armed to kill, are part of the arms dealing pandemic that we can no longer ignore as the lethal infection it brings to humanity.
Excellent coverage and anti war perspective