Canadians Against War

Derrick O’Keefe told the Straight he thinks there is “some protest fatigue going on” because widespread antiwar sentiment is not translating into political action.  O’Keefe, cochair of StopWar.ca, made these comments outside the Westin Bayshore hotel, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Gordon Campbell were to attend an event on March 11. Organizers of the antiwar coalition had gathered there with members of B.C. Labour Against War and Canadians Against War. They were united in their protest against Harper’s proposed extension of the war in Afghanistan until 2011.

A motion on the extension in the House of Commons is expected to pass today (March 13) with the support of the Liberals.

“The product of five years of war in Iraq has been disaster, and unfortunately, we see Afghanistan going in the same direction,” O’Keefe told the small crowd. “We are protesting the Canadian government’s extension of this war. We are particularly disgusted with [Opposition Leader] Stéphane Dion and the Liberals. Of course, it was the Liberal party in power in 2005, when Canadian troops were sent to Kandahar, without even a debate in Parliament. Last year, we had a number of the Liberals voting against the extension of the war to 2009 and some, including people like [deputy Liberal leader] Michael Ignatieff, supporting Harper in extending this war until 2009. Now, apparently we have Stéphane Dion and all the Liberals voting to extend this war. That is why we are here today.”

After he spoke to the crowd, O’Keefe explained to the Straight that he thought the Liberals’ input on the war extension—as opposed to the outright opposition of the NDP and Bloc Québécois—amounted to “nonsense”

“They have got the Conservatives to rejig some of the language of extending the mission in Kandahar until the end of 2011,” O’Keefe said. “For instance, Liberal candidates, such as those in the by-elections, are claiming that Canada’s combat mission will end in 2009. Our troops will just hang around in Kandahar until 2011, but we won’t be in combat. This is complete nonsense, and in fact is just a way of covering up the fact that they are extending the war.”

Added O’Keefe: “Even in the U.S., I think it is just frustration at the fact politicians are not translating the antiwar sentiment and the antiwar protests into any kind of action. So in Canada, it is a bit similar to the U.S., where the numbers against the Iraq war keep on going up and up, and the demonstrations have either stagnated or gone down in size. I think it is because they are fed up and don’t think there is going to be real change. In Canada, survey after survey has shown people don’t want to send the mission beyond 2009. And yet, here are the Liberals and the Conservatives getting together to extend it. So there is definitely some protest fatigue going on.”

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