Paul Martin on Canada in the world

Note: In this interview, according to Annis, Paul Martin reveals that Canadian soldiers helped secure the airport on the night of Aristide’s overthrow, something that had previously been denied by Canadian officials. Four days earlier, approximately one dozen members of Canadian secret commando Joint Task Force II had flown to Haiti to “secure the embassy.”

Paul Martin on Canadian foreign policy, CBC interview by Roger Annis December 15, 2004

Paul Martin was interviewed last night (December 13) on As It Happens. It was a wide-ranging interview which focused on Martin’s intended direction for Canadian foreign policy. He began the interview with this thought: “Foreign policy isn’t only something you study. Foreign policy is something you do.”

Martin boasted that Canada has been part of every recent election in “failed states,” and will henceforth couple such electoral endeavours with “institution building.” Elaborating on this, he said, “We are going to be sending soldiers…peacekeeping is going to continue to be very important. But we’re also going to be training other people to do peacekeeping.” Martin gave the example of Africa as a place where more Canadian intervention can be expected.

“My view is, you begin with military security, but you can’t leave it there. What you’ve got to do after that is to begin to put in place the institutions that will allow those democracies (sic) to grow.”

Martin was asked about the proposed missile defense agreement with the United States. He said that Canada is keenly interested in this program and whatever it agrees to will be consistent with the defense of Canadian national interests. One of the issues that would cause the government to hesitate on an agreement with the U.S. would be if it were to lead to an “immediate weaponization of space.” He said that concerns about weapons in space might change ten years down the road.

The interviewer asked whether Canada is spending enough money on its military. Martin replied, “Do I think we’ve got to increase out defense spending? The answer is yes, absolutely. We have to increase it…for the defense of North America. But we also have to increase it for the larger security role in the world.”

“We were the ones who secured the airport in Haiti. Those were Canadian forces who did that. We’ve got to be able to play that kind of role.” (On February 29, 2004, an advanced force of Canadian, French and U.S. military units invaded Haiti and overthrew the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was forcibly removed from the country, and the invasion force joined with rightist gangs in Haiti to unleash a rein of terror on the population. Several thousand supporters of the ousted government were killed. On the day of Martin’s interview with CBC, armed forces from Brazil and Jordan stormed into Cite Soleil, a working class neighbourhood in the capital city Port au Prince, and opened fire on supporters of the ousted government. Several protests of up to ten thousand people have occurred in Port au Prince since the coup, calling for the restoration of the Aristide government. Protests continue.)

Martin went on to give the example of the African Union as an organisation not yet capable of conducting rapid and effective military intervention into areas where political or military conflict occurs. “There’s got to be a way in which developed countries, beginning with Canada, can get in there, do the security job, establish the situation, and then let others come in.”

Roger Annis writes for Socialist Voice