e-7317 (Foreign affairs)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and has participated in every NATO intervention;
• NATO has failed to uphold Article 1 of its charter “to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered”;
• NATO launched illegal interventions against Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, and Libya in 2011 that have caused mass civilian death and destruction of infrastructure with no accountability;
• According to the NATO Defence Expenditures report, Canada’s military spending has increased from $20 billion in 2014 to $44 billion in 2024, which has diverted funding away from social programs and climate action;
• Throughout the year, NATO engages in exercises and operations, which involve thousands of soldiers and vehicles that adversely impact the climate and environment;
• Canada has refused to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because of NATO;
• Canada is leading NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, a battlegroup, in Latvia and escalating conflict with Russia;
• Canada plans to meet NATO’s 5% GDP target that will lead to an increase of military spending to over $150 billion per year causing more poverty; and
• NATO is a U.S.-dominated military alliance that impedes Canada’s sovereignty over our defence policy and civilian control of our military.