By Pepper Saltman
On August 4, prime minister Mark Carney toured a joint Canadian–US naval test range in BC’s Nanoose Bay. Peace demonstrators rallied by the gate to protest the US Navy’s regular presence in the harbour. The protest highlighted Carney’s failure to halt the use of Nanoose First Nation’s shores and waters by the only foreign military that is threatening Canada’s sovereignty.
The Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR) has occupied the shore of Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island since it was established by a 1965 Canada-US treaty. CFMETR tests naval underwater equipment and weapons, including sonobuoys and torpedoes, in the nearby “Area WG” which extends over 200 square kilometres across the Salish Sea. CFMETR harbours several US Navy ships each year, and much of its removable equipment is United States property.
Peace activists, including the mid-island Freedom From War Coalition (FFWC) have exposed CFMETR as an obstacle to First Nations and civilian use of the Nanoose Bay shore, harbour and surrounding waters, as well as its ecological harms and its role in US imperialism. An FFWC pamphlet describes the facility as a “US naval base on our island, which tests lethal weapons that are destined to be used against people fighting for freedom worldwide.”
The peace group assembled over twenty demonstrators at the CFMETR gate ahead of Carney’s visit. RCMP and military police kept demonstrators off the facility’s driveway. For over three hours spanning Carney’s entire time at the facility, demonstrators remained at the roadside with signs and banners demanding “Out of NATO” and “US Navy Off Our Island.” Carney’s motorcade crossed the demonstration twice.
In a press interview, FFWC spokesperson Eden Haythornthwaite pointed to the hypocrisy of Canada’s military integration with a belligerent and profiteering neighbour:
“Who’s threatened you with invasion? The same people who are asking you to spend billions and billions of dollars on equipment that they will sell you. They have 21-foot missiles that they’re testing out in the bay that are worth five million dollars. We’re developing weapons here to torment and oppress people all over this world.”
On the demand for Canada to leave the NATO military alliance and war budget, Haythornthwaite said that “NATO is about bombing a country like Libya or Yugoslavia. That’s why they’re asking us to devote five percent of our GDP to NATO. It’s insane. There’s no one on the planet who wants to invade us. There’s no one we have to concern ourselves with, except the Americans.”
Haythornthwaite noted that the military control of Nanoose Bay’s land and waters undermines Indigenous sovereignty, saying Nanoose First Nation “have asked for it back on numerous occasions.”
Coalition demonstrators were interviewed on the scene by reporters from the Nanaimo News Bulletin and Canadian Press.
FFWC previously led a demonstration against the US Navy in Nanoose Bay on June 15, the day US president Donald Trump arrived in Canada for a G7 summit.
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