Yves Engler's critique of Avi Lewis's position on Ukraine

[Sid Shniad]

From Facebook:

Is Avi Lewis a war monger? Does he want to prolong the costliest proxy war in Canadian history?

His campaign’s response to a question on Ukraine suggests as much. Two months ago the Canadian Alliance for Solidarity with Ukraine asked NDP leadership candidates a series of questions including “their position on those on the left who characterize Russia’s war as a NATO proxy war and demand an end to arms to Ukraine?”

Lewis’ statement is surprisingly militaristic. He notes, “Canada must advocate for a peace agreement that is not imposed on Ukraine unilaterally by Trump and Putin, but involves the participation of Ukraine and European nations. Ukraine should not have to give up an inch of its territory, and Canada should continue providing the defence assistance that Ukraine needs to protect its sovereignty.”

Canada has given Ukraine $8 billion in arms and $14 billion in non-military assistance in less than four years. This is more than Ottawa spent on its 13-year occupation of Afghanistan.

None of the four other leadership candidates were as explicit in calling for sending arms though Heather McPherson is a NATO hawk. She’s on the NATO Parliamentary Association and sponsored an April 2022 resolution claiming Russia was committing genocide in Ukraine. McPherson was also an official Canadian election observer three months after the Ottawa-backed coup against elected president Victor Yanukovich in 2014.

In a further sign of his backing of the NATO proxy war, Lewis also demanded the Canadian government “Step up sanctions enforcement.” In his response to the Canadian Alliance for Solidarity with Ukraine, he calls for “Getting tougher on enforcing sanctions, including by closing the loophole that continues to allow banned Russian oil to flow into Canada. We should hit the Russian war machine where it hurts, in the oil barrel.”

In his response Lewis says nothing about Canada’s substantial role in the coup against Yanukovich, promoting NATO expansion or integrating Ukrainian forces into the belligerent alliance through Operation Unifier. He also ignores how the US/UK scuttled a peace accord signed weeks after the illegal Russian invasion.

Lewis’ response reflects a poor geopolitical analysis. It’s also troubling for its defensiveness. The response seems driven by a fear of association with those who (rightfully) question Canada’s contribution to the NATO proxy war.

Defensiveness in the face of establishment pressure is a bad sign for a Lewis-led NDP foreign policy. He will undoubtedly face substantial media/establishment pressure to disassociate from anti-war and anti-imperialist activism and if he’s conceding to those forces during an NDP leadership race, when he’s more dependent on the left activism, he’ll likely buckle when the pressure grows.

It’s also informative who authored the response. It was signed by Avi’s lead policy advisor Peyton Veitch, a card-carrying member of Canada’s social democratic swamp. Veitch is former National Treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and federal Parliamentary assistant who also spent multiple years with the Ontario and Manitoba NDP.

Former CFSers are all throughout this leadership race. Heather McPherson’s campaign is led by George Soule, who was former chair of the CFS. Another prominent CFSer, James Pratt, is reportedly part of Rob Ashton’s team. One of the individuals who excluded me from the race, NDP National Director Lucy Watson, was a longtime CFS official.

(In the early 2000s much of my activism was done out of the CFS-Quebec office and I represented the Concordia Student Union at CFS conventions in Ottawa. CFS national repeatedly undercut the activist orientation of CFS-Quebec and sought to marginalize the more militant student unions at the national convention. In other words, these are people experienced in undermining the left.)

Members of the Soc Dem Ottawa swamp aren’t going to lead a serious leftward shift in NDP policy. Additionally, how does one strenuously challenge massive NATO spending targets when they back the alliance’s proxy war? While Russia’s invasion is brutal and illegal, it was manipulated and provoked. And Avi Lewis shouldn’t fear saying as much.