CUPE 1281 firmly opposes the federal government’s decision to dramatically increase military spending in order to meet NATO’s target of 2 percent of GDP. This decision reflects a deep betrayal of working people, both in Canada and globally, and marks a dangerous escalation in Canada’s alignment with U.S.-led imperialism.

As workers in the public sector, we see firsthand the devastating consequences of austerity. Health care systems are collapsing, housing is increasingly unaffordable, students and educators are under-resourced, and communities are being left behind. Instead of addressing these urgent crises, the federal government has chosen to pour billions into the military. These funds will go to arms manufacturers, surveillance technologies, and war infrastructure, rather than to the services people actually need to live dignified lives.

This increase in military funding is not about defending peace or protecting people. It is about deepening Canada’s role in NATO and maintaining access to global markets and resources on behalf of corporations. It is a commitment to the violence of empire, not the safety of ordinary people. As a union that has always fought for justice and equity, we reject this militarization of public funds.

Canada’s military spending is inseparable from its ongoing colonial and imperialist agenda. While Indigenous communities continue to live without clean water, proper housing, and basic infrastructure, the government continuously chooses to invest in militarizing and expanding surveillance. While workers are told to accept wage restraints, the government funnels public money into warships and fighter jets, and while Canada claims to support peace and human rights, it exports arms to regimes that violate them daily. From a working-class perspective, we understand that militarism is not a side issue, it is central to how capitalism maintains itself. As anti-imperialist activists warned us, war is the inevitable result of capitalist states competing for global dominance. In this system, military budgets rise not to protect people, but to protect capital. Our government may claim to act in the name of national security, but it is the security of profits, not people, that is being defended.

Militarism also divides workers. It fosters nationalism, racism, and fear, tools that pit us against one another, at home and across borders. It justifies police violence and repression. It normalizes surveillance. It directs our anger toward imagined enemies abroad instead of the very real systems of exploitation we fight every day in our workplaces and communities.

CUPE 1281 reaffirms our commitment to peace, to internationalism, and to the belief that working people, no matter where they live, deserve dignity, not war. We stand in opposition to Canada’s military budget increase and in solidarity with all those resisting militarism, colonialism, and imperialism everywhere.