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Canada commits $270M to Ukraine as Carney addresses European summit in Armenia (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[–] -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

One of the biggest blindspots for white Canadians is how Ukraine has been used to reassert white supremacy. Canada doesn't send fucking money to Lebanon or Palestine, it doesn't send any to Iran, to Venezuela, to any state that is victim to US and Canadian imperialism. Beyond that, the wealth that is extracted, taxed, and then transferred to Ukraine is in fact also a result of settler-colonialism within Canada's borders, and it's not like white Canadians have the same fervor to help indigenous peoples here fight imperialism.

So tired of this fake, performative claim that any of this money is out of altruism and not to secure Euro- and American-imperialist interests.

Edit: also, if you read my fucking comment, you'd have seen the reference to corporate subsidies ("tax breaks"), but obviously your addressing it here is more in service of some lib "elites are the problem" narrative and no concern for the systemic conditions that facilitate that "misuse" of wealth.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    So if Canada sent money to Palestine it would magically stop being the result of settler colonial extraction? Or are you throwing every talking point at the White Canadians to see what sticks?

    How about instead we pause the moral outrage and exhausted language for a second. We actually don't disagree that Canada should be pursuing a more activist role in the world, like it does for Ukraine and Cuba. If not for internationalist solidarity (Canada is not a socialist state after all) but as a baseline for the equal application of international law. And we don't disagree on what that would entail and who should be made to pay for that here in Canada.

    What we seem to be in disagreement on is Ukraine, which somehow you frame as a white supremacist project. Maybe you should try to explain that to the Ukrainians that they should spread their ass cheeks to Putin, you know, to smash white supremacy. Being justified in fighting for one's country's independence is not only for some people. You can't say free Palestine and expect Ukrainians to capitulate.

    Spare me the irritation and the exhaustion.

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  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    That these are two equivalencies in your settler-brain is exactly what I am criticizing.

    How you took "Canada is imperialist and imperialism is bad" as "I want Canada to exist but just spend money how I like" is something I can only take graciously if I attribute it to a genuine deficiency in your language and knowledge on these topics. "We don't disagree that Canada should be pursuing a more activist role in the world, like it does for Ukrain and Cuba [lol]," yes, we do. I do not want Canada to fucking exist, I do not want Canada to colonize, "international law" does not apply to imperialists who have power over the institutions of "international law," like the US (in large part because of Canadian subordination to the US). "Activism" does not apply here in any other way than as some lib-brained nonsense to moralize the different vectors of Canadian control as something distinct from settler-colonialism and imperialism. You do fucking care about morals, you just accept that yours are universally correct and should be what is enforced globally; wonder where you learned to think like that. If this violence isn't fundamentally wrong on a moral basis for you, stop talking about, seriously.

    Ukrainians are being attacked by Russia, which, unsurprisingly, is not as powerful as the EU and the US, which are exclusively responsible for the genocide against Palestinians; along with their significantly -- overwhelmingly -- longer list of targets for genocide. I wonder why Ukrainians were able to flee into Europe and Canada, but it is a "refugee crisis" when it is anyone fleeing from Euro-American imperialism, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Btw, yeah, I don't fucking care if Nazis in Ukraine are "fighting for their country," and you shouldn't either if you knew a fucking thing about how Europe and the US opportunistically support more fascistic, oppressive groups in the countries they "save" from oppression. You a big Taliban supporter are you? Al-Qaeda? Nationalist Popular Front? You mentioned Cuba, have you ever learned why there is a communist state in Cuba? Maybe take a look, this shit is not new.

    You have taken for granted all of the values that have been taught to you, and believe that whatever is good must be good. If you actually care about people resisting oppression, you wouldn't take the Canadian state at face value when they say the money they spend is going toward that. When I point out that Canada does not and will never support vulnerable groups in these other countries, I'm not doing so to advocate for its support, but to demonstrate that it does not and to spur you to question what is distinct about these instances. That isn't because they're doing it wrong, it's because I know that if they're sending money, it is exactly to prevent any challenge to this hegemony.

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