[van-announce] Sat Sept. 25: Action against war, F-35 fighter jet purchases

[Derrick O'Keefe]

*Please forward widely* 

Take Action Against Harper's Militarism

Say No to the War and to the F-35 purchases

Saturday, Sept. 25
Meet at 12 Noon, City Centre Skytrain (Corner of Georgia and Seymour)
Followed by a travelling public education action

Join StopWar.ca in saying 'No': to the F-35 fighter jet purchases by 
the Conservative government, and to any further extension of the war.  

This action will be part of a day of action against the war in Afghanistan. 
As Parliament re-opens, we want to send a clear message: No more extensions
of the military occupation of Afghanistan, bring the troops home now! 

Organized by StopWar.ca. More info: stopwar at resist.ca. Part of a cross-Canada 
day of action against the war coordinated by the Canadian Peace Alliance: 
http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/Sept252010.html

***

Information

Our choice: fighter jets or homes and clean water?
 
As Parliament resumes this month, MPs will debate the priorities for 
Canada, including choices between military hardware or urgent social and 
economic priorities. We urge readers to send their MPs a message: the 
Harper government's plan to spend $16 billion on F-35 fighter jets 
should be scrapped, in favour of public transit, social housing, clean 
drinking water, access to education, and humanitarian assistance.
 
65 Fighter jets: $16 billion
 
The Harper Tory government plans to spend $9 billion on 65 new 
fighter-jets built by the U.S. transnational McDonnell-Douglas, plus 
another $7 billion on “ancillary costs” such as future parts and 
maintenance. The price per jet, including the long-term contracts for 
parts and servicing, has jumped to $245 million. These are not 
"defensive" weapons, and they have little use for search and rescue 
operations - they are purely war-making machines. With its large payload 
capability, the F-35 can carry more weapons than the C-18 fighters it 
replaces. The F-35 comes with a wide range of deadly armament: the 
GAU-22/A four-barrel 25mm cannon (400 rounds); up to two air-to-air 
missiles and two air-to-air or air-to-ground weapons; two 1,000 lb. 
bombs; a maximum of eight “Small Diameter Bombs”; Brimstone anti-armor 
missiles; and cluster bombs. At the expense of being more detectable by 
radar, many more missiles, bombs and fuel tanks can be attached on four 
wing pylons and two near wingtip positions. Solid-state lasers are being 
developed as optional weapons for the F-35. (Source: Wikipedia)
 
Human needs: total $16 billion
 
5000 buses
 
Canadian municipalities desperately need more high-quality public 
transportation. To purchase 5,000 new transit buses, at a cost of about 
$500,000 each, would cost about $2.5 billion.
 
Tuition for 50,000 students
 
Canadian students are increasingly sentenced to a life term of heavy 
debt loads. If the federal government provided four years of free 
post-secondary tuition for 50,000 young people, the cost would total 
about $1 billion, an investment in Canada’s future.
 
30,000 homes
 
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are homeless or in danger of living 
on the street. To build 30,000 social housing units, at $200,000 each, 
would cost about $6 billion. This would immediately cut costs for 
emergency health care and policing.
 
Clean water
 
At any given time, up to 200 Aboriginal communities across Canada live 
under “boil water” advisories. Spending $1 billion to help build safe 
and secure clean drinking water systems would be a major improvement in 
living standards for Aboriginal peoples.
 
Humanitarian assistance
 
The federal government has allocated a miserly $33 million to help the 
people of Pakistan, hit by the worst humanitarian disaster in recent 
years. Multiplying that amount by fifteen times would bring the total to 
$500 million.