Are Average Canadians Unknowingly Arming Child Soldiers?

I went to see Dr. Samantha Nutt last night who was the keynote speaker at the Ploughshares 35th Anniversary Celebration. Dr. Nutt is the founder of War Child North America and the Author of “Damned Nations – Greed, Guns Armies and Aid”. She is a woman small of stature with a giant message and passion for humanitarian work. She told some heart wrenching and horrific stories from her times in war-torn Somalia and didn’t pull any punches. She was AMAZING!

I will do a more thorough discussion on her book later but right now I would like to outline some simple points that really struck home for me.

Arms spending globally is at a level not seen since the end of WW II. It averages about $235 for every person living on this planet. Who is profiting from the sale of arms?

APPARENTLY WE ARE!!!

According to Nutt, every Canadian who pays into CPP is investing in arms manufacturing. Isn’t that a mind blowing revelation? Canada is also among the top 10 countries supplying small arms globally. I didn’t know.

Nutt also went on to say that that every teacher’s pension fund in Canada is invested in arms manufacturers. So our teachers will have a great retirement at the expense arming child soldiers. Teachers will hate knowing this and many will simply refuse to believe it. But only teachers have the power to change it.

It is not just teachers pension funds though. Many of the mutual funds in our RRSPs are invested in arms manufacturing too. Only YOU can decide where your money is invested. It’s not easy though. Investment funds and corporate ownership are so convoluted that a truly “Ethical” fund is nearly impossible to find.

Are YOU aware of any of this? I thought not.

She stressed that we as Canadians need to educate ourselves on the realities of the world. With corporatization of investments, we are all investing money in things we would never dream of supporting. Just as many of us have no idea where our food comes from, we have lost the ability to know where our money is being invested.

Did you know that Canada is the biggest mining country in the world? 70% of the mining done on this planet is done by Canadian mining companies. Many of them do not follow the same standards for human resource management that we do in Canada and often have human rights abuses charges on their records. Of course many do not follow the same level of environmental care and diligence that they do here in Canada either. (As an aside, Denise Wamsley, from our office, was chastised by visitors to Guatemala regarding the harm Canadian mining companies are responsible for in Central America. It seems the rest of the world knows more about what Canadian companies are doing than do Canadians!)

In her article in the Globe & Mail entitled “Should NGO’s take the corporate bait?”, Nutt says the combined annual net profit for the three (yes just 3) mining companies CIDA is supporting through a new NGO partnering initiative is more than $4 Billion. Read the complete article here.

Dr. Nutt says the hope lies in us. We CAN make a difference in the world by educating ourselves so we stop profiting from war and in making informed buying decisions and informed investing decisions.

So. Where will you go from here? Perhaps a good step would be to read her book. Buy it here. It could change your life. I for one don’t want to be profiting by putting killing machines in the hands of children.

Ignorance IS bliss. But at what cost?