Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, has compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine to .
That invasion was an opening salvo in the lead-up to the Second World War.
In Ethopia in the 1930s and in Ukraine today, the effects of invasion are devastating. But how has Canada confronted military invasions throughout its history?
Founded on invasions
First off, Canada was built on invasion and displacement. French and later English merchants came in search of furs and other riches, invading Indigenous territory. .
Colonization continued with the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. , then covering everything north and west of the Great Lakes, to Canada.
from negotiations between the Canadian military and Métis resistance.
“Pacification” of much of what’s now Saskatchewan followed the in 1885, in which Canadian forces crushed the last armed resistance. Famine followed as Canada “cleared” the prairies.
Overseas invasions
Canadians also took part in British invasions overseas. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald declined to send Canadian militia to Sudan in 1884, but pro-British “imperialists” raised a .
Canada also helped to create South Africa, with Canadian imperialist volunteers fighting alongside their British cousins in the of 1899-1902.
Canadians of British descent flocked to the defence of the “mother country” in the First World War, but French-Canadians remained indifferent. Desperate for young men to fight against the Germans, a new prime minister, Robert Borden, imposed conscription for the first time. The controversy between gung-ho Ontario and skeptical Québec .
When Russia’s government fell and the new Soviet Union formed, Canada joined British, American and other troops by to try to stop the new communist state from taking root.
Post-war Prime Minister Mackenzie King however to help Britain fight against Turkey. Some call that .
Post-First World War period
Canada did not — like — grab a former German colony after the First World War. But Canada did ask Britain for some .
Britain instead offered Canada a as it at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Canadians had raised large funds for , and sent food and supplies. But despite sympathy for the Armenians, Ottawa turned down the offer, and .
Instead, Canada found itself accused of invasion in the 1920s at the League of Nations.
, speaking for the Six Nations of Grand River (near Brantford, Ont.) — the predecessor to the United Nations – to help defend his people from a “Canadian invasion” by the RCMP.
Panama, Persia, Estonia and Ireland backed him, but the league buried the petition.
To this day, First Nations leaders seek international support to end Canadian invasion of their lands — .
Second World War, post-war period
When Mussolini’s fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia and Japan invaded China, .
In the Second World War, Canada emerged as a significant military power and was known as a warrior nation, but post-war Canada became less interested in military action.
Neither Britain nor France invited Canada to take part in the staged in 1956 to “protect” the Suez canal from Egyptian control. , even from their leading ally, the United States.
Canada’s foreign minister at the time, Lester B. Pearson, didn’t condemn Britain and France. Instead, for peace, resulting in the . Canadians have followed “” ever since, even as .
More central to Canadian foreign policy was the , or NATO.
skeptical Americans to make a permanent military commitment to Europe. Sold as an alliance to deter a Soviet invasion of western Europe, NATO ended up justifying colonial wars , and .
After the end of the Cold War, NATO sought a new military mission in “,” pushed hard by Canadian intellectuals like former Liberal leader . It came to a tragic end with NATO’s 2011 , from which that country has yet to recover.
When the Soviet Union (1956), (1968) (1979), Canada condemned the attacks but resisted the call of Americans and others demanding “” aimed at delegitimizing Soviet states.
Canada instead concentrated on accepting and settling and , the origin of Canada’s diplomatic self-image as a country of refuge.
U.S. invasions
Frequent U.S. military interventions and didn’t fuel strong Canadian opposition. Though Prime Minister condemned the U.S. war in Vietnam, his government made no effort to stop the to the Americans.
like never before. Canada has, deliberately or unwittingly, armed invaders around the world ever since. In interventions in East Timor, , Canada has armed invaders, not defenders.
When the U.S. planned to invade Iraq in 2003, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien wavered between American/British enthusiasm for war and German/French reluctance. In the end, he split the difference, but .
On Ukraine, Canada’s marks another step away from the
David Webster receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is affiliated with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute.
