We must unite the movements for peace, climate justice, and Indigenous sovereignty

by Sarah Borbridge

Movements for peace, for climate justice, and for Indigenous sovereignty are on their own already incredibly important causes. However, the devastation of war, destruction of our planet, and dispossession of land are all wrought by the same beast. If we are to put up a real fight against these dangerous trends, then our movements must unite.

NATO countries account for the vast majority of the over $2.6 trillion spent annually on military, and every dollar spent on a new fighter jet or warship is a dollar stolen from housing and healthcare.

Imperialism demands endless production of weapons to wage its wars, and we can see on the news and on social media the horrible devastation of the imperialist wars on people, families, and communities who suffer through the falling of bombs and firing of guns.

But militarism is not just about the weapons of war. Canada is actively increasing its military aggression in other ways through Bill C-5.

Imperialist nations like Canada were built atop brutal extraction and exploitation. This legislation lets the government bypass environmental regulations and meaningful Indigenous consultation so they can rush through and approve harmful pipelines, ports, and mines.

Climate and nature activists have said Bill C-5 “reprises the extractivism, environmental destruction and colonial violence Canada has been built on.”

This law will infringe on Indigenous title to land and territorial waters, violating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ requirement for free, prior, and informed consent.

And what is the justification for trampling over environmental regulations and the rights of Indigenous peoples? Military targets imposed by NATO.

Canada has already spent over $63 billion on its military in 2025 alone. And that represents single largest increase in military spending in generations.

But Canada has committed to NATOs new, even higher raising targets. Canada will need to spend 5% of its GDP by 2035. That’s $150 billion dollars every year.

How will Canada meet these new targets? By building more destructive weapons of war, but also by building the destructive mining and other extractive resource supply chains for those weapons. They will crush Indigenous rights and wreak havoc on nature here so they can fire missiles and destroy national sovereignty abroad.

Countries like Canada sideline the necessity of reconciliation and meeting climate pledges while stoking racism and nationalism to demonize migrants, refugees and the very people fleeing the wars and climate devastation they created.

War is the worst offender to the climate crisis. The US military alone expends more carbon than most countries. And across their 800 military bases in 70 countries, many are near vulnerable communities and in delicate ecosystems. These bases pollute land and water with heavy metals and other forever chemicals.

The militarization of the Arctic, exemplified by Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, likewise violates Indigenous sovereignty, fuels military confrontation, and risks ecological disaster. The Arctic is home to hundreds of thousands of Indigenous peoples comprising more than 40 nations. Protecting both peace and the planet requires a demilitarized Arctic zone that guarantees Indigenous rights, bans resource plunder, and shields the region’s fragile environment from the twin threats of militarization and climate-driven exploitation.

If all this wasn’t bad enough, there is the resurgence of talks around using nuclear weapons. Don’t be fooled by the word “tactical”. Nuclear detonation is a catastrophe. After the immediate disaster, scientists have stated that with even smaller nuclear detonations, the smoke alone would block sunlight for four years and reduce global crop yields, leading to extreme food insecurity and famine, and result in countless deaths. Canada’s NATO commitments mean it refuses to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We must demand Canada sign this Treaty.

But there’s a price tag on all of this war. And someone is footing the bill. So, who is being forced to pay for all of this? Us: the working class. Our labour and our taxes fund the wars that kill people; pour poison on the land, water, and food systems of Indigenous nations; and heat our boiling planet.

But we can resist. There are more of us than there are of them.

War costs us everything. But our broad movements for peace, climate justice, and Indigenous sovereignty, when we are united, can fight and win this struggle and achieve real demilitarization, decarbonization, and decolonization.