“Openly and flagrantly, certain countries express their will to expand and make preparations for war.  The politics of rearmament is pursued in broad daylight and at breakneck speed; every day you read in the papers arguments in favour of armaments expansion, the idea that it reduces unemployment and provides a boost to the stock exchange.” – Stefan Zweig [1]

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According to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), it has been over 65 years since Canada’s military expenditures came to 5 percent of GDP. And that was at a time when we did not have universal healthcare. [2]

It should be noted that in the post Cold War period, military spending stayed below 2 percent. [3]

Now Canada, like the bulk of NATO has committed to hiking up the spending to more than double this amount, and within 10 years! With all the problems plaguing the planet at this time, we have decided to commit to these dizzying heights. [4]

In an article published in May of this year, Binoy Kampmark commented on the approval by European Union countries of a massive loan program called Security Action for Europe (SAFE) to “finance urgent and large-scale investments in the European defence technological and industrial base” intended to boost “production capacity, making sure defence equipment is available when needed.” [5]

This would include ammunition and missiles, ground combat capabilities, air and missile defence systems, drones and anti-drone systems, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare. And Safe would be linked to broader transatlantic engagement and “complementarity with NATO.”  [6]

Kampmark concluded that this funding is intended “for one unambiguous purpose: war.” [7]

Alongside this paving of the path to world battle, we are seeing work at home to address problematic emergence of that perennial counter-route known as the road to peace.

In Canada, with the success of the very visible rallies and protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, many people, particularly youth, are looking down their noses at supporting military projects, let alone joining the military themselves. So a new group, headed by youth, has emerged to silence the alternatives to war with brilliant young people, images of tanks and a lot of snazzy shooting. [8]

In this week’s instalment of the Global Research News Hour, we take a close look at the commitment by Prime Minister Mark Carney to boosting defence spending to 5 percent of GDP within 10 years and also the influence people working behind the scenes to make eternal warfare acceptable to Canadians.

In our first half hour, we talk to Green Party of Quebec leader Alex Tyrrell about a NATO-aligned group called Young Politicians of Canada, the influencers behind it, and an attempt earlier this week to protest one of their meetings.

In our second half hour we speak to Medea Benjamin, a peace activist and co -founder of Code Pink, who spoke to the myths and lies surrounding the need to keep ourselves safe from military adversaries with an immense expenditure of cash and what items we would lose in the process.

Finally, another peace activist, Ken Stone details the existence of the Canada NATO Parliamentary Association (CANA) and efforts to mobilize voters to email their MPs against joining such a club. He also speaks about a recent shoe protest against Mark Carney, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Alex Tyrrell is the Leader of the Green Party of Quebec.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  She is also a regular contributor to Global Research.

Ken Stone is the Treasurer of the Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War and a Coordinating Committee member of the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network. He is an occasional contributor to Global Research.

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Transcript of conversation with Alex Tyrrell, July 2, 2025

Global Research: What exactly made you and Yves investigate the Young Politicians of Canada?

Alex Tyrrell: Well, I mean, both Yves and I are very interested in foreign policy and big critics of NATO.

I came across this file because this young person named Jaden Braves is 16 years old right now. He used to be the president of the youth wing of the Green Party of Canada. So I met him about a year or two in that capacity.

But then after following him online, I started seeing all these posts about him being flown all over the world to different NATO meetings, meetings that are aimed at training the world leaders of tomorrow and this sort of thing. And he was meeting with all kinds of Canadian cabinet ministers and presidents of other countries, ambassadors, all sorts of things. And it’s very odd.

One thing that really caught my attention was that at one point he participated in a NATO summit and he released like a little TikTok type of video where he was saying like, you know, as young people, the people who are in this NATO meeting today are taking important decisions for our future. And you know, what’s our future going to be like five, 10, 15 years down the road? And you got like tanks like rolling by behind his green screen on the on the TikTok. So he’s basically making the argument that, you know, for the youth to have a good future, that we absolutely have to invest in military hardware and get ready for some sort of a global conflict.

So that definitely caught my attention. And the further that we dug into this, the more and more information was revealed, not even really hidden. But this group that he had founded called the Young Politicians of Canada, their number one partner is the NATO Association of Canada.

GR: When just investigating on a line, did you like, did he have like regular posts? And then at some point, this NATO aligned imagery started to prop in there or was it there? How long until he became this, I guess, NATO person?

AT: Like the posts about like these NATO meetings and stuff like that started like just shortly after I had met him in his capacity of youth president of the Green Party of Canada. And so they just started becoming more and more frequent. And like he was reaching higher and higher up, like into the NATO organization.

And, you know, to look into this a bit like the there’s basically this organization called NATO Canada. So it’s a nonprofit that’s dedicated to promoting NATO’s mission like in Canada. And basically, I went to the website of this organization and the first thing I saw was that they had done a study and their study revealed that young people were far less likely to support foreign military intervention, U.S. foreign policy, spending on military and weapons and this sort of thing.

So really, the young people are far more favorable to peace than they are to confrontation. And of course, NATO Canada views this as a major problem that needs to be corrected because their agenda is to increase military spending to get ready for world warfare and maybe even to provoke some wars to make some money off of. So they view this youth opposition to war and militarism as a problem that needs to be corrected.

And they pointed out in their report that if Biden was at all critical of Israel, we can debate how critical he was. I don’t think it was that critical. But they say that Biden criticized Israel because the young people supported Palestine.

And they say that the more that young people support Palestine and peace and that kind of thing, the more chances there are of some politicians running anti-war campaigns, being elected on anti-war mandates and this sort of thing, and that it was against the interests of NATO Canada. So they came up with a strategy to counter this youth opposition to war and basically platformed a lot of some young teenagers really to be pro-military kind of influencers. Right.

And so they bring these kids in to different training opportunities and that sort of thing. They have them practice like going to meetings with politicians. You know, they’re practising their social media posts and that sort of thing.

And they’re creating this narrative online, at least to their followers, that, you know, young people, they want more military spending. They want more preparedness for war and that sort of thing.

GR: Wow. So, I mean, this Jaden Braves sounds like he’s kind of like a made man in a way that it’s not his instigation, but like there are people behind him. And I’m wondering, like, who have you identified as some of the influential people in the background?

AT: Well, that’s it. Like we’re looking through this.

Right. And so Jaden Braves founded, he says he’s the founder and CEO of this organization called the Young Politicians of Canada, which, of course, sounds very innocent. Right?

And this organization has done some legitimate work, like representing youth in terms of giving their point of view on like legislation about online harms and that sort of thing. Right? But they also have a national security task force.

And send people on a delegation to the White House on these fully funded trips and that sort of thing. You know, Jaden himself is just getting back from Georgia right now where he was hanging out at the Ukrainian embassy. Of course, you know, he speaks in, you know, pro-Ukraine protests and this sort of thing.

So to get back to who is behind this, they have an advisory committee of the Young Politicians of Canada. One of the people on there is Anthony Housefather, of course, a notorious liberal Zionist MP in Canada. There’s also people from NATO Canada itself.

And there’s also Elizabeth May, who has some sort of affiliation with with Jaden Braves that she’s maintained. And really, you know, her presence in that organization gives it credibility that it does not deserve. And it’s really unfortunate that, you know, these these adults are sort of, you know, pushing these children to go and join politics, but not really for the right reasons, more for like promoting these NATO interests.

And, you know, it’s dangerous. Right. Like the actions of these young people can contribute to violence.

Right. They can contribute to people being killed in other countries, you know, through the belligerent Canadian foreign policy that, you know, it’s aligned with U.S. interests and seeks to, you know, do regime change in different countries and really be in a constant cycle of war. So, you know, without really being old enough to create their own opinions about the world and, you know, about what’s right and what’s wrong and, you know, how can we find world peace, they’re being brought directly into this narrative about imminent confrontation.

GR: So it looks like this is sort of an event that they’re like this Young Politicians of Canada. It’s maybe just one aspect of a more widespread attempt to try to do something about these pacifist youth.

AT: Well, yeah, definitely.

I mean, it’s only one front organization. Right. We don’t know how many other organizations like that there are.

And I mean, NATO Canada has a youth wing, right? And they’ve got like 18 young people, their photos and bios and everything on their website. So they’re making a concerted effort to try and influence the youth. And I think that if more people knew about this, they’d be very upset about it.

But unfortunately, it’s not the kind of thing that the mainstream media in Canada is going to cover because they basically erased any criticism of NATO.

GR: Hmm. On Monday, the 30th, you and Yves staged a protest and a few other people stage a protest in Montreal and you engaged some of these young politicians of Canada.

Could you tell us how that protest went over?

AT: Yeah, that’s it. So, I mean, the Young Politicians of Canada had organized a similar event in Ottawa just a couple of months ago, and they had the presence of some federal politicians and ambassadors from Ukraine and other European countries. They’ve been given a lot of institutional recognition.

In fact, Jaden Braves has even gotten the King’s Medal. But that’s it. So they were holding a similar event in Montreal and it was kind of sold as, you know, voices of the future, a way for young people to talk about involvement in politics and that sort of thing.

Right. So a very innocent sounding event. Right.

And so we figured that a lot of people going to this event probably are not aware of the organization’s ties to NATO. Right. And this isn’t some conspiracy theory that we’re coming up with, like NATO Canada is the number one partner identified on the Young Politicians of Canada website.

Right. So it’s well-known fact. It’s not contested.

And so we figure, well, look, we’ll set up in front of this event that was held at the Maison du Développement Durable, a venue which sort of gives a bit of progressive credibility to this event. And we’ll hand out pamphlets to the young people as they go inside, warning them about the ties to NATO and warning them what this Young Politicians of Canada nonprofit is really about. So when we got there, turns out we were right.

Most of the people going in had no idea that it was affiliated with NATO. And a lot of them were telling us like, well, look, I mean, as soon as I get in there, I’m going to ask them about this, you know. So there was people like that.

There was also people who were more a little bit older. You know, the group targets 14 to 24 year olds. So there are some university students that knew about the ties to NATO.

And, you know, we’re sort of there for that. Right. They want to pursue that kind of career opportunity.

I assume they know what’s happening and they’re there, you know, with full knowledge of the situation. But most of the young people had no idea. And so we’re handing out these pamphlets as they’re going in.

And then the reception table, you know, is like having one person after another come in asking, like, what’s the deal with NATO? So they got a bit upset. And, you know, the organizers at one point came out and they were telling me, like, if you go inside, we’re going to call the police on you. We’re going to have you expelled and all this.

You know, of course, I’ve been to many protests before. And, you know, in Canada at this point, we’re still allowed to hand out pamphlets and speak our opinion about NATO. So, I mean, I wasn’t really threatened by that at all.

And we managed to convince a lot of people, you know, and to the point where when they started off their presentation that that evening, they had to start it off by saying, well, listen, we are funded by NATO, but we’re also funded by all these other organizations. Of course, that doesn’t address our criticism. We don’t care about the other organizations.

The issue we have is with their affiliation with NATO, which clearly they do not deny.

GR: And yeah, you also should notice that they did fire back at Yves Engler in particular, Jayden Braves did, but it was basically an aside, right? It wasn’t actually dealing with the core issues.

AT: No, it was just a bunch of insults saying how, oh, Yves is ignored by policymakers and this sort of thing.

And he hasn’t gotten the institutional recognition that somebody like Jayden Braves has got, you know, getting the King’s Medal and meeting with all these high up people and being flown all over the world, this sort of thing, you know. But I mean, obviously, Yves is a thought leader in Canada with respect to foreign policy and, you know, has been on the right side of many progressive causes and has been greatly influential. So, you know, not only is Jayden’s response petty and kind of childish, but it’s also completely unfounded.

And, you know, by going into these kind of insults and stuff like that, well, it shows that they don’t really have any substantive answer to why it is that they’re associated with NATO and why it is that NATO is going lurking around high schools and universities trying to indoctrinate youth into being part of this little influence campaign to build youth support for military spending.

GR: OK, we only have a couple of minutes left, but I’d like you to address the issue of the Green Party of Canada, because Green Parties internationally have roots in the peace movement and a strong commitment to the principles of pacifism, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Federal Green Party.

And I noticed, for example, Elizabeth May, who is, correct me if I’m wrong, but she’s one of the advisors of this Young Politicians of Canada. And, I mean, she seems to be much more hawkish with regard to the Ukraine war, for example, you know, getting at the Russians and so on and being a little slow on criticizing Israel’s attack on Gaza as a genocide. How do you explain, is it just is Elizabeth May’s personal influence or is there something else wrong with the Green Party of the House of Commons, a more widespread phenomenon that’s pushing them in a hawkish direction?

AT: Yeah, well, look, I’ve been leading a Green Party here in Quebec for 12 years.

So what brought me to this was those founding principles that you mentioned about peace and anti-war and non-nuclear proliferation, that sort of thing. The problem that the global green movement has at the moment is that there’s been a whole lot of selling out by Green Party people who want to take power, who want to move ahead and so are willing not just to parrot the pro-war agenda, but to play an active role in it. And with respect to Canada, as you mentioned, Elizabeth May has been completely aligned with all of the NATO talking points when people, even her own constituents, complain about Canada, you know, being engaged in this proxy war against Russia.

She says that they’re brainwashed because they’re reading too much Russian media. So that’s a big problem. You know, so she was involved with Jayden when he was president of the Youth Wing, but she also chaired the meeting that he held in Ottawa.

And she sits on the advisory committee of the Young Politicians of Canada. So she’s completely enabling the instrumentalization of this young person by NATO. And I would have thought that she would take some distance, especially after we shared a video of this 16-year-old Jayden Braves literally firing a semi-automatic rifle while leaning on a NATO flag.

He posted this on Facebook saying that he was getting some weapons training. Like, you would think that that would be enough for Elizabeth to say, like, OK, you used to be in the Youth Wing like when you were 14, 15, but now you’re 16. You’re like basically a NATO asset, like, you know, promoting weapons and stuff like that, posting footage of yourself firing semi-automatics on NATO flags.

Like, enough is enough there. You know, at some point you got to cut the ties. But no, on the contrary, she’s signed up to be on his organization, is promoting it, is giving credibility to it, and is really playing in to this image that they want, that they want to associate young environmentalists with a pro-NATO stance.

Like, it’s completely insane, right? Like, there’s nothing environmentally friendly about warfare or anything like that. But, you know, by hosting the event at the Maison du Développement Durable, right, a progressive institution like here in Montreal, they’re giving themselves that same kind of credibility that they’re getting from the association with the Green Party. And it’s something that can be used to trick a lot of people into thinking that this is something progressive when really it’s a NATO front.

The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg.

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Notes:

1. Stefan Zweig (March 2016), p. 9, ‘Messages from a Lost World Europe on the Brink’, published by Pushkin Press; https://www.bookfrom.net/stefan-zweig/page,9,46407-messages_from_a_lost_world_europe_on_the_brink.html

2. https://milex.sipri.org/sipri
3. ibid;
4. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/123-power-and-politics/episode/16154678-canada-pledges-to-more-than-double-defence-spending-by-2035
5. https://www.globalresearch.ca/eu-security-action-europe-fund/5888735
6. ibid;
7. ibid;
8. https://globalgreen.news/unmasking-a-nato-youth-front-young-politicians-of-canada/