On July 31, Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec, spoke out in favour of closing General Dynamics, a plant located in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, in the Capitale-Nationale region.
The speech on the General Dynamics plant is part of his tour of war plants that began last March. The Green Party leader wanted to reiterate his position in favour of closing all war plants in Quebec, stating that we [Quebec] do not need to contribute to the endless cycle of war. He was accompanied by two of his confirmed candidates in the Quebec City area, Kadidia Mahamane Bamba, candidate in Vanier-Les-Rivières and Daydree Vendette, candidate in Louis-Hébert, as well as his confirmed candidate in Matane-Matapedia, Jean-Gabriel Émond Tanguay.
“Contrary to what many may think, war factories like this one are not only intended to supply the Canadian army, but also to export weapons to the United States and other countries in the world. It is an act that helps perpetuate the cycle of endless war. These factories make bombs in times of peace as well as in times of war and are therefore an incentive to continue armed conflicts around the world,” says Alex Tyrrell.
“The position we take in the Green Party of Quebec is that Quebec should be a zone of peace. We should not be complicit in the endless cycle of world war that exists. To do this, what we are demanding here, at this plant, but also at other war plants in Quebec, is their immediate closure. We want to offer a job guarantee to the employees that would allow them either to go back to school, or to have a job in the energy transition or to take early retirement. This is the same job guarantee that is offered to oil workers and those in the automotive industry. These industries need to have a planned downsizing that allows us to change our industrial strategy to support the energy transition without kicking workers out.”
The values of environmental protection, multiculturalism, feminism, social justice and peace are integral to the Green Party of Quebec. A vote for the Green Party of Quebec is a vote to end the war, to invest in the energy transition, and to build a Quebec that is what we want to be as a people, as a society, and as human beings.
