Petition Against Arms Show in Ottawa

Please sign the following petition from the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade calling on the City of Ottawa to respect a 1989 city council motion that responded to extensive mobilization by anti-war and peace activists and banned war-related trade shows from municipal property. Two arms shows in the next two years are currently booked into municipal property in Ottawa.

Here's some background:

The "US Embassy Defense & Security Exhibition" (Sep.30-Oct.1, 2008), goes against an Ottawa Council motion of 1989 that "city facilities not be leased to ARMX or other such arms exhibitions.”

The City has not hosted any such events since 1989 when the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade rallied thousands to Lansdowne Park to protest ARMX—Canada’s largest arms bazaar.

Secure Canada 2008: The US arms expo is part of a large military show called "Secure Canada 2008." It's sponsors are the US and UK governments, major US war-related industries, the top lobby group for US arms makers, the US Chamber of Commerce in Canada, and two Canadian magazines catering to the military-industrial complex.

CANSEC 2009: Ottawa has also leased municipal property at Lansdowne for an even bigger arms trade show in 2009.

We stopped them before, we can stop them again!

And the petition text:

We, the undersigned, call on the City of Ottawa to respect the commitment made by City Council in 1989 to ban war-related trade shows from municipal property by stopping "Secure Canada 2008," "CANSEC 2009" and all other such manifestations of the arms trade from taking place at Ottawa City facilities, including Lansdowne Park.

Sign it!