By Yves Engler – Mar 11, 2025
As Donald Trump seeks to cripple Canada economically to pursue annexation, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is assisting the US bid to stoke war with China. With far-right Trump supporters calling for the US to invade, Canada continues to assist US belligerence in Asia.
Last month, HMCS Ottawa transited through the Taiwan Strait with a US warship. It was the first non-US warship to make the provocative move in 2025. A Chinese Navy commander claimed Canada’s actions “deliberately disturbed the situation and undermined the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”
It’s the sixth time an RCN vessel has transited through the waterway since Canada released its Indo Pacific Strategy in November 2022. The Indo Pacific Strategy calls on Canada to augment the regular number of warships in east Asia from one to three vessels.
A few days before traversing the Taiwan Strait HMCS Ottawa participated in a joint exercise with US and Filipino ships in the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone. They said it “underscores our shared commitments to upholding the right to freedom of navigation…as well as respect for maritime rights under international law as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
A month ago, the Associated Press reported that Ottawa and Manila are in the final stages of negotiating a defence pact to boost joint military exercises. Canada’s ambassador in the Philippines David Hartman said the agreement “will enable us to have even more substantive participation in joint and multilateral training exercises and operations with the Philippines and allies here in the region.”
Hartman didn’t hide that China is the target. He declared, “we have been vocal in confronting the provocative and unlawful actions of the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea. We will continue to do so.”
Ottawa has been assisting Washington’s push to turn the Philippines into a bulwark against China. Since Bongbong Marcos came to power two years ago, the US has established four new bases there and promoted Filipino territorial claims opposed by China and other states. (When US troops invaded the Philippines in 1898 CIBC acted as a main bank for the US occupation administration. Other Canadian corporations such as Sun Life and ScotiaBank also followed US forces into this quasi colony.)
At the start of last year, Canada signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation with the Philippines. In June HMCS Montreal participated in Canada’s first ever naval patrol with a Filipino vessel in the South China Sea. Two months later, the frigate visited Philippines and then participated in a US-Australia-Philippines operation in the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.
A year ago, Ottawa offered Philippines satellite technology to track fishing boats even when they shutter their location transmitting devices. “Canada’s Dark Vessel Detection tech helps Philippines manage territorial dispute with China,” explained a June Globe and Mail headline.
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To those who look at the world through Washington’s eyes China is a threat all over. Over the past two months both the Liberal and Conservative parties have released Arctic strategies that suggests China is a threat. But China is 1,500 kilometres away from the Arctic and doesn’t dispute any Canadian claim there, while the US does. (A recent Antiwar.com article helpfully explained, “both Russia and Canada claim that their respective Arctic sea-routes traverse their sovereign internal waters, giving them the right to control who goes through and under what conditions. The US disagrees and claims they should be open to ships of all nations as critical international sea lanes, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).” But, the US hasn’t even ratified UNCLOS.)
Ottawa even sees China as a threat near the South Pole. Over the past year Ottawa has intervened to undercut Canadian firms from selling Argentinean and Chilean resources to Chinese companies. They’ve taken similar measures against mining companies partnering with Chinese counterparts in Ecuador and Guinea. As the Financial Post detailed this week in “Mining companies leaving Toronto Stock Exchange”, restricting mining firms from partnering with Chinese companies is imperiling Canada’s international mining dominance.
Canada is assisting Washington in its conflict with China as the US president seeks to destroy Canada’s economy to annex the country. Why are no mainstream commentators denouncing this flagrant absurdity? Why would Canada’s military continue to do Washington’s bidding? If our government was serious about its independence wouldn’t that include revisiting our military’s attachment to US foreign policy?
At minimum, political leaders need to be calling on Ottawa to pause joint naval patrols with the US in Asia until Trump stops calling for the annexation of Canada.
Yves Engler
Yves Engler is Montreal-based writer and political activist. In addition to ten published books, Engler's writings have appeared in the alternative press and in mainstream publications such as The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and Ecologist.
