From Guernica to Tehran: Canada and the politics of appeasement

On April 26, 1937, German and Italian air forces destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica in what infamously became the first example of an aerial bombing campaign specifically designed to inflict suffering on the civilian population.

Writing for the British newspaper The Times, correspondent George Steer said that “in the form of its execution and the scale of the destruction it wrought […], the raid on Guernica is unparalleled in military history. Guernica was not a military objective. A factory producing war materiel lay outside the town and was untouched. So were two barracks some distance from the town. The town lay far behind the lines. The object of the bombardment was seemingly the demoralization of the civil population and the destruction of the cradle of the Basque race.” [emphasis author’s]

Nearly 89 years later, the city of Tehran, a city 9.7 of million inhabitants, awoke to a sky filled with thick black smoke following the United States bombardment and destruction of four oil storage and distribution sites in the west, north and south of the capital of Iran. CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen posted a video on social media on Sunday morning showing the rooftop of his accommodations covered in a slick of oil-soaked rain. Shina Ansari, head of Iran’s Department of Environment, described the resulting catastrophic damage as “ecocide.”

In response to the latest in a series of horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the United States against Iran, including the sinking of a defenceless Iranian naval vessel returning from an exercise at the invitation of the Indian government, the Canadian government headed by Prime Minister Mark Carney has largely avoided taking a clear position.

In doing so, the Carney government seems intent on continuing the tradition of appeasement that can be traced back to the Nazi bombing of Guernica.

Following that terrible act of destruction and collective punishment, which he almost certainly would have known about, then-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King met with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, writing in his diary that “[m]y sizing up of the man as I sat and talked with him was that he is really one who truly loves his fellow man and his country […].”

King also had a particularly galling response to the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima, writing that “It is fortunate that the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.”

Mark Carney, for his part, has done very little to convince Canadians that the country stands in opposition to a war of aggression on Iran and the Iranian people. The current Prime Minister on Sunday “convened the Incident Response Group (IRG) with ministers and senior officials to discuss the ongoing hostilities in Iran and the Middle East, and continued vigilance to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians.”

After several days of constantly changing messaging regarding the US attacks on Iran, the Prime Minister’s office appears to have landed on an acceptable two-sentence statement: “Canada was not consulted, did not participate, and has no plans to participate in the offensive actions against Iran that are being undertaken by the U.S. and Israel. The initial conflict has spread widely as a result of attacks by Iran and its proxies on other countries across the broader Middle East.”

This statement makes no call for the United States to cease its attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure, which are blatantly illegal and visible for the world to see.

On March 4, while participating in a Q&A at the Lowy Institute in Australia, Carney was asked about the growing level of aggression from the United States government of Donald Trump toward the rest of the world. An interviewer asked Carney “what [President Trump’s] actions […] mean for the US role in the world in the long-term, because it does seem that his appetite for using force […] seems to grow with the eating.”

Carney’s response was that he “didn’t see a lot of upside to responding to that question,” to which the audience responded with laughter. The Prime Minister went on to deflect the question by talking about China’s alleged use of market dominance in things like rare earths to “try to dictate policies in [other] countries.” As evidenced by this and Carney’s inability or unwillingness to confront the United States on acts of aggression, the Prime Minister sees everything through an economic lens, not a moral or philosophical one.

While Mark Carney and the Liberals have continued to see a surge in favourability among Canadians in polling data, the US bombing campaign is opposed by a majority of the populaton and distancing Canada from US actions is clearly a high priority.

The high-wire act being attempted by Carney and his Ministers, to remain as net beneficiaries of the US-dominated financial architecture constructed at the end of the Second World War via the Bretton Woods system, while keeping the domestic political situation stable in the midst of increasing volatility and war, is an impossible one. More and more, the United States will seek riskier and more dangerous methods to stop the progress of potential competitors, most notably China.

Canada will have to reckon with its continuing role in the United States’ military alliances and frameworks, as it seems clear that the type of violence directed against Iran will not be limited. As predicted by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon in February of 2025, there will be “a couple more, three Gazas, that you’re not expecting, [that President Trump] is going to put on the table.”

Indeed, we are seeing what kind of world the leadership of the United States is leaving for future generations. Canada must stand up against this decline into lawless violence, not continue the shameful retreat into appeasement. There is nothing to gain from cooperating with such a rogue state.

Ryan Hillier is a writer and settler living on the banks of the Petkootkweăk.