Letters: The secret U.S. plan to invade Canada

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I know there were a lot of disbelieving eye-rolls when people read about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s comment that he had prepared over the past year for the “extreme tail risk” that our southern neighbour might invade Canada, but there’s actually some fact behind this fiction. Back in the late 1920s, the U.S. military developed War Plan Red (formalized in 1930 and declassified in 1974) as a contingency plan in case of conflict with the British Empire. It was part of a series of colour-coded contingency war plans for around the world. War Plan Orange, for example, was for Japan. War Plan Black was for Germany, and so on.

Most people agree it was nothing more than a planning exercise, but a key part of War Plan Red was the invasion of Canada. It involved U.S. military operations in Halifax, which would be targeted by a poison gas attack to prevent the Royal Navy from using the port, as well as Niagara Falls (power plants), Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Winnipeg (minerals and rail), Vancouver, Victoria, and other locations. For its part, the Canadian government drafted Defence Scheme No. 1, conceived by Lt.-Col. James “Buster” Sutherland Brown, which proposed pre-emptive strikes on a number of U.S. border cities to buy time until support from the British Empire arrived.

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

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Several years ago, no one with an ounce of sanity would have predicted the current trade war we’re in with our American neighbours, but imagine what kind of stable ground we might be on if someone with forward thinking had asked … what if?

Paul Baumberg, Dead Man’s Flats, Alta.

I am profoundly disgusted with the CBC’s decision to remove veteran reporter Neil Herland from the air after he shared his personal experience of being harassed outside a Yom Kippur service. Penalizing a seasoned professional for sharing his firsthand account of a volatile situation only confirms the CBC has lost its journalistic integrity and has created an extremely unfair double standard.

Sandy Besser, Toronto

Our national broadcaster’s treatment of journalist Neil Herland, who was doing what good reporters do, even though it was on his own time as he was going to prayer on the Jewish community’s holiest day of the year, was deplorable. The fact that my tax dollars are used to support this kind of unjust bias is disgusting. Mark Carney is enabling Jew hatred in the Liberals’ continued funding of the CBC.

Marjie Zacks, Markham

Uncompromising idealists always reveal their authoritarian impulses once in power. Luckily for us, the Liberals’ lust for power has brought them back to the pragmatic middle on economic policy but, the illiberal and divisive progressive left continues to control our cultural institutions.

The battle for power will continue to rage to the delight of China, Russia and Iran (and Qatar), who will exploit these tensions every way they can. Thankfully, more Canadians are waking up to the disastrous machinations of the left and hopefully, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s necessary defence of liberal democracy and experienced sailing of the economic ship will result in the prosperity, safety and unity Canadians crave. The Conservatives need to make sure this happens.

Mike Sternberg, Ottawa

The argument that Canada can simply “wait out” Donald Trump’s trade war deserves more scrutiny.

Canada may have the fiscal capacity to absorb economic damage. That does not mean Canadian workers, businesses and consumers should be expected to absorb it indefinitely. The people advocating patience are not necessarily the people paying the price for it.

The costs of waiting are already visible. Delayed investment, disrupted supply chains and weaker demand are not abstract statistics. They affect business decisions, employment and household incomes today. Telling Canadians to remain patient may sound principled from a distance, but economic policy should ultimately be judged by who bears its costs.

More importantly, the assumption that time is automatically on Canada’s side is questionable. Some U.S. tariffs reflect objectives that extend beyond President Trump, including rebuilding American industrial capacity, securing supply chains and reducing strategic dependencies. Those pressures are unlikely to disappear with a change of administration.

Canada should certainly reject a bad deal. But “hold firm and wait” is not an economic strategy.

The better response is to strengthen what Canada actually controls: eliminate interprovincial trade barriers, accelerate energy and infrastructure projects, reduce regulatory burdens, improve productivity and diversify export markets.

A stronger Canadian economy would give Ottawa greater bargaining power without requiring Canadians to endure unnecessary economic damage.

Economic patriotism should not be measured by how much pain Canadians are willing to tolerate. It should be measured by how effectively policy-makers create the conditions for Canadians to prosper.

Louis-Philippe Noël, Montmagny, Que.

Canada is an experienced confederation of provincial and territorial jurisdictions for almost 160 years. The EU has been confederated only 33 years. Within confederation, Canada’s provinces retain far broader constitutional responsibilities than do EU member states, despite federal efforts to usurp provincial roles. These include a notwithstanding clause, which EU member states do not enjoy. Are Canadian provinces and territories willing to see Ottawa put up for auction their long-defended constitutional roles?

What the EU and Canada do seem to have in common right now are supremely over-reaching leaders, who have both chosen not to consult in any way their respective provinces, territories and states. If this were more than political grandstanding, they would have worked maturely through our respective long-serving confederal institutions, and tabled options before our respective parliaments.

John L. Riley, Mono, Ont.

That Olivia Chow did not participate in a recent mayoralty candidate debate about antisemitism and the safety of her city’s Jewish community came as no surprise to any of us who have paid attention to her record since taking over city hall in June 2023. Her excuse (that she was not officially campaigning until the day following the debate) was simply too lame to be taken seriously.

Since Oct. 8, 2023, Chow has unabashedly supported the anti-Israel mobs on our college campuses and public spaces by failing to take action (other than condoning the Toronto Police, who at one point provided coffee to these useful idiots). She joyfully marches with the LGBTQ, Caribbean and myriad other cultural communities that make up Toronto’s mosaic, adorned in the appropriate costume of said group (taking a page out of the Trudeau family’s notorious India junket). She has been noticeably absent from the annual Walk with Israel, the Jewish community’s equivalent celebration of their pride in their heritage.

In contrast, we heard clarity from Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd, who has been unequivocal about the actions of two of his brave police constables in responding to the attack on Sons of Jacob Synagogue. They were there to “serve and protect” and no doubt saved the lives of all those who were in synagogue to pray on our holiest holiday.

While our municipal politicians do not identify with a particular political party, Chow (and her late husband, Jack Layton) have been long-standing NDPers. In the company of disgraced former MPP Sara Jama and recently elected leader of the federal NDP, Avi Lewis, she is a staunch supporter of the same party that federally criticized the Liberal government for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

Jews make up less than four per cent of our city’s population, yet their contributions to the medical, legal, educational and cultural sectors belie their small numbers. The Jewish community does not expect “special treatment” from our political leaders, simply to be given equal standing with all citizens and protection against the hateful aggression and desecration of Jewish institutions, which we have publicly witnessed for nearly three years. While I agree with most of Howard Levitt’s comments, we already “have the answers” from Chow.

Susan Silverman, Toronto

NDP Leader Avi Lewis’s comments about atonement and collective responsibility of Jews for genocide are straight out of the Middle Ages and that’s where they belong.

The timing of those comments, tweeted a mere hour after the attack on the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, in which a massacre was only narrowly averted and Const. Jeff Smith was critically injured, compound the disgust I feel about them.

Frank Feldman, Toronto

It is disgraceful that Jewish facilities must hire off-duty police as guards, when that is the function of publicly funded police forces. Police boards and commanders must deploy their services where they are needed.

Canada is shamed when Jews are afraid to wear their symbols in public. I suggest that all Canadians, of whatever religious belief, buy a small Star of David and wear it in defiance of those who assault us.

Charles Hooker, East Garafraxa, Ont.

In 1965 singer Barry McGuire recorded a song titled “The Eve of destruction” (written by P.F. Sloan) that prophesied the destruction of the human species. Recent news that the United States has weapons orbiting the planet should be a stark wake-up call for all people on Earth. Combine this grim news with the recent revelations from experts that artificial intelligence poses an “existential threat to mankind” and we have a double-barrelled threat facing us. It certainly does little to allay our fears to know that much of our world is controlled by a few despotic rulers.

In light of all this, one is reminded of Mark Twain’s quotation: “I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey.” However, to end on a more positive note, we turn to the words of Alexander Pope: “Hope springs eternal.”

Bob Erwin, Ottawa

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