US military training has long been controversial. Exhibit A for this controversy is the US military’s School of the Americas, the infamous “counterinsurgency” training site, responsible for instructing Latin American military personnel in the arts of torture and dirty war techniques in the 1980s. After years of protest over its training of death squads and tyrants, the school changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in an attempt to evade public hostility. It is widely understood among peace and anti-imperialist activists that military training is an important part of US global power projection.

In Canada, however, there is little discussion of the politics that shape international military training. The war in Ukraine may change that, specifically Canada’s involvement in Operation Unifier — a connection that directly links Canadian tax payers to violence in the Donbas region.

CTV, the Walrus, the Canadian Press, Le Journal de Montréal, and Radio Canada have all published recent stories on Operation Unifier. A recent front-page Wall Street Journal article, headlined “NATO Training Retooled Ukrainian Army,” focused on the central role played by Canadian military trainers. This increased media scrutiny should be the spear tip of greater public engagement with the issue. Canada presents itself as an avatar of peacekeeping and mediation. Canadian military adventurism — dressed up as obliging training assistance — requires oversight and democratic accountability.