Cancel the Toronto Air Show

The Air Show Glorifies War And The Military

In this last year our news and social media was flooded with horrific images of war. From the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, we saw hospitals shelled, homes reduced to rubble, and the bodies of children killed in bombings. We were seeing the inhuman face of war, and exactly what the warplanes being celebrated at the air show are designed to do. Despite the fact that many of the jets used in the show are the same ones used to produce the horrid images we’ve been seeing, the air force blatantly uses the air show as an opportunity to sanitize war and recruit for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The Air Show Promotes Weapons Sales

Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons producer, used the air show as an advertisement in 2022 in an attempt to sell the public on a 19 billion dollar deal to the government for the purchase of their F-35 fighter jets. From Ukraine to Yemen, from Palestine to Colombia, from Somalia to Syria, from Afghanistan and West Papua to Ethiopia, no one profits more from war and bloodshed than Lockheed Martin. Arms dealers should not be able to invade our public and private spaces with ear-numbing advertisements.

The Air Show Disrupts Residents

This inescapable noise is a frightening reminder of war to the thousands of Toronto residents who have fled warzones, many of whom were bombed by CF-18s and F-35s like the ones that fly during the air show. Not only does this cause needless anxiety to survivors of war, but pets and wildlife have to contend with the shocking noise and pollution the event brings. Those living and working in Toronto during the air show are a captive and often unwilling audience as the noise reverberates through our homes, streets, and workplaces.

The Air Show Is A Harmful Expense

The air show is a harmful waste of public resources to showcase “demonstration squadrons” such as Canada’s Snowbirds and the USA’s Blue Angels. These squadrons serve as publicly funded recruitment tools that burn thousands of liters of fuel per hour to put on aerial displays. After a summer that found Toronto blanketed in smoke from record setting wildfires, the air show is a costly and unnecessary contribution to carbon emissions at the taxpayers expense.

Take Action

World Beyond War seeks to deny the Canadian International Air Show a platform to glorify war, recruit for the armed forces, and promote arms sales. This begins with ending Toronto’s role as host city to the event.