Defence

Tuesday April 12, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 12, 2022

Zelenskyy says Ukraine is defending its basic human rights

“We are defending the ability for a person to live in the modern world,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.

March 1, 2022

In an interview taped Wednesday in Kyiv, Zelenskyy told Pelley his country remains united because it has no other choice.

“We united as a nation” Zelenskyy said to Pelley, speaking through an interpreter. “The weakest people became strong. The strong people became the strongest, most powerful, so powerful that nobody could have outdone them. In this way, our nation of strong and weak people has transformed into one solid, strong force. And one strong community.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian presidency in 2019 with 73% of the vote. He told Pelley he was urged by multiple people leave the country at the start of the war but chose to stay.

“Before I do something, I analyze the situation. I’ve always done it calmly, without any chaos,” Zelenskyy said through an interpreter. “I might not be the strongest warrior. But not I’m willing to betray anyone.”

Wednesday March 23, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 23, 2022

What the Liberal-NDP deal could mean for ‘aggressive options’ on defence spending

September 23, 2021

The prospects for a significant increase in Canadian defence spending in the coming federal budget looked a little less likely as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was set to head to Europe after announcing a stunning political deal with the New Democrats.

The Liberal government had been hinting that it was looking at aggressive options for injecting more money into the Canadian military in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Canada has been under heavy pressure to meet the NATO military alliance’s target, set in 2006, of spending at least two per cent of its national gross domestic product on defence, as a growing number of allies have since promised to do.

Trudeau was largely noncommittal on Tuesday as he announced the new confidence and supply agreement with the NDP, which will see the fourth-place party support the Liberal minority government through to 2025 in exchange for new investments in other areas.

Those include the creation of a dental-care program for lower-income Canadians, national pharmacare, affordable housing and phasing out subsides for fossil fuels, among others.

Friday March 11, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 11, 2022

Military neglect catches up with Canada

November 17, 2015

It was reassuring to hear Justin Trudeau pledge Canada’s unwavering support for its European allies this week. It would have been even better if the prime minister had a strong Canadian military to back him up. But he doesn’t and brave words won’t be enough to make 150,000 Russian soldiers retreat from Ukraine. Just when it’s needed more than at any time since the Second World War, Canada’s military muscle has gone soft because a generation of federal governments consistently went cheap on military spending. And Canadians let them do it.

Our soldiers, sailors and aircrew are without doubt well-trained and respected internationally. But they are too few in number and too poorly equipped to do the job Canada expects them to do. Despite more than a decade of trying, we have yet to replace our ancient fleet of CF-18 fighter jets, our outdated frigates or our retired naval destroyers. Our Armed Forces need 10,000 more people to reach full strength — but such growth is nowhere in sight. In fact, to meet our NATO commitments, we would have to boost our annual $24-billion military budget by about $9 billion. At this point, there is no indication the federal government is prepared to do that.

Wednesday January 12, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 12, 2022

Canada offers to support U.S. measures to deter Russia in confrontation with Ukraine

June 13, 2017

Canada has told the U.S. that it’s willing to help with possible deterrence measures against Russia — which could include sanctions — to head off a crisis in Ukraine, CBC News has learned.

Canada made the offer during a meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 31, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The source said the message was received well by Blinken. 

Bilateral talks between Russia and the U.S. over the nearly eight-year-long war in Ukraine took place in Geneva Monday. Nearly 100,000 Russian troops are stationed near Ukraine’s eastern border, prompting concerns from other countries that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin intends to invade Ukraine.

Wednesday May 26, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 26, 2021

Ottawa failed to properly implement sexual misconduct report, top Defence civil servant says

Canada’s deputy minister of National Defence says the military’s operation to end sexual misconduct in its ranks “lost its way” because the government failed to properly implement recommendations from a landmark report into the issue six years ago.

May 1, 2021

Jody Thomas said she wasn’t working for the Department of National Defence in 2015, when a scathing report into sexual misconduct by former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps was released.

But Thomas said her “observation” is that the Deschamps report was treated like a checklist. She said the government did not “truly” implement it — something the military has been loath to say.

“It was not given the oversight it needed by the civilian part of the department, so my side of the department in terms of monitoring,” Thomas said in an interview on CBC’s The Current with Matt Galloway. 

“I think that as little was done as possible to make it look like the report had been responded to without any real change. No structural change, no legislative change, no outside the department, outside the Canadian Armed Forces reporting — those kinds of things that Madame Deschamps emphasized.”

Thomas’s comment is in stark contrast to what the military told Parliament last month.

Brig.-Gen. Andrew Atherton, director general of professional military conduct, told MPs probing sexual misconduct in the Armed Forces that all of the recommendations in the Deschamps report were fulfilled.

May 2, 2017

“From our perspective, we believe we have achieved all of those 10 recommendations,” Atherton said on April 15. “However, that is our opinion.”

Thomas told Galloway it’s time to be frank.

“My observation would be that it was treated almost as a checklist, and I think it’s time that we were just honest about that,” Thomas said.

The statement is a clear admission of failure when it comes to the Defence Department’s handling of sexual misconduct.

That said, Thomas did say she wouldn’t characterize Operation Honour — the military’s now-defunct campaign to stamp out sexual misconduct — “completely as a failure,” citing the creation of the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre and increased reporting. 

Eyre replaced Admiral Art McDonald, who stepped aside from the top job in February during an investigation into a sexual misconduct claim. McDonald had replaced Gen. Jonathan Vance, who is also under a military police probe over claims of inappropriate behaviour — allegations that he told Global News he denies. Several other senior leaders have also been swept up into the reckoning.

Eyre repeated his message that the military has “failed as an institution to properly address” sexual misconduct over the decades. He called it an “existential issue” that threatens to make the military “irrelevant” in society and not able to defend the country if it’s not fixed. (CBC)