On the day that Vladimir Putin said NATO members are now directly involved in the war in Ukraine because they have supplied missiles being used to bomb Russia, Justin Trudeau was announcing a yuletide $6.3-billion GST holiday on Christmas trees, beer and popcorn.
Canada, remember, is the country that can’t afford to hit its NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP for another eight years.
Canada is on a “clear path” to hit NATO’s defence spending target over the coming years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, as pressure ramps up on Ottawa in the wake of the U.S. election.
Addressing the annual NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Montreal on Monday, Trudeau said Canada has so far made sure that its investments in targeted NATO spending “are as concrete as possible,” but added that more needs to be done.
Canada’s chief of the defence staff says multiple global threats and military needs keep her up at night, but her top priority is boosting the number of people in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Speaking to Mercedes Stephenson at the Halifax International Security Forum in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block, Gen. Jennie Carignan said she’s pushing for recruitment to exceed 10 per cent of the military’s end-of-year goal if that target is met ahead of time, with an overall objective of returning to “full strength” in five years.
No one wants to join the DEI force.
On the day that Vladimir Putin said NATO members are now directly involved in the war in Ukraine because they have supplied missiles being used to bomb Russia, Justin Trudeau was announcing a yuletide $6.3-billion GST holiday on Christmas trees, beer and popcorn.
Canada, remember, is the country that can’t afford to hit its NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP for another eight years.
Unfortunately there really isn’t anything that we citizens can do to force Trudeau out short of violence.
I would suggest a general strike but that would just give our Captains of industry cause to replace everyone with Justin’s 3rd World replacement Canadians.
Our Tranny forces aren’t much use to anyone any how.
A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators say they expect Canada and the U.S. to work collaboratively on shared issues of defence and the border, but suggested Ottawa’s policies on military spending need to change to speed up progress.
The first woman to command Canada’s military called out a U.S. senator on Saturday for questioning the role of women in combat.
Gen. Jennie Carignan responded to comments made by Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, who was asked on Friday whether president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, should retract comments that he believes men and women should not serve together in combat units.
“I think it’s delusional for anybody to not agree that women in combat creates certain unique situations that have to be dealt with. I think the jury’s still out on how to do that,” Risch said during a panel session at the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday.
h/t Mauser
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — A U.S. senator and supporter of Donald Trump said Friday the president-elect would laugh at Canada’s current military spending plans and said the country must do more.
Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the remarks at the start of the annual Halifax International Security Forum which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies.
According to NATO figures, Canada was estimated to be spending 1.33% of GDP on its military budget in 2023, below the 2% target that NATO countries have set for themselves.
More …
Republican Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, claims Justin Trudeau – not Donald Trump – is the "greatest threat to NATO."
You can watch Rep. Turner's exclusive Canadian broadcast interview on CTV's Question Period, Sunday at 11:00 a.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/TEqgpvseTI
— CTV Question Period (@ctvqp) November 23, 2024
h/t Mauser
Korea is called Canada’s “forgotten war,” though it is recalled at every Remembrance Day ceremony that I have been to since I was in elementary school in the 1970s.
Koreans remember it too. South Korea marks Korean War Day every June 25, the date in 1950 when the North Korean communists, after obtaining approval from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel in an attempt to reunify the country by conquest. Communist China (on a roll, having conquered mainland China less than two years earlier) joined on the side of the north in the spring of 1951. And the Koreans well remember how many countries—the United States, Britain, Canada, Turkey, Australia, and many more—came to their rescue to fight the communists to a standstill in 1953.
A lawsuit filed by 330 former and current Canadian Armed Forces members alleging the COVID-19 2021 vaccine mandate violated their Charter rights, was rejected by an Edmonton judge.
Federal Court Associate Judge Catherine Coughlan supported a government motion to strike the case.
Canadian special forces collected social media posts of a veteran as well as shared his private information without permission as they tried to strip him of his right to ask for government information, according to defence department records.
Documents shared with the Ottawa Citizen show Canadian Special Operations Forces Command claimed retired corporal Daniel Abboud was trying to intimidate its elite troops by asking questions about alleged wrongdoing and making posts on various social media platforms.
My intent is to offer some criticism of the status quo so that we can learn and then perhaps some sort of question period to get into some solutions. Essentially, in my opinion, ‘“Strong, Secure, Engaged”,’ the precursor to the current defence policy, delivered nothing substantive in terms of modern military equipment, which saw Canada, in fact, become weaker, more insecure, and essentially absent from the deployable stables of troops required for either United Nation missions, or, of course, NATO.
Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House comes with a sobering reminder of his February statement encouraging Russia to target NATO allies whose national defence spending does not meet NATO’s 2-per-cent guideline. Mr. Trump’s statement underscores the urgent need for Ottawa to take a stronger, more independent role in global defence. This direction should reflect Canadian values, bolster the economy, reassure our allies, and build essential capabilities to address both conventional and unconventional threats.
Which Canadians? Not the NDP, not the LPC.
A federal lawsuit challenging vaccine mandates initiated by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been thrown out by a judge presiding over the case.
The legal action sought $1 million in damages for each of the 330 plaintiffs. Together, they claimed the 2021 vaccine mandates violated their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Last month, while we noshed on southern-style fried chicken at a roadside eatery in Augusta, Ga., our upbeat waitress informed me she was joining the army to go to dentistry school. “Yeah, the military will pay my tuition, and then I’ll serve,” she explained. “It was a great career path for my dad.”
J.D. Vance, America’s vice-president-elect, tells a similar story. After high school, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Using the G.I. Bill — a law that provides benefits for military veterans — Vance went on to study at Ohio State University.
Former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. Derek Burney is calling Canada a “laggard,” and says the country needs to do “major work” on its defence spending if it wants to be taken seriously on other issues with the United States.
“If we expect to get any attention in Washington at all on anything, we’ve got to do major work on our defence capabilities,” Burney told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. “I mean, it really is dismal.”
