In Estonia, they’re talking about building more public bomb shelters and making them mandatory in all newly constructed homes.
In neighbouring Latvia, the government is going through the second draft of mandatory military service legislation. Next door in Lithuania, there’s talk of universal conscription.
“I understand that when we speak from the Baltic perspective, it might sound somewhat dramatic and shocking,” Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, the speaker of the Seimas, Lithuania’s legislature, told CBC News Monday in Ottawa.
“It is obvious that today, democracy itself, democratic countries, democracies all around the world are under pressure from Russia and its autocratic allies.”
Since the beginning of 2024, security warnings in Europe about Russia’s future intentions have been landing fast and furious.
And they’ve come in different forms and from different officials — many of whom are known best for their discretion and lack of hysteria.
These warnings are being driven in part by Russia’s stated plans to put defence and munitions production on a war footing — something western nations, and Canada in particular, have struggled to accomplish in their efforts to bolster Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
Many observers wonder whether the security warnings are even being heard by Ukraine’s allies, especially Canada and the United States.
Two weeks ago in Sweden, a political debate erupted after the country’s two top defence officials warned that war could be on the horizon. Sweden’s Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin and its military commander-in-chief Gen. Micael Byden said people should prepare mentally for the possibility — and begin stocking up on supplies.
A land war in Western Europe?
The head of the British Army, Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders, said in a recent speech that the United Kingdom should train a “citizen army” and be ready to fight a war on land in the future.
Three parliamentary speakers from the Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are the latest to deliver fresh warnings about how prepared western nations are for the prospect of an even bigger conflict in Europe.
They visited Ottawa on Monday and met with senior government officials before heading to Washington for more meetings.
Lauri Hussar (left), speaker of the Estonian legislature; Daiga Mierina, speaker of the Latvian parliament and Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen (right), speaker of the Lithuanian legislature visited Ottawa on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 to meet with senior Canadian government officials. (CBC News)
Daiga Mierina, the speaker of Latvia’s legislature, said that because Baltic nations were occupied by the Soviet Union, they have a decidedly more visceral approach to the threat posed by the Kremlin and can “very clearly see what we can expect from Russia.
“We understand Russia differently.”
The speaker of Estonia’s legislature said building up public resilience in western nations starts with understanding that an information war is already underway.
“This is really important in a moment because it’s full-scale war and [that’s what] underlies the online attacks in social media and elsewhere,” said Lauri Hussar.
Whether these warnings are registering in western countries is debatable. Opposition politicians in Sweden described the warning from the defence chief as alarmist.
Former Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson told Swedish TV that while the world’s security situation is serious, “it is not as if war is just outside the door.”
Since many defence experts say the professional Russian Army that started the war in Ukraine has been virtually destroyed, there’s a kernel of truth to Andersson’s argument.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with service members involved in Russia’s war on Ukraine at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, on January 1, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna/Reuters)
But Moscow has an ambitious rebuilding plan. Russia’s military spending in 2024 will increase to 7.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) and will account for 35 per cent of total government spending, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
What’s needed in the West, in addition to ramped-up production, is a shift in mindset, said Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of NATO’s Military Council.
“I think a nation needs to understand that when it comes to a war, as we see in Ukraine, it is a whole-of-society event,” Bauer said recently following a meeting of NATO chiefs of defence staff.
Ukrainian women assemble military drones at the drone manufacturer Atlas Aerospace in the capital Riga, Latvia, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (Sergei Grits/AP)
The West, he said, has for decades been labouring under the belief that “the professional military … would solve these security issues that we had in Afghanistan in Iraq.”
That approach isn’t good enough any longer, he said.
“You will need more people from society to sustain the military in terms of people,” he said. “You need the industry to have enough ammunition to produce new tanks, new ships, new aircraft, new artillery pieces. All that is part of this discussion of a whole-of-society event.
“I think more people need to understand it’s not just something of the armed forces and money. We need to be readier across the whole spectrum.”
When asked about the recent comments in Sweden during an interview with CBC News last week, Defence Minister Bill Blair said the rising alarm in Europe is totally understandable, given the proximity to the threat.
He insisted Canadians understand that their way of life, and the rules under which western nations have operated for decades, are at stake.
Vladimir Putin is officially in the running for his fifth term in office ahead of next spring’s Russian elections, solidifying his hold on power until at least 2030. In a race where the winner is almost guaranteed, Putin will be re-elected in March — but what could he lose in the process? CORRECTION (Dec. 14, 2023): A previous version of this video incorrectly stated at 3:56 that Dmitry Medvedev is Russia’s current prime minister. In fact, he held that role until 2020. The video has been edited to remove this part.
“We’ve always been a country that stood up [for] those rules and those principles and we’re going to continue to do so,” Blair said.
But do Canadian leaders truly share that sense of urgency felt across much of Europe?
Last fall, a House of Commons committee heard about a critical shortage of artillery ammunition, notably the NATO standard 155 millimetre shells. Unlike its allies, Canada has not signed an agreement with munition-makers to radically boost production.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
