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.
Why Russia’s 2024 election actually matters
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.
TORONTO – A 21-year-old man is dead after what police are describing as an “interaction” with officers during the execution of a search warrant in Toronto.
York Regional Police say their officers were executing a search warrant in the area of Evans Avenue and Sherway Gardens Road at approximately 5 a.m. Monday.
Police say officers had an “interaction” with a man.
They say a 21-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital.
Police say the man was pronounced dead there.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating.
The watchdog agency investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or discharge of a firearm at a person.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The head of a group that helps homeless people in Saint John, N.B., says it is mourning the death of a 58-year-old man whose body was found in an encampment over the weekend.
Johanne McCullough of Street Team Saint John says John Surette was known for his kindness and for taking care of people around him.
The Saint John Police Force say Surette’s body was found in a tent near Paradise Row in the north end of the city Saturday morning.
Investigators say the circumstances of the death are not considered criminal in nature and an autopsy has been scheduled.
Surrette was found not far from where three people died last winter in two separate tent fires.
McCullough says the community will remember Surrette for his helpfulness and generosity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Liberal House leader Karina Gould lambasted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as a “fraudster” this morning after he said the federal carbon price is going to cause a “nuclear winter.”
Gould was speaking just before the House of Commons is set to reopen following the summer break.
“What I heard yesterday from Mr. Poilievre was so over the top, so irresponsible, so immature, and something that only a fraudster would do,” she said from Parliament Hill.
On Sunday Poilievre said increasing the carbon price will cause a “nuclear winter,” painting a dystopian picture of people starving and freezing because they can’t afford food or heat due the carbon price.
He said the Liberals’ obsession with carbon pricing is “an existential threat to our economy and our way of life.”
The carbon price currently adds about 17.6 cents to every litre of gasoline, but that cost is offset by carbon rebates mailed to Canadians every three months. The Parliamentary Budget Office provided analysis that showed eight in 10 households receive more from the rebates than they pay in carbon pricing, though the office also warned that long-term economic effects could harm jobs and wage growth.
Gould accused Poilievre of ignoring the rebates, and refusing to tell Canadians how he would make life more affordable while battling climate change. The Liberals have also accused the Conservatives of dismissing the expertise of more than 200 economists who wrote a letter earlier this year describing the carbon price as the least expensive, most efficient way to lower emissions.
Poilievre is pushing for the other opposition parties to vote the government down and trigger what he calls a “carbon tax election.”
The recent decision by the NDP to break its political pact with the government makes an early election more likely, but there does not seem to be an interest from either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP to have it happen immediately.
Poilievre intends to bring a non-confidence motion against the government as early as this week but would likely need both the Bloc and NDP to support it.
Gould said she has no “crystal ball” over when or how often Poilievre might try to bring down the government
“I know that the end of the supply and confidence agreement makes things a bit different, but really all it does is returns us to a normal minority parliament,” she said. “And that means that we will work case-by-case, legislation-by-legislation with whichever party wants to work with us. I have already been in touch with all of the House leaders in the opposition parties and my job now is to make Parliament work for Canadians.”
She also insisted the government has listened to the concerns raised by Canadians, and received the message when the Liberals lost a Toronto byelection in June in seat the party had held since 1997.
“We certainly got the message from Toronto-St. Paul’s and have spent the summer reflecting on what that means and are coming back to Parliament, I think, very clearly focused on ensuring that Canadians are at the centre of everything that we do moving forward,” she said.
The Liberals are bracing, however, for the possibility of another blow Monday night, in a tight race to hold a Montreal seat in a byelection there. Voters in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun are casting ballots today to replace former justice minister David Lametti, who was removed from cabinet in 2023 and resigned as an MP in January.
The Conservatives and NDP are also in a tight race in Elmwood-Transcona, a Winnipeg seat that has mostly been held by the NDP over the last several decades.
There are several key bills making their way through the legislative process, including the online harms act and the NDP-endorsed pharmacare bill, which is currently in the Senate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
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