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Building brigades: Canada, NATO allies struggle to shore up Baltic defences against Russian threat

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Canada doesn’t have enough troops to deploy without resorting to mobilization, report warns.

The idea looks good on paper.

But converting NATO’s so-called “tripwire” forces in the three Baltic countries to fully topped-up fighting brigades — the kind that could withstand a Russian invasion — is proving to be a challenge for the lead nations involved: Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.

At the last NATO summit in Madrid, leaders of the western military alliance ordered the conversion of battle groups in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to full combat brigades with anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 troops each, depending on the availability of equipment.

Getting there is proving to be a struggle, according to two recent reports — one from the U.K. House of Commons, the other from a Warsaw-based international affairs think-tank.

Since that June NATO summit, journalists have been asking Canadian politicians and military officials when the Canadian-led brigade in Latvia will be created and what it will look like. Their responses have been vague.

In a recent interview with CBC News, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre wouldn’t be pinned down to a precise timeline but said “the first exercise we’re looking at is in 2024 … at the brigade level.”

Which means that completing the expansion to brigade level could take Canada two years from start to finish.

And it seems Canada isn’t the only country struggling with the creation of combat brigades — despite the demands of Baltic leaders and the political urgency western politicians have attached to the project.

A research briefing for the British House of Commons noted that the U.K., which leads the NATO mission in Estonia, has two battle groups assigned to the country — one under the alliance flag, the other deployed bilaterally by former prime minister Boris Johnson in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.

“However, in October the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced that the additional battlegroup will not be replaced in 2023,” said the research paper, dated Nov. 21, 2022.

“The U.K. will continue to lead the NATO battlegroup. Instead of the additional battlegroup, the U.K. will hold at high readiness the ‘balance of a Brigade’ in the U.K., available to deploy if needed.”

A British soldier checks equipment on a tank during a break in a NATO exercise at Camp Adazi near Riga, Latvia, on Nov. 17, 2022. (Patrice Bergeron/The Canadian Press)

The U.K. also promised to “surge” forces throughout the year to conduct exercises, enhance its headquarters and provide support to the Estonian armed forces.

The problem — according to the Centre for Eastern Studies, a Warsaw-based analytics organization — is that the U.K., like Canada, doesn’t have enough troops to deploy without resorting to drastic measures like mobilization.

“At present — and for the foreseeable future — the British Army is unable to maintain a continuous rotational presence of an entire armoured brigade outside the U.K. without announcing mobilization,” says a Centre for Eastern Studies report entitled Expectations vs. Reality: NATO Brigades in the Baltic States.

Britain’s “3rd Division, intended for operations in the European theater, will only complete the process of restructuring and modernisation by 2030 … That is why London is unable to assign a specific brigade to Estonia, but can only offer individual subunits,” says the report.

How much army does Canada need?

The report goes on to say that “Canada also has the problem of deploying an entire brigade without prior mobilization, as its peacetime armed forces consist of only three mechanized brigades.”

Canada’s federal government is currently re-examining the country’s defence policy. One of the things being discussed as part of that process is the appropriate size of the Canadian military, given how the global security climate has changed in recent years.

The Germans, who lead the NATO battle group in Lithuania, are facing their own challenge — namely, their commitment of troops to the alliance’s standing crisis force.

“The German Army will not have one fully equipped brigade available until 2023, when it will be on duty with NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF),” says the Centre for Eastern Studies analysis.

“The Bundeswehr will only have one fully modernized division available by 2027, and a further two by 2031. It would thus only be able to permanently deploy one brigade in Lithuania on a rotational basis by around 2026.”

All of the current battle groups in the region are multinational formations. Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand has said other nations supporting the Canadian-led operation in Latvia are being consulted about what they might contribute.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Defence Anita Anand speak with Canadian troops deployed on Operation Reassurance as he visits the Adazi Military base in Adazi, Latvia, on March 8, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Canadian military’s operational commander, Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, said Canada is trying to boost the force in Latvia in tandem with its allies.

“We are working with the U.K. and the Germans on schedule, and we’re working with Latvia on a number of things required to actually get there,” Auchterlonie said in a recent interview with CBC News.

In recent months, Lithuania and Estonia in particular have complained about the plan adopted at the Madrid NATO Summit. They say they don’t want their supporting nations (Germany and the U.K.) to simply rush troops into the countries in the event of an emergency. They want real brigades stationed on their soil, not paper ones.

Auchterloine said Canada is also trying to decide how many troops should be stationed in Latvia on a rotational basis — and how many could be rushed in through what could be contested waters and airspace in the event of a conflict with Russia.

And there’s another problem, according to the Centre for Eastern Studies report.

“Despite ongoing diplomatic efforts, none of the Baltic states is in a position to provide the infrastructure necessary to station such forces in the near future,” says the report. “The training grounds and barracks infrastructure is insufficient and needs to be significantly developed.”

Allies have time to prepare: Auchterlonie

Lithuania has said it will make all of the relevant investments by 2026. Estonia just finished negotiations in London last fall to make that happen.

Auchterlonie said Canada is facing the same space crunch in Latvia. Camp Adazi outside of Riga, where the battle group is housed, is “busting at the seams,” adding more tanks and troops is impossible at the moment and a brigade “simply won’t fit,” he said.

The allies, he added, have a bit of time.

“The Russians are fully committed to Ukraine. In terms of threat immediately, is there an immediate threat of Russia heading this way? I’d say that, you know, our allies in the Baltic agree that probably that threat is slightly diminished now,” Auchterlonie said.

If the crisis in the region escalates, he said, allies will want to make sure there are forces available.

“But it’s not going to happen today,” he added. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow.”

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Whitehead becomes 1st CHL player to verbally commit to playing NCAA hockey

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September 13, 2024

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Braxton Whitehead said Friday he has verbally committed to Arizona State, making him the first member of a Canadian Hockey League team to attempt to play the sport at the Division I U.S. college level since a lawsuit was filed challenging the NCAA’s longstanding ban on players it deems to be professionals.

Whitehead posted on social media he plans to play for the Sun Devils beginning in the 2025-26 season.

An Arizona State spokesperson said the school could not comment on verbal commitments, citing NCAA rules. A message left with the CHL was not immediately returned.

A class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, could change the landscape for players from the CHL’s Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. NCAA bylaws consider them professional leagues and bar players from there from the college ranks.

Online court records show the NCAA has not made any response to the lawsuit since it was filed.

“We’re pleased that Arizona State has made this decision, and we’re hopeful that our case will result in many other Division I programs following suit and the NCAA eliminating its ban on CHL players,” Stephen Lagos, one of the lawyers who launched the lawsuit, told The Associated Press in an email.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Masterson, of Fort Erie, Ontario, who lost his college eligibility two years ago when, at 16, he appeared in two exhibition games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. And it lists 10 Division 1 hockey programs, which were selected to show they follow the NCAA’s bylaws in barring current or former CHL players.

CHL players receive a stipend of no more than $600 per month for living expenses, which is not considered as income for tax purposes. College players receive scholarships and now can earn money through endorsements and other use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The implications of the lawsuit could be far-reaching. If successful, the case could increase competition for college-age talent between North America’s two top producers of NHL draft-eligible players.

“I think that everyone involved in our coaches association is aware of some of the transformational changes that are occurring in collegiate athletics,” Forrest Karr, executive director of American Hockey Coaches Association and Minnesota-Duluth athletic director said last month. “And we are trying to be proactive and trying to learn what we can about those changes.

Karr was not immediately available for comment on Friday.

Earlier this year, Karr established two committees — one each overseeing men’s and women’s hockey — to respond to various questions on eligibility submitted to the group by the NCAA. The men’s committee was scheduled to go over its responses two weeks ago.

Former Minnesota coach and Central Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Don Lucia said at the time that the lawsuit provides the opportunity for stakeholders to look at the situation.

“I don’t know if it would be necessarily settled through the courts or changes at the NCAA level, but I think the time is certainly fast approaching where some decisions will be made in the near future of what the eligibility will look like for a player that plays in the CHL and NCAA,” Lucia said.

Whitehead, a 20-year-old forward from Alaska who has developed into a point-a-game player, said he plans to play again this season with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.

“The WHL has given me an incredible opportunity to develop as a player, and I couldn’t be more excited,” Whitehead posted on Instagram.

His addition is the latest boon for Arizona State hockey, a program that has blossomed in the desert far from traditional places like Massachusetts, Minnesota and Michigan since entering Division I in 2015. It has already produced NHL talent, including Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord and Josh Doan, the son of longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who now plays for Utah after that team moved from the Phoenix area to Salt Lake City.

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Calgary Flames sign forward Jakob Pelletier to one-year contract

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September 13, 2024

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CALGARY – The Calgary Flames signed winger Jakob Pelletier to a one-year, two-way contract on Friday.

The contract has an average annual value of US$800,000.

Pelletier, a 23-year-old from Quebec City, split last season with the Flames and American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

He produced one goal and two assists in 13 games with the Flames.

Calgary drafted the five-foot-nine, 170-pound forward in the first round, 26th overall, of the 2019 NHL draft.

Pelletier has four goals and six assists in 37 career NHL games.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Kingston mayor’s call to close care hub after fatal assault ‘misguided’: legal clinic

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September 13, 2024

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A community legal clinic in Kingston, Ont., is denouncing the mayor’s calls to clear an encampment and close a supervised consumption site in the city following a series of alleged assaults that left two people dead and one seriously injured.

Kingston police said they were called to an encampment near a safe injection site on Thursday morning, where they allege a 47-year-old male suspect wielded an edged or blunt weapon and attacked three people. Police said he was arrested after officers negotiated with him for several hours.

The suspect is now facing two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

In a social media post, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said he was “absolutely horrified” by the situation.

“We need to clear the encampment, close this safe injection site and the (Integrated Care Hub) until we can find a better way to support our most vulnerable residents,” he wrote.

The Kingston Community Legal Clinic called Paterson’s comments “premature and misguided” on Friday, arguing that such moves could lead to a rise in overdoses, fewer shelter beds and more homelessness.

In a phone interview, Paterson said the encampment was built around the Integrated Care Hub and safe injection site about three years ago. He said the encampment has created a “dangerous situation” in the area and has frequently been the site of fires, assaults and other public safety concerns.

“We have to find a way to be able to provide the services that people need, being empathetic and compassionate to those struggling with homelessness and mental health and addictions issues,” said Paterson, noting that the safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub are not operated by the city.

“But we cannot turn a blind eye to the very real public safety issues.”

When asked how encampment residents and people who use the services would be supported if the sites were closed, Paterson said the city would work with community partners to “find the best way forward” and introduce short-term and long-term changes.

Keeping the status quo “would be a terrible failure,” he argued.

John Done, executive director of the Kingston Community Legal Clinic, criticized the mayor’s comments and said many of the people residing in the encampment may be particularly vulnerable to overdoses and death. The safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub saves lives, he said.

Taking away those services, he said, would be “irresponsible.”

Done said the legal clinic represented several residents of the encampment when the City of Kingston made a court application last summer to clear the encampment. The court found such an injunction would be unconstitutional, he said.

Done added there’s “no reason” to attach blame while the investigation into Thursday’s attacks is ongoing. The two people who died have been identified as 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood.

“There isn’t going to be a quick, easy solution for the fact of homelessness, drug addictions in Kingston,” Done said. “So I would ask the mayor to do what he’s trained to do, which is to simply pause until we have more information.”

The concern surrounding the safe injection site in Kingston follows a recent shift in Ontario’s approach to the overdose crisis.

Last month, the province announced that it would close 10 supervised consumption sites because they’re too close to schools and daycares, and prohibit any new ones from opening as it moves to an abstinence-based treatment model.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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