adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

News

Canada increasingly isolated as allies pledge more military funding in response to Ukraine invasion – CBC News

Published

 on


When Donald Trump was making his most strident complaints about NATO allies spending too little on defence, some member nations — Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, in particular — seemed largely unmoved by the now-former U.S. president’s broadsides.

But Russia’s war on Ukraine — with all of its brutality and destruction — over the past two weeks seems to have succeeded where Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, failed.

At the best of times, debates about defence spending as a percentage of gross domestic product are sterile affairs that engage accountants, statisticians and those interested in the military — and almost no one else.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands presented a study in contrasts on Monday when reporters asked whether Russia’s attempt at regime change in Ukraine would goad allies into meeting the NATO spending benchmark of two per cent of national GDP.

Germany — perhaps the most pacifist power in Europe — overturned decades of foreign policy when Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered weapons shipments to help prop up the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledged to meet NATO’s spending target. (At the moment, Germany spends 1.5 per cent of its GDP on defence.)

Canada currently spends 1.39 per cent of its GDP on defence. Trudeau has long argued that his government has a plan to increase the defence budget to $32 billion over several years.

But Ottawa has never even pretended to have a plan to meet the two per cent target, despite the fact that the Conservative government of Stephen Harper committed to it in 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Trudeau admits defence ‘context is changing rapidly’

On Monday, Trudeau offered a sign — grudgingly, his critics would say — that his government’s often-touted defence policy could be swept away by the invasion and the threat of war in Ukraine spilling over into other parts of eastern Europe.

In front of both Johnson and Rutte, Trudeau said his government recognizes “that the context is changing rapidly around the world, and we need to make sure that the women and men who serve in the Canadian Armed Forces have all the equipment necessary to be able to stand strongly, as we always have as members of NATO.

“We will continue to look at what more we can do.”

Trudeau gestures as he meets British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at RAF Northolt on Monday. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Johnson — whose country spends 2.29 per cent of GDP on defence, according to the latest NATO figures — would not criticize Canada’s defence spending, but agreed with Trudeau that the world is no longer the same after Russia’s naked aggression.

“We’ve got to recognize that things have changed and that we need a new focus on our collective security,” Johnson said. “And I think that is increasingly understood by everybody.”

A changing world

Given their place on the European continent, the Dutch haven’t needed much convincing. Rutte said the country’s cabinet decided in January to ramp up annual military spending by billions of euros. Right now, the Netherlands spends 1.45 per cent of its GDP on defence.

“This will bring us closer to the two per cent and probably we need to do more, particularly given what has happened over the last two weeks,” Rutte said. “But the Netherlands will spent a lot of extra money on defence, and I think rightly so.”

After meeting with Johnson and Rutte in the U.K. on Monday, Trudeau departed for Latvia, where Canada has over 500 troops taking part in NATO’s mission to reassure the three Baltic states being rattled by Russia’s violence.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all exceed the NATO two per cent defence spending target. 

Trudeau started Tuesday by meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins. The two of them met virtually with the leaders of the other Baltic states. 

“It’s an important time for us to be standing together, as we have in the past few years, but particularly with the situation in Ukraine,” Trudeau said as he met Karins. 

“This is a moment for friends and allies to stand together. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re not just standing up for territorial integrity… We’re also standing up for the principles and values underlying our friendship and societies.”

Later, in addressing the prime ministers of Estonia and Lithuanian, Trudeau spoke about the insecurity each nation must feel. 

“You are literally on the front lines of this challenge with Russia,” he said. “And we have been here for a number of years and will continue to be together, not just because we are friends, not just because we share values, but because we believe in a shared future of peace and prosperity for people and pushing back against the Russian aggression that is absolutely unacceptable.”

Trudeau said these countries have been living not just with the military threat and a history of occupation, but “also the daily use of propaganda and disinformation to try and undermine the democracy and the values you have, something that is right now being weaponized against Ukraine, but also used very actively in all democracies around the West.”

Trudeau and others in his government have argued over the years that there are other ways to measure the utility of a country’s military contributions — that it should be judged based on the value of its deployments of troops, equipment and expertise, for example.

A recent report from Carnegie Europe tended to agree, arguing that the two per cent target is not an accurate benchmark for measuring military capability.

After the events of the past two weeks, that argument may be moot.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

News

Canada’s response to Trump deportation plan a key focus of revived cabinet committee

Published

 on

OTTAWA, W.Va. – U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s promise launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants has the Canadian government looking at its own border.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday the issue is one of two “points of focus” for a recently revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations.

Freeland said she has also been speaking to premiers about the issue this week.

“I do want Canadians to know it is one of our two central points of focus. Ministers are working hard on it, and we absolutely believe that it’s an issue that Canadians are concerned about, Canadians are right to be concerned about it,” Freeland said, after the committee met for the first time since Trump left office in 2021.

She did not provide any details of the plan ministers are working on.

Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc, whose portfolio includes responsibility for the Canada Border Services Agency, co-chairs the committee. Freeland said that highlights the importance of border security to Canada-U.S. relations.

There was a significant increase in the number of irregular border crossings between 2016 and 2023, which the RCMP attributed in part to the policies of the first Trump administration.

The national police service said it has been working through multiple scenarios in case there is a change in irregular migration after Trump takes office once again, and any response to a “sudden increase in irregular migration” will be co-ordinated with border security and immigration officials.

However, Syed Hussan with the Migrant Rights Network said he does not anticipate a massive influx of people coming into Canada, chalking the current discussion up to anti-migrant panic.

“I’m not saying there won’t be some exceptions, that people will continue to cross. But here’s the thing, if you look at the people crossing currently into the U.S. from the Mexico border, these are mostly people who are recrossing post-deportation. The reason for that is, is that people have families and communities and jobs. So it seems very unlikely that people are going to move here,” he said.

Since the Safe Third Country Agreement was modified last year, far fewer people are making refugee claims in Canada through irregular border crossings.

The agreement between Canada and the U.S. acknowledges that both countries are safe places for refugees, and stipulates that asylum seekers must make a refugee claim in the country where they first arrive.

The number of people claiming asylum in Canada after coming through an irregular border crossing from the U.S. peaked at 14,000 between January and March 2023.

At that time, the rule was changed to only allow for refugee claims at regular ports of entry, with some specific exemptions.

This closed a loophole that had seen tens of thousands of people enter Canada at Roxham Road in Quebec between 2017 and 2023.

In the first six months of 2024, fewer than 700 people made refugee claims at irregular crossings.

There are 34,000 people waiting to have their refugee claims processed in Canada, according to government data.

In the first 10 months of this year, U.S. border officials recorded nearly 200,000 encounters with people making irregular crossings from Canada. Around 27,000 encounters took place at the border during the first 10 months of 2021.

Hussan said the change to the Safe Third Country Agreement made it less likely people will risk potentially dangerous crossings into Canada.

“Trying to make a life in Canada, it’s actually really difficult. It’s more difficult to be an undocumented person in Canada than the U.S. There’s actually more services in the U.S. currently, more access to jobs,” Hussan said.

Toronto-based immigration lawyer Robert Blanshay said he is receiving “tons and tons” of emails from Americans looking at possibly relocating to Canada since Trump won the election early Wednesday.

He estimates that about half are coming from members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I spoke to a guy yesterday, he and his partner from Kansas City. And he said to me, ‘You know, things weren’t so hunky-dory here in Kansas City being gay to begin with. The entire political climate is just too scary for us,'” Blanshay said.

Blanshay said he advised the man he would likely not be eligible for express entry into Canada because he is at retirement age.

He also said many Americans contacted him to inquire about moving north of the border after Trump’s first electoral victory, but like last time, he does not anticipate many will actually follow through.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Surrey recount confirms B.C. New Democrats win election majority

Published

 on

VANCOUVER – The British Columbia New Democrats have a majority government of 47 seats after a recount in the riding of Surrey-Guildford gave the party’s candidate 22 more votes than the provincial Conservatives.

Confirmation of victory for Premier David Eby’s party comes nearly three weeks after election night when no majority could be declared.

Garry Begg of the NDP had officially gone into the recount yesterday with a 27-vote lead, although British Columbia’s chief electoral officer had said on Tuesday there were 28 unreported votes and these had reduced the margin to 21.

There are ongoing recounts in Kelowna Centre and Prince George-Mackenzie, but these races are led by John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives and the outcomes will not change the majority status for the New Democrats.

The Election Act says the deadline to appeal results after a judicial recount must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Andrew Watson with Elections BC says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Eby has said his new cabinet will be announced on Nov. 18, with the 44 members of the Opposition caucus and two members from the B.C. Greens to be sworn in Nov. 12 and the New Democrat members of the legislature to be sworn in the next day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Port of Montreal employer submits ‘final’ offer to dockworkers, threatens lockout

Published

 on

 

MONTREAL – The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.

The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.

The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”

Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity.

A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.

The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance. Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.

Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.

The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.

On Thursday, Montreal port authority CEO Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling capacity at international terminals at “a standstill.”

“I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table,” she said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”

Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, prior to the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of talks at the ports in Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since Nov. 4.

“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved,” he wrote on the X social media platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending