Retired general Rick Hillier, Canada’s former chief of defence staff, says he believes the country risks facing “irrelevance” in an unstable geopolitical world.
In an interview on The West Block, host Mercedes Stephenson asked Hillier what he thought Canada’s biggest national security risk is amid the war in Ukraine entering its third year, conflict in the Middle East and aggression from China, Russia and Iran.
“Our irrelevance. The fact that nobody even bothers to phone us if they’re talking about doing something as a group of Three Eyes or a group of Five Eyes or things of that nature,” Hillier said.
“All those things you described are very real geopolitical and strategic threats and they can destabilize the world even more than it is now. And when the world is destabilized, it’s bad for Canada.”
His comments come as the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency casts doubt on the future American role in NATO, with Trump suggesting the U.S. wouldn’t defend partner nations that don’t meet the two per cent of GDP spending target.
Canada’s current NATO contributions are about 1.38 per cent of GDP.
In an interview on The West Block last week, Defence Minister Bill Blair said he is confident the U.S. will maintain NATO commitments but could not give a date on when Canada will hit the two per cent target.
The Washington Post reported last year that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had privately told NATO officials Canada would never hit the military alliance’s spending target.
23:23 The West Block: Feb. 18, 2024 | How should Canada respond to Trump’s NATO threats?
“The way we are progressing right now, irrelevance in the international scene, I think is the greatest threat to Canada and I think we can change it in a variety of ways, but we have to have the leadership focus on it and do it,” Hillier said.
Hillier says the short-term solution is a significant amount of spending to update military equipment.
Blair has said he is pushing for more defence spending, and the long-promised defence policy update is being tied to ongoing budget deliberations ahead of the 2024-25 fiscal plan.
As for the current state of the Canadian Armed Forces, Hillier says he feels sorry for people currently serving.
“Their equipment has been relegated to sort of broken equipment parked by the fence. Our fighting ships are on limitations to the speed that they can sail or the waves that they can sail in. Our aircraft, until they’re replaced, they’re old and sort of not in that kind of fight anymore. And so, I feel sorry for the men and women who are serving there right now,” Hillier said.
“I am so thankful that we still have them, and I hope that there are better days ahead. I think there is some potential of that, but at present, we’re in a world of hurt.”
The world marks 2 years since Ukraine invasion
As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, Hillier says that nation is now more vulnerable than it has been in the last two years as western support shows signs of waning.
“The war and Ukraine itself is at the most fragile, most vulnerable period during this past two years. Their morale is sagging certainly, as they see them disappear from the headlines in the West, if you will. They see a lack of support from western countries who have been supporting them up until now,” Hillier said.
The retired general currently serves as the chair of the Ukrainian World Congress’ strategic advisory council.
Coming out of the winter, Hillier sees Ukraine on the back foot as he sees Russia preparing for a renewed spring offensive.
This is compounded by decreasing military aid, most notably from the United States as measures to support Ukraine face opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress.
“They’re vulnerable. They’re fragile. This could go really badly very quickly. And there’s not much the West can do about it in that short term, except give them munitions and the things that Ukraine needs to fight,” Hillier said.
13:52 Russia-Ukraine War Two-Year Anniversary
In the longer term, Hillier says the Ukrainian forces need better training on how to operate in larger battlegroups of thousands as opposed to smaller strike teams.
An Angus Reid poll from Feb. 6 found that 25 per cent of Canadians now feel Canada is doing too much to support Ukraine, compared with 13 per cent when Russia first invaded.
As the conflict stretches on and public support for assisting Ukraine declines, Hillier says there is a greater cost to not helping Ukraine.
“If we don’t help Ukraine succeed and Russia wins, and we have Putin with his military standing on the border of the Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. All of those countries believe that they would be next as a target, and none of them have complete confidence that NATO would come to their support if something occurred,” Hillier said.
“Think of the cost of that of what it would do to our economy, the price of energy around the world and all of the things that would impact from that. So by helping Ukraine, we are defending ourselves.”
CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines has struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer satellite-based Starlink WiFi service on flights within the next several years.
The airline said Friday the service will be free to passengers.
United said it will begin testing the service early next year and begin offering it on some flights by later in 2025.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The announcement comes as airlines rush to offer more amenities as a way to stand out when passengers pick a carrier for a trip. United’s goal is to make sitting on a plane pretty much like being on the ground when it comes to browsing the internet, streaming entertainment and playing games.
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do on board a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” CEO Scott Kirby said in announcing the deal.
The airline says Starlink will allow passengers to get internet access even over oceans and polar regions where traditional cell or Wi-Fi signals may be weak or missing.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukraine should be allowed to strike deep inside Russia, regardless of Moscow threatening that this would draw Canada and its allies into direct war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the NATO military alliance would draw itself into war if it allows Ukraine to use donated weapons to make long-range strikes inside Russia.
His comments come five weeks after Ukrainian forces stormed the border and put parts of Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since the Second World War.
Trudeau says Canada “fully supports Ukraine using long-range weaponry” to prevent Russian strikes on hospitals and daycares across the country.
He says Ukraine must win in fighting back against Russia’s invasion, or it will encourage other large countries to try absorbing their neighbours.
In May, Washington began allowing Ukraine to use American weaponry to strike inside Russia, but only for targets near the border being used to attack Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
“Canada fully supports Ukraine using long-range weaponry to prevent and interdict Russia’s continued ability to degrade Ukrainian civilians (and) infrastructure, and mostly to kill innocent civilians in their unjust war,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., on Friday.
“(Putin) is trying to deeply destabilize the international rules-based order that protects us all, not just in every democracy around the world, but in all countries around the world,” Trudeau said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
