Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended Canada’s defence spending Monday as Polish counterpart Donald Tusk urged the rest of the West to confront the very real dangers Russia poses at a critical juncture in its war with Ukraine.
There is still more to do, but Canada is doing it, Trudeau said during a joint news conference alongside Tusk, who now finds himself back in his old post as Poland’s prime minister.
“I recognize Poland stepping up significantly in its own military spending. But so will Canada,” Trudeau said, the two leaders flanked by the Polish and Canadian flags.
“We will continue to make sure that the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces — and the people around the world, our allies, who rely on them — will continue to get the equipment and the support they need.”
Tusk, for his part, steered his criticisms away from Canada directly as he urged the “whole western world, and especially Europe” to ensure Ukraine has the resources it needs for a decisive victory.
In the coming years, “or even months,” it will be vital that NATO countries maximize their ability to produce and provide more than enough ammunition, weapons and supplies for Ukraine to defend itself.
“Otherwise, Europe will be subject to Russian aggression and will not be able to help Ukraine,” he said.
“There is no reason for the fact that such rich countries as European countries or NATO countries could not build altogether the defence capacities that would really exceed the Russian ones.”
Canada has long faced both domestic and international pressure to spend two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence — a NATO-mandated target most other allies are expected to hit by the end of the year.
Canada’s defence spending currently hovers around 1.3 per cent of GDP.
Poland, by comparison, boasts one of the highest ratios of military spending to GDP in the world, Tusk said. But it can’t keep Russia at bay alone, he added: “I will not replace other countries.”
Canada’s defence commitments to Poland and Ukraine to date have been “outstanding,” Tusk said, acknowledging former U.S. president Donald Trump’s fondness for bellicose rhetoric around NATO spending.
The easiest way to silence such complaints, he suggested, is for all NATO members to step up and meet the mandated two per cent spending threshold.
“I think that we would deprive of arguments … such politicians as the former U.S. president, who think that NATO will not defend allies if they don’t fulfil NATO requirements,” he said.
“The simplest answer is that we all, with no exception, fulfil those requirements.”
It will happen sooner or later, Tusk added — “and it’s better than they do it sooner than later.”
Canada is the seventh-largest contributor to defence of all 31 NATO allies, said Trudeau, noting that his Liberal government has already committed to a new fleet of high-tech stealth fighters and the modernization of the Canada-U.S. joint command known as Norad.
Both leaders acknowledged that there are those elsewhere in the world, including in Europe, whose willingness to support Ukraine threatens to falter and who stand in the way of a united front.
“It is a time where citizens cannot take their democracies for granted,” Trudeau said.
“We need to continue to be there, to lean in — not just on being worried about their daily challenges … but making sure we are building peace, stability and prosperity for future generations as well.”
Trudeau, who spent Saturday in Kyiv reaffirming Canada’s support for Ukraine, met earlier with Tusk and President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.
He capped off his trip Monday with a visit to the Polish capital, his first since a political sea change in the country late last year ended eight years of national conservative rule.
Tusk, who also served as prime minister from 2007-14, is a centrist who took office in December and has been working to strengthen ties with the rest of Europe. Duda, meanwhile, stands on the other side of the political divide — a conservative leader who now finds himself contending with a very different government.
The meetings focused on the dangers facing Ukraine and the importance of the NATO alliance, the primary bulwark between Russia and the rest of Europe.
Those meetings were no less vital than the ones he had Saturday, Trudeau said.
“For me, it was just as important to come see you, to come here to Poland,” he told Tusk.
“The active involvement of Poland … in standing up to Russia, in pushing back on its illegal destabilization of the rules-based order, is unbelievably important.”
Both Canada and Poland have rallied around Ukraine as the country enters its third year of war with dwindling supplies and personnel challenges, prompting an urgent plea for help from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
His troops were recently forced to withdraw from the strategic eastern city of Avdiivka, handing Moscow one of its biggest victories of the war to date. And Russia still controls roughly a quarter of the country after Ukraine failed to make any major breakthroughs with its summertime counteroffensive.
On Monday, a Ukrainian military spokesman confirmed further withdrawals — this time from a village west of Avdiivka as soldiers struggled to hold the line against advancing Russian enemies.
Despite suffering high losses of troops and equipment, Ukraine says, Moscow’s troops are driving on, smashing towns and cities with their superior firepower.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustan Umerov complained Sunday that half of promised Western military support to Ukraine fails to arrive on time, making it difficult to plan strategy efficiently.
More than 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials were due to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss the war at what French President Emmanuel Macron called a “critical” juncture. He says Kyiv needs more military resources and likely will require them over an extended period of time.
U.S. President Joe Biden was also seeking to remove political roadblocks on providing more aid to Ukraine, convening the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday.
The bleak outlook was no doubt part of the reason Trudeau felt the need to mark Saturday’s two-year anniversary of the invasion in person, renewing his vow to back Ukraine until it sees victory.
“Putin cannot win,” Trudeau said Saturday in a speech from Hostomel airport, where Ukrainian soldiers beat back a Russian assault on the first day of the invasion in 2022.
“Ukraine will see victory, just like what happened on this ground two years ago.”
Poland wants to ensure Canada and other allies stay engaged in the war as it continues to rage just over the border, Canada’s ambassador to the country said in an interview on the weekend.
Catherine Godin called the war in Ukraine a real and present threat to the people of Poland.
The two countries have been co-operating on military training missions to bolster the military skills of Ukraine’s armed forces. And Poland appreciates Canada’s role in guarding NATO’s eastern flank in Latvia, Godin said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024
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.
