The United States’ top diplomat in Ottawa says he’s been assured Canada will follow through this year on crucial investments to modernize its Arctic defence, even though this month’s budget didn’t include money specifically for that work.
Ambassador David Cohen told CBC’s The House in an interview airing this weekend that Canada needs to make Arctic air and maritime defence a national priority. He said he’s made that point in “candid conversations” with senior cabinet ministers since he took up the post in December.
“So I think there’s an acknowledgement that this budget does not include funding for NORAD, for modernizing and improving the northern defence for Canada and for the United States, but that it will be forthcoming during the course of this fiscal year,” he said.
The U.S. has complained for a very long time that Canada hasn’t been living up to its NATO commitment to boost its military spending to two per cent of national GDP. Barack Obama raised it during his speech to Parliament in 2016 when he was president. Donald Trump took up the refrain even more assertively during his time in the White House.
U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen speaks with a reporter in a boardroom at the U.S. Embassy building in Ottawa on Feb. 22. (David Kawai/The Canadian Press)
Cohen isn’t a career diplomat or politician. He is, on the other hand, a successful business executive and lobbyist, a man described by the Washington Post a decade ago as a policy wonk with extensive Beltway contacts and an ability to distil complex issues.
Those are also useful skills in Ottawa — where politicians pay far more attention to what goes on south of the border than their American counterparts display when it comes to Canadian politics.
CBC News: The House19:15U.S. Ambassador says Canada needs to make Arctic defence a ‘national priority’
U.S. Ambassador David Cohen sits down with host Chris Hall to reflect on the state of the Canada-U.S. relationship and next steps on NORAD modernization, Arctic defence and integrated supply chains. 19:15
Russia and China make play for Arctic resources
But North American security is one subject the U.S. cared about deeply long before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and long before China began asserting itself as a polar power with a claim to the Arctic’s resources.
Cohen acknowledged during the interview at the U.S. embassy that the budget did include another $8 billion in defence spending. But he said Russia and China’s increasing activity in the North must be countered by a more robust Canadian presence at the top of the world.
“The United States has been told, I have been told and other officials in the White House and in Washington have been told that when we discussed the $8 billion increase in defence spending, (we’ve) been told that, remember, that doesn’t even include anything for NORAD modernization,” he said. “That will be an add-on as we continue to review what NORAD requires.”
A soldier holds a machine gun as he patrols the Russian northern military base on Kotelny island, beyond the Arctic Circle, on April 3, 2019. (Maxime Popov/AFP/Getty Images)
Liberal MP John McKay estimates the cost of modernizing NORAD could run to billions of dollars.
McKay, chair of the Commons defence committee, has been a vocal critic of Canada’s failure to respond to Russia’s growing military presence in the Arctic. He told CBC News that Russia has built or refurbished 11 bases across the region, while Canada has only one base in Alert.
“There is an absolute necessity for the government of Canada to be alive to the military needs of the Arctic,” he said when asked for his reaction to Cohen’s comments.
“We have underestimated, continuously underestimated, Putin’s willingness to engage in a military fashion over the last number of years. And we cannot afford that risk.”
But the prime minister has been unclear about Canada’s position. Justin Trudeau told reporters this week that security is only one part of his government’s focus in the North. Addressing climate change and promoting economic opportunities for the Inuit are equally important, he said.
“We are in a time of of reflection around how we ensure Canada’s continued sovereignty in the Arctic, and in times past or governments past that would have happened through a military lens,” he said Thursday after announcing a new engagement policy with Inuit.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and P.J. Akeeagok, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, walk the shore of Pamiuja as they visit Arctic Bay in Nunavut on Aug. 1, 2019. Akeeagok was elected Nunavut’s premier in November 2021. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
“Can we put more bases in the North? Can we show that we’re ready to defend and control our Arctic? What this policy, and quite frankly, the relationship that we’ve built over the past number of years in the Crown-Inuit partnership [shows] is [that] sovereignty in the North passes through the people who live there and who have lived there for millennia.”
A spokesperson for Defence Minister Anita Anand said Arctic defence is a key government priority.
Daniel Minden wrote in an email that the 2021 budget included $252 million over five years in initial military funding, “with new investments in situational awareness, modernized command and control systems, research and development, and defence capabilities to deter and defeat aerospace threats to this continent.”
The email also says that Budget 2022 goes further by “investing $6.1 billion in increased capabilities for the Canadian Armed Forces, including continental defence.”
Co-operation on shared defence priorities isn’t the only file to land on Cohen’s desk since he arrived in Ottawa just before anti-vaccine mandate protests locked down the nation’s capital for weeks.
Compromise on EV tax credit in the works: Cohen
Trade and climate change are two other topics where there’s potential for conflict.
The Trudeau government lobbied hard last year for Canada’s exemption from a proposal in President Joe Biden’s now-defeated Build Back Better bill that would have given a $12,500 tax credit to buyers of electric vehicles — provided the vehicles were made in the U.S. by unionized workers.
Cohen said the proposed tax credit to boost U.S. electric vehicle sales isn’t dead, but a compromise to ensure Canadian auto parts suppliers aren’t shut out is in the works.
“I’ll remind you that the prime minister actually threw out a possible solution to that, which is that if the U.S. legislation was rewritten to be North American, that Canada would entertain increasing its credits for electric vehicles, which tend to be in the form of consumer rebates,” he said.
A driver plugs in a Volkswagen e-Golf at a charging station at Lansdowne Mall in Peterborough, Ont., in June 2018. (The Canadian Press)
Cohen also sought to alleviate concerns about U.S. protectionism, and any lingering concerns about the shutdown of the Ambassador Bridge by protesters in February, by pointing to a speech this week by the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, Brian Deese.
“He said a lot of things in that speech but the headline for this question is that it is not possible for the United States or any country to domestically produce 100 per cent of the components of our supply chain,” Cohen said. “We need to have strong partnerships and relationships with allies in order to secure a reliable and resilient supply chain.
“So there’s now a direct answer from the White House to your question [about] whether the desire and commitment to maintain and grow the interconnectedness of the supply chain between Canada and the United States remains.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
