The federal budget plans a 3% reduction in across-the-board spending and new spending is squarely focusing on domestic economic issues. The defence policy review, announced a year ago, will likely be stalled while to government turns its attention to domestic needs.
Mar 25
(BBC)
President Vladimir Putin says Russia plans to station but control tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus this summer, saying it would not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements. “There is nothing unusual here,” he says. “The United States has […] long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries.”
Mar 17
(Globe & Mail)
An anonymous veteran federal public servant was identified today as the source for a series of internationally embarrassing disclosures about foreign interference in Canadian affairs and about seeming government indifference or reluctance to act over the years. Acknowledging the prospect of eventual prosecution if identified, the whistleblower explains the reasons for sharing concerns about an evolving threat.
Feb 19
(ALEXANDER LANDRY and CONNOR HUNERFAUTH)
All future activities in the Northwest Passage should be assessed through an Environmental, Social, and Governance lens, advise Hunerfauth and Landry as they provide an overview of key considerations.
Mar 28
(CBC)
Defence Minister Anita Anand announced March 27 that Canada’s Operation Impact in the Middle will continue until 2025 but that the mission is being downsized. The decision enables Canada to continue supporting regional partners’ counterterrorism efforts because, Anand said, “when I visited them in December, I saw directly how their presence makes a difference.”
Mar 27
(CBC)
Public Services & Procurement Canada confirmed today that the U.S. State Department has been asked to approve the potential purchase of up to 16 Boeing P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for the RCAF. “The final decision will be based on the capability offered, availability, pricing and benefits to Canadian industry,” PSPC said. In service with Australia, Britain and India as well as the U.S. Navy, it is a militarized version of the 737-800 civilian passenger jet.
Mar 25
(CBC)
Canada plans to invest $7.3 billion to upgrade fighter bases and northern landing strips to accommodate its ordered Lockheed Martin F-35s, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced March 24. Also confirmed during President Joe Biden’s visi to Ottawa, the government also said that the first new Over the Horizon Radar base will be in northern Ontario, part of a 20-year upgrade of continental air defences.
Mar 25
(CTV)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden used a day of talks in Ottawa March 24 to tackle a range of shared issues, including defence and security, third-country refugees, Haiti, clean energy and trade in what Trudeau said was a demonstration of how their countries’ interests are “interwoven.” Biden, on his first visit to Canada as President, agreed, saying, “I can't think of a challenge we haven’t met together.”
 Collins Aerospace |
 Cleeve Technology Inc. |
 Beretta Defense Technologies / Stoeger Canada |
Mar 29
The federal budget plans a 3% reduction in across-the-board spending and new spending is squarely focusing on domestic economic issues. The defence policy review, announced a year ago, will likely be stalled while to government turns its attention to domestic needs.
Jan 22 –
Will the issue of heavy armour support for Ukraine unite or divide the allies? Will Germany's post-WW2-guilt overpower its modern leadership role in global stability? Is a willing coalition of European neighbours enough to stiffen the German spine?
Jan 15 –
Canada has announced that the Lockheed Martin F-35 has been chosen to replace the aged CF-18s. New kit as major as this should go a long way to boosting recruitment of pilots, aircrew, and aviation technicians. It's time to quickly capitalize on this new recruitment tool.
Jan 12
Action on the Arbour Report is likely to begin soon, LGen Michel Maisonneuve and Dr Danic Parenteau provide suggestions for consideration by the different committees engaged in these changes. Read on for clarification, and more details, pursuant to comments received after publishing (Oct 2022) their five general recommendations for any review of the Canadian Military Colleges.
TBD July/Aug 2023
St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
29 March 2023
(AP)
The U.S. and Russia have stopped sharing biannual nuclear weapons data as the latest arms limitation agreement falters, a State Department official confirmed March 28. The U.S. had offered to continue sharing information but that was rebuffed. “Because of Russia’s noncompliance […] the United States will not provide its biannual data exchange to Russia either,” theofficial said.
29 March 2023
(EuroNews/AFP)
Russia’s ambassador in Stockholm said March 28 that Sweden and Finland will become Russian “targets” if they join NATO. Noting that “the total length of the borders between Russia and NATO will almost double,” Viktor Tatarintsev said that “if it still seems to anyone that this will somehow improve Europe's security, rest assured that the new members of the hostile bloc will become a legitimate target for Russian retaliatory measures, including those of a military nature.”
28 March 2023
(CBC)
Defence Minister Anita Anand announced March 27 that Canada’s Operation Impact in the Middle will continue until 2025 but that the mission is being downsized. The decision enables Canada to continue supporting regional partners’ counterterrorism efforts because, Anand said, “when I visited them in December, I saw directly how their presence makes a difference.”
28 March 2023
(EuroNews)
The Hungarian parliament today voted 182-6 to approve Finland’s bid to join NATO. However, Sweden’s bid remains up in the air as Hungary awaits clarification on lingering disagreements before another vote. Turkey also objects to Sweden’s bid, saying it is too soft on expatriates it deems to be terrorists.
28 March 2023
(Al Jazeera)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station cannot be guaranteed while it is occupied by Russian troops. “Holding a nuclear power station hostage […] is surely the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of European or worldwide nuclear power,” he said March 27. The station’s six reactors are currently shutdown but power to prevent a meltdown evidently is unreliable.
28 March 2023
(AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano said today that while a deal deal to protect Europe's largest nuclear power plant from a catastrophic accident due to fighting in Ukraine could be “close”, he warned that intensified combat in the area has increased risks to the facility. “It is a zone of extreme volatility so the negotiations are, of course, affected,” he said. “I would not characterize the process for the last few months as one that has not led to any progress.”
28 March 2023
(Al Jazeera)
A report today from London-based Amnesty International says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed the “double standards” of human rights internationally. In its report on 156 countries, it says the West’s tough response to Russia is in stark contrast to a “deafening silence” on abuses elsewhere.
28 March 2023
(Defense News)
Supply chain issues are preventing production of two new Chinese turbofan engines even through actual engine development is completed. Zhang Yong, a project leader at the Beijing Institute on Aeronautical Materials, has disclosed that the production and delivery of advanced alloys remain problematic but was not more specific. The engines are for the next-generation Shenyang J-35 fighter and the current Xi’an Y-20 transport powered by a Russian engine.
27 March 2023
(CBC)
Public Services & Procurement Canada confirmed today that the U.S. State Department has been asked to approve the potential purchase of up to 16 Boeing P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for the RCAF. “The final decision will be based on the capability offered, availability, pricing and benefits to Canadian industry,” PSPC said. In service with Australia, Britain and India as well as the U.S. Navy, it is a militarized version of the 737-800 civilian passenger jet.
27 March 2023
(CTV)
The Department of National Defence’s recent restructuring of military personnel’s housing allowance will have little benefit in the major Army garrison in Petawawa, Ontario, according to a local realtor. Cynthia Lloyd says that while her market is an “affordable location compared to other bases”, a shortage of inventory keeps prices up. “I don't think that making it more affordable on the monthly will change the market conditions here.”
27 March 2023
(NPR)
A decision by the U.S. Administration to nominate Alaskan geographer Mike Sfraga as an ambassador-at-large for the Arctic is seen as a direct response to Russia’s ramped-up northern military presence and Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says that dealing with national security threats from China as well as Russia and China in the region will be a challenge.
26 March 2023
(AP)
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says “inacceptable” criticism of his country’s democratic and cultural issues is undermining cooperation within NATO and the EU. Members of the European Parliament say Hungary is “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” under President Victor Orban, who has not criticized Russia for invading Ukraine and continues to block Swedish and Finnish membership for Sweden and Finland.
