Jul 14 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Call it a tale of two NATOs. There may be no better way to summarize the extraordinary events, the astonishing clash of visions that took place this week both inside and outside of the massive glass and steel beehive that is the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters.
Jul 11 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump met face-to-face today for the first time today since the disastrous G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que., last month. Both leaders are in Brussels this week for North Atlantic Treaty Organization meetings. The Prime Minister’s Office said Trump and Trudeau “had a conversation on the margins of […]
Jul 11 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Any encounter between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the next two days will happen on the margins of the NATO summit in Brussels — not in any deliberate, structured bilateral meeting. The NATO meeting represents the first time the two leaders have been in the same room together since the […]
Jul 10 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Canada will commit extra troops and remain in Latvia as part of NATO’s mission to deter potential Russian aggression until 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed Tuesday. The announcement was made following a bilateral meeting in the capital Riga with Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis. CBC News first reported the extended contribution on Monday.
Jul 9 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Liberal government plans to extend its NATO leadership role in Latvia for several years, CBC News has learned. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will “deliver a strong message” of solidarity during his bilateral visit to the Baltic state, said several sources from Defence, Foreign Affairs and other government departments. Canada’s mission leadership role faces a […]
Jul 5 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Canada will deploy up to 20 civilian police officers to support the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. The contribution is in addition to the 250 aircrew and soldiers already assigned to the mission’s military helicopter detachment. Another 10 Canadian soldiers will serve at the UN headquarters in the war-torn west African country. Senior government […]
Jun 26 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Canada is looking to Trump-proof its arguments on a range of defence issues ahead of next month’s NATO summit — but some experts wonder whether the Trudeau government’s position will even register with the mercurial U.S. president. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan signalled the Liberal government is prepared to debate the orthodoxy of the western military […]
Jun 25 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Federal officials overseeing the country’s shipbuilding program warned the Liberal government that they were being leaned on to steer up to $1.2 billion worth of repair and upgrade work on naval frigates toward the Irving-owned Halifax Shipyard, internal documents reveal. Marie LeMay, deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, used remarkably blunt language to […]
Jun 22 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Liberal government has concluded a deal with a Quebec shipyard to purchase, through a sole-source contract, three medium icebreakers to relieve pressure on the Canadian Coast Guard’s aging fleet. The agreement struck with Chantier Davie of Levis, Que., which operates the Davie shipyard, was announced Friday in a release by Public Services and Procurement […]
Jun 21 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Sabre International Security, the company now at the centre of a lawsuit against the federal government, was accused of recruiting former child soldiers in Africa two months before a suicide bomber killed scores of its employees outside of the Canadian embassy in Kabul. The denunciation of the private security firm was made by Danish researchers […]
Jun 12 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — National Defence has identified five — possibly six — known contamination sites at a New Brunswick military base as it works to determine whether the cancer-causing defoliant Agent Orange was buried surreptitiously there decades ago, CBC News has learned. Officials at the department’s Directorate of Contaminated Sites presented a map showing the various locations to […]
Jun 11 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Canadian military will not be in a position to impose an outright ban on the use of recreational marijuana, but its restrictions will be more wide-ranging than its policy governing alcohol, says a senior commander. A draft policy is waiting in the wings for the Liberal government to pass C-45, the cannabis legalization bill, […]
Jun 5 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Canadian military has barely moved the needle on its ambitious plan to recruit more women, just over a year after the Liberal government introduced its gender-focused defence policy, new figures reveal. The stated intention of Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance was to have women make up 25 per cent of the […]
Jun 1 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — If you read Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s briefing notes, and all of the internal warnings he has received over the last year, you’d know that the current trade fight with the U.S. over steel and aluminum is his nightmare come true.
May 30 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — National Defence fell $2.3 billion short in its plan to re-equip the military in the last year, a failing that one defence analyst says guarantees many important decisions on warplanes, ships and vehicles will be pushed beyond next year’s election. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan revealed the figure Wednesday as he launched the department’s long-anticipated investment […]