By Newell Durnbrooke
The United States will host the NATO Summit in Washington DC from July 9 to July 11 so those who follow Canadian news outlets can expect to be deluged with more articles about how Canada is supposedly a “defence laggard.”
That has been the standard commentary over the last two years from retired generals, defence lobbyists, U.S. politicians and think-tank experts, some who rely on funding from the defence industry.
In reality, Canada’s defence budget still puts it as number 7 in NATO when it comes to spending of actual dollars and number 16 in such spending worldwide. In terms of actual spending worldwide Canada is well ahead of a number of its NATO allies. DND’s Main Estimates 2023-24 had defence spending at $26.5 billion. Main estimates for 2024-2025 list spending at $28.8 billion.
Yet defence analysts and U.S. politicians repeatedly criticize Canada (and as a result the Canadian Armed Forces). Instead they highlight nations like Estonia and Latvia (which respectively spend $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion annually on defence), as something Canada should aspire to. Frankly that is ridiculous and insulting to Canadian military personnel.
Yet Canada’s significant spending on defence seems to only continue to inspire headlines like the National Post ran June 12, claiming our country is “the worst performer now.” The article and accompanying video was based on an interview of Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a think tank in Ottawa.
The Post’s Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson sat impassively while Crowley outlined his knowledge about Canadian defence spending and NATO. Crowley used the example of Latvia as a defence spender without acknowledging his think-tank has received funding from that government’s defence ministry
“If you look at all the countries in NATO – there’s about 25, there might be 26 members of NATO -and you plot them all on a graph we’re the worst performer now,” Crowley claimed.
Really? The NATO alliance actually consists of 32 nations. The last time it was 25 countries was some 20 years ago. There was no explanation in the video from the National Post why their “expert” Crowley didn’t even know how many countries were in the alliance he was discussing.
Crowley also claimed the U.S. spends 4 per cent of its GDP on defence. That is also wrong of course. The U.S. Department of Defence noted that this year America is spending 2.7 per cent of its GDP, similar to last year.
It wouldn’t be surprising if those watching the video (and who were actually aware of defence matters) simply dismissed Crowley’s views as stunningly uninformed.
And speaking of uninformed…
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre recently took some heat for his lack of knowledge of basic history. He celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day by going to a Royal Canadian Legion branch in Ottawa to honour our veterans. But his post on X (formerly Twitter) of our heroes who stormed ashore on Normandy was a photo of U.S. troops landing at Omaha Beach.
A team of Reuters journalists, including Canada-based reporter David Ljunggren, recently outed French President Emmanuel Macron as a hypocrite when it comes to Ukraine.
Macron has been a leading European voice in denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and he has lectured other leaders on the need to provide Ukraine with more weapons and to get tough with Russia on sanctions. For instance, in May 2023 Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more sanctions as well as efforts “to prevent the circumvention of these sanctions in and by third countries."
Fast forward to April 25, 2024 and news that the Canadian government had given Bombardier and Airbus a special exemption from sanctions on using Russian titanium. Canada's sanctions on Russian titanium had been introduced in February and Canada was the first western nation to target Moscow's exports of the critical mineral, CBC reported.
But who would have pressured Canada to give such an exemption to those French-owned companies based in Canada?
Well Emmanuel Macron of course.
Reuters reported May 30 that Macron personally intervened to persuade Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to give the aerospace firms the exemptions. It seems cutting out Russian-produced titanium is proving too difficult for the companies and too harmful to the bottom line.
It seems like Canada’s Nazi collaborators are still making the news.
On May 28 the investigative media outlet, Declassified UK, reported on a 1983 incident in which Prince Charles accepted an honorary degree from a Waffen SS soldier at the University of Alberta.
That soldier was none other than Nazi collaborator Peter Savaryn, then the university’s chancellor, who had also been a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, otherwise known as the Galicia division. Savaryn was an unrepentant SS veteran who volunteered for the Nazi division and swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
SS Galicia, of course, was in the news last year during the scandal in which Canadian parliamentarians gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka who was described as a Canadian and Ukrainian “hero.” It was later revealed that Hunka was a Waffen SS member who fought for SS Galicia. Canadians reacted with outrage over a Waffen SS veteran being honoured in the Commons.
The SS division has been accused of various war crimes, including the massacres of civilians; in addition, its members have also been implicated in the murder of Jews.
Last year during the fallout from the Hunka scandal, Savaryn’s past was also revealed prompting an apology from Governor General Mary Simon over the decision to award the SS veteran the Order of Canada in 1987.
Declassified UK pointed out the irony in Prince Charles receiving an honorary degree from a member of the Waffen SS. During his acceptance speech, Charles praised those who had “sacrificed their lives 40 years ago” in the fight against Adolf Hitler.
