It seems that Bill C-5 did not emerge from committee unscathed, as the opposition forced a number of amendments to the bill through, most of them creating an added list of laws that the government cannot opt itself out of using the giant Henry VIII clause that is the second half of said bill. The issue here? That aside from the Indian Act being one of those laws, the remainder are mostly done for the theatre of the Conservatives (and Bloc to a lesser extent) putting on a show about trying to keep said Henry VIII clause being used in a corrupt manner. To that end, the laws protected from opt-outs include:
Access to Information Act,
Lobbying Act,
Canada Elections Act,
Criminal Code,
Conflict of Interest Act,
Investment Canada Act,
Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act,
Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act,
Railway Safety Act,
Trade Unions Act,
Explosives Act,
Hazardous Products Act,
Indian Act,
Auditor General Act, or
Official Languages Act
Do you notice what’s missing? Any kind of environmental laws, which the Conservatives continue to demand be repealed, or any kind of UNDRIP legislation, which would ensure free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous people when it comes to these projects.
The government says they are considering the amendments and whether to support their adoption or not (but given that every opposition party has lined up behind them, they may not have a choice), but the fact remains that they have refused adequate consultation with Indigenous people in developing and passing this legislation (they could barely be arsed to hear from one Indigenous witness at committee, let along several rights-holders), or that they are damaging the trust the government spent the past decade trying to rebuild. Just amateur galaxy-brained antics that you would think a government that is ten years into their time in office would actually have learned a lesson or two by this point.
Meanwhile, you have some Indigenous voices calling on the Governor General to delay or to deny royal assent for Bill C-5, which is not going to happen. If it did, it would cause a constitutional crisis, and I can’t believe we need to keep saying this every time someone makes the suggestion because they don’t understand how Responsible Government works. This is a political problem, and it demands a political solution, not one where you pull out the constitutional fire extinguisher and try to wield it. That’s not how this works, and people need to both stop suggesting it, and journalists need to stop taking this kind of talk seriously. Just stop it.
Ukraine Dispatch
President Zelenskyy says that the increasing attacks demonstrate why more pressure needs to be applied to Russia to force a ceasefire. There was another POW swap yesterday, but no word on how many were exchanged on either side.
Today, I was at the site where a Russian high-explosive missile struck a residential building in Kyiv. I honored the memory of those who were killed. This vile attack, carried out in the middle of the night, claimed the lives of 23 civilians. My condolences to their families and… pic.twitter.com/msBegbU4Oc
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 19, 2025
⚡️'Massive' Russian drone attack on residential buildings in Odesa injures 13.
Russian forces struck residential buildings in Odesa on June 20, injuring at least 13 people, including three emergency workers, Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported.https://t.co/vmgQRIgYAZ
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 20, 2025
The Liberals’ “One Canada Economy” bill continues to be railroaded through Parliament without proper scrutiny, and with the worst possible excuses from ministers and parliamentary secretaries possible. “We won the election promising this” or “This is in response to a crisis”? Get lost with that nonsense. While there are Liberals who are quietly objecting to the process—particularly the speed through which the second half of the bill (i.e. the giant Henry VIII clause) are going through without actual Indigenous consultation on the legislation itself, they are absolutely correct in saying that this is going to damage the trust that they have spent a decade carefully building.
Here’s the thing. While ministers are going to committees and the Senate swearing up and down that these projects of national importance are going to respect environmental regulations and Indigenous consultation, the very text of the bill betrays that notion. The open-ended list of legislation affected by the Henry VIII clause shows that they can bypass environmental laws or even the Indian Act through regulation shows that clearly they don’t have to respect either environmental laws, or that the consultation doesn’t need to be meaningful, or engage in free, prior and informed consent. If they did want to respect those things, they wouldn’t need a giant Henry VIII clause to bypass them. And frankly the fact that the Conservatives are supporting this bill should be yet another red flag, because the Conservatives very much want to use this Henry VIII clause if they form government next before this law sunsets, and they can blame the Liberals for implementing it. It’s so stupid and they refuse to see what’s right in front of them.
And let’s not forget that you still have Danielle Smith and Scott Moe demanding that environmental legislation be repealed, as the planet is about to blow through its carbon budget to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5ºC. And when it comes to Indigenous consultation, Doug Ford rammed through a bill to make these development projects law-free zones, while falsely claiming that First Nations are coming “cap in hand” while refusing to develop resources (in a clearly racist rant), ignoring that their objections are often to do with the fact that they have repeatedly been screwed over by proponents and wind up being worse off, which is why they want revenue-sharing agreements that companies don’t want to provide. When this is the “partnership with provinces” that Carney touts, it’s really, really not building a whole lot of trust.
If Ford listened to the First Nations near the Ring of Fire, they are largely concerned that proponents haven't lived up to past promises, and are not convinced the will live up to future promises either, unless they have a revenue-sharing agreement.
Meanwhile, 300 civil society groups are calling on the government to scrap the border bill because it has so many potential rights violations within it. The department offered some clarifications on the immigration and refugee portions, but that’s not sufficient for those groups. Citizen Lab also did an analysis of the lawful access provisions within the bill as they interface with American data-sharing laws, and they can be pretty alarming for the kinds of information that the Americans can demand that the border bill would provide them with.
The more I think about it, the more troubling #BillC2 is. The warrantless demand for "subscriber information" can include a demand to a women's shelter, abortion clinic or psychiatrist. All provide services to the public and info about services rendered really goes to the biographical core.
More bodies were discovered after the early morning Tuesday attack on Kyiv, meaning the death toll is now at least 28. Russians hit Ukrainian troops in the Sumy region with Iskander missiles.
During a Russian overnight attack, an Intercity+ train was damaged at its base – the same train carrying a powerful artwork by famed American artist Barbara Kruger.
Her piece, Untitled (Another Again), honours Ukrainians who move forward, no matter the obstacle.
In the wake of the G7 Summit, here’s a bit of a stock-taking on Carney’s government so far, and there are some friction points bubbling up, especially in caucus.
A Treasury Board report shows that women and minorities still face pay inequities within the federal civil service.
StatsCan data shows that there was almost no population growth in the first quarter of the year, which is a precipitous decline (and not good in the long run).
You might be relieved to hear that there were no wildlife incidents during the G7 summit in Kananaskis.
Protesters marking the second anniversary of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar are concerned and frustrated about the moves to normalise diplomatic ties with India.
The Federal Court has denied a case by Afghan-Canadians to apply the Ukraine temporary resident rules to allow them to bring family members over.
The Senate has passed the Bloc’s Supply Management bill, which would seem to be at odds with trying to diversify our trade relationships.
Now-former Conservative MP Damien Kurek says that he wasn’t asked to step aside for Poilievre, but offered as his way to “serve.”
Saskatchewan is going to extend the life of their coal-fired electricity plants, because of course they are.
Philippe Lagassé has some more thoughts on the NATO spending goals and Canada shifting away from American procurement by degrees.
Paul Wells features a former PMO comms staffer talking about his experiences in dealing with reporters on the Hill, and how he approached the job.
Odds and ends:
For National Magazine, I wrote about former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Gérard La Forest, who passed away last week at age 99.
Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.
The remainder of the G7 Summit was odd with Trump’s early departure, in part because of how much space he took up at the event, and his subsequent absence case a long shadow. A number of leaders had come specifically to meet with him on the second day, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and with Trump gone, it made the trip seem less worthwhile for their broader goals. There was talk that a statement about support for Ukraine was scrapped because the Americans wanted the language to be watered down to useless—but Mark Carney’s office later retracted that claim, so it’s hard to say what actually happened there. Carney did, however, pledge another $4.3 billion for Ukraine and to help bring about more sanctions on Russia and their “shadow fleet,” so that’s not nothing. As for Trump, while on his way home, he was back to threats, insisting Canada will be paying tariffs unless we become a US state, and he increased the price for participation in the “golden dome,” with a number he pulled directly out of his ass.
Addressing the G7 Summit, I emphasized that Russia is ignoring every diplomatic offer made by the international community. Diplomacy is in crisis. There is one clear reason – Putin has openly rejected every peace initiative. pic.twitter.com/akK630MWRD
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 17, 2025
As for the outcomes of the summit, there was an agreement on an increased use of AI (really?!) plus a “common vision” for quantum technologies. The Rapid Response Mechanism on disinformation and threats to democracy will update its reports to include transnational repression; there was also a pledge to do more to tackle migrant smuggling. There was agreement to coordinate efforts to manage the impacts of wildfires—but nothing about tackling climate change that is causing those fires. There was also talk about “economic corridors” for critical minerals, and enforcing standardised markets in order to combat Chinese dominance in that tech space.
Regarding the other meetings on the sidelines, Carney had his meeting with Narendra Modi and did raise transnational repression during his remarks, for all the good it did. The pair agreed to re-establish proper diplomatic relations and to re-appoint new high commissioners for each country, but we’ll see if India’s next representative is also tied to repression. Carney also had a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who was supportive of the plans to reach the NATO two-percent spending target this year (right before the summit where the plan is to increase it again). As for designated protest sites, they were largely quiet on the second day. (More highlights from the day here).
The attack on Kyiv early Tuesday morning was even deadlier than first anticipated, with 440 drones and 32 missiles fired, killing at least 18 people and wounding 151 others; Odesa was also hit. (Photos).
I met with Prime Minister of Canada @MarkJCarney on the sidelines of the G7 Summit.
I informed him about Russia’s overnight attack against our people, civilian infrastructure, and residential buildings, which involved 440 Iranian Shahed drones and 32 missiles, including… pic.twitter.com/bDCTEW412h
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 17, 2025
❗️Last night, #Ukraine was attacked by over 440 drones and 32 missiles, President #Zelenskyy reported.
Emergency services are currently working to rescue people trapped beneath the rubble. Residential buildings in eight districts of #Kyiv have been damaged.
Even before the G7 summit officially got underway, prime minister Mark Carney had his bilateral meeting with Trump, and it was this somewhat awkward situation where Trump defended having a “tariff concept” and said that Carney had a “more complicated” plan (how could “free trade” be more complicated?”) but there was word that talks were “accelerating,” and later in the day, we got a readout from that conversation that said that they were aiming to get a trade deal within 30 days, so no pressure there (not that you could really accept such a deal for the paper it’s written on because this is Trump and he doesn’t honour his agreements). Trump also claimed to have signed a trade deal with the UK (which he called the EU at the time), and held up a blank page with his signature on it. So that…happened.
Holy crap. The US-UK trade deal is a blank sheet of paper and only Trump signed it. (Genuine screen grab).
The rest of the summit took place, and then suddenly Trump decided he needed to leave early, right after the Heads of Government dinner, citing important business in Washington, with allusions to the Israel-Iran conflict, but he did wind up signing a joint communiqué that calls for de-escalation in said conflict, so we’ll see how that holds up. Trump leaving early does mean that he won’t be around the arrival of either Volodymyr Zelenskyy or Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, who had hoped to have bilateral meetings with Trump on the sidelines of the summit, so that does blow a hole in what they expected to come for, particularly for Sheinbaum who rarely travels.
Meanwhile, here are some of the highlights of the day. Tsuut’ina Nation council member Steven Crowchild spoke about his meeting with Trump during his arrival in Calgary. EU officials confirmed that Carney is likely to sign a defence procurement agreement with them during his visit to Brussels in two weeks.
A Russian drone and missile attack struck Kyiv in the early morning hours, wounding at least twenty. Ukraine received another 1,245 bodies, ending this repatriation agreement, bringing the total to over 6000 war dead.
“We cannot exchange children. They are not prisoners of war. So it’s impossible — we won’t exchange them for anything. It’s absolutely unfair. To… pic.twitter.com/KLOHZ0Js57
It’s the big G7 leaders’ summit today and tomorrow, so expect wall-to-wall coverage on that for the next 48 to 72 hours or so, depending if we have any eruptions (which could very well happen). Here’s a piece setting the stage for the event, where the side conversations with the additional leaders invited are also going to play a key part in the event. The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict is likely going to also feature in the discussions. Here is a look at some of the agenda items that Carney had laid out, including quantum technologies. Here’s a look at the security in the region, which is helped by the fact that it’s an isolated location with no local services.
Things got off to an early start with Keir Starmer arriving on Saturday evening for dinner with Mark Carney, before the pair went to a local pub to take in the hockey game together (which was apparently on mute in the local Royal Oak, because of course it was a Royal Oak). They had a formal meeting in West Block on Sunday morning, and talked about more trade and bilateral cooperation on a number of files. Carney will have a sit-down with Trump this morning before the summit begins formally.
The rest of the leaders began arriving in Calgary Sunday afternoon. So far we’ve had one civilian aircraft enter the restricted airspace and needing to be chased down by CF-18s. And on his way to the G7, French president Emmanuel Macron had a stopover in Greenland to offer support against American aggression.
Russians struck the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region, which provides fuel to Ukrainian forces. A recent attack also damaged the Boeing office in Kyiv. Russia handed over another 1200 Ukrainian war dead on Sunday.
Tonight, our air defense warriors destroyed 167 aerial targets used by Russia to attack Ukraine. I thank everyone who defends our skies. In total, there were 183 attack drones and 11 missiles of various types — “Kinzhal,” ballistic, and cruise missiles. The strike mainly targeted… pic.twitter.com/ouPfh0wjAG
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 15, 2025
⚡️Russia attacks Kyiv Oblast with drones, injuring 1.
Russia attacked Kyiv Oblast with drones overnight on June 15-16, targeting both the capital city and regional settlements. A 60-year-old man has been injured.https://t.co/GEUsnuYCud
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 16, 2025
It’s the run-up to the G7 summit on Monday and Tuesday, and it will start with dinner with UK prime minister Keir Starmer tonight, before everyone starts heading to Calgary, where Danielle Smith will be greeting delegates as they arrive for the G7, starting on Sunday, and will host an event with them. We already know that there will be some different features in this summit in that they will forgo the usual joint communiqué, but instead, Carney will put out a chair’s statement (because there is unlikely to be any kind of consensus to be had with Trump in the room).
Another question is about what some of the discussions will wind up being about, given the chaotic nature of what is happening right now, such as Israel and Iran attacking one another, while there are wildfires burning in Alberta, and the conflict in Ukraine has intensified after Ukraine destroyed a significant portion of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. The number of other non-G7 members invited to attend will also help shape the discussions, which includes Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (whose activities we are apparently overlooking for the sake of the conference), though it should also be noted that “bone saws” Mohammed bin Salman won’t be attending after all, despite being invited. Here is a rundown of the additional invitees to the summit.
Meanwhile, Canada and India have reached an agreement to share information about cross-border crimes, such as transnational crimes, syndicates, terrorism, and extremist activities. That makes the obvious question to be whether the Indian government will disclose its transnational repression and contracting of syndicates to carryout transnational crimes (like extrajudicial killings)? Or do they simply expect Canada to turn over information about the legal activities of Khalistani advocates in this country? Because if we’re not getting any of the former, I’m not sure what value this agreement really has as a “reset” of the relationship.
will need to wait for details but just a reminder that India’s home minister has been implicated in the allegations from our law enforcement against India, and the home minister is responsible for India’s domestic security and oversees their police https://t.co/EjvyVqdnFs
Ukraine and Russia had another swap of bodies of fallen soldiers yesterday.
A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet struck a Russian UAV command post and later destroyed an enemy ammunition and fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia direction, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.
⚡️Russia kills at least 4, injures 24 across Ukraine over past day.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted the country with 55 drones, as well as four Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles.https://t.co/j9IdKB5ah9
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 13, 2025
Spokespersons for the Sikh Federation Canada and the World Sikh Organisation of Canada were on the Hill yesterday to call on prime minister Mark Carney to rescind his invitation to Narendra Modi to attend the G7 summit, and are not ruling out actions such as barring Liberal MPs from visiting Sikh temples as a protest. They warned that more than a dozen Canadian Sikhs are under active threat from India, and we also learned in the media yesterday that a suspected Indian government agent had Jagmeet Singh under surveillance, which prompted close RCMP protection eighteen months ago.
Oh, but Carney says, we got assurances about cooperating on a law enforcement dialogue, and yes, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme does say that Indian officials are now being cooperative on the investigation into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar where they weren’t before, but again, how much longer is this going to continue until it’s no longer convenient and they start making up a bunch of bullshit for their newspapers again like they did with the supposed cocaine found on Trudeau’s plane (which right-wing newspapers in this Canada breathlessly repeated while the journalists who were actually on the plane repeatedly said that this never happened and that this was a bullshit information operation).
Yes, India is an important economy at a time when we can no longer rely on the Americans, but can we rely on India either given Modi’s increasing authoritarian tendencies, and his violation of human rights for minorities? Those Sikh spokespersons made the salient point about how Carney is sending the message that some lives are worth more than others, and that if there’s economic benefit, then we can turn a blind eye to human rights abuses and the fact that they almost certainly contracted an extrajudicial killing on Canadian soil. That should matter, and we should send a message that it does matter. But we’re not getting that from Carney, and even more to the point, the Liberals have had some very effective Sikh organisers in the party (which is why certain MPs were in Trudeau’s Cabinet when they were poor performers) and it would seem odd to waste that goodwill when you want to try and win a majority in the next election. I’m just not seeing a lot of principle or smart politics here.
exactly this — PM Carney and the government should just be honest with Canadians and tell us that our values and the rule of law don’t matter when there are dollars and rupees to be made https://t.co/WfPwRe99Al
Ukrainian forces are slowly pushing back the Russian incursion in Sumy region. Ukrainian military officials say that the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded in the conflict is now over one million, as the war is now in its third year. There was another exchange of sick and wounded prisoners yesterday. President Zelenskyy will be attending the G7 in Kananaskis next week.
As prime minister Mark Carney gets set to ram his major project legislation through Parliament—Henry VIII clause and all—a couple of philosophical questions are popping up about the nature of what it is they’re doing to speed through these approvals. Doug Ford is trying to do it by essentially creating lawless zones, whereas Carney is giving himself the power to override other laws through regulation alone, which is ripe for abuse and which the Liberals would be screaming bloody murder about if they were in opposition. (The Conservatives, incidentally, are not up in arms about this use of a Henry VIII clause). The thing is, though, these laws and regulations exist for a reason—they’re not there just to thwart investment or development (in spite of what the Conservatives might tell themselves), and you’re asking for trouble if you go around it.
Part of that trouble is Indigenous consultation, and what they seem to believe it entails. It’s not just a meeting where you sit down and go “Here’s what we want to do on your lands.” It’s way more complicated, especially as you have some particular First Nations that have been burned in the past by other developers who promised them all kinds of benefits for that development and then reneged on their agreements (often leaving an environmental catastrophe in their wakes that they won’t pay for, leaving these First Nations off even worse). And they are already talking about litigation if their rights are violated, and those rights include free, prior and informed consent. This is a big deal, and we’re not sure that either Carney or Ford have actually thought this through. Things take time—especially within First Nations. Carney may be in for an unpleasant surprise about his timelines.
[Mallory Archer voice]: Do you want litigation? Because that's how you get litigation.
Meanwhile, oil prices have crashed to rock-bottom prices, meaning it will be even more unlikely that we’ll see companies willing to invest in new pipeline infrastructure, even if the Carney government thinks they can ram projects through in a two-year window (which, again, I remain dubious about). Danielle Smith is trying to entice a proponent for some sort of pipeline, but again, money talks. Those rock-bottom prices are also going to hit Alberta’s government hard, because they budgeted for much higher royalties, and that in turn will make Smith panicky and try to pick even more fights, all because she refuses to implement a sales tax that would avoid being dependent on oil revenues above a certain level to balance the books.
Ukraine Dispatch
It was another night of heavy drone attacks, with the hardest-hit area being Kharkiv, killing three people and a total of 64 wounded across the country. Ukraine says that they struck a large gunpower factory in Russia. Another prisoner swap was held yesterday, but it was less prisoners than 1212 bodies.
Recovery efforts are currently underway in Kharkiv following last night’s Russian Shahed drone strike. The attack hit ordinary residential buildings. As of now, 64 people have been reported injured, including 9 children. Tragically, three people were killed. My condolences to… pic.twitter.com/uOVJ4f1UKK
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 11, 2025
The overnight Russian attack on #Kharkiv resulted in direct hits to high-rise buildings, playgrounds, businesses and public transportation, City Mayor Terekhov said.
According to the State Emergency Service, two people were killed and 60 others were injured, including nine… pic.twitter.com/LIMNIn9Kfy
Yesterday saw the release of the Auditor General and Environment Commissioner’s reports, and lo, these ones actually got a tonne of media attention and took centre stage in Question Period, which is a far cry from most of their recent reports. The reason, of course, is that the topics were sexy—F-35 fighter jets and the ArriveCan app gong show in particular, the latter of which the Conservatives have been salivating over for three years now, which made the day pretty much insufferable as a result. But there was more than just those.
The F-35 procurement costs have ballooned because of delays, pilot shortages, infrastructure, and inflation but acknowledged the Canadian government has little control over most of these factors.
CBSA failed to follow procurement and security rules when it used GC Strategies to contract out work on ArriveCan, and didn’t follow-up to ensure work had been done before more contracts were awarded.
Public Services and Procurement has been slow to modernise and downsize office space, and turn over surplus buildings for housing.
Indigenous Services has failed to process Indian Act status applications within the required six-month timeline, with a backlog having grown to over 12,000 applications.
The climate adaptation plan is falling short, with only one of its three pillars in place and little connection between spending and results.
I’m not sure that the F-35 news is all that surprising, but it does actually work to either justify a potential move away from the platform, or to reflect increases in defence spending calculations. The GC Strategies findings are also not unexpected, but one thing the Conservatives have been failing to mention is that CBSA is an arms’-length agency, so ministers had no real say over any of its contracting practices (as the Conservatives try to insist that any minister who had carriage on the file should be fired). Meanwhile, their narrative that this was somehow about “Liberal friends” was never mentioned in the report, nor was there any mention about partisan considerations, or indication that the firm had any connection to the government, so these are just rage-bait accusations used solely for the performance art, which is how most things go with these guys.
Tuesday’s attack from Russia was one of its largest strikes on Kyiv, which also hit civilian targets in Odesa, and Kharkiv was subjected to a nine-minute-long drone attack that killed at least two and injured 54. Another prisoner swap took place yesterday, this time for an undisclosed number of sick and wounded soldiers.
Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace. For yet another night, instead of a ceasefire, there were massive strikes with Shahed drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Today was one of the… pic.twitter.com/t3uEzzoCsL
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 10, 2025
Russia launched 322 aerial attack assets against Ukraine overnight on June 10.
Ukraine’s defenders intercepted 284 of these threats — including 213 Shahed drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles — through a coordinated effort involving… pic.twitter.com/SmzAFiGliO
Yesterday, at Fort York in Toronto, prime minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would meet its NATO commitment of two percent of GDP by the end of next fiscal year instead of by 2030, in part through use of greater pay, more funds for sustainment, support for the defence industry, and some good ol’ creative accounting. Carney prefaced this by making a very real point about the changing nature of America’s place in the world: “The United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony, charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contribution to our collective security.”
Some unknows that may come out later:
Will the modernized digital infrastructre include a real DND/CAF cloud? Do they have a supplier in mind?
What are the new aircraft mentioned?
— Philippe Lagassé (@PhilippeLagasse) June 9, 2025
Biggest surprise for me:
No explicit mention of new submarines or rough budget for them.
— Philippe Lagassé (@PhilippeLagasse) June 9, 2025
One of the big question marks has to do with the status of the Coast Guard, and how it gets folded into the calculation around defence spending—there were mixed messages on whether it stays under Department of Fisheries and Oceans, of if it will be moved into Department of National Defence (though there is also an argument for it to go to Public Safety), and the question of whether or not to arm those ships is a fraught one because of the training requirements for armaments. It sounds like there will be things like CSE’s cyber-capability being counted as part of this calculation as well, which again, seems to be more fudging numbers that we typically accused other nations of doing while we were more “pure” in terms of what we counted toward our spending commitments, and that seems to be going away.
I would add that while we get a bunch of competing narratives around the target, whether it’s the Conservatives’ memory-holing the fact that they cut defence spending to below one percent of GDP (in order to achieve a false balance on the books in time for the 2015 election), or the notion that we are nothing more than freeloaders in NATO, we should keep reminding people that even with lower per-capita defence spending, we have been punching above our weight taking on the tough missions in NATO (Kandahar, leading a multi-country brigade in Latvia) where as other allies who have met their two percent targets don’t contribute (looking at you, Greece). A poor metric of spending is not a good indicator of contribution, but it has created a whole false narrative that we should be correcting, but that’s too much work for the pundit class, who are more interested in hand-wringing and calling Justin Trudeau names than they are in looking at our actual contributions. (Here’s a timeline of the spending target melodrama).
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia made another massive overnight attack against Ukraine, launching 479 drones and twenty missiles of various types, targeting the western and central parts of the county. Another prisoner swap did go ahead yesterday.
Canada is providing $35 million military assistance package to Ukraine. This package includes: ◾️$30 million for Coyote and Bison armored vehicles, accompanied by new equipment and ammunition supplied by Canadian companies ◾️$5 million for electronic warfare anti-jammer kits… pic.twitter.com/os6PPdx3jn
