Political, military luminaries call on Ottawa to stop backsliding on national defence

Murray Brewster, CBC News
Posted: Monday, April 17, 2023 at 14:16
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NATO Sec. Gen. Jens Stoltenberg and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrive in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, on Aug. 25, 2022. A letter signed by members of Canada’s political and military elite say Canada can no longer afford to give short shrift to national security. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

Letter says ‘business as usual’ won’t be enough to cope with a more dangerous world

More than 60 of this country’s former top security officials, military commanders and politicians — along with a former top Supreme Court justice — have signed an open letter imploring the Liberal government to take national security and defence more seriously.

The letter was released Monday by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDAI). It includes the signatures of five former Liberal and Conservative defence ministers, nine former chiefs of the defence staff, four former ambassadors, two former top national security and intelligence advisers, a former director of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), business leaders and former chief justice of the Supreme Court Beverley McLachlin.

“There is no more important responsibility for the federal government than protecting Canadians against all threats — foreign and domestic,” says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News.

“Now is the time to fully discharge the commitments we have made to our allies and partners in sharing the burden of the collective security, commitments which are essential to safeguard our peace, prosperity and way of life.”

While the criticism is mostly aimed at the current Liberal government, the letter acknowledges that successive governments since the end of the Cold War have reduced Canada’s emphasis on defence and foreign policy.

“Among the most important responsibilities of the federal government is the need to protect the safety and security of its citizens, defend Canadian sovereignty and maintain our territorial integrity,” says the letter. “However, in recent decades, issues of national security and defence are rarely treated as a priority other than in times of great peril.”

Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of NATO, recently signaled the military alliance’s upcoming leaders summit in Vilnius, Lithuania would reset allied expectations about defence spending in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China.

NATO Sec. Gen. Jens Stoltenberg has signalled the alliance is going to start expecting more from its members when it comes to military spending. (Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency via AP)

Stoltenberg said members are quickly coming to regard the NATO benchmark for members’ defence spending — two per cent of the gross domestic product — as the “floor, not the ceiling.”

The open letter says “Canada cannot afford to conduct ‘business as usual'” and strongly encourages Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet to “lead and act with a sense of urgency” and accelerate the timelines for the purchase of new equipment.

Last month, NATO published an annual report that shows Canada’s defence spending amounted to just 1.29 per cent of GDP in fiscal 2022-2023.

Critically, the letter said the federal government needs to invest in improving the ability of the Department of National Defence (DND) “to spend its budget in an expeditious and timely manner.”

For years, DND has been unable to spend its full appropriation, with tens of billions of dollars going unspent since the end of the Afghan war. Under the former Conservative government, that money used to lapse back to the federal treasury. The Liberals changed the rules to allow the department to keep more of the cash until it’s ready to spend it.

Letter pins blame on multiple governments

The Canadian Press recently uncovered an internal DND report that said roughly 30 per cent of the department’s military procurement positions — 4,200 jobs — were vacant at the end of May last year.

Separately, almost a decade ago, an independent study by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDAI) and the MacDonald-Laurier Institute said that cuts introduced by the Liberal government under Jean Chretien in the 1990s gutted the military’s equipment-buying branch, while the Conservatives did nothing to fix the problem after winning power.

Retired lieutenant-general Guy Thibault, the chair of the CDAI, said the decision was made to draft the letter after the government decided recently to open up the defence policy review to public consultation, further pushing back its delivery for what might be a year.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly has said decisions about Canada’s military spending will have to wait for the completion of the defence policy review. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said recently that decisions on whether Canada would aspire to meet the NATO spending target would be made in the aftermath of the policy review, which is supposed to look at Canada’s defence posture both overseas and at home.

Thibault said the policy update is being delayed during a time of great peril for global peace and security due to the threats posed by China and Russia.

He said authoritarian regimes are continuing their military expansion and are willing to use force to achieve their aims.

“The recent federal budget was largely a summary of previous announcements without any acknowledgement that the government must accelerate program spending,” he said.

Thibault pointed to the non-partisan nature of the letter and its criticism.

Last fall, the recipient of CDAI’s annual Vimy Award, retired lieutenant-general Michel Maisonneuve, delivered a blistering acceptance speech that many interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on the Liberal government. In it, he railed against divisive leaders, cancel culture and the sorry state of the Canadian military.

The CDAI, which bills itself as non-partisan, distanced itself from Maisonneuve’s remarks, saying they did not reflect the institute’s views.

Thibault said he hopes the Liberal government will consider seriously the letter’s expression of deep concern for the future security of the country.

The people who signed the letter include:

The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, former chief justice SCC
The Honourable Peter MacKay, former minister of national defence
The Honourable David Pratt, former minister of national defence
General (Ret’d) Raymond Henault, former chair NATO MC, chief of the defence staff
Ambassador Yves Brodeur, former ambassador to NATO
Ambassador Deborah Lyons, former UN special rep UNAMA Afghanistan
Blake Goldring, former honorary colonel Canadian Army, executive chairman AGF Management
Dick Fadden, former national security adviser and deputy minister of national defence
Chiko Nanji, CEO Metro Supply Chain Group
The Honourable John Manley, former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs
The Honourable Anne McLellan, former deputy prime minister
The Honourable Perrin Beatty, former minister of national defence
The Honourable John McCallum, former minister of national defence
The Honourable Jason Kenney, former minister of national defence
The Honourable David Collenette, former minister of national defence
The Honourable Andrew Leslie, former chief whip, commander Canadian Army
The Honourable Senator Peter Harder, former deputy minister of foreign affairs
The Honourable Colin Kenny, senator (Ret’d), founding chair of the standing Senate committee on national security and defence
The Honourable Dan Lang, senator (Ret’d)
The Honourable Joseph Day, senator (Ret’d)
Mel Cappe, former clerk of the Privy Council and U.K. high commissioner
General (Ret’d) Paul Manson
General (Ret’d) John de Chastelain
Admiral (Ret’d) John Anderson, former NATO ambassador
General (Ret’d) Jean Boyle
General (Ret’d) Maurice Baril
General (Ret’d) Rick Hillier
General (Ret’d) Walter Natynczyk
General (Ret’d) Tom Lawson
Ambassador (Ret’d) Robert Fowler, former foreign policy adviser, deputy minister of national defence
Ward Elcock, former director of CSIS, deputy minister of national defence
Margaret Purdy, former deputy secretary to the cabinet (security and intelligence) and associate deputy minister national defence
Daniel Jean, former national security and intelligence adviser, deputy minister Global Affairs Canada
John Forster, former chief of CSE, deputy minister of national defence
Margaret Bloodworth, former deputy minister of national defence
Roland Paris, former senior adviser (global affairs and defence) to the prime minister
Vincent Rigby, former national security and intelligence adviser
Jim Mitchell, Former Senior Public Servant
Ambassador (Ret’d) Chris Shapardanov, Former Ambassador to Finland
Ambassador (Ret) Lucie Edwards, Former High Commissioner of Canada for India and South Africa
Ambassador (Ret) Sabine Nölke, Former Ambassador the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
LGen (Ret’d) Christine Whitecross, Former Chief of Military Personnel
The Honourable Darrell Dexter, Former Premier of Nova Scotia
Jim Mitchell, Former Senior Public Servant

The CDA Institute board of directors and CDA executive:

LGen (Ret’d) Guy Thibault, former vice chief of the defence staff
Ambassador (Ret’d) Gord Venner, former senior associate deputy minister of national defence
Ambassador (Ret’d) Kerry Buck, former NATO ambassador
Mike Hamilton, senior vice president RBC Insurance
Naresh Raghubeer, managing partner Sandstone Group
Renée Filiatrault, former foreign service officer
Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky, Queen’s University Centre for International and Defence Policy
Honorary Colonel Jeff Westeinde, president Zibi Canada
LGen (Ret’d) Marquis Hainse, former commander Canadian Army
VAdm (Ret’d) Drew Robertson, former commander Royal Canadian Navy
VAdm (Ret’d) Darren Hawco, former NATO military representative
VAdm (Ret’d) Mark Norman, former commander Royal Canadian Navy
VAdm (Re’d) Bob Davidson, former NATO military representative
VAdm (Ret’d) Denis Rouleau, former chair CDA, vice chief of the defence staff
MGen (Ret’d) Steve Noonan, former commander of Canadian Operational Support Command
MGen (Ret’d) Michel Lalumiere, former chief Fighter Capability
Youri Cormier, adj. professor Royal Military College of Canada and CDA executive director