While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Murray Brewster.
Military has a long list of projects that are unfunded. That could change with Tuesday's federal budget. In many respects, Tuesday’s federal budget is expected to flip a long-established script for the Canadian military and the Department of National Defence. Instead of being the institutional embodiment of the Charles Dickens character Oliver Twist — the orphan who asked for more...
A new experience-based pay rate for military pilots — intended to keep them in uniform rather than flying for commercial airlines — was poorly thought out, badly implemented and has resulted in some officers refusing promotions because it would set them back financially, says an internal Defence Department report obtained by CBC News.
Deputy defence minister says planning, construction of facilities proceeding despite review. Canada is proceeding "full steam ahead" on the F-35 fighter program until it hears otherwise, a top Department of National Defence official has told a House of Commons committee. Deputy Defence Minister Stefani Beck testified before the tri-party public accounts committee on Tuesday, which is studying the latest auditor...
A former top naval commander and several defence experts have been left scratching their heads following the governing Liberals and Opposition Conservatives' recent embrace of the notion of giving the Royal Canadian Navy heavy, armed icebreakers to defend the Arctic.
Mixed fleets and avoiding American firms come with their own challenges. Only 40 per cent of Canada's air force inventory is considered serviceable and ready to fight, according to a new military-wide readiness document obtained by CBC News. And the uncertainty about the availability and age of the various fleets of aircraft is expected to grow in light of the...
The Canadian shipyard building the navy's new destroyers and the British defence contractor responsible for the basic design recently signed a collaboration contract, marking the next step forward in the multibillion-dollar program that the federal government has largely wrapped in secrecy. Much of the program's plans and costs remain shrouded in mystery and obfuscation — including precisely how much each...
Experts say annexing by 'economic force' involves more than just tariffs. The first shots of the trade war between the United States and Canada have been fired. Whether it escalates beyond the planned 25 per cent tariff into a wider economic war depends upon how genuinely serious President Donald Trump is about annexation, experts say.
Australia is joining the United States and the United Kingdom in developing top-secret cloud networks to exchange highly classified defence, national security and intelligence data with each other — a concept Canada has just begun to think about. Experts say that, unless the gap is closed quickly, Canada's lack of such digital infrastructure will have a profound impact on new...
Ukraine's ambassador to Canada says her country is in dire need of armoured vehicles and hopes Canada's plan to supply rebuilt troop carriers proceeds quickly. Yuliya Kovaliv appeared Tuesday before the House of Commons defence committee, where she fielded a series of questions about Canadian military support for Ukraine's defence in its war with Russia.
A plan to rebuild and modernize two dozen decommissioned Canadian light armoured vehicles for donation to Ukraine is stuck in bureaucratic limbo more than nine months after the defence department handed the vehicles over to an Ontario company that specializes in restoration, CBC News has learned.
Canada's military ombudsman has launched a review of the Department of National Defence's (DND) treatment of former language and cultural advisers who served alongside Canadian troops in Afghanistan. In a letter to Defence Minister Bill Blair, the acting watchdog, Robyn Hynes, said while her office has met with department staff several times over the past year, the advisers are still...
Canada is donating tens of thousands of rocket motors, a handful of surplus warheads and the decommissioned chassis of nearly 100 armoured vehicles to Ukraine as part of its latest military support package. Defence Minister Bill Blair also announced Friday details of Canada's plan to contribute to F-16 pilot training for the Ukrainians — a $389 million investment by the...
It initially took Canada four months to get into the queue after deciding to join a plan by the United States to buy urgently needed National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for Ukraine. Defence Minister Bill Blair insists the lag did not contribute to the slow pace of acquiring the high-tech defensive capability, which is still months away from being...
Canadian military members who are retiring in the foreseeable future will face delays in receiving severance, back pay and accumulated vacation payouts, the Department of National Defence has acknowledged. There's been concern and confusion among veterans for several weeks, after a note sent to members who are on track to be released warned them to expect delays in receiving their...
Canada's defence department and military are approaching the implementation and use of artificial intelligence in a "fragmented," unco-ordinated manner, says a newly prepared federal strategy. The long-awaited overview of how to deal with rapidly evolving machine-learning technology is being met with mixed reviews by some high-tech and civil society experts who had been expecting more clarity on where the country...
A little more than 18 years ago, amid the dust and hard heat of Kandahar Airfield, the weary look on Col. Ian Hope's face spoke more loudly than his words. It was the spring of 2006 and the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan had just been through several brutal weeks. More than half a dozen Canadian soldiers had been killed in...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been taking the temperature of Canada-U.S. relations in a series of high-level political and economic meetings ahead of the NATO Summit in Washington. On Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning, he met with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that included Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
There was an unscripted moment during a panel debate in Toronto last month that could go a long way toward explaining Canada's long-term reluctance to publicly and wholeheartedly embrace NATO's guideline for members' defence spending. Appearing on a panel at the Eurasia's group's U.S.-Canada Summit, the typically unflappable Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was asked pointedly how Ottawa could be...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to Washington today for a meeting of NATO nations — where he's widely expected to hear some tough talk from allies behind closed doors about his government's refusal to deliver a clear plan to meet the alliance's defence spending targets. Twenty-three of 32 NATO member nations are expected this year to meet the alliance target...
The Canadian military has tightened up regulations on personal grooming after getting an earful from members who were not happy with the relaxed standards introduced almost two years ago. The revised rules on hair and beard length come into effect today. One expert says the newest set of regulations, announced last month, may not entirely quell the social and political...
Newly revised economic data suggests Canada's pledge to bring its defence spending closer to NATO's benchmark is coming off the rails already, a House of Commons committee heard Monday. A little more than two months after the Liberal government promised to increase its defence spending to 1.76 per cent of the gross domestic product by the end of the decade...
The lawyer representing the former head of the Canadian Armed Forces personnel branch is calling on Defence Minister Bill Blair to bring in either the RCMP or the Ontario Provincial Police to review the "professional competency" of the military police service and its leadership. In a recent letter, Phillip Millar said military investigators' handling of sexual misconduct investigations has shaken...
The Royal Canadian Navy now finds itself in the unusual position of both shadowing Russian warships as a threat in the Caribbean and sharing an anchorage with them as a guest in the port of Havana — because Canada accepted an invitation to send a patrol ship to Cuba while the Russian navy is in town. And it's not clear...
Protecting military trainers in the event they're deployed back into Ukraine is the primary concern for Canadian defence planners as France steps up pressure on allies to join its training initiative, Canada's top military commander says. The federal government signaled earlier in the spring it would consider putting non-combat troops back into the embattled Eastern European country when "circumstances are...
Don Levers is wrestling with an extraordinary number of "what-ifs" as he, his daughter and granddaughter embark on a personal pilgrimage to the beaches of Normandy to find the spot where, 80 years ago, his father almost lost his life. On June 6, 1944, Rifleman Gerry Levers of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles came ashore with the second wave of troops...
The first 16 of the air force's new F-35 fighters will be paid for out of the current federal budget, even though Canada isn't expected to take delivery of the warplanes until 2026. Defence Minister Bill Blair pointed to the investment on Monday while defending the Liberal government's military spending plans before a House of Commons committee. In testimony to...
The Canadian military is weighing how many and what kind of "optionally-crewed" warships it will need in the future as drone technology and artificial intelligence change the face of naval combat, says the commander of the navy. Vice-Admiral Angus Tophee told CBC News that while navies will always need large combat surface ships and submarines, Canada's allies have started to...
They have an inconspicuous designation but the Ukrainian intelligence officers who belong to Group 13 have developed a formidable, far-reaching reputation. Named after their leader within Ukraine's defence intelligence agency — a man who goes by the nom de guerre Call Sign 13 — this unit of maritime drone operators has destroyed or damaged more than half a dozen Russian warships.
Just over a month into the new fiscal year and two weeks after the federal budget, the Department of National Defence is struggling to reconcile the Liberal government's approach to military funding — giving with one hand while taking with the other. Gen. Wayne Eyre, the country's top military commander, told the rank-and-file in a remote town hall event last...
A leading member of the Ukrainian parliament delivered stark warnings to Canadian politicians and top defence officials this week in a series of mostly under-the-radar meetings in Ottawa ahead of the long-anticipated aid vote in the U.S. Congress. Oleksandra Ustinova, the head of Ukraine's special parliamentary commission on arms and munitions, told Defence Minister Bill Blair, members of key House...
The recruiting hole in which the Canadian military finds itself is deeper and potentially more serious than it might appear at first glance — in part because of all the new equipment the federal government has ordered, or plans to order in the near future. Just recently, Defence Minister Bill Blair estimated the military is short up to 16,500 members...
Inarguably bigger and more seasoned than it was when it was born from the ashes of the Second World War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — the West's great military alliance — celebrated a milestone Thursday: three-quarters of a century of keeping the peace in Europe. NATO formally came into being with the signing of the Washington Treaty in the...
An almost two-year-long internal investigation into how military police handled the criminal case of an air force officer who took his own life after being charged with sexual assault has cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, CBC News has learned. The report by the Office of Professional Standards of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, dated Feb. 9, 2024, concluded...
Canada's military ombudsman is calling on the Department of National Defence (DND) to make an exception and offer special compensation to former language and cultural advisers who served alongside Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Gregory Lick is issuing his call for compensation as Canada marks the 10th anniversary of its military withdrawal from the country's longest-ever war.
There's a school of thought that suggests it's never a good idea to disagree with your boss, at least in public. Behind closed doors? Maybe. But in front of an audience of hundreds of people, many of them with strong political views? Maybe not.
Only 58 per cent of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) would be able to respond if called upon in a crisis by NATO allies right now — and almost half of the military's equipment is considered "unavailable and unserviceable" — says a recent internal Department of National Defence (DND) presentation obtained by CBC News. The presentation, which touches on everything...
Three new public opinion surveys suggest Canadians are growing more concerned about the state of the country's military — and about Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's threats to abandon allies who don't invest in defence. The Angus Reid Institute released new data Tuesday showing a larger share of Canadians — 29 per cent — are choosing military preparedness and the...
An embarrassing multi-million-dollar accounting error that was covered up for years at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) will end up costing taxpayers almost $1 billion, now that a Federal Court judge has signed off on a combined class-action settlement. More than 272,000 former soldiers, sailors and aircrew — most of them elderly — were short-changed on pension and disability payments for...
The cost of the Liberal government's nearly seven-year-old marquee defence plan has jumped by over $50 billion — mostly due to anticipated work on modernizing continental defence and delays in projects that should be underway — the federal budget watchdog said Wednesday. The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released an update to its projections for the impact of Strong...
If it were any other time — and if the stakes weren't so high — the swift international slapdown that followed French President Emmanuel Macron's recent comments on Ukraine might have been funny. On Monday, Macron refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine. The words were barely out of his mouth before startled allies and leaders around the...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a deal in Kyiv on Saturday committing Canada to a $3.02-billion security assistance package for Ukraine, a milestone event to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. He was joined by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned speech to parliamentarians on Friday calling on Canadians and other western allies to stick by his country through the long, bloody road to victory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was welcomed Friday morning to Parliament Hill -- where experts say he can expect a political reception less chilly than the one he experienced recently in Washington D.C.