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.
Detailed planning for a potential "coalition of the willing" peacekeeping mission to Ukraine is expected to kick off this week among Western military commanders, says the Canadian general in charge of overseas and domestic operations.The notion of a peacekeeping force is being met internationally with skepticism as Ukraine and Russia meet indirectly to hammer out a limited ceasefire.
Trump's annexation threats have upended the notion that there are no votes in defence. Issues of sovereignty, national security and defence — often footnotes, or even ignored outright in federal election campaigns — are likely to dominate the political landscape over the next five weeks as Canadians march toward the April 28 vote.
Canada is actively looking at potential alternatives to the U.S.-built F-35 stealth fighter and will hold conversations with rival aircraft makers, Defence Minister Bill Blair said late Friday, just hours after being reappointed to the post as part of Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet. The remarks came one day after Portugal signalled it was planning to ditch its acquisition...
Canadian and American troops fought together and bled together in the scorched hinterlands of Afghanistan.And for that reason there is a palpable sense of dismay — even betrayal — among Canadian veterans toward the Trump administration over its threats and treatment of not just Canada, but other allies such Ukraine.
Eventual price tag for trio of warships expected to top $22.2 billion. Amid a flurry of last minute senate and judicial appointments, the Liberal government quietly announced Saturday it has signed an $8 billion implementation contract for the construction of the Royal Canadian Navy's new destroyers. It is only the first step in the long-delayed process to replace the navy's...
Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright says army is examining everything from 'headquarters right down to the unit level.' The Canadian Army is about to embark on a wholesale restructuring in the face of growing demands for troops and equipment both overseas and at home, says the country's top soldier. A military modernization team is currently studying the problem against the backdrop of...
Canada's participation in U.S. President Donald Trump's planned "Golden Dome" missile-defence system for North America is limited to research involving the detection of incoming threats, the U.S. commander for NORAD told a defence conference on Wednesday. Gen. Greg Guillot told the annual Conference of Defence Associations Institute annual forum in Ottawa that he and his staff are excited about the...
The country's top military commander delivered a keep calm and carry on message on Wednesday in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated threats to annex Canada. Gen. Jennie Carignan says the military-to-military relationship between the two countries is solid and has not shown the signs of the political strain that has racked the two nations. "The relationship that...
NATO members and other allies may worry that they'll be next. Whenever we talk about NATO it's usually in the context of money — or the famous all-for-one, one-for-all treaty clause known as Article 5. The provision is the bedrock of the Western military alliance, allowing leaders from Latvia to London to Ottawa to sleep better at night knowing more...
NATO's secretary general is downplaying the threat of a trade war between the United States and Canada — two founding members of the Western military alliance — as a dispute that could be managed. Mark Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands who was appointed to the top allied political post last fall, spoke Monday in Brussels alongside British...
NATO says it wants its members to develop national plans to bolster the capacity of their individual defence industry sectors, a concept Canada has struggled with — or avoided outright — for decades.
'I wonder if they should have just gone to Canadian Tire,' says defence expert. Despite the defence department spending more than $34.8 million on new sleeping bags, the Canadian Army asked late last year that hundreds of soldiers headed to a joint northern exercise in Alaska with the Americans be issued with old, 1960s-vintage bedrolls. Troops who had used the...
Despite facing heavy pressure to ramp up military spending, the Department of National Defence (DND) has slow-rolled one of the least complex of its vehicle replacement programs. The light utility vehicle program has been on the books for several years. Its purpose is to update the military's fleet of two-decade-old Afghan war-era Mercedes G-Wagons and civilian-grade utility vehicles, such as...
Ukraine is free to use Canadian-donated tanks and armoured vehicles inside Russia, the Department of National Defence said Thursday.The statement comes as speculation grows among military experts about how long Ukraine can stay on the offensive in Russia's Kursk region — and about the long-term impact the surprise cross-border incursion will have on the long-running war.
The Liberal government's recent internal budget cutting exercise at the Department of National Defence (DND) has deprived the army's system for maintaining equipment and vehicles of up to $150 million, CBC News has learned. And when the preservation of older systems — the kind that might have to be pressed into service during an emergency — is factored in, the...
The cost to build the navy's often-delayed, long-anticipated supply ships has shot up once again — this time by almost $1 billion — the federal procurement department announced Friday. Successive federal governments have tried for almost two decades to deliver joint support ships (JSS) to the navy — vessels used to replenish warships at sea. After years of delay, the...
The Pentagon has released an updated Arctic strategy that warns of low-level Russian "destabilizing" activities in the Far North aimed at the United States, Canada and its allies. The 18-page assessment, released earlier this week, also points to increased naval co-operation in the region between Moscow and Beijing and promises more allied military exercises, the deployment of new technologies and...
The Department of National Defence is actively considering whether to retire some older ships, planes and other items of equipment that have become difficult and costly to maintain — including the aircraft belonging to the iconic Snowbird demonstration squadron. In an interview with CBC News, Defence Minister Bill Blair insisted no decisions have been made and he's waiting on advice...
Reaching NATO's defence spending benchmark isn't about showing up at your local military trade show with a credit card and buying "a whole bunch of stuff," Defence Minister Bill Blair said Friday following the conclusion of the alliance's Washington summit. In an interview with CBC News, he also suggested some allies have it easier than Canada does when it comes...
Canada plans to commit an additional $500 million in military assistance to Ukraine this year, the federal government said on the sidelines of the NATO Summit.The announcement, late Wednesday, capped a day where the 32-member alliance clearly felt the political pressure of a war going badly.
The United States, Canada and Finland have entered into a trilateral pact to build icebreakers for the Arctic region, the three countries said in a joint statement Thursday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington.The agreement also involves the sharing of expertise, information and capabilities among the partner countries."This partnership will strengthen the shipbuilding in
Canada definitely plans to move forward with the purchase of new submarines, the federal government announced on the margins of the NATO Summit on Wednesday. Up to now, the government has spoken only about the possibility of replacing the aging Victoria-class boats. But in the face of mounting criticism of Canada's defence spending by allies — notably the United States...
Representatives of NATO nations gathered in Washington Tuesday for a landmark anniversary leaders' summit, complete with a musical performance that could have rivalled Broadway.But behind the celebratory air and the parade of flags in the hall where allies signed the Washington Treaty 75 years ago — launching the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — there was an air of political anxiety.
Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan has been named the next chief of the defence staff, CBC News and Radio-Canada have learned — making her the first woman to serve as the top commander of the Canadian military. Carignan will succeed Gen. Wayne Eyre as leader of the Canadian Armed Forces, a senior source said. CBC News is keeping the name of the...
The country's top military commander says contingency evacuation plans have been drawn up to extract roughly 20,000 Canadians from Lebanon should full-scale fighting erupt between Israel and Hezbollah, but those plans are heavily dependent on allied support.
Canada, Germany and Norway are discussing the possibility of a trilateral defence and security partnership covering the North Atlantic and the Arctic — an arrangement that could be broader and deeper than previously thought. When German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was in Ottawa early last month, he made reference to a letter delivered to his Canadian counterpart, Bill Blair, offering...
The cabinet minister in charge of the federal treasury says it doesn't make sense to pour vast amounts of money into the Department of National Defence until it has the capacity to spend what it's being given. Federal Treasury Board President Anita Anand, a former defence minister, waded into the debate over Canada's apparent inability to meet the NATO benchmark...
One of the country's leading business voices is warning that Canada faces "diplomatic isolation" if it's not prepared to deliver a concrete plan next month to raise defence spending to meet NATO's benchmark. The Business Council of Canada — which has been wading more and more into the debate on national security lately — made the assessment in a letter...
On so many different levels, the gathering of western leaders in Normandy today is steeped in symbolism as the nations whose troops stormed the beaches eight decades ago reflect on wars — past and present. The ceremonies that will unfold throughout today, however, also mark what might be the world's last opportunity to celebrate the handful of surviving soldiers, sailors...
There will be money set aside in today's federal budget for the Department of National Defence (DND) — much of it linked to the implementation of the new defence policy released with great fanfare last week by the Liberal government after more than two years of study. It remains to be seen how quickly the funding will be rolled out...
With absolutely no exceptions, every defence policy presented by the Canadian government over the past five decades has presented a vision of the world beyond our borders going to hell in a handbasket.The wars may be different, the adversaries might change, threats might have evolved — but the language almost always stays the same.
As the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine arrives, the Russian Army is showing a remarkable capacity to take extraordinary punishment and regenerate itself at a pace western military leaders and experts had not anticipated. Only nine months ago, American intelligence officials were telling the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take a decade — or...
Canada has signalled it's prepared to get behind a Czech Republic initiative to ship tens of thousands of artillery shells from different countries to Ukraine on an urgent basis. Although the details are still being finalized, defence sources say the federal government could contribute as much as $30 million to the plan, which was proposed at the opening of the...
In the fall of 2022, a little more than six months into the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, two of Canada's major ammunition manufacturers submitted proposals to the Liberal government to drastically increase production of artillery shells. Almost a year and a half later — with Canadian stockpiles drained by donations to dangerously low levels, and with Ukraine running out...
Canada is cutting another cheque for $60 million to help train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced Wednesday as allies gathered in Brussels ahead of this week's NATO ministerial meeting. The contribution announced at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting follows the federal government's announcement last month of a $15 million donation to pay...
We have been warned — over and over again lately — that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an inflection point in history. And while the soaring political rhetoric may have sounded good over the last few years, it's very likely that this week — after a cascade of events in Kyiv, Moscow, Washington and, yes, even Ottawa — we truly...
Air force technicians are being forced to perform more frequent inspections of Canada's trouble-prone CH-148 Cyclone helicopters after the U.S. manufacturer found a defect related to the main rotor blades, says an internal report. CBC News has obtained a copy of what's known as a Record of Airworthiness Risk Management report for the maritime helicopter — basically, the military air...
In Estonia, they're talking about building more public bomb shelters and making them mandatory in all newly constructed homes.In neighbouring Latvia, the government is going through the second draft of mandatory military service legislation. Next door in Lithuania, there's talk of universal conscription.
The Department of National Defence (DND) has revised its estimate of the lifetime cost of owning and operating the air force's CH-148 Cyclones to $15.9 billion — slightly more than a billion dollars higher than its previous estimate.CBC News reported last week on 2021 internal documents that projected the full life-cycle cost — including purchase, operations and sustainment — was expected to exceed $14.87 billion.
A significant, even far-reaching event would have slipped almost silently under the radar in Ottawa this week, had it not been for Ukrainian news media. The Liberal government quietly (perhaps deliberately so) handed over a draft of its proposed security assurances plan for Ukraine to officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office. The milestone was acknowledged by Canada's Ambassador to Ukraine...
The lifetime cost of buying, owning and operating the air force's troubled CH-148 Cyclones is now expected to top $14.87 billion, according to a leaked internal Department of National Defence briefing document obtained by CBC News. Most of the expense — $10 billion — is being attributed to the cost of sustaining the aircraft. The CH-148 Cyclone is unique; no...
The air force is worried about keeping the aging weapons systems aboard its CH-148 Cyclones operational into the future, according to leaked documents obtained by CBC News. It's an understatement to say that the $5.8 billion maritime helicopters project is a work-in-progress for the Department of National Defence (DND) and the aircraft's U.S. manufacturer, Sikorsky. It will soon be 2...
The Department of National Defence (DND) says it's taking steps to improve training for staff at the military's sexual misconduct support centre, acknowledging that men who report being abused have not always felt "safe, secure and supported." The federal government issued a notice late in December saying it intends to award a sole-source contract to an Ottawa-based company to provide...
The former soldier who blew the whistle on alleged torture videos involving Iraqi security forces who were trained by Canadian troops has made a direct appeal to Opposition Leader Pierre Pollievre.In a letter, retired sergeant Mike MacInnis called on the Conservatives to push for a follow-up investigation into how the military handled his warnings.
Few outside journalists have been able to enter Gaza, but developments in satellite technology over the past decade have made it possible to accurately assess from space the destruction brought by the war in the small Palestinian enclave.Some of the tools being used to track bomb damage in Gaza were developed to measure deforestation or damage following natural disasters.
"War," said British philosopher, mathematician and pacifist Bertrand Russell, "does not determine who is right — only who is left."Those words might be the perfect lens through which to view what probably lies ahead for Ukraine in the coming year as its troops dig in — and dig deep — along a front roughly 960 kilometres wide.
Canada has more at stake than meets the eye in the long, drawn-out geopolitical drama over Sweden's bid to join NATO.Sweden's full membership in the military alliance is being blocked by Turkey and Hungary. The Nordic country is also set to play an important role in the multinational brigade that Canada is leading in Latvia.
After more than two decades of debate, discussion and policy dissection, Canada's air force finally has the green light to acquire armed drones.A fleet of 11 MQ-9 Reaper drones, built by U.S. defence contractor General Atomics, will be purchased in a $2.49 billion package, Liberal MPs announced Tuesday on behalf of Defence Minister Bill Blair.
Something's gotta give.That's the message the Canadian military's top operations commander delivers now every time he meets with federal public safety officials and desperate provinces struggling to respond to domestic, climate-related disasters.If the statistics are any guide, however, Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie's message is falling on partially deaf ears.
Canada not only trained suspected Iraqi war criminals in 2018, it distributed western-made weapons and protective equipment to them — likely coming from U.S. stockpiles — says a former soldier who was among the first to blow the whistle on videos that implicate the trainees in atrocities. The Canadian soldiers who were conducting the training in northern Iraq complained at...
Canada's air force will have to wait a few extra years to get the armed drones it has been promised for more than a decade — because, among other things, the pilotless aircraft require special modifications to fly in the Far North. The federal government had planned to acquire by 2025 a fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones, built by U.S...
The country's military ombudsman says efforts by the Department of National Defence (DND) to get care and treatment for former language and cultural advisers who worked with Canadian soldiers during the Afghan war have been "inadequate or nonexistent."Gregory Lick delivered that assessment in a recent letter to Defence Minister Bill Blair, who took over the portfolio in the summer.
A leading NATO official and Canada's top military commander have both warned allies within the past week that their ammunition shortages have reached a crisis state, and are calling for urgent action to boost production of critical artillery rounds. Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff, recently told a House of Commons committee that if Canadian troops were called...