Juno News - June 26, 2025


Carney says Canada can reach NATO's new 5% target by 2035


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

160.52191

Word count

1,952

Sentence count

85


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A civil liberties group is reopening a case involving a BC university cancelling a free speech club talk on Antifa violence. Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to reach NATO s new target of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith launches the Alberta Next Panel aimed at gathering public opinion on how Alberta should advocate for itself against the feds.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to reach NATO's new target of spending 5% of GDP on defense
00:00:10.640 by 2035. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith launches the Alberta Next panel aimed at gathering public
00:00:17.820 opinion on how Alberta should advocate for itself against the feds. A civil liberties group is
00:00:23.420 reopening a case involving a BC university cancelling a free speech club talk on Antifa
00:00:28.360 violence saying the school must respect freedom of expression rights. Hello Canada it's Thursday
00:00:33.740 June 26th and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux and I'm Clayton DeMaine. We've
00:00:39.000 got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day
00:00:42.760 and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else. Prime Minister Mark Carney has
00:00:50.680 pledged to reach NATO's new 5% of GDP spending on defense target by 2035 giving his government 10
00:00:57.240 years to meet the new goal. He also stated that Canada is finally on track to meet its initial
00:01:01.720 agreement to spend 2% of GDP on defense this year after years of delays. During a NATO summit in The
00:01:07.660 Hague on Wednesday, Carney announced Canada's pledge to raise the nation's 2% of its GDP defense spending
00:01:13.360 commitment to 3.5% and 1.5% for industrial and infrastructure by 2035. He told reporters quote,
00:01:20.760 With increasingly open Arctic waters and rapid advances in cyber and AI and quantum with advanced
00:01:26.620 missile capacities, we can no longer rely on our geography to protect us. As the global landscape
00:01:31.300 shifts, the collective security created by the alliance remains the most effective way of
00:01:35.820 protecting the security of Canadians. So together with our allies, we must ensure that NATO remains
00:01:40.880 strong, unified and ready to confront the threats. He said infrastructure and industrial investments
00:01:46.260 will include ports, airports, transportation, infrastructure, resilient telecommunications,
00:01:51.700 emergency preparedness systems, and the development and exportation of critical minerals.
00:01:56.740 Investments, he said, will largely improve Canada's economy as well as defense.
00:02:00.660 Carney said quote, These are responsibilities we have today to Canadians and responsibilities that,
00:02:05.940 by and large, we are fulfilling. Now we are going to do a more proper accounting of that and a more
00:02:10.820 strategic set of investments in that. He said a review of the spending will take place in 2029,
00:02:16.340 notably after US President Donald Trump is set to leave office. So Clayton, how will Carney reach
00:02:21.380 that 5% of GDP target? Will this mean deepening ties with US defense companies?
00:02:25.780 So during the press conference, Carney confirmed that he was currently engaged with European partners
00:02:31.780 on big ticket defense items such as submarines and fighter jets. Now does that mean there will be no
00:02:38.020 procurement from US companies? We'll see US defense companies are closer to us and are so big
00:02:46.180 that Canada really has to go out of its way to find other partners. Submarines cost anywhere from
00:02:52.020 $500 million to $1 billion. And there have been discussions about Canada potentially procuring
00:02:58.980 up to 12 new submarines. So that could cost up to $100 billion. It's hard to imagine that losing
00:03:05.380 potentially $100 billion on submarines alone wouldn't make US manufacturers annoyed at Trump for his
00:03:12.660 tariffs and antagonizing Canada to the point where it's now looking to Europe for these procurement
00:03:18.820 deals. That's not even counting the estimated $19 billion that companies such as Lockheed Martin
00:03:24.660 could be missing out on from Canada attempting to hit NATO's new target with the fighter jets.
00:03:32.340 During the press conference, Carney all but said Canada would formally join NATO. He said our values
00:03:39.220 align. And as the EU is described as a union growing ever closer together, he said Canada would
00:03:45.620 be trying to deepen its relationship with the EU in the same vein. He said a good percentage of
00:03:51.060 the new spending would already just be developing Canada's economy through those infrastructure
00:03:58.180 deals. Even if we don't need to defend ourselves, it would still improve our economy as well as our
00:04:02.900 defense. It would improve Canada's economy as well as its defense.
00:04:06.500 Premier Daniel Smith has launched the Alberta Next panel, a new province-wide consultation platform
00:04:15.860 aimed at gathering public input on how Alberta can better assert its constitutional powers and push
00:04:22.340 back against what Smith describes as Ottawa's continued economic interference. Announced Tuesday through a
00:04:29.060 video posted to X, Smith said the panel is a response to what she called, quote, Ottawa's economic attacks and a, quote,
00:04:38.100 status quo that threatens our province's economic future and way of life. Over the coming months,
00:04:44.340 the Alberta Next panel will hold in-person and virtual town halls across the province, providing residents
00:04:51.540 with a platform to engage with policy experts, government officials, and constitutional scholars.
00:05:08.260 The goal is to determine which provincial reforms should be put to a referendum next year. Among the
00:05:14.820 ideas under consideration is the creation of an Alberta Provincial Police Service, which would replace
00:05:21.060 the RCMP in providing local policing across the province. Smith's government is also exploring
00:05:27.860 withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan and establishing an independent Alberta Pension Plan
00:05:34.260 that would be managed by the province. Another proposal would see Alberta exit its tax collection
00:05:40.340 agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency allowing the province to collect its own personal income taxes,
00:05:46.740 a move Smith says would increase transparency and autonomy. The panel will also seek public feedback
00:05:52.660 on the prospect of Alberta assuming more control over immigration policy with the stated goal of
00:05:58.100 protecting the province from what the government calls, quote, out of control federal immigration levels.
00:06:04.260 So there's a lot in this interestingly named Alberta Next panel. So Isaac, is this a move
00:06:10.260 to court Albertans keen on separating from Canada? And will it be enough to satisfy those Albertans who
00:06:17.700 want to secede from Confederation? Well, Clayton, I think saying that the move was made to court Alberta
00:06:23.060 separatists would be at least slightly inaccurate, being that it doesn't consider the full context.
00:06:28.340 Firstly, Smith announced that she would chair the Alberta Next panel back at the start of May.
00:06:33.300 The panel will consist of leaders in the judicial, academic, and economic spheres. And as you said,
00:06:38.180 they will conduct numerous online and in-person town halls to discuss Alberta's future in Canada
00:06:43.940 and propose potential referenda. Therefore, it's more so a panel to gauge public opinion so that the
00:06:50.660 provincial government can act accordingly, which I would argue is a democratic process that any
00:06:54.980 provincial resident would want from their government. Let's remember that Smith has said time and again
00:07:00.340 that she wants Alberta to remain a part of Canada. But she has also said that if there is a clear majority of
00:07:05.700 Albertans that want to separate, she will not stand in their way. Again, a clear demonstration of the
00:07:10.980 democratic process. She has said that she would put separation to a vote in 2026 if the required
00:07:17.140 number of signatures were met. And it's looking like that will be the case. Smith previously said,
00:07:21.940 quote, the vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified.
00:07:27.780 They are loyal Albertans. They are quite literally our friends and neighbors who've just had enough
00:07:32.500 of having their livelihoods and prosperity attacked by a hostile federal government.
00:07:38.020 So these panels may help Albertans better determine whether they endorse separation or not,
00:07:42.500 and they'll also hear concerns and benefits raised by others and potentially even the government.
00:07:46.660 The Alberta Prosperity Project, a leading separatist group, is also doing a similar thing
00:07:50.900 as they travel province-wide conducting forums highlighting all the benefits of separation,
00:07:55.780 especially from an economic standpoint. A Canadian civil liberties group is seeking
00:08:04.020 an appeal in a case involving the University of British Columbia's 2019 cancellation of a talk
00:08:09.300 on Antifa violence hosted by the school's Free Speech Club. The original decision found that the
00:08:14.020 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to UBC, meaning it cannot be sued as a public
00:08:19.060 institution under the charter. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it has submitted
00:08:23.780 an appeal request to British Columbia's Court of Appeal to overturn a Supreme Court of British
00:08:29.140 Columbia decision. The BCSC initially found that the UBC wasn't a public institution and that the
00:08:34.740 province couldn't be held liable for its actions. On March 13, 2024, the Free Speech Club, Noah Alter,
00:08:41.780 Cooper Asp and Jared Yeager, now a journalist with the Western Standard, filed a notice of civil claim
00:08:47.700 against the university seeking charter damages and relief from both the province and the school.
00:08:53.300 The club and students claim that UBC violated their Charter of Rights and Freedoms after cancelling
00:08:58.420 an event called, quote, Understanding Antifa Violence that the student-run club had hosted
00:09:03.700 at the school. The school cited concerns about, quote, emotional safety and security of the campus
00:09:08.820 community. According to the JCCF announcement, there are, quote, two central issues in this case.
00:09:14.020 One is whether universities are subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and must,
00:09:18.180 therefore, protect freedom of expression. The second is whether the province is liable for
00:09:22.180 charter damages caused by UBC. So, Clayton, are there any other battleground cases that could
00:09:26.660 determine the future of free expression rights in Canada currently underway?
00:09:30.180 Yeah, so there's a few cases going on that could really affect the state of freedom of expression
00:09:35.620 rights in the future in Canada. Josh DeHass, a former journalist and a civil liberties lawyer with
00:09:42.260 the Canadian Constitution Foundation, told True North last year his list of key civil liberties cases to
00:09:48.740 watch out, or this year. One of those was whether or not the Emergencies Act was constitutional,
00:09:53.700 which could determine thresholds on how freedom of assembly rights are handled by the courts.
00:09:58.340 But there's also a case many listeners might not even realize is being challenged. Most people are
00:10:04.500 familiar with the ENSECOP secrecy law, which bars those who read the foreign influence reports,
00:10:09.620 which come from the National Security Intelligence Committee, bars them from sharing the contents of
00:10:15.060 those reports. We saw Pierre Polyev refused to read these documents, saying it would have gagged him.
00:10:20.500 So there is a law professor, Ryan Alford, who is challenging that law, saying it's unconstitutional
00:10:26.100 to gag parliamentarians, as free speech was first given to parliamentarians. He argues it violates
00:10:32.420 the long-held English parliament tradition of parliamentary privilege. The Superior Court
00:10:37.780 of Canada actually agreed with Alford that it violates those free expression rights held by
00:10:43.380 parliamentarians. So this year the case will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, as the
00:10:49.060 Government of Canada doesn't want to let go of the bill without a fight. Another interesting one is
00:10:54.260 Quebec's Bill 21, which bans public employees from expressing their religion. The secularly driven
00:11:01.220 Quebec government have been fighting for this law since 2019 by using the nonwithstanding clause to
00:11:07.860 override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But the Quebec government's use of the clause is being
00:11:12.580 challenged with arguments expected to be heard in fall of this year. And that's not going into
00:11:18.980 certain bills that were killed by the prorogation of parliament before the election, such as the Online
00:11:25.060 Harms Act, commonly criticized for its censorship of hate speech online, or so-called hate speech online,
00:11:34.180 and the NDP private members bill to criminalize, quote, residential school denialism, which is likely
00:11:40.900 to be reintroduced into parliament since the Liberals are still in power.
00:11:44.580 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by
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