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


Transcript

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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