00:04:24.140If a country within the NATO alliance tries to take over Greenland, would Canada then
00:04:30.240be ready to contribute with military forces and actually put up military resistance to
00:04:35.900protect Greenland well the first thing I'd say thank you for the question we
00:04:41.840stand foursquare behind the principles of sovereignty territorial integrity it
00:04:48.260is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide their futures and
00:04:52.940first point being absolutely clear about that being clear that we will back that
00:04:58.700with measures as necessary as a partner and being I think the fact that we in
00:05:05.880others have been clear I don't want to put it on Canada but European Union
00:05:09.900others have been clear about these fundamental principles and the principle
00:05:14.040of solidarity has helped to create the space which always should have been
00:05:19.320there to be clear to develop a better security umbrella in the Arctic but also
00:05:26.160including Greenland so we're clear on where we stand and we will continue to
00:05:30.600stand with Denmark and Greenland thank you okay what I heard him say was back
00:05:34.620green lands sovereignty with measures as necessary and that was done within the
00:05:40.200context of a question an explicit question about whether Canada would
00:05:43.980provide military aid to resist a fellow NATO partner with designs on taking over
00:05:52.860Greenland what did you hear there me it was a word salad like I said it was kind
00:05:58.680like a yes prime minister episode uh i'm i'm i i suspect that the prime minister is not quite
00:06:06.520certain how he he needs to answer that question um and particularly uh you know it's it's kind of a
00:06:15.240silly scenario one i think it's very unlikely the united states is going to invade greenland
00:06:21.080And two, I think it's very silly to suggest that NATO would actually stand in with military forces to take on the United States.
00:06:33.600Canada really would find itself in quite a hot spot if it did that.
00:06:38.800Yeah, I mean, the idea that Canada, with the military it has, you know, to take some kind of position, military position against the United States over Greenland seems preposterous. I mean, we'd have a hard enough time defending our own country.
00:06:54.800yeah i mean keep in mind that nato has has these little uh little uh cleavages uh greece and turkey
00:07:04.080uh always uh seem to get into it with one another and make threats particularly over cyprus uh the
00:07:11.680united kingdom and gibraltar go back or united kingdom and spain go back and forth on gibraltar
00:07:17.280so disputes over territory within nato countries is not unusual and it's and it's not a new found
00:07:25.640thing but it is uh weird and wonderful that that people suggest that we're going to take military
00:07:32.120action against one another um i think i think that kind of kind of stretches it yeah but he
00:07:39.540could have ducked that question by saying well it's extremely unlikely that would happen and
00:07:43.620will deal with it were, you know, in the extreme unlikely event that it did, but he actually
00:07:49.640seemed to suggest that we were going to defend Greenland with our military, which is a bit
00:07:55.100of an eye-opener. But he had an eventful week because we found out, of course, that Iran
00:08:00.800did bomb Canada's military base in Kuwait early on in the conflict, a fact that it was
00:08:06.820kept secret from the Canadian public for, I believe, 11 days. And it was only discovered
00:08:12.880because of a leak to the media and then when he was asked about he said well you know we have other
00:08:17.360spokesmen around to address issues like that to me it was a bizarre response what did you make of
00:08:24.560that uh i met i made of that that the government is very sensitive on the issue probably overly
00:08:31.600sensitive on the issue because the prime minister has problems with his own uh own party and caucus
00:08:59.820wanted to avoid it until it became public,
00:09:02.880which is different from our other native allies.
00:09:05.720Keep in mind, the Iranians went after the French naval base Niwaii. They went after the Spanish and Italians in Iraq. They went after Canada and Kuwait. They went after the British bases in Cyprus. They fired three ballistic missiles at Turkey, all of which was reported fairly quickly and responded to honestly and openly by the countries that had taken attacks on them.
00:09:35.720their forces. The one that seems to have, you know, held back and tried to avoid it becoming
00:09:40.880public was Canada. Are you suggesting, and forgive me if you're not, but that he was in
00:09:49.320negotiations with the NDP member from Nunavut, Idlaut, and during that time, he may have been
00:09:59.020afraid that if it had come out, that we were attacked, and that if he had taken more of a
00:10:09.180forceful position countering that attack, because there would have been pressure on
00:10:14.300Canada to respond to an unprovoked attack from Iran, that that somehow would have
00:10:20.240undermined negotiations with this new Democrat from Nineveh?
00:10:24.740I'm not suggesting that, but I am suggesting that if he wants to keep his support in the House, within his own party, because he's in a minority situation, and the support of the NDP, he can't take a forceful position, as he did early on in the war, saying he was supportive of regime change in Iran with those issues in this caucus and with his supporter in the House, the NDP.
00:10:53.140So I'm not suggesting that it was part of any negotiations.
00:10:57.140I think that it was what he could do to maintain the support in the house.
00:11:02.140And they clearly, the government's very nervous about that.
00:11:06.140Isn't it possible that if it had come out that our base in Kuwait was bombed in an unprovoked attack,
00:11:15.140that there would have been support at the public level in favor of what the United States and Israel were doing,
00:11:22.140doing and that there would have been pressure on Canada to respond somehow and he preferred
00:11:27.260to keep that under wraps because he didn't want at the end of the day really for Canada to get
00:11:33.100involved. Is that a possibility do you think? I think it's very plausible and what I would
00:11:38.860say is I don't think Canada's got a lot right now to contribute and it would take some time to get
00:11:44.460that that sort of thing into theater outside of you know fighter aircraft. I think we'd be hard
00:11:51.260pressed to respond to a request right now to get a ship to the Persian Gulf in a fast fashion. So
00:11:58.620I think that the prime minister is hoping to avoid the whole issue.
00:12:04.540What about the Strait of Hormuz right now and calls by President Trump to have support. He didn't name
00:12:12.380Canada specifically, but he was talking about generally his NATO partners that would do what
00:12:18.300they could to keep the strait clear of Iranian minds. And as far as I know, Canada thus far has
00:12:26.220declined to play any role whatsoever, along with several of others in NATO in terms of its partners.
00:12:34.380What do you make of that situation? Well, I think that the United States is now calling on its
00:12:40.860allies to to get involved and uh you know there aren't too many takers uh germany has said no
00:12:48.380they don't see it as a nato operation the uk has said no they don't see it as a as a nato operation
00:12:55.580canada has said no spain has said no italy has said no and greece has said no and in the pacific
00:13:03.020Australia is is a no and Japan says they're looking at it and and South Korea says maybe
00:13:11.820so there aren't too many takers among US allies right now to to walk in and try and keep the
00:13:18.600Strait of Hormuz open but I would submit that there hasn't been an attack on on a commercial
00:13:24.060ship from what I can tell since the first of my or sorry since the 11th of March
00:13:29.180Should Canada at least offer to help in any way it can, given our strained relations with
00:13:38.640the Trump administration right now and the fact that we've got CUSMA negotiations coming
00:13:43.600up with that country and that could further strain things, what do you make of that?
00:13:48.120Yeah, I guess what I would say is that I think that when you have a principal ally that you're
00:13:55.320as closely um a link to as the united states in terms of canada that when when your ally goes to
00:14:02.680war whether you like it or not you probably have a duty to go with them and i think that you know
00:14:09.320canada should be backing the u.s play i mean keep in mind like i've said before iran is a country
00:14:17.960that for 47 years has floated international laws uh made threats it's carried out terrorist attacks
00:14:26.040as far away as argentina uh it's it's a regime that that really has had this kind of coming
00:14:34.360towards them for a long time kind of like a freight train sooner or later that that someone
00:14:39.240was going to settle affairs with with iran and i mean iran was at the point that it was close to
00:14:44.840having a nuclear weapon maybe as many as 11. uh its proxy militias were uh uh terrorizing
00:14:52.440the middle east and uh and threatening a number of uh u.s allies uh its its missile and drone
00:15:01.000forces were going to the point that they would be able to take uh on the the united states and
00:15:07.240Israel and their regional neighbors in a very effective fashion, and probably with a degree
00:15:16.560of impunity. And I don't think anyone wants to see a nuclear-armed Iran, given that they've
00:15:23.240attacked all their neighbors and civilian targets, and some neighbors that aren't even involved.
00:15:28.660uh yeah i mean it seems to me that iran's only hope at this point is that they can push the
00:15:40.700price of oil so high that americans canadians many others saying enough already and call for
00:15:49.380a ceasefire in order to open up the straight form was i suspect that that's where keir starmer wants
00:15:55.560ago and Mark Carney and the rest of them, that they'll turn around and say, well, in
00:16:03.000exchange for a ceasefire, then we'll open up the Strait of Hormuz and Iran would jump
00:16:09.820at something like that, which I don't think is what Trump wants.
00:16:15.000And so I would ask as well, why wouldn't the Europeans be more helpful here?
00:16:22.140I mean, they're benefiting as much as anybody from oil coming through the Strait, aren't they?
00:16:43.620So I think there's an onus on everybody to keep the Strait open.
00:16:48.480I mean, freedom of navigation is a pretty widely respected rule of law piece.
00:16:55.840And in a naval choke point like the Strait of Hormuz or the Suez Canal, or you can go through the naval choke points around the world, that freedom of navigation is very important to trade.
00:17:08.880So I think the Europeans do have a duty to get involved, and I think NATO and the EU have a duty to get involved.
00:17:15.480I think everybody's a little bit nervous, but what I would say is that I think that the United States and Israel have done such a number on Iranian forces along the southern coast, their missile bases and their drones and their stocks of mines and their navy, 100 ships destroyed to date.
00:17:34.560And they've carried out attacks on the islands that sit in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Persian Gulf to push back the Iranian threat from the waters.
00:17:48.200And I think that sooner or later, the Iranians will find themselves moving backwards.
00:17:56.100And do you have any thoughts about how the war is going thus far?
00:18:00.260And whether or not it would make sense to, and I know that there's a huge controversy around boots on the ground, but to occupy Karg Island, what do you think of that?
00:18:13.620Well, what I would say is the war opened with a decapitation strike on the Iranian leadership, which looks like it was pretty successful.
00:18:21.120We've seen them suppress the Iranian air defenses, largely destroy the Iranian Navy and Air Force.
00:18:27.980And we've seen the missile and the drone attacks come down by as much as 90 and 95%.
00:18:35.440So those three objectives, wearing down their missile and drone stocks,
00:18:42.760decapitation strike, and clearing away Iran's conventional forces that are a threat,
00:18:50.320I think has been done fairly successfully to date.
00:18:54.220what what we don't kind of have a knowledge of is is the state of their iranian nuclear program
00:19:01.980which was a key objective destroying and dismantling that and the other thing that
00:19:07.500you know we're still waiting on is whether or not we're going to see regime change
00:19:11.180and whether or not that will be successful um so so far i mean the campaign's gone very well