CKND - Sunday, May 26, 2024 - 11:00 p.m. (ET) - Segment #3

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ANNOUNCER:9-1-1,season finale Thursdayat 8 Eastern on Global. (Singing) [ ] [ ] >> Mercedes: a stern warning from 23 american senators sent directly to prime minister justin trudeau. I'm mercedes stephenson, "the west block" starts now. >>> The blunt letter from senators on both sides of washington's political aisle was crystal clear, up your nato spending or continue to fail the U.S. and the free world. We get reaction from america's ambassador to canada. >>> And the latest in our look at the failings within the criminal justice system. This week, bail and the effect on public safety. We will hear from the deputy commissioner of the rcmp and the head of canada's police chiefs. [ ] [ ] >> Mercedes: it was a direct hit, nearly one quarter of the senators on U.S. capitol hill sent a letter with a pointed message to the prime minister saying we write to urge your government to uphold the commitment agreed to by all nato allies by increasing defence spending levels to 2% of each country's gdp. The letter goes on to say the american commitment to nato is unwavering but when it comes to friends in canada, we are concerned and profoundly disappointed that canada's most recent projection indicated that it will not reach its 2% commitment this decade. To the detriment of all nato allies and the free world. Certainly not mincing their words there. The letter was signed by 23 senators, both democrats and republicans, including -- who we spoke with about the issue of defence spending at the last halifax security forum. >> There were plans adopted by canada, by 11 nato allies, to try and continue on that trajectory of defence spending in ways that we are going to be -- in ways that will be important. I look forward to seeing how canada resolves those issues. >> Mercedes: that was six months ago. With this new letter, it's clear that she and many of her fellow senators feel canada is not moving fast enough to catch up. Joining me now is U.S. ambassador to canada david cohen, always a pleasure to have you on, ambassador, nice to see you. >> Mercedes, thank you for inviting you back on the air, I always feel gratified that I did not screw up so much the last time that you are willing to have me back. >> Mercedes: I'm usually the one who makes the mistakes. [ Laughter ] >> Mercedes: it has been a remarkable week in canada/u.s. Defence relations. We saw this letter and what was and it was not necessarily a surprise, we been hearing it from the states for many years of saying canada, you need to spend more on defence. It comes in the wake of the britt's announcing that they believe that there should be a 2.5% minimum spend, a lot of our allies from the britt's to the australians are spending significantly more on defence. I'm wondering if the white house shares the view of these U.S. senators that canada is not doing enough on defence. >> I think the U.S. government, including the white house, is thinking that canada needs to spend more money on defence. The threat environment in which we are all functioning today is fundamentally different than it was three years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, certainly at the time that the voluntary commitments to spend at least 2% of gdp on defence was originally entered into a decade ago. So there's no doubt that canada needs to spend more. But that's not just the U.S. government and the white house. Minister blair believes that, the general believes that. I think the cabinet of canada believes that or else it would not have approved the defence policy update that was just entered into. What you are seeing here is the lead up to the nato summit in a couple of months, in july. In the united states. At the end of 2024, the way projections are looking, canada will be the only country in nato that is not spending at least 2% of it's gdp on defence and does not have a plan to get there. That and is very important. Canada has moved within nato from being a bit of an outlier to being the outlier in the entire alliance. I think that that is leading to increased scrutiny and pressure around meeting the threshold.

it has been reported that somehow this is different than what was in the senators letter and I will argue that it isn't. I have said the united states government looks at canada's defence spending and it's defence preparedness on a broader basis than any one single metric. We look at canada's ability to respond, we look at the trajectory of canada's defence spend, we look at their continued plans to increase defence spending. But that does not mean that canada is off the hook after the defence policy update, and I don't think canada thinks it should be off the hook. I talked to minister blair privately, I listened to him carefully publicly. He has been very clear privately and publicly that he knows canada has to do more, he knows there has to be more investment beyond what is in the defence policy update. He has committed, he personally has committed that there will be more spending and he has even put a little bit of specificity in that now that was not there before, which is the desire for canada to get back into the submarine business and to acquire a submarine fleet that he believes would move canada to the 2% level if not more. So there's even a beginning of a plan for how canada will get to 2%, which is through developing, redeveloping a submarine fleet. >> Mercedes: and that submarine fleet, which they talked about but they haven't committed to, they've said -- going to do that way I wonder if that's a way to get into the alliance which we've been asking to get into. >> I don't think having a submarine fleet is key to canada becoming engaged with aukus. A couple months ago the aukus members put out a statement that actually laid out what countries would have to do if they wanted to participate in aukus. Right now aukus is not talking about admitting additional members, and canada's interest in being involved in aukus, not necessarily to be a member but the real ask from canada is they want to be involved in pillar two, which is the technology work, the advanced technology work, and you don't need a submarine fleet. >> Mercedes: you would have to have a nuclear submarine fleet to do some of the other stuff. >> That's right. And canada argues, and I think they are accurate and arguing, that they have technology expertise developing technology, engineers, scientists that are doing work that would be of value to the aukus partnership as part of pillar two and they would like to be in the jargon of the announcement that was made a couple months ago. They would like to be formally invited to do consultations with aukus in pillar two that is in this technology space. You don't need a submarine fleet or a nuclear submarine fleet to be able to do that. But I also think, there's no doubt that by canada increasing its military spending, by canada not being the single outlier in terms of nato defence spending, by investing in a submarine fleet, by continuing to accelerate it's investment in norad modernization, that the steps that it took in lithuania to upgrade it's presence, the commitments it's made in haiti, all of that makes canada more credible international partner in all of these defence bases, including aukus. >> Mercedes: I do want to ask you about another topic and it's one where there has been distance visibly between the united states presidents position and prime minister justin trudeau's and that's the international criminal court, saying they are seeking arrest warrants for senior members of the israeli government as well as a senior members of hamas. Are you disappointed in canada's reaction? >> So I really don't like doing this, especially with you, but you at least a little bit understand what prime minister trudeau has done. He has said that canada respects the court, but he has quite clearly said that you cannot draw equivalence between hamas and israel. I think that is the fundamental premise of the united states is position which is that hamas is a terrorist organization. Hamas invaded israel. And hamas inflicted the largest loss of jewish lives since the holocaust. And they are not a state, they

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