The Government of Canada has published a new foreign policy report regarding its Arctic regions and relations to its neighbours, and it is noticeably more bellicose than its previous policy release. The previous version, originally published in 2019, did not once mention russia in a negative light, only referring to it once in relation to the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which Alaska USA, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (russia) are signatories of. Of particular emphasis in this previous release was the need to build an international framework for combatting and minimizing the negative impacts of climate change on Canada’s northern population, and fostering greater development and cohesion between the different branches and institutions within the Canadian government and Indigenous people who are on the ground. The policy framework also refers to Canada’s northern neighbours as “partners”. Sprinkled throughout the release is discussion of military threats, to which the Canadian government noticeably avoids mentioning where the northern threats are originating from, simply reassuring that appropriate responses to such emergencies will decided with if/when these events occur. In contrast, the new December 2024 Arctic policy framework is assertive, emphatic, and exceptionally bold, calling out the elephant in the room by bringing the aggressor into the spotlight and revolving virtually all policy around it. This former “partner” is russia.
The new report immediately begins by debunking the ever growing misconception that just because Canada is surrounded by three oceans that military defense and deterrence is not needed. It emphasizes that the Arctic will be the subject of rapid change as a result of the climate crisis, with new shipping routes and natural resources becoming available in the coming decades. Furthermore, the release announces that new negotiations for boundary negotiations between Western countries will take place, and that both NORAD and NATO security will be increased in Canada’s Arctic region. Then, the report comes out swinging, claiming that as a result of russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, there will be no “business as usual” with russia, and that “Canada must be clear-eyed about the implications of its geographic proximity to russia”. For the rest of the release, it discusses russia’s capabilities, incapabilities (as a result of the decimation it faced in Ukraine), Indigenous cooperation, and the results that climate change will have on the Arctic.
This brutal condemnation of russia is seen by analysts as a long time coming, with russia’s belligerent attacks in Europe and western Asia clearly posing a serious risk to Canada, as it worries if it will be next. It seems that the pondering and indecisiveness in the Canadian federal government has finally ended, and they are naming who the aggressor state is, and what it will do to stop it. Canada announces in this report that it will make large purchases for the military, such as purchasing new River Class Destroyers and F35A fighters to use specifically in the Arctic. It reasserts that it will not only respond to russian aggression in the Arctic region, but will also exercise sovereignty through military actions, such as movements of ships and deployment of Canadian Rangers. This ultimately shows russia that Canada is not going anywhere in the highly contested Arctic, to which russia has territorial claims over Canadian land, but have yet to act.
https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1560523306861/1560523330587
MIDON INTEL 