Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the opportunity to talk to Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) troops stationed on a NATO mission in Latvia to lecture them about his government’s actions on fighting climate change and disinformation.
Trudeau was in the Eastern European nation ahead of the NATO Leaders’ Summit in Lithuania where allied forces will gather to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other pressing geopolitical issues.
While at a lunch with CAF members stationed abroad in Ādaži, Latvia, the prime minister spent his address discussing climate change and other issues despite recent reports indicating that troops stationed abroad have had to purchase their own equipment due to a lack of support from the Canadian government.
“Climate change is having a real destabilizing and negative impact with more and more frequent extreme weather events at home,” said Trudeau.
“Which is one of the reasons why Canada is stepping up to build the Centre of Excellence for Climate Security in Montreal. That’s one of the announcements we’re going to be making tomorrow at the NATO summit,” he continued.
“We’re also dealing with the hangover of the pandemic that knocked us around as economies but also knocked us around as individuals put a lot of stress on families of people trying to figure out a way through. Add the extra challenges of social media and levels of misinformation and disinformation.”
While in Latvia, the prime minister announced that he would further expand Canada’s presence in the region from 800 troops to 2,200 over the next three years. Trudeau also met with Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš to further express Canada’s commitment to NATO and its allies.
A recent report found that Canadian soldiers on NATO missions have had to resort to using their own funds to purchase vital equipment like helmets due to the outdated and unusable supplies procured for them by the federal government.
“In general, it was concerning verging on embarrassing to see the differences in issued soldier equipment between us and the Danes,” wrote Lt.-Col van Eijk in a May 12 email reported in the media.
“This was only exacerbated by the fact they were carrying more advanced Canadian-made Colt Canada rifles, mounting more advanced Canadian Elcan DR sights, and the fact that most of the systems our soldiers lacked were easily available on the open market and not some sort of closely guarded technology.”
