The Trudeau government’s unwillingness to spend 2% GDP on national defense is being slammed by officials in the US, with one former Pentagon official calling for Canada to be removed from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“I think personally there have to be real consequences,” Elbridge Colby, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, said in a new documentary by filmaker and Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn.
Canada currently spends 1.34% of its GDP on defense.
“I’ve said that I think Canada should not be in the G7,” Colby stated, who is also author of the book, “The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict.”
“Forsaken Warriors: How Trudeau Broke Canada’s Military,” a new documentary by filmmaker Aaron Gunn, has been released for online streaming.
The film features interviews with nearly two dozen national security experts, veterans, policymakers and retired generals who speak to issues such as Canada’s treatment of veterans, underserviced equipment, and failure to spend 2% GDP on national defense as is required for NATO countries.
Sławomir Dębski, Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, was another interviewee featured in Gunn’s film.
“Perhaps you should leave the G7 if you are unable to behave as one of the leaders of the free world,” Dębski stated.
“It is very sad looking at where Canada is now, actually now it is kind of the free rider in the alliance.”
In 2021, a technology and defense partnership, AUKUS, was formed by Australia, the UK, and the US. Canada was not invited to join the alliance.
“Why would we bring the Canadians into AUKUS?” Colby said. “The military is in disrepair… That’s not the kind of country we want to reward. The kind of countries we want to reward are Australia, South Korea, Japan, India.”
On the last day of the NATO summit in July 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would meet the 2% military spending target by 2032, though no specificities were presented.
“We used to be a middle power. Now we’re an annoying ideologue who goes around lecturing other countries on what they should or shouldn’t be doing,” Vice-Admiral (Ret’d) Mark Norman said in the film, which also included discussion of the Trudeau government’s attempts to “woke-ify” the military by installing tampon dispensers in the men’s washrooms and relaxing dress code policies to allow coloured hair and face tattoos.
These cultural and dress code policies were enacted to increase recruitment to the Forces, but the measures haven’t led to the desired result.
“This was always a topic I’ve wanted to cover, it’s a topic that’s very close to my heart having served in the Canadian Army Reserves myself,” filmmaker Aaron Gunn, who spent three years in the Reserves, told True North. Gunn is currently the Conservative Party candidate for the federal riding of North Island–Powell River in British Columbia.
“I hope the film serves as a wake-up call to Canadians about the state of our Armed Forces, and the urgent need to deliver the equipment, funding, and moral support to our men and women in uniform that they desperately need and deserve.”
Gunn’s previous documentaries such as Vancouver is Dying and Canada is Dying have been viewed over 10 million times, and he is now working on a sequel to Canada is Dying.
