Military chief warns China and Russia are ‘at war with the West’ and Canada is not ready

OTTAWA — Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, told MPs that Russia and China consider themselves to be at war with the West and Canada must rise to meet this challenge.

Eyre was meeting with MPs at the Commons standing committee on national security to talk about the threat Russia poses to Canada.

He said Russia and China don’t differentiate between peace and war and are actively seeking to challenge the West.

“Russia and China are not just looking at regime survival but regime expansion. They consider themselves to be at war with the West,” he said. “They strive to destroy the social cohesion of liberal democracies and the credibility of our own institutions to ensure our model of government is seen as a failure.”

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Eyre said the threat is broader than the war in Ukraine, but a systemic effort to change the way the world has been structured.

“The rules-based international order, which has underpinned world stability, and indeed our national prosperity for generations is faltering. It needs to be defended, the gravity of these times should be apparent to all.”

Caroline Xavier, chief of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s cyber spy agency, told MPs that there is a growing concern about cybercrime, but state actors are also threatening the country.

“The state sponsored cyber programs of China, North Korea, Iran and Russia pose the greatest threat strategic threat to Canada. Foreign cyber threat activities including Russian backed actors are attempting to target Canadian critical infrastructure operators,” she said.

CSC said Russian backed actors are trying to sow doubts and division about the war in Ukraine.

“CSC noted that he had continued to observe numerous Russian backed disinformation campaigns online aimed at supporting Russia’s brutal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine.”

Eyre said this rising level of concern is happening just as the military faces a recruitment challenge. In other parliamentary testimony, military officers have said the forces estimate they’re 10,000 people short right now.

The full complement of the Canadian Forces according to the most recent numbers includes 63,781 regular members, another 29,477 reservists and 5,241 Canadian Rangers,

Eyre said getting the forces fully staffed again is a major concern and has become the overarching priority for the forces.

“I am very worried about our numbers and that’s why we’re putting as a priority effort the reconstitution of our military.”

Eyre said they’re worried not just about getting new people into the forces, but also ensuring current soldiers stay.

To that end he said they’re focusing on issues around pay, but also ensuring CAF members have the right tools to do the job and opportunities for training.

“The pandemic has not been kind to the Canadian Armed Forces, our numbers have shrunk. And so we’re embarking on a priority effort to get our numbers back up recruiting retention, so that we can provide that readiness.”

A separate Commons committee has been studying whether the forces is being used too often for disaster relief in Canada. The number of deployments for floods, fires and hurricanes has all risen in recent years.

Eyre said the armed forces have to be available for disasters, but they are being used too often today.

“With increasing frequency and intensity of these natural disasters, we’re called upon more and more to respond, not necessarily as a force of last resort, but in some cases the force of first choice.”

Eyre declined to say whether the government should be spending more on defence, but said they unquestionably are facing a new environment in the future and Canada is not ready for it.

“I am concerned that as the threats to the world’s security situation increase, the threats at home increase, our readiness is going down,” he said. “The military that we have today is not the military that we need for the threats that are occurring in the future.”

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