Pod Bless Canada

The smooth operation of the NATO alliance is vital to the collective security of the transatlantic, including countries like Canada. So what goes into ensuring that missions are planned, organized and executed successfully? And how can readiness and security be maintained across domains in the context of a global pandemic?

MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen spoke with Burcu San, the Director of Operations in NATO’s Operations Division, as well as Commodore Bradley Peats of the Royal Canadian Navy, who serves as the Commander of Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1), to unpack these challenges.

En février 2021, l’OTAN a présenté une stratégie pour les technologies émergentes, ce qui témoigne de l'importance grandissante de ces technologies pour l’avenir de la sécurité collective et pour l’OTAN. Dans le troisième épisode de la série « Across the Pond », Christian Leuprecht, chercheur associé à l’Institut Macdonald-Laurier, s’entretient avec Moritz Zimmerman, de l’OTAN, au sujet du développement de l’intelligence artificielle et de la technologie automatisée ainsi que de leurs répercussions sur le mode de fonctionnement de l’OTAN.

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Across the Pond Ep. 3: The future of emerging technologies and NATO

In February of this year, NATO put forth a strategy for emerging technologies, a signal of the growing importance of the role of technology in the future of collective security and NATO. In the third installment of the series "Across the Pond," MLI Senior Fellow Christian Leuprecht and Moritz Zimmerman of NATO discuss the development of artificial intelligence and automated technology and how all this affects the mode of function for NATO.

Despite it being Canada’s most important security commitment, many Canadians know little about Canada’s history and role in NATO. MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen spoke with Joel Sokolsky and Joseph Jockel about their new book, “Canada in NATO, 1949-2019,” to better understand how Canada’s involvement and engagement with the alliance has shaped our defence and foreign policy while also serving vital roles toward our security and diplomatic interests.

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on November 1, 2021.

Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Kaveh Shahrooz on how a prison massacre was formative to his worldview and his career in pursuit of human rights, about the nefarious influence of Iran's regime in the free world, the downing of flight PS752, Oberlin College's employment of a former Iran regime official responsible for covering up rights abuses, and more.

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on October 28, 2021.

Iran expert Alireza Nader joins Mariam Memarsadeghi to discuss what democracies must do to hold the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accountable for its global terror and crimes against humanity. Mr. Nader was an International Policy Analyst at the Rand Corporation and author of a number of reports for the Rand Corporation on Iran. He subsequently worked as an advisor to the Anti-Defamation League. He currently serves on the ADL's Task Force to Protect Minority Communities of the Middle East.

Canada is the quintessential transatlantic nation; our security and prosperity are intimately tied to the security and prosperity of both sides of the Atlantic. Our interests and values are deeply linked with and shared by our NATO allies; Canadians have spent considerable blood and treasure in defence of European democracy, and Canadians continue to stand on guard in Europe to this day.

To better understand these issues, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has produced "Across the Pond" - an 8-part podcast series by MLI's Transatlantic Program, in cooperation with NATO's Public Diplomacy Division. This podcast series explores the current and emerging challenges facing Canada and our NATO allies amid a world in flux.

This first episode features a conversation between MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen and Damien Arnaud, the head of the Canada Program at NATO's Public Diplomacy Division. Devlen and Arnaud outline the topics and issues that the series will cover, setting the stage for the rest of the series, as well as the challenges in the information space (such as disinformation) facing the Alliance today.

The concept of vaccine passports, which would entail providing proof of COVID-19 vaccination to gain access to normally accessible venues and services, has ignited a fierce debate in Canada. What are the benefits and trade offs associated with the policy? Would it successfully encourage vaccine uptake among those hesitant to get their jabs? What unforeseen consequences might spring up from such a policy?

To make sense of the utility of and challenges associated with vaccine passports, MLI Domestic Policy Program Director Aaron Wudrick spoke with Drs. Martha Fulford and Shawn Whatley.

September 4th, 2021 marks a grim anniversary for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor; it is their 1000th day of arbitrary detention at the hands Chinese authorities, as part of the regime's retaliation for the lawful arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. Canada's lack of action in response to Beijing's hostage-taking has signaled to the international community that this belligerent behaviour can occur with impunity. Furthermore, victims and their families are often left in limbo without a coordinated response from Ottawa.

MLI Senior Fellow Sarah Teich joined communications officer Ai-Men Lau to discuss the increasing need for a substantive overhaul of Canada's national approach to global hostage-taking. Teich also discusses her joint publication by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Canadian Coalition Against Terror which proposes new legislation titled, “An Act to Address the Taking of Innocent Civilians as Hostages.” She provides policy solutions and recommendations to Canadian decision makers to combat and deter hostage-taking.

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a test of resilience for Canada's Parliamentary system. One illustrative example would be the case of the firing of two scientists from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. In order to prevent the release of documents related to these firings, the federal government took the extraordinary step of applying to the Federal Court of Canada in June, potentially allowing the judiciary to interfere in the functioning of Parliament. Though the court fight was quietly dropped a week ago, the question remains: are our Parliamentary norms being eroded?

To discuss Canada's system of parliamentary government, how power is exercised by the federal government, and how the way power is exerted has changed over the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jonathan Malloy joins MLI Domestic Policy Program Director Aaron Wudrick on the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada.

(Note: This podcast was recorded on August 11, 2021 prior to when the 2021 federal election was called.)

Foreign regimes, particularly China, Russia, and Iran, are engaged in efforts to threaten and intimidate critics and activists around the world, including in Canada. However, despite this clear threat posed by foreign actors against Canadians, the federal government has failed to meaningfully act to address this coercion.

To discuss this issue and what the federal government should be doing to stop foreign intimidation against Canadians, MLI's Marcus Kolga, Anastasia Lin, and Kaveh Shahrooz joined the podcast.