I sit down with Brent Patterson, a veteran anti-militarism organizer whose four decades of work span prison abolition, Indigenous solidarity, and campaigns against state violence. We examine the Carney government's remilitarization agenda. It is not a response to genuine security threats, but as a coherent economic strategy dressed in the language of sovereignty and national pride.
We look at the math on the F-35 warplane purchase: what it actually costs, who controls it, and what that money could do instead. We talk about Arctic resource extraction and the military infrastructure being built to enable it, the integration of Canadian and US military supply chains, the No More Loopholes arms export bill, and the gap between Canada's international self-image and its actual record of 1,600 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia. We close with Brent's forty years of organizing experience — the losses, the marginal wins, and what sustains people in a long struggle.
Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International, and writes for Rabble.ca.
SOURCES
NATO total military spending 2024: $1,506 billion — SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024
NATO 5% GDP target agreed at The Hague summit — Atlantic Council NATO Defence Spending Tracker
Canada's Department of National Defence spent $34.5 billion in FY2024 — Canadaspends
Carney commits Canada to $150 billion annually in defence by 2035 — Globe and Mail, June 2025
Carney's first budget: $81.8 billion in defence investment over five years — CBC News, November 2025
DND defence spending targets and NATO commitments — Canada.ca
Full 45-year F-35 life-cycle cost estimated at C$73.9 billion — Parliamentary Budget Office, November 2023
F-35 acquisition cost jumps 50% to C$27.7 billion — Skies Mag / Auditor General, June 2025
Full acquisition cost now C$33 billion including infrastructure and weapons — Flight Global, June 2025
Full history of Canada's F-35 procurement process — Wikipedia
ALIS/ODIN: F-35 data stored on US servers, placing it under US government jurisdiction — Infodas technical analysis
No kill switch, but Mission Data Files give US effective control over allied F-35 fleets — The Aviationist, March 2025
NDP: US will maintain full control of F-35 maintenance and software updates — NDP press release
US Air Force 350th Spectrum Warfare Group reprograms every F-35 in the world — DefenseScoop, August 2023
Australia, Canada, UK Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) located at Eglin AFB, Florida — Janes
F-35 availability rate 50% in FY2024, 17 points below minimum requirement — DoD Inspector General / 19FortyFive, December 2025
Full mission capable rate only 30% in 2023 — Project on Government Oversight
Lockheed paid $1.7 billion despite poor F-35 readiness — Military Times, December 2025
Estimated 1,598 CF-18 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia — Canadian Dimension
CF-18 combat history: Libya, Serbia, Iraq missions — CBC News
Budget 2025: C$2.7 billion cut to foreign aid over four years — CBC News, November 2025
Carney broke campaign promise not to cut foreign aid — Results Canada
90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the Arctic — USGS Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, 2008
Arctic oil resources overview — US Energy Information Administration
Carney announces $35 billion for Arctic military and infrastructure — CBC News
Canada exports over $1 billion annually in arms to the US — Project Ploughshares
Bill C-233 No More Loopholes Act defeated 295 to 22 — Canadian Affairs, March 2026
PBO: $3.5 billion per year additional needed to achieve 50% reduction in chronic homelessness — Parliamentary Budget Office, 2024
265,000 to 300,000 Canadians experience homelessness annually — Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
Homelessness costs Canada $10 billion per year; federal housing spending lower per capita than 1989 — Homeless Hub
Full text of Carney's January 20, 2026 Davos speech — CBC News
