Canada strengthens defensive relationships with Finland and Sweden. What can teach us?

To find the largest artillery group in Western Europe, you have to go north – the north.

Rovajärvi is located above the Arctic circuit, outside the city of Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland. In late May, when the young recruits complete their last weeks of gunfight artillery training, the atmosphere is sufficiently cold for soldiers to wander in thick gloves and heating in the neck.

IVAri Lukari has been trained for months on these highlighters, which are identical to those currently used in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

“I think it is good to prepare for the worst scenario, like what happened in Ukraine, but I hope there will be no wars coming to Finland,” he told CBC News.

The best and preparation for the worst is the way of life in Finland. The entire country lives through a concept called “Comprehensive Security”, which requires every citizen or commercial and military action and a government official to recognize the role they play in defending their country.

The comprehensive security emerged during the trip of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Anand to Finland earlier this month, where she appeared in a joint statement as a “strong focus” on the continued bilateral cooperation in Canada with its ally in the Arctic.

“In Finland, people are well aware that we have a society that we have built for ourselves, and we love it a lot,” said Jani Kosella, a prominent civil defense policy in the Ministry of Defense in Finland.

“But the other side of the currency is that we (a) is a small nation. We have 5.6 million people, with one of the largest ground mass in Europe, and it is located next to Russia. So people understand that … everyone needs to make their share in defending and protecting the nation.”

Defense as a joint duty

The army is still satisfied with the first line of defense for Finland, with a long -term recruitment system that requires young people to complete compulsory military service when they reach 18 years and about 900,000 citizens among its reserves.

But at the societal level, comprehensive security ranges from industries ready to continue to operate services at the time of crisis, to citizens who have 72 hours of food and water on hand in order to be self -sufficient in the event of an emergency.

“Everything starts from individuals,” Kosella confirmed. “Because if your citizens do not get this reality, they are not ready to make their share – you can greatly forget to obtain a comprehensive security and strong defense.”

This level of willingness is necessary in a nation that has been invaded by its neighboring neighbor just a few generations. In the winter war in 1939, Soviet Russia launched a comprehensive attack on Finland, and extends to four months of fighting that witnessed the number of Finns, who have been in force, had placed difficult resistance.

“Fortunately, we managed to repel the aggressor,” noted the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Elena Valtonin in an interview in Helsinki in May.

But she warned – “We had to give up some lands.”

The winter war has ended in the peace treaty, which witnessed that Finland abandoned 10 percent of its territory-including the second largest city in Viabury-to Russia.

Valtonen warned of such a solution that is applied to Ukraine, where the United Nations Charter has been enacted, five years after the end of the winter war, “It is frankly prohibited to use violence to change borders – and this is something that we must ask the international community to stick to,” she said.

Threats on the horizon

Finland also can share its allies with a strong sense of threats that waved on the other side of its borders of 1340 km with Russia.

“During the Putin regime, Russia has evolved into a very imperialist regime and country,” Valtonin said. “We have to take it seriously, this threat posed by Russia.”

“We know with certainty that Russia will increase its military strength on its borders with NATO, especially after the fighting stopped in Ukraine,” Kosella added.

“It is important to note that Russia has not threatened Finland militarily, but the capabilities are always present. It is the issue of military resources and power that Russia has, and then the will to use this force to achieve its political goals – this is a mixture that we appreciate of course all the time.”

It is dangerous to suit the nearby Sweden, too.

“We are still seeing the Russian threat as a systematic and long -term,” Victoria Higur Malar, director of the Swedish Defense Ministry, confirmed in an interview in her office in central Stockholm.

“They will have some extent quickly the possibility of re -assembles its ranks specifically the boundaries of the Baltic and the Finnish borders,” she said, adding that the framework of NATO Mark Retty’s time for the possible attack on the coalition during the next five years is reasonable.

“We are definitely preparing for ourselves to be able to face this type of scenario.”

It is a scenario that could have been seen slightly differently a few years ago. In 2022, both countries from the north gathered to decades of military non -recovery to join NATO, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now, according to Article 5 of the Alliance, both countries – just like Canada – are obligated to respond, in the event of an attack on any NATO ally.

A complete approach to society

Like Finland, Sweden has established a social agreement to support its security efforts. Where the Finns is committed to “Comprehensive Security”, the Swedes live under “total defense” – which includes a specific responsibility for citizens between the ages of 16 and 70 years.

“You are obligated under the law to serve in the event of an increase in warning and war,” said Sarah Merdal of the Swedish Civil Emergency Agency, one of the many government agencies in charge of preparing its citizens.

“Everything can be to continue doing what you are doing already,” she added – if you are working in basic services, for example – “but you can also set you to do something different,” noting the rescue training that the government is currently looking for.

Recruitment enumeration as part of this effort. Sweden re -provided mandatory military service in 2017 for both men and women, with the selection of about 8,000 young men for basic training last year. Within five years, this number will rise to 10,000, as Sweden collects military expansion.

But for many Swedes, readiness can be simple like staying up. One of the ways in which the Swedish government dealt with this through a bright yellow booklet that fell in 5.2 million postals last year.

“The reaction to this booklet, which talks about the concept of duty and recruitment and how you need to be prepared as a citizen, is a great sense of responsibility.” It turned through its contents.

In the event of a crisis or war, the booklet provides important information for all Sweden residents, sharp guidelines about searching for shelter during an air strike, the tools needed for home emergency groups and even how to stop bleeding.

“Treating war is important to us, because this is the biggest challenge in the end, I would like to say, to our society,” said Mirdal. “So we need to work on a worse basis than the Musnad.”

Canada sent similar evidence about how to survive in a nuclear attack during the Cold War. After decades, as Sweden has updated its crises directives to the citizens, Mirdal referred to the opportunity for an ally like Canada to follow the footsteps of Sweden.

She said: “I think we have things to learn from you, but perhaps you can get some inspiration from how to treat our residents-and how we may dare talk about the worst scenario of the worst cases in the way we do.”

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This project has become possible before R. James Traffer the opposite fellowship$ 25,000 grant is granted to a Canadian journalist every year to finance reports from abroad. Watch more reports on security, defense and sovereignty issues in Finland, Sweden and Greenland this fall.