A former senior Department of National Defence official is suing the federal government.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A former senior Department of National Defence official who was the chief architect of Canada’s 2024 defence policy is suing the federal government, alleging she was fired after publicly warning escalating anti-U.S rhetoric could play into the hands of rivals China and Russia.
Raquel Garbers, 57, whose last position at National Defence was director-general of strategic defence policy, filed a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa on Thursday seeking about $2-million in damages from the Canadian government.
In a statement to The Globe and Mail through her lawyer Kathryn Marshall, Ms. Garbers said she was the “principal architect of the small team” that drew up Canada’s 2024 defence policy, titled Our North, Strong and Free.
In 2024, Ms. Garbers left National Defence for a secondment to the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a think tank. This was done through Ottawa’s Interchange Canada program, which allows public servants to temporarily work at outside organizations.
The Department of National Defence “expressed satisfaction with her work” at CIGI “as evidenced by numerous e-mails, performance evaluations, commendations and formal and informal recognition of her achievements,” the lawsuit says.
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The statement of claim says in early February last year, then-deputy minister of National Defence Stefanie Beck committed to extending Ms. Garbers’s secondment at CIGI in one-year increments for up to three years. In discussions with National Defence, the department “noted in an e-mail that the deputy minister would approve the extension.”
Then, in mid-October last year, Ms. Garbers wrote an opinion piece for the Hill Times, an Ottawa publication that covers federal politics, titled “Indulging in absurd anti-U.S. rhetoric? You’re doing a solid for Moscow and Beijing.”
She framed U.S. actions under President Donald Trump in 2025 – the tariffs imposed on allies and adversaries in April, and Washington’s own National Defence Strategy – as a deliberate strategic reset aimed at rebuilding American industrial and military strength, driven by the assessment that hostile states, particularly China, are preparing for potential conflict.
“In a world at risk of major war, the U.S. is doing exactly what we all need it to do. It is being relentless in its determination to rebuild its power and it is forcing us all to do likewise. Building that kind of power demands we be serious,” Ms. Garbers wrote.
“Western leaders need to have frank and mature conversations with their citizens about the difficult choices coming at them in a world at risk of war. That starts with shutting down the absurd anti-United States narratives that have hijacked their public dialogues.”
Her conclusion was that anti-U.S. rhetoric splits the West at the worst possible moment, and that the only winners are Moscow and Beijing.
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The opinion piece didn’t single out those responsible for the anti-U.S. rhetoric.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has sharply criticized the United States under Mr. Trump, who imposed protectionist tariffs on Canada in 2025. “The U.S. is no longer a reliable partner,” Mr. Carney said as he advised Canada to prepare to distance itself from the United States. “Our old relationship with the United States – a relationship based on steadily increasing integration – is over,” he told Canadians.
Media coverage of Ms. Garbers’s opinion piece drew controversy and criticism online, “where numerous comments called for her dismissal, impugned her intelligence and characterized her as disloyal to Canada,” the lawsuit says.
Less than one month after the Hill Times piece was published, the lawsuit says, her job at National Defence disappeared.
“Ms. Garbers was abruptly ambushed in a video call on Nov. 13, during which she was informed she had been terminated,” the statement of claim says. She was told that her secondment to CIGI would not be renewed and “that her position as director-general would be eliminated and that no alternative position would be offered,” it says.
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Ms. Garbers began as director-general in 2018. Prior to that she had served in other roles at National Defence and in other departments. In total, her public service career spanned 28 years.
Through her lawyer, Ms. Garbers said that during her time at National Defence she regularly advised and briefed the deputy minister, the chief of the defence staff and political staff on sensitive operational and policy files. She also regularly represented Canada at senior official meetings of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with colleagues in the Five Eyes alliance of intelligence-sharing countries.
“Ms. Garber’s accomplishments are particularly notable given that only a small number of women have historically held senior leadership roles in defence policy work in Canada,” the lawsuit says.
Asked why she wrote the Oct. 15 opinion piece, Ms. Garbers through her lawyer said the purpose “was to raise awareness of the dangers of overreacting, on an emotional level, to current tensions in bilateral relations with the Americans, and thereby pushing ourselves into the arms of our true adversaries – those hostile states that are targeting our defence industrial base.”
Whether we like it or not, Ms. Garbers said, “our security and defence – and that of the West – are inextricably linked with the United States, and nothing will change that.”
The Department of National Defence declined to speak to the allegations in the statement of claim. “As this involves litigation against the Attorney General of Canada, we are unable to provide any comment,” Daniel Blouin, manager of the department’s media relations office, said in an e-mailed statement.