Vanguard Magazine

and the Our North, Strong and Free B Y A L E X A N D E R S A LT EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES 12 DECEMBER 2024/JANUARY 2025 www.vanguardcanada.com E M E R G I N G T E C H O n 8 April 2024, the Trudeau government released its much-anticipated Defence Policy Update, Our North, Strong and Free, aimed at guiding Canadian defence in response to significant shifts in the global security environment. The new policy succeeds 2017's Strong Secure Engaged (SSE), continuing several initiatives while also in- troducing new priorities. It is somewhat unusual for a Canadian government to issue a second defence policy so soon after its predecessor, but the release of Our North, Strong and Free is driven by several urgent factors: the Rus- sian invasion of Ukraine, China's growing military power, climate change, and emerg- ing threats to North America. 1 Historically, quick updates to defence policies have oc- curred only twice before—by Pierre El- liot Trudeau's Liberal government in the 1970s and Brian Mulroney's Conserva- tive government in the early 1990s. Re- cently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also pledged to raise Canada's defence spending to two per cent of GDP by 2032, starting with several billion dollars in additional funding next year. However, uncertainty remains over the specifics of these spending commitments moving forward. 2 Canada's Global Affairs Minister Mé- lanie Joly highlighted the increasing sig- nificance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in her introduction to the new policy, mark- ing a clear shift toward greater integration of emerging technologies in Canadian defence. Indeed, Our North, Strong and Free outright cites emerging technologies as one of the core drivers of contempo- rary security affairs and geopolitics of a changing world. This article reviews the new policy update and finds that while the discussion on emerging technologies has been expanded, there are serious ques- tions about the practical integration of these capabilities within the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Ca- nadian Armed Forces (CAF). Technology and Our North, Strong and Free The policy update outlines which tech- nological procurements have confirmed funding as well as some additional options that are being explored, with a final deci- sion on those additional initiatives to be made at a future date. Several emerging technologies fall under both categories. Further, several geographic areas are iden- tified as holding particular importance in the contemporary global strategic envi- ronment that will require more targeted technological investments to expand and enhance Canadian defence capabilities. These areas include the Arctic and North- Image credit: Aviator Gregory Cole, Canadian Armed Forces Photo

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