Vanguard Magazine

I have been in and out of the Canadian Arctic since 1972, when I conducted my first sovereignty foot patrol some 1,000 km north of Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Later, I commanded Canadian Forces Northern Area, based in Yellowknife, NWT, for five years. I travelled extensively in the Arctic including Alaska and Greenland. During my retirement from the Canadian Forces, I spent two years managing the North Warning System, that line of 46 air defence radars deployed from Alaska to the south tip of Labrador. Since 2000, I have been providing independent military and policy advice on security and sovereignty in the Canadian Arctic to the defence industries and government officials from several fed- eral and territorial departments. My expe- rience has led me to one conclusion: at the moment, Canada is not equipped to de- fend its Arctic! Global security is at its worst since I joined the Armed Forces in 1966. Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. It has expansionist desires, and continues to be backed by North Korea and Iran. China is developing offensive weapon systems. It has promised to annex Taiwan by force, if need be, and is acting illegally in the mari- time Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Vietnam and the Philippines. The Middle East is on fire and many states are failing. All the while, access to the Canadian Arc- tic Archipelago is increasing with the pro- gressive disappearance of sea ice. President Trump musing about taking Greenland and the Panama Canal by force if need be is encouraging dictators to do the same. Since the president's comments, a Russian law maker has suggested that Russia should take over Svalbard which belongs to Norway, Venezuela's Maduro threatens to invade Puerto Rico and Chi- na has begun patrolling the boundary of its nine-dash-line-claim, a huge part of the South China Sea. The world's rules-based order is at great risk and Canada is not ready, especially in the Arctic. Since the recognition of the "peace dividend" that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of our politicians have, to a large extent, ignored the national defence of our country. For decades we were fed a lot of good words and policy statements that seldom materi- alized into credible arctic defence assets, with a few exceptions such as the RA- DARSAT Constellation for surveillance from space and the Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs). Unfortunately, given our inefficient and politicised procurement system where po- litical parties can cancel programs initiated by the previous government, the Canadi- an Forces have struggled to acquire and maintain critical defence assets. These re- quire more than a decade to acquire given the technical complexity of the procure- ment system for major weapon systems. However, the time horizon of politicians is set by the next election. The process to replace the CC-115 Buffalo search and rescue aircraft specifically designed to save Canadian lives took 14 long years. The long-promised Nanisivik Naval Station in Nunavut, which was announced in 2007 and has been delayed multiple times and still not fully operational, is another good example. It is nearly impossible to get politicians to invest large sums in defence capital knowing that they may not be in power to reap the political benefits. They prefer vote-buying initiatives. At the moment, the Royal Canadian Air Force is not properly equipped to fulfill its monitoring mission, much less con- duct timely interceptions in its own Ca- www.vanguardcanada.com APRIL/MAY 2025 50 T H E LA S T W O R D B Y P I E R R E L E B LA N C CANADA IS NOT EQUIPPED TO DEFEND ITS ARCTIC The Canadian Air Defence Identification Zone (NAV Canada graphic)

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