Domestic Marine Security: Maritime Security
The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States marked a major change in the way that many Canadians view national security. The realization that international terrorist groups had the ability to reach overseas and strike at targets in North America has made Canadians reflect upon their own vulnerability to acts of terrorism. This is an unsettling thought for a country that has not had to contend with an identifiable and quantifiable military threat to its security since the end of the Cold War. Consequently, throughout Canada there has been a renewed focus on ensuring that Canada is made more physically secure.
11 September 2001 changed the way Canadians view national security
A large measure of the security that Canadians enjoy is attributable to Canada’s geographic position in the world. We share an international land boundary with only one other nation, the USA. It is a testament to the peaceable relationship between our two countries that it remains the world’s longest undefended border. It is the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans that surround Canada’s landmass that provide our boundaries with all of the world’s other nations. It is across these ocean expanses that any would be aggressor must cross in order to threaten our security. This holds equally true for a military threat to our security, as it does for a non-traditional threat such as terrorism. The oceans and the airspace above them are Canada’s first line of defence and security.
We do not, and cannot know with certainty that a terrorist act will ever be launched against Canadian territory, nor can we predict with certainty what specific form such an attack would take. However, as a nation, we can ensure that we treat these threats with the seriousness they deserve to implement a maritime security regime in our ocean approaches that minimizes these risks. Not to act to prepare for a range of threats and challenges – be they conventional military, terrorist, economic, criminal, or to our sovereignty – would be irresponsible.
The Navy has a key role to play in Maritime Security
The Navy has a key role to play in providing maritime security and in safeguarding our offshore ocean areas, because it is Canada’s only armed maritime force and the only national organization with the resources, training, and capability needed to
- conduct surveillance of Canada’s immense coastal areas;
- fuse information derived from a diverse range of surveillance systems and intelligence agencies to understand who is operating in our waters, why they are there, and what they are doing; and
- provide the government with the capability it needs to mount an appropriate armed response at sea – including finding, intercepting and boarding suspicious vessels at sea.
This is a difficult and resource intensive process. Within Canada’s Atlantic Ocean area of more than 1,400,000 square kilometers, an average of 350 merchant vessels and over 150 fishing vessels use our waters every day. Similarly, a daily average of over 400 vessels can be found operating within Canada’s Pacific Ocean areas. Our national security demands that we know who they are, and what they are doing. Moreover, if our security and intelligence services identify a vessel as a possible threat to our security, the government must have some credible means of finding this vessel within our vast ocean expanses, and dealing with the threat it poses before it enters our internal waterways or ports. In these areas, the Navy is ideally suited to make an important contribution to maritime security;
- to protect our valuable ocean economic resources;
- to guard against their unlawful use;
- to safeguard against environmental abuses; and
- and to enforce Canadian law in areas where we have the obligation to do so as a sovereign nation.
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