In the News March 21
War Preparations in the Name of National Interest
Calls to Place U.S. Missiles and Other Military Installations in Canada
CTV News reports that retired Canadian General Tom Lawson, a former NORAD Deputy Commander serving under U.S. command before serving as Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff from 2012-2015, said the opportunity the conflict in Ukraine presents is “a perfect moment to announce that we’re coming on board with all forms of [U.S.] ballistic missile defence and we are going to discuss the positioning of new [U.S.] radar systems and new [U.S.] missile interceptors on Canadian soil.” He added: “And, by the way, we are now announcing that we’re buying F-35s, the first of which will be delivered four years from now. Now, all of a sudden, you’re looking pretty beefy.”
U.S. General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORAD and of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) left no doubt about who and what is spurring on the renewed push at this time to “modernize” NORAD in this way. He raised the alarm in a March 1 presentation to a U.S. congressional committee about “strategic competitors, rogue nations, and non-state actors” possessing the capability to strike institutions and critical infrastructure in the United States and Canada.[1] The report carried by Canadian Press which quoted Lawson, notes that VanHerck recently “highlighted the growing threat that North America faces as Russia and China develop and field long-range weapons that can hit Canada or the United States, and which the current system can’t detect.”
A CTV report with the same thrust quotes Andrea Charron, a professor who directs the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, who stated: “Ukraine has made NORAD even more important, because we are the back door to NATO.” She said “If Russia felt boxed in, where are they going to hit? They’re going to hit somewhere that is not very populated, and that speaks to the Arctic. This is ‘escalate to de-escalate.'”
Charron has worked for various federal departments including the Privy Council Office in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat where she helped oversee Canada’s spy agencies that are fully integrated with those of the U.S. and its “Five Eyes” network.
This kind of reporting by national news networks whose TV programing is saturated with scenes of suffering and desperation, fostering war hysteria and anti-Russia animus, is disinformation aimed at destroying the public opinion that exists in Canada against escalating conflict and becoming a base for U.S. wars of aggression. Canadians are supposed to accept the opinions of those presented as “experts” as proof of what the situation in Ukraine urgently requires them to do now: help the U.S. military expand its control over Canada and embroil Canada in U.S./NATO wars of aggression and occupation under the hoax that the prosperity of the “civilized” world lies in the U.S. striving for hegemony.
In related news, Defence Minister Anita Anand said she has had several discussions with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about NORAD modernization.[2]
In January, the federal government awarded a $592 million contract to an Inuit-owned company, Nasittuq Corp., to operate and maintain NORAD’s North Warning System’s long- and short-range radars.
Nasittuq was reorganized in January 2021 “to become an Inuit controlled corporation registered as an Inuit Firm on the Nunavut Inuit Firm Registry (IFR #1043) and the Nunatsiavut Government Business Directory (#201). The shareholders of the company include Nunasi Corporation, PAIL and ATCO Frontec.”[3]
“Under the new structure, Nunasi Corporation holds 51 per cent voting rights and ATCO Frontec holds 49 per cent voting rights, with a 51 per cent equity interest held by PAIL and a 49 per cent equity interest held by ATCO Frontec.”
ATCO Frontec is a subsidiary of ATCO Ltd., and specializes in rapid mobilization and the provision of services to NATO, U.S. and Canadian Forces as well as resource and telecommunications sectors. As a major Department of National Defence and NATO contractor, it operated the Kandahar International Airport in occupied Afghanistan from 2007-2016, as well as military bases in Kosovo, Bosnia and Canada, including in the Canadian Arctic.
The Nasittuq website states: “Established over 30 years ago as Frontier Technologies, ATCO had a vision of creating a Canadian world-class technical services company providing operations and technical services in communications, radar and electronics to a national and international clientele. This led to an award to operate the North Warning System in 1987.”
Using the situation in Ukraine to hand more Canadian territory and resources to the U.S. war machine is unacceptable. It has nothing to do with the defence of Canada.
Canadians have made it clear time and time again that they do not support Canada becoming a base for U.S. missiles or other military hardware or installations. It is precisely this fact which is leading to calls by military commanders and others who stand to profit from Canada’s stepped-up integration into the U.S. war economy and war machine, to impose something Canadians would otherwise oppose.
These cynical attempts to use the current situation in Ukraine to slip in a hidden agenda must not pass. Those already enmeshed in the U.S. war machine, many of whom profit from it handsomely in retirement as well, do not represent what Canadians want. They have spoken emphatically time and time again against U.S. missiles being placed on any part of the territory known as Canada.
Notes
1. “Statement of General Glen D. VanHerck, United States Air Force Commander, Commander United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.” March 1, 2022.
(TML Daily, posted March 21, 2022. “Ukraine war sparks fresh calls for urgency on upgrading North America’s defences,” Lee Berthiaume, Canadian Press)
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