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Watching the Watchers:
Canadian War Technologies in the Surveillance of US
and Canadian Protests
A case study in how Canada learned to stop worrying and arm the world
By Richard Sanders,
editor/producer, Press for
Conversion! magazine of the
Coalition to
Oppose the Arms Trade
As
Canadians look back over the 75 years since the mass murders in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, we should reflect on how this country has long
punched above its weight when fighting to serve and protect imperialism.
This is perhaps especially true when it comes to our Peaceable
Kingdom's so-called "defence" and "security" companies which sell more to
America's warfare/surveillance state than
any other nation on earth.
But many Canadians,
being sheltered from knowledge of their country's deep complicity in the
US imperium, are content to cozy themselves with self-righteous delusions
about mythical "Canadian values." The prevailing national narratives,
propagated by state institutions, corporations (including the mass media)
and similarly captive NGOs, still propagate the fiction that
Canada is a beacon of light shining human rights, justice and democracy on the
world.
 In truth, Canada
stands unreservedly for the capitalist model of private exploitation which
has shackled the peoples of this planet for centuries in varying forms of
slavery, and is now driving us recklessly towards environmental
destruction, all in the name of increased profitability for corporations.
Canada's commitment to aiding and abetting America's role as the "Global
Cop," patrolling the world and busting heads to impose order and the
"rule of law," is well illustrated by the unrestricted flow of billions of
dollars worth of Canadian military technologies to the US every year. Over
the decades, much of this high-tech Canadian matériel has been assembled
into major US killing machines that have been used to wage dozens of wars,
invasions and regime-changes, which Canada prefers to phrase as
"peacekeeping" or "international policing operations." But, whatever
they're called, these multifarious US-led military activities have
resulted in the deaths of between 20 to 30 million people since WWII.(1)
Oftentimes, these military efforts have been carried out to keep
business-friendly dictators in power, to undermine progressive political
movements, and/or to overthrow governments deemed to be enemies of the
American hegemony to which Canadian governments remain ever so loyal.
The Reaper, a Grimm Parable of Canadian
Surveillance/Targeting Technology
 To
shine some light on the ever-blurry jurisdiction between the realms of
global warfare and local police enforcement, let's use an illustrative
example through which to view Canada's longstanding commitment to
strengthening America's highly-militarized way of policing protests. This
case study involves one of the world's most advanced surveillance,
tracking and targeting systems
which can also be weaponised to carry "Hellfire" missiles. It is,
appropriately enough called the "Reaper,"
but it is also known as a Predator B or MQ-9. If inspired by the Brothers
Grimm, we could
also compare this device to a "Magic Mirror."
It is a looking-glass "eye in the sky" through which the West's powerful
global elites can monitor and attack
those who might dare to challenge their self-glorifying authority as "the
fairest of them all."
This seemingly
magical, spy technology has been used of late by US "law-enforcement"
agencies eager to look down upon the scurrying masses of antiracist
protesters in American cities. But, as we'll see, the centrepiece of this incredible
technology -- a cutting-edge, Canadian-made "high-magnification,
missile-grade multisensor"
technology -- was used to great effect one decade ago by Canada's military.
The Canadian air force used this same spy technology aboard warplanes to aid
civilian police authorities in their monitoring of mass protests
against the
G8-G20 summit. Ironically, these
protesters were trying to shine a critical spotlight on
the world's most powerful heads of state who were then gathering in
Toronto to structure their control over the global financial system.
The Reaper is an unmanned aerial
drone equipped with this Canadian sensor technology that was used to fly circles around Minneapolis during Black-Lives-Matter
protests in late May.(2) Press reports have said that the US Customs and
Border Protection(3) was also using some of its other Reaper drones around that time to
fly missions over San Antonio, Texas and Detroit, Michigan.(4)
 Reapers
are among numerous aerial platforms that allow
the military minions
of ruling authorities (akin to
Orwell's "Big Brother" or the Brother Grimm's
"Evil Queen") to keep tabs on those
who dare to threaten the elite's supremacy. But besides keeping a
watchful eye on adversaries of the establishment, the Reaper can also be used to
target and kill them.
Reapers are in fact
better known for their weapons-targeting contributions to warfighting than
to policing uppity activists who protest in the streets. These drones
have, for instance, been used in various wars including those in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Mali and Yemen. Perhaps most
infamously, the US military used one of its weaponized Reapers to fire the
"Hellfire" missile that assassinated Iranian General Qassim Suleimani
(and Iraqi counterparts) in
Baghdad in January of this year.(5).
Although the Reaper
bestows near-magical advantages to murderous global elites, this eerie
technology is very real. Its practical, day-to-day functioning relies on
crucial, indispensable high-tech systems that are manufactured by two of
Canada's many government-subsidized war industries, CAE(6) and WESCAM.(7)
Dr.
Strangelove, General Atomics, Canadair and the RCAF's nuclear payloads
 Before
examining in more detail the key roles played by
CAE and WESCAM technology in the
functioning of Reapers, it is worth looking at an instructive history of
events that links this weapons system's prime contractor to the Canadian
government. Reapers are built by General Atomics, which was co-founded some 65 years
ago by the much-vilified nuclear physicist Dr. Edward Teller. While aptly
nicknamed "the father of the hydrogen bomb," Teller is still heralded by
some for his 1950s work at General Atomics. (Although Teller "hated the
association," he is widely-accepted as the real life model for "Dr.
Strangelove," the eponymous mad scientist played by Peter Sellers in
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic, Cold-War satire.)(8)
Back in 1955, during the height of the Cold War, just a decade after the
criminal obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (in which Canada played
such a significant role, 9), General Atomics was created as a division of
General Dynamics. It had been formed in 1952, thanks in no small part to
the great financial success of what had been Canada's top warplane
manufacturer, Canadair. This Canadian Crown
Corporation was created by Mackenzie
King's Liberal government in 1944. But after sinking tremendous amounts
of public money into Canadair, the Canadian government
sold it for a bargain-basement sale price in 1947 to a troubled US
submarine builder called Electric Boat.(10)
As General Dynamics'
own version of this history explains:
 "By
the early 1950s, Canadair's success began overshadowing that of Electric
Boat; some business advisers even
suggested that Canadair purchase Electric Boat and operate it as a
subsidiary. Instead, on February 21, 1952, a new parent company called
General Dynamics Corporation was established to manage the operations of
Canadair and Electric Boat."(11)
Thanks to Canadair,
General Dynamics went on to become a very highly-profitable manufacturer
of thousands of warplanes, including CF-104 "Starfighters."(12) The
Canadian Air Force operated these nuclear-bomb equipped jets in West
Germany as part Canada's faithful commitment to NATO. Dedicated
to carrying out NATO's nuclear warfighting doctrine, Canada had its
warplanes optimized to work as a "nuclear strike force." Nothing could
perhaps better illustrate Canada's grim willingness to reap the souls of
the dead than this.
Nuclear weapons,
being the most deadly devices ever conceived, can be seen to symbolize the
Spectre of Death. Similarly, those who produce or profit from these
technologies personify those mythic characters, the psychopomps, who
escort the dead away from the land of the living. As
Robert Oppenheimer, "the father of the atomic bomb," remorsefully said
after witnessing the first nuclear detonation on
July 16, 1945: “Now I
am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”(13)
Between 1964 and 1971, Canadair "Starfighter"
warplanes dutifully carried several kinds of US-made tactical/strategic
thermonuclear warheads with variable yields. Between 1965 and 1984,
Canada's CF-101 jets
carried American Air-2A "Genie" rockets with 1.5 kiloton nuclear
warheads. And, immediately after
Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson took
power, in what amounted to a
US-backed coup in 1963, he brought in US W40 fusion-boosted fission
nuclear warheads to arm Canada's
CIM-10 "Bomarc" missiles.(14)
 As
Canadian military historian Dr. John Clearwater has noted:
“From 1963 to 1984, US nuclear warheads armed Canadian weapons systems in
both Canada and West Germany. It is likely that during the early part of
this period, the Canadian military was putting more effort, money and
manpower into the nuclear commitment than any other single activity.”(15)
Having kept its
fingers in the production of both warplanes and warships, General Dynamics
has since grown to become the world's fifth largest military industry,
with revenues of $36 billion in 2018.(16) It
is a behemoth of war, firmly ensconced in the top one percent of global
merchants-of-death clubhouse. One of its subsidiaries,
General Dynamics
Land Systems-Canada, based in London, Ontario, produces the
weapons-laden armoured vehicles that Canada has infamously sold to Saudi
Arabia. Less infamously, Canada has also sold these same tank-like vehicles to other countries as well
including the far-right, US-allied government of
Colombia. Even more significantly, Canada
has also sold these vehicles to the US military which deployed them on
countless missions that "accumulating over 6 million miles" in the Iraq
War between 2003 and 2005 alone.(17)
Reaper Canada:
Doing our part to serve and protect the US
and its ravenous empire
The operation of General Atomics' pilotless Reaper/Predator drones depends
in large part on the complicity of two major Canadian war industries:
 (1)
CAE (Montreal, QC)
With $995 million in military revenues, is Canada's top war-profiteering
corporation.(18) Among its many contributions to the US war machine, CAE
manufactures the Predator Mission Trainer. This "training and mission
rehearsal" system uses a "fully-immersive, virtual environment replicating
actual operational conditions" to prepare Reaper pilots and crew.18 This
CAE flight simulator "delivers an unprecedented level of fidelity and
capability in the use of simulation-based training for remotely piloted
aircraft pilots and sensor operators," said Todd Probert, President of
CAE's Defense & Security Group. CAE also notes that its Predator Mission
Trainer delivers "initial qualification and aircraft sensor systems
training in addition to mission-specific training." CAE's
mission-training, simulation technology is so realistic that it the allows
aircrews to "potentially conduct all training in the simulator without
necessarily requiring further training on the actual aircraft."(19)
 (2)
WESCAM (Burlington, ON),
This
Canadian subsidiary of America's L3Harris
Technologies(20) provides the Reaper drone with the MX-20
Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) imaging system. The MX-20 is WESCAM's
largest, high-magnification, missile-grade multisensor. It sports
laser-illuminated, see-in-the-dark surveillance cameras that can identify
and engage subjects that are more than 20 kilometres away. As WESCAM
notes, the MX-20 is an "advanced targeting solution" that allows Reaper
operators to "locate and track targets at long stand-off." WESCAM puffery
goes on to brag that its EO/IR system provides "high-sensitivity
multi-spectral sensors for day, low-light and nighttime missions" that
"support Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and Precision
Guided Munitions missions." These deadly qualities allow Reapers, and
other aircraft, to "operate with excellent detection and recognition
capabilities from extremely high altitudes."(21)
Wescam's high-tech sensor systems provide an almost all-seeing eye in the
sky not only for General Atomics' Reapers but for other military aircraft
as well, including Canada's CP-140 "Aurora" spy planes.(22)
The
role of CAE and WESCAM in Spying on Canadian Protests
The 2020 use of Reapers to spy on US protesters was not the first time
that CAE and WESCAM technology contributed to the aerial surveillance of
mass protests in North America. Battle tested over Yugoslavia, Iraq and
Afghanistan, Canada's Aurora spy planes used Wescam's MX-20 imaging
sensors to watch over the huge 2010 protests in Vancouver and Toronto.
These Auroras, named for the Roman goddess of dawn (who was mother of
Lucifer, the mythic "bringer of light," 23) are Canada's
strategic
patrol aircraft. As such, they conduct
Intelligence Surveillance and
Reconnaissance
missions.
The Canadian pilots
and crew aboard Canada's Auroras learned their crafts -- like their Reaper
colleagues -- thanks to the CAE's advanced training and mission rehearsal
simulators. Canada's surveillance aircraft are but one of many dozens of
varieties military aircraft that employ CAE technologies.(24)
Although Aurora crews
had run missions to track Russian submarines, to pursue Iraqi leaders
fleeing death aboard ships in the Persian Gulf, and to target those
fighting the foreign occupation of Afghanistan, protesters in Canada
became a new target in the Aurora's sights in 2010. These spy planes were
then used to conduct surveillance during two of the biggest domestic
“security” operations in Canadian history.
 Operation
Podium in Vancouver:
The first of these — Operation Podium — took place during the Olympic/Paralympic
games in early 2010. Canada’s Air Force described Operation Podium as “the most complex domestic
operation ever undertaken in
Canada,” and said it was “the largest [Canadian Forces] CF and Air Force
deployment in recent memory.”(25) This was also “the first time in Canada”
that “video streaming from CP-140” was “operationalised,” i.e., used in a
“real world” operation outside a military exercise. And, the Air Force
also described it as a “world first,” in terms of using “integrated data
links from the Air Force, Navy and [Canadian NORAD Region] CANR, as well
as the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard, into one coherent
air and maritime picture.”(26)
Cutting through such
technical descriptions, the vice president of Canada’s L-3 Wescam summed
up the role of their MX-20 sensors against protesters by saying: “They
were used at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this year providing
persistent surveillance in an overview capability to keep an eye out for
anyone who might want to cause trouble.”(27)
Operation Cadence in Toronto:
A few months later, the CP-140 was at it again, this time over the
turbulent down-town streets of Toronto, during protests against the G8-G20
summit. On June 26(28) and June27,(29) an Aurora aircraft was seen
continuously circling over Toronto’s downtown core as thousands of
citizens assembled to express opposition to government policies, including
Canada's deep involvement in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An
Aurora was also spotted flying nearby over Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario, on June 23,(30) just
as excessive “security” restrictions descended upon citizens of the entire
region.
The CP-140 that was
on the lookout over Toronto was part of what Canada's military called
Operation Cadence. Col. Eyre, then-Commander of a Canadian Mechanized
Brigade Group at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, described it as “the
largest security operation in the history of Canada.”(31) It was also a
first, said Maj. Kael Rennie and Capt. Matt Crosbie, in that “a Tactical
Air Control Party (TACP) saw its first ever major domestic operation in
Canada.” This was unusual, they continued, because “Normal TACP duties
included the employment of fixed wing and attack helicopters in the
employment of air-to-ground munitions. While that works well in
Afghanistan, it was obviously not the desired effect for the G8/G20.”(32)
Canada’s then newly battle-tested technology was referred to as the “Overland
Equipment Mission Suite” and the “Tactical Common Data Link.” Using
L3Wescam cameras affixed to the CP-140s, these new systems provide “full
motion video imagery” for the immediate use of army and/or police units on
the ground, whether they are battling the Talibhan or ban-the-bomb
protesters. As Major CMR Larsen put it in 2010:
“In plain speak: the
Aurora can now use its powerful camera system efficiently, and while
airborne can actually transmit video to a supported unit.... What we can
see from the air, a tactical commander can see on the ground. It is not
hard to imagine how this capability greatly adds to the ‘big picture’
required by operational commanders.”(33)
 In
an even ‘bigger picture’ view of this ‘technological advancement,’ what
this means is that the
militarisation of policing in Canada has reached phenomenally new heights.
The CP-140 aircraft facilitated the government’s highly-militarised, $1
billion response to G8/G20 protests, was operated out of a Canadian Forces
Base (CFB) in Trenton, Ontario. Two RCMP officers very
happily took turns working 12-hour shifts doing “air services” aboard the
CP-140. As RCMP Cpl. Bob Thomas describes it: “We did flight observation
for the security on the ground.... Just before both Summits started I
moved to CFB Trenton and did all my flying from there as the Summits were
going on.”(34) Thomas was chosen for the job because of his experience
with “aerial flight observation and infrared camera training.” He was “one
of just two RCMP officers assigned to fly with the ... surveillance
aircraft, a CP-140 Aurora. It was that opportunity that Thomas found most
memorable. ‘It was an awesome experience.’”(35)
Canadian crews operating CP-140 Auroras at the Comox Air Force Base on
Vancouver Island, BC, (where some of Canada's Bomarc missiles were armed
with US nuclear warheads beginning in 1965(36) aptly call themselves the
“Demon Squadron.” In their “vision” statement, they recognize the changing
nature of the CP-140’s role, saying: “The Demons will be leaders in a
dynamic environment. In our quest for excellence, we will embrace and
pursue technological change.”(37) And, in their “mission” statement,
Canada’s “Demon” warriors express their willingness to embrace their
future wherever it leads, including “to project air power at home and
abroad”:
“The 407 Demon Squadron mission is to provide regional, national and
expeditionary commanders with a rapidly deployable, self-sufficient,
combat [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] ISR and
[Anti-Submarine Warfare] ASW attack capability to enable them to project
air power at home and abroad.”
The “Demon’s Creed”
concludes:
“The Demons are proud warriors....We are the eyes, ears and fists of
commanders over the land and sea....We are proud to be recognized as
Demons.”(38)
Are Canadian
Reapers on the Horizon?
More Wars abroad, More Surveillance at Home
 The
Canadian military may soon be acquiring its very own version of General
Atomics' Reaper drones. In October 2019 Canada's war department finally
narrowed down its search for corporations that could fulfill the
military's demands for a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System. There are now
only two competing teams bidding for this lucrative contract to build
aerial drones for Canada's military. These two teams are led by [1]
General Atomics, which qualified for the contest with its Reaper drone,
and [2] L3 Technologies MAS Inc. which has proposed that Canada purchase
Heron TP drones from Israeli Aircraft Industries.(39) This Israeli drone
was battle tested in Gaza during the 22-day Israeli offensive there that
massacred 1,417 Palestinians in 2008-2009.(40) In June 2009, just a few
months after this massacre, the Canadian Forces announced that it had
begun leasing Israeli Heron drones from a Canadian military company called
Macdonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA).(41) Canada was soon using these
Israel-made drones in Afghanistan.(42)
To build its case for
Canada's acquisition of Reapers, General Atomics, which leads Team
SkyGuardian Canada, noted that "We have a long-standing global relationship with CAE and L3
WESCAM."(43) This "long-standing relationship" does not just relate to
their participation in making the Reaper a successful
US instrument of war and surveillance.
These companies began working together during joint efforts on the
Reaper's precursor, the RQ-1 Predator. Used in
Bosnia (1995), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan
(2001-2003), Yemen (2002) and Iraq (2003), this low-altitude drone was
used primarily for photographic, electronic surveillance and
target-acquisition missions. The RQ-1 drone was also weaponized by the CIA
so that it could fire missiles to assassinate suspects in the War on
Terror, as it did in Yemen in 2002.(44)
In pushing its case for the Reaper, General Atomics has also told the
Canadian military that it "look[ed] forward to growing our relationship
with MDA as a part of this new team in Canada."(45) MDA has also proven
its strong commitment to serving US wars through its production of such
surveillance and weapons-targeting systems as Canada's RADARSAT
satellites.(46)
Unrestricted Flow of Weapons vs. Restricted Flow of Information
America has a long history of using Reapers to spy on people, to wage wars, to
overthrow foreign governments, to carry out mass murder and, generally, to
wreak havoc and destruction around the world. This, of course, has never
stopped the Canadian government from allowing the export of CAE and WESCAM
technologies to the US so that it
can maximize its use of these deadly Reapers.
Neither, for that
matter, has Canada's government ever seen fit to prevent any other
Canadian war industry from feeding the voracious appetite of the US
military industrial complex. While about half of Canada's military
production is exported, as much as two thirds of those exports go to the
US. This huge flow of Canadian military hardware has been deeply
entrenched in the world's closest economic trade relationship since the
Canada-US Defence Production Sharing Agreement was signed in 1956.(47)
For many decades, the
Canadian government has required domestic military industries to obtain
permits for their exports around the world, except, that is, for arms
sales to the US. This exemption has served to ensure the free and
unrestricted flow of Canadian military exports to the US. Since, over the
deaces, the Canadian government has handed out billions in grants and
"investments" to support the business prospects of Canada's hugely
profitable military industries, the US has been able to benefit from
unfettered access to its northerly neighbour's generously subsidized
military industrial base.
In stark contrast,
the flow of publicly accessible information about Canada's traffic in arms
to the US has been severely restricted by our government. Although
limited, generalized information about Canadian military exports to
other countries is made public in government reports, virtually all
data on Canada's military sales to the US have long been completely
excluded from this reporting process. This of course has made it extremely
difficult to monitor Canada's contributions to the US war machine. This
lack of transparency is unacceptable not only because America is by far
the largest recipient of Canadian military products and services, but
because it can still accurately be seen as "the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world" (as Martin Luther King Jr. put it in 1967).(48)
Regardless of which
particular brand of drones is acquired by the Canadian military, activists
will soon have to contend with the fact that their government has acquired
yet another tool for its deadly arsenal of war. This will not only allow
Canada's military to increase its practical support for US-led foreign
invasions and interventions, it will also give even more resources to
police forces which have been spying on progressives since this country's
inception.(49)
2020 Vision: Watching the Watchers and Watching Ourselves
By
watching the watchers we progressives become more aware of the continuing
crimes committed by those powerful institutions which have put us in their
surveillance sights. In the process we also build our awareness of how
these institutions have been victorious in the battle to fabricate and
frame the public's limited understanding of history.
 But besides watching the watchers it is
important to be ever more vigilant in watching ourselves and those civil
organizations which claim to represent our best interests. For centuries,
good honest Canadians have been convinced to support criminally-harmful
state policies and to collaborate in turning those policies into reality.
The complicity of Canada's churches in the genocide of First Nations
peoples is a case in point. It illustrates how decent, well-meaning
Canadians became so enamoured by entrancing mainstream narratives of
racism, xenophobia and white superiority, that they went beyond just
turning a blind eye to repressive policies, and actively administered the
crimes that were committed throughout the entire Residential
School process. These crimes were, afterall, conducted in the name of helping
those poor so-called "savages" who were wrongly seen to be in great need
of a benevolent grace that could best be bestowed by the great uplifting
processes of civilization, Christianization and Canadianization.(50)
So, while it is important to watch the
watchers who oversee the ongoing international crimes against peace and
crimes against humanity, it is -- perhaps counterintuitively -- even
more important to watch ourselves. Although we have little if any real
power to influence those who hold sway over global military, political and
financial institutions, we do have a fighting chance at influencing
our own behaviour. With this in mind it may be useful to engage in thought
experiments to imagine ourselves standing at a vantage point 100 years in
the future from whence we can look back in hindsight at the present day.
Just as Reaper drones hover above the
social fray looking down upon us all from a great distance, we can try to
escort our imaginations to a point in time when we as individuals will all
be long dead. From that hopefully more advanced point of view we can
perhaps more objectively see the current flaws in our society and then ask
ourselves what crimes Canadians were unwittingly committing back in the
dark days of 2020. By viewing ourselves through this Reaper like "Magic
Mirror" hovering on the other side of our own deaths, we may be able to
see some way to prevent Canadians from becoming even further complicit in
vast crimes that many cannot yet even see.
Defunding the Military and Defusing NATO
Besides calling on
Canada to defund the police, many activists are also ramping up demands to
defund the military. What better bank of resources is there than Canada's
vast military coffers to find the monetary resources needed to invest in
institutions that promote health, education, day care, mass transportation
and environmental protection? Instead of continually electing politicians
that unquestionably increase financing to feed our military's unquenchable
desire for more and more weapons, Canadians need a government that will
instead fund socially-useful and environmentally-sustainable solutions to
the world's collective problems. By doing so, the Canadian could not only
create far more jobs at home, it could -- for a change -- actually have a
positive influence on the world. Demilitarizing Canada and the planet
would be extremely beneficial in many ways, not least of which because the
armed forces burn more fossil fuels, and hence contribute more to
catastrophic climate change, than any other force on earth.
Instead of
continually aiding and abetting US-led wars, and further promoting the
most destructive, exploitative practices of unfettered capitalism, Canada
desperately needs to make an abrupt about face. We need, for example, to
have a government that will stop dressing itself up behind phoney facades
of sensitivity to the evils of racism, and begin to actually take
practical steps to eradicate the systemic, institutionalised racism that
riddles the Canadian state. This work must begin by recognizing the
continuing harm that has been done by the centuries of genocide, slavery
and imperial land plunder upon which the whole Canadian nation-building
project has long been based.
The struggle to end Canada's longstanding complicity in war could start by
severing our military ties to the US, and by removing ourselves from NATO.
This aggressive military alliance is a major threat to world peace and
Canada should have no part in it. NATO still maintains its founding
doctrine which is based on its willingness to prepare for and wage nuclear
war. Canada also needs to sign and ratify the UN treaty to ban nuclear
weapons. And, while we're dreaming in technocolour, Canada should stop
mining uranium, stop plans for spreading mini nuclear reactors across the
north, and stop creating more nuclear waste because we simply cannot
dispose of the vast stores of this deadly material that we have already
amassed.
But achieving such utopian visions of
an independent, peaceful and just
Canada will always remain in the realm of fairy-tales unless Canadians, as a
small first step, are able to free themselves from the many powerful myths
and deceptive narratives that distort this country's self awareness.
Because these grand national myths constrict Canadians' understanding of
history and obscure our current complicity in international crimes, they
form major ideological obstacles which block the work of progressive
people struggling for social change. Only by becoming more aware and
mindful of our Peaceable
Kingdom's powerful mythologies, can Canadians hope to ever extricate this
country from its ongoing collaboration with the American imperium of war
and repression.
2. Joseph
Trevithick, Customs and Border Protection Reaper Drone Appears Over
Minneapolis Protests, May 29, 2020.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33756/customs-and-border-protection-predator-b-drone-appears-over-minneapolis-protests
3. Calling
itself "one of the world's largest law enforcement organizations," the CPB
says it "is charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the
U.S. while facilitating lawful international travel and trade."
About CBP
https://www.cbp.gov/about
While the CBP is
only allowed to operate within 100 miles of the US border, Minneapolis and
San Antonio are beyond that 100-mile zone.
The Constitution in
the 100-Mile Border Zone, American Civil Liberties Union
https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone
4. Joseph
Cox, “The Government Is Regularly Flying Predator Drones Over American
Cities,” Vice Motherboard, June 3, 2020
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7wnzm/government-flying-predator-drones-american-cities
5. Joe Lauria,
"Fear of a Major Mideast War," Consortiumnews, January 2, 2020
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/02/fear-of-a-major-mideast-war/
6. Prime
Minister announces new project to create jobs and improve training in
Canada’s aerospace and healthcare sectors, August
8, 2018.
https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2018/08/08/prime-minister-announces-new-project-create-jobs-and-improve-training
8. Peter
Goodchild, "Meet the real Dr Strangelove," The Guardian, Apr 1, 2004.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/apr/01/science.research1
9. Setsuko
Thurlow, An open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada from a survivor of
the Hiroshima A-Bombing, August 7, 2020
https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/an-open-letter-to-the-prime-minister-of-canada-from-a-survivor-of-the-hiroshima-a-bombing/
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. James
Temperton, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'. The story of
Oppenheimer's infamous quote," Wired, Aug 9. 2017.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer
14. 1962-1963,
Canada: 'Knocking Over' "Dief the Chief"
A Plot "Made in the
U.S."
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue43/articles/plot_made_in_us.htm
Key Quotations on the
events of January 1963
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue43/articles/key_quotations_on_the_events.htm
CIA Fingerprints
The Americans behind the Plot to Oust John Diefenbaker
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue43/articles/cia_fingerprints.htm
John Diefenbaker's "Made in Canada" Policies
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue43/articles/john_diefenbaker.htm
15. "Books on
Nuclear Weapons in Canada," Press for Conversion! Issue # 39 Dec. 1999.
p.32.
http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/39.pdf
Nuclear Weapons:
Preparing for Global Annihilation, Press for Conversion! Issue # 48 July
2002. p.40.
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue48/articles/40.pdf
John Clearwater.
Canadian Nuclear Weapons: The Untold Story
of Canada's Cold War Arsenal,
1998, pp.91–116.
John Clearwater, US
Nuclear Weapons in Canada, 1999.
Canada's Nuclear
Strike Force: 1st Air Division 1964-1972 , 10 August 2015
https://web.archive.org/web/20170728201632/http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2015/08/canadas-nuclear-strike-force-1st-air.html
18. CAE
Predator Mission Trainer (PMT)0
https://www.cae.com/media/media-center/documents/DM104-PredatorMissionTrainer_ENG_September2019.pdf
19. CAE-built
Predator Mission Trainer now in-service at General Atomics Flight Test and
Training Center in North Dakota, CAE, Apr 7,
2020.
https://www.asdnews.com/news/defense/2020/04/07/caebuilt-predator-mission-trainer-now-inservice-at-general-atomics-flight-test-training-center
-north-dakota
20. L3Harris was formed in 2019 through a merger of L3 Technologies
and Harris Corp., America's 7th and 12th largest war industries.
Top 100 for 2019, op. cit.
The Canada Pension Plan holds $49 million in L3Harris stocks.
Foreign public equity
holdings as at March 31, 2020
https://cdn4.cppinvestments.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Foreign-Publicly-Traded-Equity-Holdings-ibfs-06-2020-en-v2.htm
21. EO/IR
Targeting System Integrated into MQ-9 Predator UAS, Mar 5, 2020.
https://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/2020/03/eo-ir-targeting-system-integrated-into-mq-9-predator-uas/
Technical
specifications and performance of WESCAM's MX-20 used by the Predator can
be found here:
WESCAM MX™-20
https://www.wescam.com/products-services/airborne-surveillance-and-reconnaissance/mx-20/
22. AH-1
"Cobra" Attack Helicopter
Richard Sanders, Table: "Canadian War
Industries Exporting Parts and/or Services to the
USA for the AH-1 'Cobra,'"
COAT Campaign to Oppose
CANSEC, 2009.
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/AH-1.htm
C-130 "Hercules" Tactical transport
Richard Sanders,
"C-130 'Hercules,'" Press for Conversion! (Issue # 52) October 2003, p.15
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/52/15.pdf
P-3 "Orion" Maritime Patrol Aircraft
Richard Sanders, Table: "Canadian War
Industries Exporting Parts and/or Services to the
USA for the P-3 'Orion,'"
COAT Campaign to Oppose
CANSEC, 2009.
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/P-3.htm
Richard Sanders,
P-3C“'Orion,'" Press for Conversion! Issue # 52 October 2003, p.24.0
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/52/24.pdf
British MR2 "Nimrod" Maritime Patrol Aircraft
Richard Sanders, "Lt.Col. Jason Major and Col. Bill Seymourserved with LRP
Squads in Iraq, 2003," Press for Conversion! (Issue # 65), p.44, December
2010.
http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/65/44-45.pdf
24. CAE has,
for example, supplied training systems for at least 47 varieties of
military helicopters, eleven varieties of military patrol/transport
planes, six varieties of fighter jets, and five varieties of tanks and
artillery. CAE also played a crucial role in "Missile Defense" weapons
systems.
Helicopter Aircrew
Training Solutions, p.3.
https://www.cae.com/media/documents/Helicopter_Aircrew_Training_Solutions.pdf
Portfolio of
Experience,
https://web.archive.org/web/20080309120710/http://www.cae.com/www2004/Products_and_Services/Military_Simulation_and_Training/Portfolio_of_
Experience/ptExperience.shtml
Fighter/Trainer
Training Solutions
https://www.cae.com/media/documents/BM034_Fighter_Trainer_Aircraft_Training_Solutions_lowres.pdf
http://www.cae.com/www2004/Products_and_Services/Military_Simulation_and_Training/Portfolio_of_Experience/ltsExperience.shtml
Richard Sanders, CAE
Ltd., "Canada’s Role in so called 'Missile Defense,'" #56 June 2005,
pp.32-37
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/56/Articles/56_32-37.pdf
25. “Op Podium
Air Component delivers,” April 21, 2010.
www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=10457
26. Ibid.
27. Jerry
Langton, “L-3 WESCAM and L-3 Communication Systems-West: Joining forces to
supply critical systems for the Canadian Forces,” Canadian Defence Review,
April 2010.
www.wescam.com/pdf/media/L-3Wescam_and_L-3Systems_West.pdf
28. Military
freq for G20
http://forums.radioreference.com/ontario/184053-military-freq-g20-2.html
29. Canadians
send message to G20 in re-cent Toronto violence
http://rabble.ca/babble/national-news/canadians-send-message-g20-recent-toronto-violence
30.
G20 in Toronto
http://community.the-digital-picture.com/image_presentation1/f/15/p/4127/34973.aspx#34973
31
“Op Cadence,” Petawawa Post,
July 8,2010.
www.cg.cfpsa.ca/cg-pc/Petawawa/EN/InformationandFAQ/Newspapers/PetPost/Documents/8July2010.pdf
32.
Maj.
K.Rennie and Capt. M. Crosbie ,“Tactical Air Control, TACP for Op
Cadence,” Petawawa Post, July 8, 2010.
33.
Major CMR Larsen, “14 Wing CP-140
Aurora participates on Operation NANOOK,” September 9, 2010.
www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/14w-14e/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=10962
34.
“Local RCMP officer assists in
security efforts at G8 and G20 Summits,” Shaunavon Standard, August 31,
2010.
www.theshaunavonstandard.com/news/lo-cal-news/192.html
35.
Ibid
36. Pat Kolaf,
"High alert guarding nuclear warheads," Drumheller Mail,
11
Nov
2015.
https://www.drumhellermail.com/news/27705-high-alert-guarding-nuclear-warheads
37.
Vision, Mission, and Creed
www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/19w-19e/sqns-escs/page-eng.asp?id=854
38.
Ibid.
39. David
Pugliese, "Heron and MQ-9 drones approved for Canadian military program,"
Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 17, 2019.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/heron-and-mq-9-drones-approved-for-canadian-military-program
40.
"Confirmed figures
reveal the true extent of the destruction inflicted upon the Gaza Strip;
Israel's offensive
resulted in 1,417 dead, including 926 civilians, 255 police officers, and
236 fighters". Archived from the
original on 12 June 2009.
Retrieved
19 March
2009..
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 12 March, 2009.
41.
Canadian Forces Briefing on UAVs, Flight 8 Meeting, 24 June 2009
https://archive.vn/meNdh
42.
David Pugliese, "Would Armed Heron
UAVs Make Sense for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan?" Ottawa
Citizen,
Nov 25, 2009.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/would-armed-heron-uavs-make-sense-for-the-canadian-forces-in-afghanistan
43. About Team
SkyGuardian Canada
https://www.ga-asi.com/teamskyguardiancanada/about
44. Richard
Sanders, "RQ-1 “"Predator," Press for Conversion! (Issue # 52), October
2003. p.25.
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/52/25.pdf
45. About Team
SkyGuardian Canada, op. cit.
46.
Canada’s Role in the Militarisation of Space: RADARSAT - The Warfighters’ Eye
in the Sky and its links to 'Missile Defense '” Press for Conversion,
Issue#58, March 2006.
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/58/58.html
47. Defence
Production Sharing Agreement between Canada and the United States Of
America, July 27, 1956.
https://www.ccc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/defence-production-sharing-agreement-en.pdf
48. King, Martin Luther, Jr., "Beyond
Vietnam,"
April 4, 1967.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam
49. "A Partial List of RCMP Files on Peace Groups,"
Press for Conversion! Issue # 39 Dec. 1999. p.28-31.
http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/39.pdf
50. Richard
Sanders, Fictive Canada: Indigenous Slaves and the Captivating Narratives
of a Mythic Nation, Issue#69, Fall 2017.
http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/69/69_2-3.htm |