Canadian ships with faulty maps fired guns in Jamaican waters

Vessels conducted live-fire exercise, intercepted 17 fishing boats

Bad maps are being blamed after Canadian naval reservists participating in the U.S.led war on drugs last year sparked a diplomatic flap by firing their weapons and intercepting fishing trawlers in Jamaican waters — without Jamaica’s permission.

The embarrassing incident, which has never before been publicly reported, broke international maritime law — not the first time legal questions have been raised about Canada’s increasing involvement in the drug war.

On March 27, 2012, HMCS Goose Bay and HMCS Kingston were patrolling south of Jamaica as part of Operation Caribbe, Canada’s contribution to an ongoing, U.S.-led anti-drug trafficking mission in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Documents obtained by Postmedia News show that at one point, crew members on both vessels began firing their ships’ weapons, including large .50-calibre machine guns, as part of a live-fire training exercise.

HMCS Goose Bay also deployed its small rigid-hulled inflatable boat on two occasions that day to intercept and identify 17 small fishing vessels to ensure they weren’t carrying cocaine or marijuana or involved in any other illicit activity.

Goose Bay and Kingston also reportedly pulled up alongside one vessel that Jamaican officials said had a “retired senior political figure on board.”

Goose Bay and Kingston are Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessels that are much smaller than the navy’s frigates and destroyers.

They are crewed almost entirely by reservists and are generally used for patrolling Canada’s coasts.

It was the next day, when the head of the Jamaican coast guard contacted Canadian authorities to complain, that Defence officials realized Goose Bay and Kingston had been in Jamaican territory and not international waters.

“HMCS Goose Bay and Kingston inadvertently conducted live weapons training and other maritime operations in Jamaican territorial waters,” the document reads, “in contravention of international maritime law.”

The mistake was quickly attributed to the Canadian vessels’ maps.

“This was an oversight,” according to the documents’ talking points prepared in case media got wind of the story.

“The ships were operating with navigation charts that did not accurately reflect the territorial waters of Jamaica. Consequently, the ships’ captains thought they were in international waters when they conducted the exercises.”

The notes go on to say that the Canadian Forces had “amended their navigational charts to accurately reflect Jamaica’s claimed territorial waters, and future deployments of ships and aircraft to the region will ensure the correct charts are used to ensure that nothing similar happens in the future.”

There was no explanation as to why the ships had the incorrect maps.

The Defence Department did not respond to questions by press time.

Canadian military vessels and aircraft aren’t strangers to the Caribbean, particularly since the Conservative government launched Canada’s involvement in U.S.-led antidrug trafficking efforts in 2006.

Canada’s involvement there and throughout much of the Western hemisphere has grown substantially over the years, with Canadian surveillance aircraft, naval surface vessels and even submarines an increasingly common sight during interdiction missions.

Documents obtained by Postmedia News indicate much of this “larger, more robust contribution” to the U.S.led war on drugs has been driven by the military itself, which has seen the mission as a key opportunity in the aftermath of Afghanistan.

National Defence reports that the total cost of Operation Caribbe has increased to an estimated $282.2 million this year from $25.3 million in 2008-09, reflecting that increased involvement as more military assets are dedicated to the mission.

(Officially, National Defence says the actual cost of participating in Operation Caribbe was $7.4 million in 2008-09 and $9.6 million this year because the rest of the costs would have been incurred whether the mission was undertaken or not.)

This expanded role, which has gone largely unreported, has included some prickly legal questions beyond the actions of HMCS Goose Bay and Kingston.

In 2010, for example, the Conservative government agreed to allow armed U.S. Coast Guard boarding teams to ride in Canadian military vessels despite what was described in internal notes as “the unique nature of this arrangement and complex legal issues.”

More recent briefing notes have indicated an interest in having Canadian authorities actually board vessels suspected of illicit activities and make arrests, which would raise other legal questions.

A federal government program designed to send military-grade tactical gear to Latin America, including boots, pistol holsters and boats, to help battle organized crime groups, was scrapped last month after questions about its legality were raised in the Commons.