Canada ‘vulnerable’ at sea,

HALIFAX — The outgoing head of the navy says Canada is vulnerable and needs to work more closely with the United States to improve the maritime security of North America.

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said the government should look at investing in sensors to improve maritime surveillance and the information-sharing relationship between Canada and the U.S.

Norman, who will hand over the navy to Rear-Admiral Ron Lloyd on June 23, said the sensors could take a variety of forms, such as an underwater sensor network or land-based radar.

“At the moment we’re vulnerable,” said Norman during an exclusive interview with the Canadian Press. “There are a number of threats and the question is: Are we prepared to simply accept the threats and the implications of them? Or do we want to do something about it? Do we want to know what’s going on?”

Those threats could include drug trafficking in the Caribbean, illegal migration, or “potential military threats in a circumstance that perhaps people don’t like to think about,” said Norman. He said Canada has been “fairly lucky.” “We’ve been able to avoid any real situations that either have embarrassed the country … or have actually threatened the security of Canadians,” said Norman, who starts his new role as second in command of the Canadian Forces on Aug. 5.

“But that doesn’t mean that the potential for those things happening isn’t real. … As senior military officers, our responsibility is to provide advice beyond just being lucky. You don’t base strategy or policy on, ‘We’ve been lucky so far.’ ”

Norman says such sensors would bolster what he called “maritime domain awareness” under the NORAD agreement. NORAD is the joint U.S-Canada command providing aerospace warning, air sovereignty and defence for North America.