Guard It Or Lose It -- Canadian Arctic

"These activities [Russian and Chinese] rarely trigger formal defence responses, but over time they reshape the strategic environment."

"Canada's current security architecture is not strongly equipped to counter grey-zone activity." 

"[While] Arctic ice melts at an unprecedented pace, the region is opening up. Navigation windows are getting longer, leading to increased activity by research vessels, ice-capable survey ships, cable-mapping operations, and autonomous underwater systems."

"[Russia and China] are rapidly advancing their Arctic-based drone capabilities, outpacing NATO."

Sweekriti Pathak, fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute think tank 

The Canadian government issued a February announcement of up to $40-billion investment in Arctic defence infrastructure. This is part of the Liberal government's pledge to increase defence spending to reach the level that NATO members were informed to be the latest expectation for member-states of the Western military alliance, from 2% of national GDP to a new high of 5%. Arctic defence falls into that general commitment for Canada.

 

In line with that commitment and increased military infrastructure spending to meet the target, the Canadian Armed Forces' intention is to operate in the Arctic on a more permanent basis, rather than as has been the norm to the present, only during warmer months. To that end, troops are expected to practice military operations in the frozen north during its iciest periods, and to accustom themselves to operating in sub-zero conditions on a prolonged basis.

 

Canadian soldiers prepare for a surveillance mission in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, as part of the annual Operation Nanook on Sept. 6. The exercise sees the small team inserted onto a remote mountain top with no additional support, honing their survival skills for multiple days. (David Common/CBC)

 

"Canada must guard against foreign research in the Canadian Arctic and North that is dual-use -- having both research and military applications", alerted a statement by Global Affairs Canada. Canada has long neglected its Arctic geography, and but for an Indigenous battery of Northern Rangers, poorly equipped by Canada, which is dedicated to acting as security scouts guarding Canadian territory, the government has not formally made it a priority to protect its northern assets. 

 

Both Russia, which geographically has a presence in the Arctic, and China, which has not, but is preparing for shipping opportunities for the future through the fast-melting sea ice -- hitherto unused in view of winter sea ice making passage challenging -- have been aggressively pursuing their objectives in the Arctic. Russia has committed to refitting and manning elong-neglected and abandoned military bases in the Russian Arctic, stationing troops there, asserting sovereignty. 

 

A drone photo shows China's research icebreaker Xuelong 2 breaking the ice to lead the way in the Arctic Ocean, Aug. 5, 2025.  Liu Shiping/Xinhua via Getty Images

 

Both countries have established an active and alert presence in the Arctic, on the long-held theory that absence is abandonment, and presence is a deterrent to any challengers. Their sustained presence focuses on data collection and development of infrastructure. Both Russia and China have keen interests in future exploitation possible in mining the seabed of its mineral and energy resources. Both have invested in Arctic-condition ships, capable of cutting through thick sea ice.

 

Russia has built nuclear icebreakers that go along with revitalized bases along sea lanes key to their interests, that include activities along the Northern Sea Route through Russia's Arctic coast, with a focus on extensive seabed and hydrographic surveys to identify underwater features; depth, topography and hazards in the interests of safe navigation and marine construction plans. Canada is just finally waking up to the necessity to do the same, initiated by the previous Conservative government.

The Israeli Elbit Systems Ltd. Hermes 900 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flies over the airbase during a media presentation in the central Swiss town of Emmen

(photo credit: REUTERS)

 

Canada recently took possession of a sophisticated and powerful new Hermes 900 StarLiner drone, capable of multiple tasks such as monitoring the North for oil spills and surveys of ice conditions, part of the Department of National Defence plan to strengthen Canada's Arctic defences. Built by Israel's Elbit Systems, the drone is a medium-altitude, remotely piloted device with a range of over 1,400 nautical miles, equipped with radar and camera sensors. 

 

The drone is meant to fill the gaps between satellites and manned aircraft in support of maritime surveillance for oil spills, ice mapping, shipping monitoring, search and rescue, and environmental protection. Currently, the Canadian Coast Guard has in operation six icebreakers used in the Arctic from June to November to advance maritime safety and security. New icebreakers will be designed to operate during the months heretofore left untended, featuring greater icebreaking capacities. 

 

Chinese Coast Guard vessels traversing icy waters during the joint exercise with Russia in 2024. Photo: China Coast Guard

 

Killer Pandemics : The Eye of the Storm

"Today, more infectious outbreaks seem inevitable. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is potential of a Disease X event just around the corner."

"The recent spate of H5N1 bird flu cases in Cambodia is just a case in point."

"[Surveillance may be] a key approach in our ability to detect a spillover event before it becomes too widespread." 

"[One Health is key to] effectively identifying and responding to these threats as it provides a trans-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach to identifying and responding to public health threats."

Pranab Chatterjee, researcher, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore

"Nature is producing new viruses all the time .. What we're trying to say [with Disease X] is, let's think creatively about designing vaccines and therapeutics and drugs that not only affect known agents but also can affect future and emerging pandemic pathogens."

"And you can predict pretty clearly that the places where new emerging diseases are most likely to start are countries where there's a lot of wildlife diversity ... means tropical and subtropical countries."

Peter Daszac, president of EcoHealth Alliance, global environmental non-profit

"With the resources and technologies we have now, I don't think it's too much to ask to be ready for 120 different viruses ... so, I just think it's a call to action to have much more investment in basic research, and preparedness and understanding of biology and understanding of the threats."

"All global threats began as regional problems. Even HIV was a regional problem until we missed it for two or three decades, and then it became a global problem."

"And it's in the high-income countries' best interest to help low-income countries have the facility and capacities to solve their own problems regionally before they become global problems."

"You know, we act like we're only going to be on the planet for another five years. And we need to be thinking longer term, we need to be thinking outside of an election cycle. Our thinking needs to be about 100 years, for me, not two years."

Barney Graham, senior adviser, global health equity, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta 

Eco Health Alliance

 

Speculation is rife and it has been for years, over where the next world threat through an infectious virus will come from, how virulent it will be, and the level of its human-destructive force. Major infectious events are on the horizon and have been, for some time. Preparedness for reaction to such events is still in the gestation stage. Scientists estimate that 1.67 million viruses, yet to be discovered, prey on mammals and birds, some half of which have the potential to spread to humans. 

 

The World Health Organization back in 2018 spoke of the unknown future outbreak as Disease X, representing the "knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease". It took but a year before SARS-CoV-2 appeared on the world scene, the first in the category of mystery viruses scientists were concerned about, alerting the world medical community.

The appearance of the next, anticipated outbreak will take creativity and vigilance to track it since the perspective is, following COVID-19's global disruption, this is only the beginning. There is general consensus that the next Disease X will be zoonotic, like SARS-CoV-2, a virus specific to animals that made its way, leaping the species barrier, to infecting humans. Almost 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases -- Ebola, HIV-AIDS, rabies and COVID-19 are several among a staggering number of potential zoonotic threats.

Nearly all recent infectious diseases of global concern, including COVID-19 are caused by animal viruses attaining human transmission, according to data. Zoonotic viruses continue to represent the pathogens of interest as future diseases with the potential to become pandemics. And that would include diseases known from a specific source that could evolve into a mutated form to threaten its virulence widely.

Rift Valley Fever, a virus listed as one of eight known disease by WHO, that poses the greatest public risk of a health emergency is one such example which in severe form is capable of resulting in blindness, excessive bleeding and brain swelling. Generally, it spreads to humans through mosquito bites, with no human-to-human spread yet documented. However, if its causative virus changes its transmission mode to respiratory spread similar to flu viruses it could be the next Disease X.

 

EcoHealth Alliance scientists are sampling humans and wildlife around the globe to track and discover new viruses

 

Of the 1.67 million unknown viruses, all belong to roughly 25 viral families through which scientists have identified 120 viruses from these families posing potential risk to humans. Scientists in view of the fact that it is not possible to prepare for each viral pandemic threat, devised a strategy to identify prototype virus models that have the potential to cause the greatest risk to humans for which no known medical countermeasures exist.

Another considerable factor is rising global temperatures with the potential to unleash zombie viruses frozen for thousands of years in permafrost. The main drivers of the next Disease X pandemic appears to be land usage change, deforestation, population growth and activities such as wildlife trade where "humans come in contact with 'new to us' pathogens".

ProMED, an internet-based reporting network supported by the non-profit International Society for Infectious Diseases is open to all, accessed free of charge. Unlike government organizations this system can inform the public of the initial case first captured by informal and/or local reporting, whether through social media, local media or when that case initially presents to a healthcare worker. Which makes ProMED critical to the global public health community.

"There is no one perfect surveillance system, nor will there ever be. We have to remain vigilant for both known and unknown threats, using event, artificial intelligence, routine, and lab-based surveillance. ProMED is one piece of the disease-surveillance space occupying a very specific niche where we try to identify outbreaks before definitive results are available."

"...It wasn't until a local media source captured it [the significance of informal information] and Pro MED disseminated it that it was identified as a real threat."

"In outbreaks with pandemic potential any extra days we can move the response to the left on the timeline means lives and dollars saved."

Jarod Hanson, chief content officer, Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (Pro MED), Maryland

A nurse works in the intensive care unit at the Humber River Hospital in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press

The Ego of Self-Exoneration

"When we combine these steps [of leaking to media] in aggregate there is a very strong case to be made that the public interest was maximized and the public risk was minimized."
"Very little harm has been done."
"We're losing our way as a society. If we don't stand up, if we don't say what we think those rights should be, and if we don't protect them, we will very soon find out that we do not have them."
"[The recent] departure from the traditional models of intelligence gathering [which once involved use of] extraordinary powers only in extraordinary circumstances [speak of the erosion of privacy]."
Edward Snowden, American cyber-espionage whistleblower

Matthew Sherwood for National Post   Edward Snowden's address to a world affairs conference at Upper Canada College, just days after his revelations about a massive Canadian online surveillance program known as Levitation, showed him to be as grandiose of vision as Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder.

"The chances of you dying in a terrorist attack are infinitesimal."
"And yet your government continually hypes the threat."
Glenn Greenwald, journalist

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes   Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has broken many Snowden stories, and who also addressed the conference via webcam.

The two individuals who have excelled in the sanctimonious denunciation of governments who, facing exterior and interior threats of violent atrocities, undertaking extraordinary vigilance and intelligence gathering in prodigious efforts to forestall Islamist jihadist attacks on their territory and their people, speak from the lofty perch of the liberal left for whom no government nor its security agents are ever considered to be examples of administrations 'by the people, for the people'.

They indulge in their right to practise freedom of speech in free, liberal societies, enjoying the art of condemning the very processes and systems that gain them the freedom to speak as they will, and generally speaking ill of governments they would never have voted for, but the majority of people with whom they share a democratic social contract, obviously have, in belief and trust.

What they have in fact accomplished is to demonstrate quite effectively that actions once deemed treasonable and thought deserving of capital punishment, now are countenanced out of necessity, even though revealing the existence of purloined files and state secrets do harm to the integrity of the protections that free states must engage in; surveillance, investigations, coalitions with like states in exchange of vital data, and the capture of mega-data.

If people living in the free world expect and wish to live their lives unmolested by the malign intentions of religiously- or ideologically-inspired mass violence, they must trust that their government is capable of formulating and acting upon plans with their security agencies to keep them safe from harm. These are not totalitarian governments, those of the United States and Canada.

And while it is human nature that when  people gain high places and are entrusted with safeguarding a country, there are temptations to overstep authority, the penalties for having been found out when such incidents occur, ensure that most people decide that corrupt policies defeat any purpose. When an electorate chooses, through the ballot box, to install political parties and their representatives we do so with some element of trust.

Investigative journalists often reveal that trust to be in small or in large part, misplaced, and then the electorate resorts once again to the ballot box. North Americans live ordered lives enhanced by laws that protect our human rights of equality, respect and freedoms. These are not fragile, but guaranteed rights in our societies.

And these are rights that must be protected against the malign intentions of terrorist groups determined to replace what we value with their idea of how societies should function; in thrall to a religion that dominates every aspect of public and private life. And Islamist jihadists are prepared to inflict pain and hardship, mass slaughter and slavery in their campaign to achieve a sharia-led caliphate.

They are dedicated to their mission of conquest through jihad.

In Canada, as in the United States and throughout Europe, cells of Islamists with violent intentions sometimes succeed in committing their crimes, and more often, thanks to the dedicated work of law enforcement and surveillance, are apprehended while their crimes are still in the planning stages. There is little comfort in Mr. Greenwald's assurances of infinitesimal chances of dying at the hands of jihadists.

That many do, is proof enough that those incidents occur and we would prefer they not.

Edward Snowden is viewed as heroic by people who commit to the leftist ideal and ideas that government that is not far-left is one that stifles freedoms in the pseudo-pursuit of state security. How heroic is he, having fled initially to an Asian regime whose human rights record is abysmal, and from there to eastern Europe where Russia welcomed him with open arms for his propaganda value?

While he accuses his own country of abusing the trust of its citizens in planning to scoop and snoop their private business, he escapes any method of lawful punishment for having stolen state secrets and revealing them to the world, in the process doing harm to his country's surveillance and law enforcement establishment, along with revealing details of the administration's espionage services, while seeking protection from a country whose government is oppressive, dictatorial and internationally acknowledged as dangerously threatening to its neighbours.

Glenn Greenwald's description of the Canadian political climate of "fear-mongering" as a justification of cyber security overreaches exemplified as far as he is concerned in a new federal bill to expand domestic security responses, is permitted him because such accusations can be made in a free and democratic country without fear of state-sponsored recrimination that could be the death of some journalists, as happens in Russia.

The Toronto private school that arranged for Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald to address a world affairs conference at Upper Canada College, a prestige academy for elite families' offspring, may have felt that they are preparing their graduates for life in the real world, a real world where a Conservative-led government is held in contempt and its values held to be degraded, but this is a spurious coup for the student body.

Matthew Sherwood for National Post

Coping With Fear

"For some people it becomes excessive ... they spiral down, become progressively sad or anxious. People feel paralyzed, they feel like they've got one foot in the grave, one foot here and they don't know how to move forward."
"They get really obsessed. They feel like they're always on guard, because they can be reminded of their cancer any time."
"People talk about dying and leaving young children behind. These can be very sad things to hear. We just have to remind ourselves to not try to jump in and say something positive, which is what everybody does around them, but just stay with them and help them explore."
Dr. Sophie Lebel, psychology professor, University of Ottawa

Nadia Masot / Facebook

A 32-year-old mother-of-four says she has been de-friended by more than 100 people after she posted pictures of her cancer surgery scars on the website.

"It's always in the back of your mind: 'Is it going to come back, how much longer do I have?' There's sort of this niggling worry all the time. Every time you have an ache or a pain, you say, 'Oh, my God, is this the cancer spreading somewhere else?' It's kind of irrational, but you think it just the same."
Jane Rinard, 59, breast-cancer survivor

A group of Canadian psychologists and nurses has developed a program they devised for the specific purpose of targeted counselling, in an effort to bridge the gap between cancer treatment and recovery, and allowing former patients to live a normal life, not one consumed with fear and apprehension. Their goal is to successfully teach patients to recognize which of the symptoms that concern them that they can safely ignore and how to handle their fear.

The reason is to promote to these vulnerable people the universal reality that uncertainty plays a role in everyone's daily life. And to help them to face their own insecurities head on, aiding them in minimizing "excessive body checking". Promising results came out of a pilot study whose results saw publication a month ago describing their technique, published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship.

A group of forty-four women who had been treated for breast or ovarian cancer completed the six-week course with over 70% of the group expressing confidence in their newfound ability to handle their fears. No one came out of the course any the worse for participation. A nurse is used to educate patients  to identify those symptoms that should legitimately given them concern, and which are to be ignored.

The purpose: to avoid "catastrophic" interpretations of symptoms through "cognitive restructuring".

The compulsive checking of their bodies for the dreaded presence of new tumours is replaced with the use of relaxation techniques, of the repetitive expression of a comforting phrase such as "I'm doing the best I can". Excessive worrying is outlined as ineffective in helping the women achieve optimum psychological health. The women were encouraged to introspection in confronting their worse fears. If they had expressed those fears to family, what they received in return was always reassurances, a kind of support that seemed unhelpful when avoidance of their fears only served to highlight them.

The fears are anything but irrational, particularly for those who have undergone the trajectory of the disease and its treatment and the numbing fear accompanying it all. For a large enough portion of survivors anxiety becomes so oppressively overwhelming it takes over their lives completely. Unneeded trips to the doctor and hospital emergency departments often result, exacerbating the issue, not relieving it when relief is fleeting and the unreasoning fear returns.

Early diagnosis and improved treatment leaves those impacted with cancer a longer life to live than formerly. Roughly 60% of cancer patients now survive at least five years post-diagnosis and treatment, compared with about 25% in the 1950s, noted Dr. Sian Bevan, director of research for the Canadian Cancer Society which is set to fund a larger clinical trial on the template developed by Professor Lebel, McGill University nursing professor Christine Maheu and colleagues in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Ms. Rinard, as an example, diagnosed in 2010, found her participation in the initial six-week program to be hugely useful. She learned through her exposure to the program to relieve herself of constant trepidation about her future and to advance with her life. The group therapy program, she is convinced, gave her that self-assurance. "I found it so helpful. It was an amazing experience", she stated gratefully.

Humour In Spycraft

"Would you like a real interview?" (Michael V. Hayden)

"I'm not a reporter." (Tom Matzzie)

"Everybody's a reporter." (Michael V. Hayden)

In the modern age of instant communications, the ubiquity of cellphones with their photograph-taking capabilities and their ready use of Twitter's accounts, everyone has become a reporter, a photographer, an instant news-taker and journalist. News rooms are now dependent on instant photography by onlookers at the scene of disasters or unusual events and natural phenomena to enhance their news stories with the punch of a picture speaking a thousand words.

In the instance of former National Security Agency chief Michael Hayden, casually speaking on his cellphone aboard an Amtrak train on its way to Newark, that was the lesson that was brought home to him with a punch of clarity. It might be assumed that someone of his experience and his presumed knowledge of human nature, might be aware that name-recognition and human curiosity might present as a problem.

He was, after all, on a public transportation conveyance, speaking of high-level intelligence matters in a normal tone of voice that carried over to surrounding seats, piquing the curiosity of others armed with the requisite tools of reportage. So that when Mr. Hayden spoke of President Barack Obama's Blackberry, modified to block the possibility of foreign eavesdropping (Angela Merkel, take note!), passenger Tom Matzzie pricked up his ears and began texting.

Recognizing just who Michael V. Hayden was, he tweeted: "Former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden on Acela behind me blabbing 'on background as a former senior admin official'". And, he added: "Sounds defensive." Mr. Matzzie, surprise, just happened to be a former Washington director of MoveOn.org.

He continued tweeting for another fifteen minutes as Mr. Hayden continued his blissfully oblivious dialogue with someone referred to as "Massimi". Mr. Matzzie experienced no difficulty putting the clues together; that the former national security agency chief was unloading to Time's national security reporter, Massimo Calabresi.

"Michael Hayden on Acela giving reporters disparaging quotes about admin. Remember, just refer as former senior admin." Mr. Matzzie breezily tweeted to his audience. His audience evidently included someone who took the trouble to alert Mr. Hayden, by the very same medium, evidently. Which spurred Mr. Hayden to complete his call and approach Mr. Matzzie.

After their brief question-and-answer (as above), they chatted amicably about the Fourth Amendment, prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, and NSA surveillance. And then the two posed together for a friendly photo.

"I didn't criticize the president. I actually said these are very difficult issues. I said I had political guidance, too, that limited the things that I did when I was director of NSA. Now that political guidance is going to be more robust." 

Yessir, Mr. LooseLips.