The new world of defence — National security and defence beyond waging war: Senator Jaffer
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The job of defending Canada must evolve to respond to the changing nature of conflict in the 21st century.
Since April 2016, the federal government has been conducting consultations aimed at renewing Canada’s defence policy. As deputy chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, I had the opportunity to hear from experts about the direction our defence policy should take.
Most notably, defending Canada now means far more than protecting the country against armed threats.
Some of our biggest vulnerabilities in the days to come are in the fields of satellites and cyber systems. History has already shown how much we rely on these systems.
In 2011, the failure of a single Anik F2 satellite brought Nunavut to a halt, as the entire territory lost its telecommunications. Flights were grounded, communications were cut off, and people were left stranded for more than a day while the lost systems were restored.
This is the start of the damage that could be done if an enemy compromised our systems. Telecommunications, the internet, energy grids, flight systems, and our intelligence capabilities all rely on our cyber systems and satellites. Losing them would leave Canada defenceless.
With stakes this high, we must see satellites and cyber systems as essential to our national security.
That being said, Canada’s defence challenges are hardly limited to external threats. In fact, one of its biggest challenges is found within the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) own ranks—the continuing problem of sexual misconduct.
Statistics Canada found that throughout 2016, 960 full-time members—or two per cent of the Canadian Armed Forces—had reported sexual assault. In fact, 27.3 per cent of all female CAF members reported having been assaulted at least once over their career.
This is unacceptable and will only hurt the Canadian Armed Forces if it is allowed to continue. When CAF members feel their workplace is unsafe, the entire organization suffers. Morale, recruitment, and retention all suffer when we allow for sexual harassment to continue.
Our military’s composition reflects this problem too: National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan stated he wants 25 per cent of the CAF’s membership to be women. Currently, only 14.5 per cent are women.
On one hand, some progress has been made. In August 2015, the CAF launched Operation Honour, a comprehensive program to eliminate sexual misconduct. This has led to the development of training materials, awareness campaigns, and programs to fight sexual misconduct.
However, many of the initiatives are still in their earliest stages, and Operation Honour’s own progress reports have shown slow progress. If the CAF is serious about fighting this issue, it must take any necessary steps to support Operation Honour and expedite its implementation.
Furthermore, the CAF is failing to reach out to our diverse population. Despite targets of 11.8 per cent representation for visible minorities and 3.4 per cent representation for indigenous peoples, we are far behind those goals. Currently, visible minorities only represent 6.5 per cent of the CAF, and aboriginal peoples only represent 2.5 per cent.
When we fail to attract more applicants from our diverse population, we are denying our CAF their skills. Despite this, Canada still lacks a comprehensive plan to attract more applicants from our diverse population.
None of these challenges deal with defence in the traditional sense of waging war, but failing to address them will also leave Canada less safe. If we want our CAF to be able to truly protect us in the days to come, we must adapt to the new challenges of the 21st century.
Mobina Jaffer is a senator representing British Columbia. She is deputy chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, as well as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Diversity.
This article appeared in the May 29, 2017 edition of the Hill Times.
The job of defending Canada must evolve to respond to the changing nature of conflict in the 21st century.
Since April 2016, the federal government has been conducting consultations aimed at renewing Canada’s defence policy. As deputy chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, I had the opportunity to hear from experts about the direction our defence policy should take.
Most notably, defending Canada now means far more than protecting the country against armed threats.
Some of our biggest vulnerabilities in the days to come are in the fields of satellites and cyber systems. History has already shown how much we rely on these systems.
In 2011, the failure of a single Anik F2 satellite brought Nunavut to a halt, as the entire territory lost its telecommunications. Flights were grounded, communications were cut off, and people were left stranded for more than a day while the lost systems were restored.
This is the start of the damage that could be done if an enemy compromised our systems. Telecommunications, the internet, energy grids, flight systems, and our intelligence capabilities all rely on our cyber systems and satellites. Losing them would leave Canada defenceless.
With stakes this high, we must see satellites and cyber systems as essential to our national security.
That being said, Canada’s defence challenges are hardly limited to external threats. In fact, one of its biggest challenges is found within the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) own ranks—the continuing problem of sexual misconduct.
Statistics Canada found that throughout 2016, 960 full-time members—or two per cent of the Canadian Armed Forces—had reported sexual assault. In fact, 27.3 per cent of all female CAF members reported having been assaulted at least once over their career.
This is unacceptable and will only hurt the Canadian Armed Forces if it is allowed to continue. When CAF members feel their workplace is unsafe, the entire organization suffers. Morale, recruitment, and retention all suffer when we allow for sexual harassment to continue.
Our military’s composition reflects this problem too: National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan stated he wants 25 per cent of the CAF’s membership to be women. Currently, only 14.5 per cent are women.
On one hand, some progress has been made. In August 2015, the CAF launched Operation Honour, a comprehensive program to eliminate sexual misconduct. This has led to the development of training materials, awareness campaigns, and programs to fight sexual misconduct.
However, many of the initiatives are still in their earliest stages, and Operation Honour’s own progress reports have shown slow progress. If the CAF is serious about fighting this issue, it must take any necessary steps to support Operation Honour and expedite its implementation.
Furthermore, the CAF is failing to reach out to our diverse population. Despite targets of 11.8 per cent representation for visible minorities and 3.4 per cent representation for indigenous peoples, we are far behind those goals. Currently, visible minorities only represent 6.5 per cent of the CAF, and aboriginal peoples only represent 2.5 per cent.
When we fail to attract more applicants from our diverse population, we are denying our CAF their skills. Despite this, Canada still lacks a comprehensive plan to attract more applicants from our diverse population.
None of these challenges deal with defence in the traditional sense of waging war, but failing to address them will also leave Canada less safe. If we want our CAF to be able to truly protect us in the days to come, we must adapt to the new challenges of the 21st century.
Mobina Jaffer is a senator representing British Columbia. She is deputy chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, as well as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Diversity.
This article appeared in the May 29, 2017 edition of the Hill Times.