As NORAD Turns 60, It’s Time To Dismantle It





In the lead-up to its establishment newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker faced "heavy pressure from the military" to back the agreement. Then chairman of the chiefs of defense staff, Charles Foulkes, later admitted to a House of Commons defense committee that "we stampeded the incoming Conservative government with the NORAD agreement."

Before NORAD’s creation the RCAF had been expanding ties to the US command in Colorado Springs and misled the politicians about the scope of these efforts. In Dilemmas in Defence Decision-Making: Constructing Canada’s Role in NORAD, 1958-96 Ann Crosby points out that the RCAF pursued NORAD discussions secretly "in order to address the politically sensitive issues without the involvement of Canadian political representatives."


External Affairs officials immediately understood that NORAD would curtail sovereignty. An internal memo explained, "the establishment of NORAD is a decision for which there is no precedent in Canadian history in that it grants in peace time to a foreign representative operational control of an element of Canadian Forces in Canada." Under the accord the Colorado-based commander of NORAD could deploy Canadian fighter jets based in this country without any express Canadian endorsement.

For over a decade the US commander of NORAD effectively controlled nuclear tipped Bomarc missiles based near North Bay, Ontario, and La Macaza, Québec. According to the agreement, the Canadian battle staff officer on duty in North Bay would receive authorization from the Colorado Springs commander, "allow[ing] for the release and firing of nuclear armed Bomarc missiles without specific Canadian government authorization."


NORAD has pushed the CF towards US arms systems. It’s also heightened pressure to add and upgrade radar, satellite, jets, vessels, etc. In the late 1950s the RCAF pushed for interceptor jets so Canada could be "a full partner in NORAD". Air Marshal Hugh Campbell explained that "if Canada was not providing any effective weapons in the air defense system… Canada could no longer be a full partner in NORAD." More recently, CBC reported that Canada may be "compelled to invest in technology that can shoot down cruise missiles as part of the upcoming overhaul of the North American Aerospace Defense Command."


NORAD has drawn Canada into US belligerence. During the July 1958 US invasion of Lebanon NORAD was placed on "increased readiness" while US troops checked secular Arab nationalism after Iraqis toppled a Western-backed King (at the same time British troops invaded Jordan to prop up the monarchy there).




Unfortunately, public opposition to NORAD has largely dried up. While antiwar activists won the NDP over to an “out of NORAD” position in the 1960s, the party’s current defense critic recently complained that the Trudeau government hasn’t done more to strengthen the bilateral military accord. In November Randall Garrison criticized the Liberals for failing to follow its defense policy review’s recommendation to upgrade a multi-billion dollar early-warning radar system used by NORAD. In a story headlined "Conservatives, NDP call on Liberal government to match rhetoric with action on NORAD" Garrison told the Hill Times, "so they put in that they are going to replace it, and that’s certainly the biggest thing we need to do in terms of our cooperation with NORAD, [but] I don’t see the follow through down the road on it, in terms of planning, implementation, or budgeting."



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