The Great Lakes as an Active Security Zone for the Coast Guard

[Kirkhill]

Canada Invests $816M in Great Lakes Maritime Security

Canada announces $816M to strengthen Great Lakes maritime security with a 24/7 operations centre, new radar sites for the CCG.

canadiandefencereview.com

The Great Lakes

We tend to see them as internal waters. Secured by geography with friendly neighbours on both sides. Some low level criminality and traffic offences require a police presence.

But.

They can also be seen as an extension of the world ocean. They bring international sailors into the heart of North America. Ships docking at Thunder Bay and Duluth pass west of Halifax, Boston, Quebec, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Fort Drum, Kingston, Rochester, Toronto, Hamilton, Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago.

Trump has given some Canadians reason to rethink the purpose of borders. We used to think of the Great Lakes as the border - a no-mans land travelled freely by both Canadians and Americans with the occasional friendly exotic passing through.

Trump has given rise to the notion that the Americans may not always be our friends and that the no-mans land perhaps needs to revisited and secured.

But, again.

When we take a look at the traffic (the largest freighter on the Lakes has a light weight of 14,000 tonnes and loaded weight of 85,000 tonnes), and consider it in a world of hybrid warfare, criminally abetted politics and drone warfare, perhaps they might better be seen as akin to the Gulf of Mexico or even the Black Sea. In the Black Sea analogy the upper St Lawrence would pair with the Bosphorus and Montreal with Istanbul (That would make Quebec Gallipoli)

....

Our world is not looking as benign as it did in 2014.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Well it certainly was not a "benign area" from 1812-1870, resulting in the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1818. I wonder how we viewed the area/arrangement prior to WWI?