Professor Veronica Kitchen answers questions about Canadian security in a more dangerous world
Once-peaceful neighbours Ukraine and Russia find themselves in an eight-year-long conflict culminating in a bloody full-scale invasion by Russian forces. University of Waterloo political scientist Veronica Kitchen answers questions about which security issues Canadians should be worried about given recent events in Europe and the United States.
Canada is very proximate to Russia through the Arctic. Does Russia pose a threat to Canadian territory?
Canada’s Arctic is key to Canadian defence and has been since Russia developed the capability, during the Cold War, to fly bombers and launch long-range missiles over the North Pole. A threat to the North is a threat to Canadian sovereignty and a threat to the security of the primarily indigenous population across the Arctic, in Canada and beyond. The Arctic Council, which is the governing body that cooperates on issues like environmental protection and the wellbeing of Arctic Indigenous people, was suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That makes it harder to ensure human security.
A military threat to Canada from Russia would be most likely if the war escalates to include NATO members in direct conflict. A military strike could be used as direct retaliation against Canada, or the explicit threat of one could be used to try to influence Canadian foreign policy in Ukraine. Canada cooperates with the United States to secure the Arctic through NORAD, but there are some questions about whether the existing defences are sufficient to protect North America.
Does our relationship with the USA help our security?
Canada benefits from its partnership with the United States for its defences against threats from outside of North America, for example, through NORAD and responding to environmental catastrophes that might cross borders. In this sense, North American security is indivisible. If Canada doesn’t have a strong security relationship with the United States, it can lose influence at the table where the future of its own defence is decided.
Recently we’ve seen calls from populist American politicians for the liberation of Canada. Should that concern us?
An invasion by American government forces is not something that keeps me up at night. We would have very strong signals—probably over a long period—about the deterioration of Canada-US relations, and it would probably be accompanied by big global shifts like the dissolution of NATO. In the short term, the invasion of Ukraine might trigger a renewed strength in NATO as its members seek to shore up defences of member states in Europe.
But this rhetoric is dangerous nonetheless because it sends a signal to extremists in both countries who might use the rhetoric as an excuse to commit violence in both countries in the name of ‘liberation’, as we saw in the January 2021 attacks on the US Capitol, or the trucker convoy occupation of Ottawa. We know that Russia has sought to use misinformation to exploit social divisions in Canada and the United States to influence elections. So, right-wing extremism in North America and Russian rhetoric of liberation and national greatness are not so disconnected.
Why do you think this invasion has captured our attention? Given our relational similarities, do Canadians see themselves in Ukrainians?
There are many reasons why Canadians feel an affinity for Ukrainians in this situation. Canada has the largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian food and culture are mainstream in many parts of the country. Our Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, is a Ukrainian-Canadian with a dissident past who can reassure Ukrainians of Canadian support in Ukrainian and tell off Russia in Russian. Those are powerful links. But it’s impossible to deny the racism that has underpinned calls for support of Ukraine, suggesting that Ukrainians deserve support because they are white Europeans.
Acknowledging that racism doesn’t take away from Ukrainian suffering or calls to Canadian action. But it should remind us that war and violence happen around the world and that there are non-white Canadians who are noticing the big and emotional response this time and feeling like more could have been done to help their families when they fled violence. Politics will always shape how the Canadian government responds to any crisis or conflict. But there are tools that are becoming standard practice in a crisis like this—such as creating a hotline, waiving visa requirements, expediting refugee processes, and matching donations—that should be developed and institutionalized so that they can be implemented quickly in response to need, rather than to emotion.
