Canada needs to show more strength on the high seas

This country’s current approach of short deployments and rotational patrols is not equal to the challenge. What's needed is sustained presence with ships on station; clear rules of interdiction; and a routine willingness to board, seize, and disable stateless vessels.

If National Defence Minister David McGuinty's government is serious about the rule of law at sea, continental security, and its own maritime tradition, it must make a more meaningful and sustained naval contribution to counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean, writes Andrew Latham.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY ANDREW LATHAM

May 8, 2026

The Caribbean is not suffering from a resurgence of peg-legged marauders flying skull-and-crossbones flags. It is confronting something more modern and far more corrosive: organized criminal networks that operate deliberately outside the legal order of the sea. Stateless nar...

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