ARCHIVED - Archiving Content ARCHIVÉE - Contenu archivé
Archived Content Contenu archivé
Information identified as archived is provided for L’information dont il est indiqué qu’elle est archivée reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It est fournie à des fins de référence, de recherche is not subject to the Government of Canada Web ou de tenue de documents. Elle n’est pas Standards and has not been altered or updated assujettie aux normes Web du gouvernement du since it was archived. Please contact us to request Canada et elle n’a pas été modifiée ou mise à jour a format other than those available. depuis son archivage. Pour obtenir cette information dans un autre format, veuillez communiquer avec nous.
This document is archival in nature and is intended Le présent document a une valeur archivistique et for those who wish to consult archival documents fait partie des documents d’archives rendus made available from the collection of Public Safety disponibles par Sécurité publique Canada à ceux Canada. qui souhaitent consulter ces documents issus de sa collection. Some of these documents are available in only one official language. Translation, to be provided Certains de ces documents ne sont disponibles by Public Safety Canada, is available upon que dans une langue officielle. Sécurité publique request. Canada fournira une traduction sur demande.
Department of National Defence
2003–2004 Report on Plans and Priorities
Department of National Defence: 2003–2004 Report on Plans and Priorities
Minister’s Message The tragic events of September 11, 2001, vividly demonstrated how much the international security environment has changed since the end of the Cold War. Almost 15 years ago, the dominant threat to international peace and security was the potential for “mutually assured destruction” in a major war between the NATO democracies and the Soviet Bloc. Today, the most serious threat to our security is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue regimes, failed states, and terrorist networks such as al-Qaida that have global reach. Despite differences of opinion on how best to grapple with this threat, western democracies continue to share a mutual and united interest on the need to transform their armed forces and national security establishments to deal with it. September 11, 2001, was a deliberate, conscious and organized attack on western values and interests. Under the principles of collective defence and collective security—the founding principles of NATO and the United Nations respectively—the al-Qaeda attack on the United States of America was an attack on all of us. That is why Canada has given its unequivocal support to the international campaign against terrorism. We were the first nation to provide immediate assistance to the United States on that tragic day. NORAD (which then had a Canadian Lieutenant-General as Deputy Commander-in-Chief) was responsible for the immediate continental aerospace response. Canadian airports and communities across the country gave safe haven to diverted aircraft. Between September 11, 2001, and March 1, 2003, Canada’s CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft flew about 3,600 hours in support of NORAD and Operation NOBLE EAGLE to safeguard the skies of North America against air piracy and air terrorism. Through Operation APOLLO, Canada put forward the fourth-largest international military contribution to the campaign against terrorism by the end of 2002, and we subsequently deployed a Battalion Group to Afghanistan to serve in combat operations alongside U.S. forces. In total, more than 4,500 Canadian sailors, soldiers and Air Force members have deployed on Operation APOLLO over the past 18 months. Canada recently committed, for a one-year period, a Battalion Group,