More Harm Than Good by Susan C. Boyd & Donald MacPherson

Author:Susan C. Boyd & Donald MacPherson [Susan Boyd, Connie I. Carter & MacPherson, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Canada’s Increasing Involvement in the War on Drugs

Canada has also scaled up its involvement in drug enforcement around the world. Since 2006, the Canadian Forces have joined with other countries in an unprecedented increase in military involvement in drug interdiction in Latin America. Canada, for example, participates in ongoing counter-narcotics missions in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific. Canadian warships and aircraft have acted as eyes and ears for the U.S.-led Joint Interagency Task Force–South to prevent transport of drugs and money by air and sea between South America, Central America, the Caribbean islands and North America (Forget 2011). Canadian military aircraft and warships have been involved in interdiction efforts in the Caribbean Sea, including assisting the U.S. Coastguard to board vessels and seize illegal drugs. Canadian military aircraft have been involved in surveillance sorties in the region (Government of Canada 2012b).

These moves signal a renewed emphasis on a repressive approach both at home and internationally (Hyshka et al. 2012). The rationale for the Canadian military’s involvement in the war on drugs is built on a series of faulty premises. Firstly – military might and securitization can defeat drug cartels. One need only look to Mexico, which saw an explosion in violence after President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels in 2006, to see how woefully dangerous an idea this is. Secondly, regardless of the Canadian military’s interdiction efforts, the supply of illegal drugs to Canadian consumers has remained the same. As with all attempts over the last forty-plus years to control the flow of narcotics into Canada, as long as a demand exists, the supply will continue. No counter-narcotic activity, no matter how costly or logistically sophisticated, has ever managed to halt the flow of drugs across Canadian borders.

Canada’s involvement in the “war on drugs” internationally may cease due to political shifts at the federal level. However, the scaling up of the war on drugs in and outside of Canada’s borders from 2006 to 2015 reminds us that policy making is political, although not static.

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