Canada's military has played a role in U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since 2006.Tomas Diaz/Reuters
Michael Byers has taught the laws of war at the universities of British Columbia, Duke and Tel Aviv.
The video is grainy, but the outcome is clear.
A small boat speeds across the ocean with 11 people on board. After a white flash, it comes to a stop, empty and burning.
According to analysis by the Project Ploughshares research institute, the video shows the distinctive on-screen interface of an L3Harris Wescam targeting system, as employed by the U.S. military on MQ-9 Reaper drones.
When U.S. President Donald Trump posted the video on Sept. 2, he claimed the targets were “Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists … in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.” Tren de Aragua is an international criminal organization from Venezuela.
At least 14 further strikes have occurred since then, across the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean as far north as Acapulco, Mexico. More than 60 people have been killed.
U.S. strikes two more alleged drug-carrying boats, this time in the Pacific Ocean
U.S. strike on Caribbean boat leaves survivors, official says
The Trump administration justifies the strikes with the same argument used by the George W. Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, namely that a terrorist threat triggers the right to self-defence.
Since the people on the boats were not directly attacking anyone, Mr. Trump has claimed that 100,000 Americans would have died from the toxic drugs they were carrying. That number is contestable, but even if it was not, international law does not allow for violent responses against non-violent, indirect threats.
The administration has designated eight drug gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations” under U.S. law – but U.S. law is not international law. Under international rules, terrorism involves violence directed toward political or ideological ends.
The right to self-defence is further constrained by requirements of necessity and proportionality. Unarmed vessels operated by civilians on the high seas can be interdicted, and the people on board arrested, which is what the U.S. Coast Guard has long specialized in doing.
The Trump administration additionally claims this is a “non-international armed conflict” with drug gangs being enemy combatants. This claim repeats the dubious justifications advanced by the Bush administration for indefinite detentions and torture at Guantanamo Bay.
Even if this were a non-international armed conflict, the United States would still be bound by international humanitarian law. The use of unnecessary force is illegal, especially when other, non-lethal options are available.
All this puts Canada in a tough position, because our military has played a role in U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since 2006. Royal Canadian Navy vessels and Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora patrol aircraft identify and track potential drug smuggling boats, share that information with the U.S. Coast Guard, and help it to conduct interdictions.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. military carried out a strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel vessel heading to the United States, the second such strike carried out against a suspected drug boat in recent weeks.
Reuters
Now that the Americans are blowing up boats rather than interdicting them, it is possible that information shared by Canada could be used to identify potential targets – making this country complicit in violations of the laws of war and international human rights.
When asked last month about possible Canadian involvement in the U.S. strikes, the Department of National Defence responded to the CBC that “Canadian Armed Forces activities … conducted in co-ordination with the United States Coast Guard, are separate and distinct from the activities … involving other branches of the United States military.”
The activities may have been separate and distinct in operational terms then, but no longer. On Oct. 10, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the establishment of a “new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force” in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific “to crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe.”
A U.S. Southern Command press release later identified “enhancing partner-nation counter-narcotics operations” as among the Joint Task Force’s responsibilities.
The Department of National Defence’s position can no longer be sustained. If Canadian ships and planes continue to participate in anti-drug operations, the new Joint Task Force will want surveillance information from them. Complicity could follow.
Fortunately, there is an easy solution. Due to decades-long procurement delays and a shortage of personnel, the Royal Canadian Navy already spends most of its time in port. Two ships took part in U.S. anti-drug operations earlier this year, and that should be enough for the foreseeable future.
As for the CP-140 Aurora aircraft, they are more than four decades old, rarely flightworthy, and due to be replaced starting next year.
The Canadian military should stay home – far away from Donald Trump’s latest illegalities. Decades of underspending on defence provide a useful excuse.