Actually, cyber-warfare has become important within the Canadian Forces. As I explained this morning, it's something we do with the Royal Military College in terms of preparation. We hold cooperative exercises with other units in Canada and other units in the United States, both military and civilian.
There are just some things that are the military's posture to do, and cyber-security may be one of them in cooperation with others.
When we look at the contribution in terms of homeland security, the lead agency is not necessarily DND, but you have tremendous cooperation. In the United States, the military command responsible is NORTHCOM, but it has some 60 other agencies involved in it. In what is euphemistically called “consequence management”—the detonation, for example, of a dirty weapon inside one of the two countries—militaries in both countries will have a role, as some of the only units organized with the ability to respond.
One way we can respond and are responding, as Dr. Hennessy noted, is by opening up and involving personnel from other government agencies in our courses. For example, the new national security program established at the Canadian Forces College includes representatives from other government departments and the private sector. I think the military has long recognized that the defence of the realm at the border or the projection of force is not its only goal. In the Canadian tradition, the tradition of the aid of civil power is long-standing.
For most countries, homeland defence is defence. We have an expeditionary overlay, in which we protect our borders further abroad, and that involves other activities as well. I think DND has been fairly conscious of the need to contribute in the absence of other organized forces in Canada. We have no National Guard, and most provinces don't even have provincial police forces.