Ladies and gentlemen committee members, it is a privilege and an honour to testify before you today.
Evidence suggests that Moscow is a threat to our country's security. Over the past 15 years, Russia has carried out cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure of countries that are hostile to its interests. Since Canada is currently very hostile to Moscow's interests, it is potentially a prime target for the Kremlin. Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov recently told Italian media that Americans and especially Canadians played a leading role in preparing ultra-radical, openly neo-Nazi subdivisions for Ukraine. That says a lot about how the Russians see our role in the conflict.
Moscow funds information manipulation, or disinformation, campaigns against democratic institutions in the west. Its objective is clear, as it has been said over and over again, and it is to misinform and divide our fellow citizens in order to weaken our democratic institutions. Those activities have been well documented in recent years.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, Putin's regime has repeatedly threatened to use tactical or strategic nuclear weapons because it feels that NATO is engaging in a proxy war against Russia.
As a result, since February 24, we have had to be very aware of various threats to our security. Our vigilance must be even greater now that western countries have expanded their objectives in the Ukrainian conflict and have openly sought to degrade Russia's capabilities. That more offensive posture has been contributing to escalating tensions with Russia. Since Canada is fully on board with that, the Kremlin is becoming a growing threat to our security.
I think the best security measure Canada should have with regard to Russia is a combination of deterrence through retaliation, which is possible, considering article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, the legal basis of an organization whose member Canada has been for many years, and deterrence through denial—in other words, cyber resilience—through education on disinformation and renewed continental defence.
I also feel that the principal threat to Canada are cyber-attacks on our critical infrastructure. The Government of Canada must increase its investments to enhance the security of that infrastructure and to make us even more resilient to Russian attacks. The idea is to discourage the Kremlin from carrying out such attacks because it would know that the probability of success is low. That is deterrence by denial.
As for Moscow's information manipulation campaigns, their impact is less immediate and more diffuse than that of cyber-attacks. I am of the opinion that Canada is pretty well-equipped to deal with that disinformation because it is relatively invulnerable. It would be my pleasure to elaborate on this.
Finally, despite Putin's alarming statements, Russia's use of weapons of mass destruction carries a lower risk for Canada then cyber-attacks. Nevertheless, since the progress of the war in Ukraine is unpredictable, the Canadian government has a responsibility to invest more in modernizing command and control through the North American Aerospace Defence Command, or NORAD. We must have an excellent monitoring system to quickly detect Russian missiles and, more importantly, hypersonic missiles. The Minister of National Defence has already talked about this, and announcements should be made soon, which is a very good sign.
I think it is also time to reconsider our participation in the North American missile shield, as Washington is not required to defend Canada in case of Russian missile attacks.
I will stop here, but I will do my best to answer your questions.