Mr. Speaker, Ernie Regehr from Project Ploughshares, writing in a briefing note directed to parliamentarians for this debate tonight, describes the Norad agreement as a practical response to a particular political problem, that is, the negative sovereignty implications of U.S. forces acting in defence of the U.S. in Canadian air space.
He points out that Norad was originally set up to allow the United States to pursue any incoming airborne threat to the United States over Canada. I remember figuring out when I was in public school about the whole arrangement around Norad and the interception of incoming aircraft or incoming missiles, that it would happen over Canada.
It seems to me that this has not changed, only now we do not really expect incoming missiles. we are afraid of terrorists, although I am not exactly sure how Norad protects us against terrorism. It seems to me that the border agency, CSIS and our police are the main line of our defence against terrorism, not this gigantic military operation known as Norad.
It seems to me that the justification for this is to give the United States permission to come into Canada to pursue a threat to the United States and that we are giving it permission to making Canada the theatre for that counterattack. Is it in the interests of Canadians and Canadian security to give the Americans permission to do that?