Minister Blair announces defence investments in Halifax at 15th Halifax International Security Forum

On the same subject

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  June 1, 2021 | Local, C4ISR, Security

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  October 1, 2018 | Local, Security

  Border Security & Organized Crime

  © 2018 FrontLine Security (Vol 15, No 5) Canada's new Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Minister finally has a mandate: What should Canadians expect? When Prime Minister Trudeau shuffled the federal Cabinet on July 14th, the entire country was taken by surprise when Bill Blair was named as the Minister for the newly-created portfolio of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction. At the time, Blair was serving as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and had been placed in charge of the Government's challenging initiative to legalize possession and use of marihuana. As such, Blair had worked with several federal departments, with Provincial and Municipal governments, with police organizations, the RCMP, CBSA, and also with U.S. officials who, understandably, were, and are, concerned about cross-border smuggling. By all accounts, Blair did an exemplary job of working with the multiple stakeholders to identify and ‘solve' the many problematic issues involved with marihuana legalization. He was ably supported in this task by officials from Public Safety Canada's Border Strategies and Law Enforcement Division – those skilled policy people who understand and prioritize operational results. Mr. Blair's success on the marihuana file was no doubt a significant factor in being chosen to handle this new responsibility. It is also clear that his lengthy career of law enforcement, including as the Chief of the Toronto Police Service and President of the Canadian Association of Police of Chiefs, was also instrumental in his selection for this new role. Full article: https://defence.frontline.online/article/2018/5/10483-Border-Security-%26-Organized-Crime

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  February 16, 2018 | Local, Naval

  MDA to provide unmanned aircraft systems to Royal Canadian Navy

  MDA, a Maxar Technologies company (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.), announced it has signed a contract valued at approximately $8 million with Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) to provide maritime miniature unmanned aircraft systems (MMUAS). The contract also includes services to support training, resource and equipment development activities and development and validation of naval tactics and new capability development. The MMUAS will play a critical role by extending the reach of the communication and sensor capability over contentious or hostile areas during maritime security operations. MDA's solution is based on the Puma AE (All Environment) unmanned aircraft built by Aerovironment. The Puma AE system will provide the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) with enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. The Puma has the ability to carry additional payloads as required for specific missions. The MMUAS is the first UAS project that will see the RCN operate and maintain its own capability and provide a sustainable shipborne, near real-time, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) ISR capability with an expected introduction to the fleet in the summer of 2018 onboard Kingston-class ships. Capable of both ground and water landings, Puma AE's innovative fuselage offers an operational flexibility never before available to the RCN. The Puma AE is operated from the same control station as the Raven UAS which has been provided by MDA to the Canadian Army since 2013. MDA's Canadian-based UAS services group has been providing UAS systems and services to Canada's DND since 2009. Mike Greenley, group president for MDA, said: “We are very proud to once again, expand our unmanned aircraft systems and services to support Canada's Department of National Defence needs. https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/mda-provide-unmanned-aircraft-systems-royal-canadian-navy/