As the price of oil skyrockets due to Iran’s disruption of its flow through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump posted to Truth Social on Saturday that “many countries” will dispatch warships to assist the US in reopening the narrow passage between the UAE and Iran that 20% of the world’s oil is shipped through. While he’s left the door open for this type of “defensive” mission, Mark Carney must announce that Canada will not join Trump’s initiative.
‘Interoperability’ with US forces, NATO involvement and support for the US empire have long been part of Canadian policy, but it has done us little good. Instead, it has brought us to the point where the US president calls Canada the “51st state” and members of his government meet with extreme right wing Alberta separatists.
In recent years the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has participated in US-led naval operations to monitor Yemen and run provocative manoeuvres off Iran’s coast but RCN involvement in the region dates back a half century. HMCS Provider and two destroyers were dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean during the May 1967 Egypt-Israel crisis, which was sparked by repeated Israeli incursions into that country and Egypt’s obstruction of Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran. With Prime Minister Lester Pearson criticizing Egypt’s blockade, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the 800 Canadian troops in the country to leave Egypt within 48 hours. Former Canadian ambassador to Egypt, John Starnes suggested the KGB intercepted a top secret DND invasion plan code named Exercise Lazarus and passed it on to the Egyptians, which spurred Nasser’s hostility to Canada. Exercise Lazarus included a naval landing.
During the First Iraq war Canada dispatched destroyers HMCS Terra Nova and Athabaskan and supply vessel Protecteur to the Persian Gulf. About 1,000 soldiers were aboard the three vessels sent before a UN resolution was passed.
In 1998 HMCS Toronto was deployed to support US airstrikes and through the 1990s Canadian warships were part of US carrier battle groups enforcing brutal sanctions on Iraq. In the year before and after the second US-led invasion of Iraq, at least 10 Canadian naval vessels conducted maritime interdictions, force-support and force-projection operations in the Arabian Sea. In a book about “Operation Apollo” Richard Gimblett writes, “there are few places on the surface of the earth farther from either of our coasts than the Arabian sea, yet the Canadian Navy sustained operations of significant forces in that distant theater for the better part of two full years.”
Canadian frigates often accompanied US warships used as platforms for bombing raids in Iraq.
A month before the commencement of the March 2003 US invasion, Canada sent a command and control destroyer to the Persian Gulf to take charge of Taskforce 151 — the joint allied naval command. Opinion sought by the Liberal government concluded that taking command of Taskforce 151 could make Canada legally at war with Iraq. After the US was thought to have control of the country, Gimblett notes, “the bottom had fallen out of the anti-terrorism ‘market’ in the Gulf of Oman” so the Canadian warships left the region.
Alongside US ships Canadian vessels ran provocative manoeuvres off Iran’s coast in 2008. In one instance a National Post reporter aboard HMCS Protecteur explained, “the usual tense games were played this weekend as this Canadian warship responsible for refueling and replenishing a coalition task force in the Indian Ocean passed in a heavy haze through one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. Iranian radio operators trying to hail the Protecteur were interrupted by Omanis who firmly told their neighbours not speak to the Canadians who were making an ‘innocent passage’ through Omani territorial waters.”
In January 2012 an RCN vessel departed to the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Ottawa Citizen, “for at least one year to provide a persistent Canadian presence near potential flashpoints.” Six months later HMCS Regina was also dispatched to the region to join the growing US military presence off Iran’s coast. The National Post reported, “having the Charlottetown and other Canadian warships near Iran fits with the Harper government’s strong opposition to Iran’s suspected plan to acquire nuclear weapons.”
Through Operation ARTEMIS hundreds of Canadian personnel have been contributing to the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a United States-led naval coalition of 44 member nations to monitor the region. From January to July 2024 Canada led the multinational Combined Task Force 150 expedition patrolling the “Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman.” HMCS Montreal also transited through the Red Sea that Spring.
A few voices have raised the idea of dispatching a Canadian warship to assist Trump’s bid to break Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. Why would we do that? Past experience proves it doesn’t help ordinary Canadians or even cause Washington to respect this country.
Ottawa should categorically reject the idea.
