The Five Eyes alliance of US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand is soon going to get a major shakeup by the Trump administration. According to media reports, White House is now officially pushing to kick Canada out of the bloc. The group was founded in 1941 and provides a forum where all partner nations exchange a wide spectrum of intelligence within the world’s most tightly knit multilateral agreements.
Simply put, Canada gets all of its intelligence from Five Eyes because frankly speaking, its own intelligence and security apparatus is pretty weak and sluggish. Just like its economy Canada’s security too can’t function without US: be it military or be it intel gathering.
According to Financial Times, the POTUS is now using the Five Eyes card to put pressure on Ottawa into surrendering to Trump’s demand: Make Canada 51st state of US.
According to reports, Canada and New Zealand are anyway useless for the group. They share the least but withdraw and use the most of intel information that comes on the Five Eyes platform.
Canada is facing serious security threats in the Arctic. China’s interference in the country is on the rise as Beijing fancies to be an Arctic power. Canada just doesn’t have resources to defend itself. Here Trump’s message is: You don’t need to build such a system either if you just choose to be a part of the US.
After kicking Canada out of the Five Eyes bloc, it’s also likely that US may start treating its northern neighbour as an adversary. It was reported in Wall Street Journal that Trump’s CIA will have a greater focus on the Western hemisphere. In this scenario, the CIA will use espionage to give Trump extra leverage in his trade negotiations.
Let’s hear out what Artur Wilczynski has to say. He is a former senior intelligence official in Canada. He says: “If the US wants to come after us, they can, which changes the dynamic. And if there is a perception that Canada will become an intelligence target, I think we can’t be pollyannas about that. We’re going to have to beef up our counterintelligence network. That’s an important responsibility for CSIS to undertake.”
CSIS is Canada’s version of CIA. Believe me, it’s so useless.
Wilczynski further says that American spy tech is far superior than Canada.
François Lavigne, who is another former intel officer in Canada, warns, “There is nothing, no technology we have in Canada that the US has not broken.”
What Lavigne says here is important. He says while Canada will stop getting intelligence from US soon, CIA will keep getting all required info from Ottawa because he claims US has a back door into Canada’s intel system. He says, “So they can tell already whether or not we’re withholding any information from them.”
All in all, Canada’s fate now hangs in the balance.
And Tulsi Gabbard, the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI), seems to have already sealed their fate. DNI is a powerful position created after 9/11. She will be at Trump’s right hand for intelligence briefings and who will be the gatekeeper deciding what the president sees and reads. So, dear Canada, better embrace for the shock and build your own intelligence system, else be prepared to be a vassal state of China.
