Nuclear attack on Canada
Guarantee against nuclear attack: unproven
Canada has no nuclear weapons and rests its defence on the assurances of allies. Asked fourteen questions on those assurances, on the plan a statute requires and on the aircraft it is buying, National Defence refused to say whether one record exists. A guarantee with no record behind it is unproven.
Grounds
Three requests asked for the assurances, the instrument that records them, the plan the statute requires and the certification of the aircraft.
Files A-2026-01143, A-2026-01144 and A-2026-01154, filed 29, 30 and 31 August 2026: fourteen numbered items, each to be answered on its own, a missing record to be stated item by item.
One sentence answered fourteen items. No item was assessed.
“We regret to advise you that this Department neither confirms nor denies records exist pursuant to section 10(2) of the Access to Information Act. If the documentation did exist, it would be exempted in its entirety pursuant to section 15(1) of the Access to Information Act.” National Defence, all three files, 17 September 2026.
A discretion applied unchanged to every item is a discretion never exercised.
Access to Information Act, ss. 10 (2) and 15 (1) confer a discretion; s. 25 requires the severable part to be released; s. 4 (2.1) requires a response “accurately and completely”.
The Act orders the Minister to plan for war. The Department will not say whether the plan exists.
Emergency Management Act, s. 6 (1): each minister identifies the risks and prepares, maintains and tests plans; s. 6 (2)(d): “in the case of war or other armed conflict”. Either the plan exists and is withheld, or the duty was not performed.
The published profile of the country’s risks omits war.
National Risk Profile, Public Safety Canada, 2023, 179 pages, searched in full 24 September 2026: “war” 0, “armed conflict” 0, “armed attack” 0, “invasion” 0; “nuclear” 3, none as a threat to Canada.
No published treaty binds any ally to answer a nuclear attack on Canada with nuclear weapons. The command over North America ends on notice.
North Atlantic Treaty, Article 5: each Party takes “such action as it deems necessary”; it names no weapon and no ally. NORAD Agreement of 28 April 2006, Article IV: “Either Party may terminate this Agreement upon twelve months’ written notice to the other Party.”
Secrecy is claimed over a certification the ally announced itself.
Canada is buying 88 F-35A. The F-35 Joint Program Office told Breaking Defense on 8 March 2024 that the F-35A is certified to carry the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, certification achieved 12 October 2023.
The Minister rejects a deterrent of Canada’s own and holds out no record of the assurance that replaces it.
General (retired) Wayne Eyre, 2 February 2026: “we will never have true strategic independence, absent our own nuclear deterrent.” The Minister of National Defence, 3 February 2026: “Canada has absolutely no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.”
The command that warns of attack on Canada keeps its records outside Canadian law.
“NORAD as a bi-national organization is not subject to the Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests. … documents and IT systems used by personnel posted to HQ NORAD are not physically under the Department’s control.” FOIA office, NORAD and USNORTHCOM, 23 September 2026.
Three complaints stand before the Information Commissioner. The Federal Court follows.
Complaints of 20 September 2026, files 5826-04346, 5826-04347 and 5826-04348. After the report, s. 41 of the Access to Information Act opens the Federal Court. Brief before the Commons defence committee, 29 August 2026; testimony to the Senate defence committee, 22 September 2026.