Why didn’t Canada shoot down a Chinese spy balloon? Defence minister explains
Global News
Anita Anand did not say where the Chinese spy balloon first entered Canadian airspace, what locations it passed over, or for how long it hovered overhead before entering the U.S.
Ottawa was “examining the trajectory and analyzing” a Chinese spy balloon last week before it decided not to shoot it down, the national defence minister says.
Anita Anand explained to reporters in Washington on Friday that the Canadian government was closely monitoring the balloon with the United States via NORAD, the continental defence alliance between both countries, throughout its entire flight before the U.S. shot it down last weekend.
But why didn’t Canada decide to shoot it down when it was in Canadian airspace?
“We were examining the trajectory and analyzing the balloon, including the height of the balloon and the contents of the balloon, and determined that it posed no imminent risk to Canadians at all,” Anand said. She met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon as she wrapped up a two-day visit to Washington with Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“We were watching it very carefully to ensure we were doing what is necessary to protect Canadians, and we’re doing that in the context of the NORAD relationship, of course, so that when the United States made that decision to shoot it down, Secretary Austin did thank Canada because we were making these decisions jointly about imminent threats.”
The balloon was shot down by a U.S. military fighter jet on Saturday over the sea near South Carolina.
NORAD began tracking the balloon as it approached U.S. airspace, the Pentagon said Wednesday. It passed north of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across Alaska and then into Canadian airspace before crossing back into the U.S. over northern Idaho on Jan. 31.
Anand did not say Friday where the balloon was when it first entered Canadian airspace, or what locations it passed over and for how long it was over Canada before heading south.
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