Canadian navy embarrassed after stopping former Jamaican PM

Fresh details are emerging about a couple of incidents near Jamaica last year that left the Royal Canadian Navy looking foolish.

Former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has confirmed he was the unnamed prominent retired politician whose fishing boat was stopped by a Canadian navy vessel in March 2012.

The incident was first reported last year by Postmedia News, but the full story came out this week in the Jamaican media.

Golding's boat was off the coast of his island nation in international waters when the Canadian coastal patrol ships HMCS Goose Bay and HMCS Kingston appeared. A Zodiac-type inflatable boat from one of the vessels then headed for the former Jamaican leader's boat, Postmedia News reported this week.

Golding, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2011, told a Jamaican radio station the inflatable carried 10 men.

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“It came directly alongside me, at which time I discovered that they appeared to be foreigners, they were all white people … and they were all in uniform," Golding recalled.

The Canadians did not search Golding's vessel nor even ask him to identify himself. They wanted to know if he'd seen anything suspicious and gave him a radio frequency to use if he did, Postmedia News reported. Golding said the sailors were polite throughout the exchange.

Golding reported the encounter the next day to Maj.-Gen. Antony Anderson, chief of Jamaica's defence staff. He asked if the military was aware a foreign vessel was patrolling near the country.

“I wasn’t making a complaint or anything because I wasn’t harassed nor was I searched,” Golding said, according to Postmedia News. “I just mentioned the incident to him to see whether he was aware of it or not. I got the impression he was not aware of their presence in the area.”

Anderson learned from Canadian officials that the navy's ships were part of a U.S.-led anti-narcotics operation in the Caribbean. The Jamaicans had been aware of Operation Caribbe, which is held annually. But their investigation into Golding's run-in with the Canadians led to discovery of another blunder — they'd been firing their .50-calibre heavy machine guns in Jamaican waters thanks to outdate maps.

"It was discovered that one of the vessels was conducting live-fire exercises . . . somewhere south of Jamaica,” Capt. Basil Jarrett, media affairs officer for the Jamaican Defence Force, told the Toronto Star.

“The charts that the Canadians were using did not accurately reflect Jamaica’s southern maritime boundaries, which were completely adjusted by the Maritime Areas Act of 1996."

Canadian diplomatic and armed forces officials didn't comment on the revelations but Defence Minister Peter MacKay's press secretary, Paloma Aguilar, offered that that the military was “proud to have strong relationships with partners like Jamaica to address common defence concerns," the Star said.

The Jamaica Observer reported Thursday that the Canadian High Commission in Kingston had apologized to the Jamaica Defence Force for what the paper called a botched naval exercise.

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The Kingston and Goose Bay, which are crewed mainly by naval reservists, had permission to enter Jamaican waters to make port calls in Montego Bay, the Jamaican military told the Observer.

"Having departed, it was subsequently discovered that one of the vessels was conducting live-fire exercises and interception of vessels in our archipelagic waters south of the Jamaican mainland," the Jamaica Defence Force said.

"This would be inconsistent with UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, article 19, that lists a number of activities that could be considered prejudicial to the right of 'innocent passage through the territorial seas of any state' including 'any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind'."

The Observer reported that besides stopping Golding's boat, the Goose Bay's inflatable had intercepted and identified 17 small fishing vessels to ensure they weren't carrying drugs or involved in any other criminal activity.

Jarrett told the Star the incidents did not damage ties between the two countries.

“Jamaica and Canada, we’ve always had a very good, long-standing relationship with mutual support over the years,” Jarrett said. “This incident by no means colours that relationship.”