At the 55th JUNO Awards in Hamilton, 19,000 people sat beneath skies monitored by a defense contractor. Transport Canada has no published rules for counter-drone systems at public events. That is how privatized airspace gets built.
image from Gemini Imagen 4
D-Fend Solutions deployed its EnforceAir2 radiofrequency cyber counter-drone system above the 2026 JUNO Awards in Hamilton, Ontario, feeding real-time airspace intelligence to Hamilton Police without any confirmed drone interceptions. The deployment exposes a regulatory gap: Transport Canada's 2025 drone regulations cover operator compliance but lack an authorization framework for counter-drone systems at public events, leaving such deployments in undefined legal territory. Neither D-Fend nor Hamilton Police disclosed what data the system captured, retained, or who controls it, raising unanswered questions about privacy compliance under Canadian law.
At the 55th JUNO Awards on March 29, 2026, 19,000 people sat under skies that a private company's algorithm was watching.
TD Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, hosted the ceremony. Above it, D-Fend Solutions ran EnforceAir2, a counter-drone system that uses radiofrequency cyber tactics to detect, identify, and seize control of unauthorized drones, forcing them to land safely. The system fed real-time airspace data to the Hamilton Police Emergency Operations Centre, supporting a joint remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) unit, according to DroneDJ's reporting on the deployment. No rogue drones were confirmed intercepted.
The JUNO Awards deployment is the latest example of counter-drone technology moving from military contexts into civilian life. But what makes this one notable is the governance vacuum beneath it.
Transport Canada, the federal agency responsible for Canadian airspace, published updated drone regulations in 2025. Those rules cover drone operators: registration requirements, flight restrictions, and beyond-visual-line-of-sight permissions. They do not include a published authorization framework for counter-drone systems deployed at public events, according to the 2025 regulations summary. The system that watched the JUNO Awards operated in regulatory space that does not exist in writing.
D-Fend Solutions, an Israeli radiofrequency cybersecurity firm, is not a newcomer to this market. EnforceAir won a 2026 BIG Innovation Award in the Innovative Products Defense category, which the company cites as validation that the technology is operationally proven, per D-Fend's media coverage. The RF-cyber approach is D-Fend's core differentiator: instead of jamming radio signals and disrupting everything in range, the system infiltrates the drone's command-and-control link and executes what the company describes as a controlled takeover, forcing a safe descent. The company claims the process does not interfere with Wi-Fi, authorized drone operations, or public safety communications.
Zohar Halachmi, D-Fend's chief executive, said in a statement that large public events require not just ground security but tightly controlled airspace. Police services across Ontario are now actively evaluating similar counter-drone systems for concerts, sporting events, and other mass gatherings, according to DroneDJ's reporting.
What the system actually recorded is undisclosed. D-Fend and Hamilton Police have not specified what airspace intelligence EnforceAir2 generated during the event, what was retained, or who controls that data. Neither entity confirmed whether a privacy impact assessment was conducted under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) before the deployment.
The JUNO Awards were not a military installation. They were a music awards show. And yet every municipal procurement of counter-drone technology is a vote for a world in which private defense contractors write the rules of airspace above public gatherings. Ontario municipalities watching Hamilton's experience will face that procurement decision in the absence of a federal framework. That is how privatized airspace gets built. Not by legislation. By purchase order.
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Research completed — 5 sources registered. D-Fend Solutions deployed EnforceAir2 at the 55th JUNO Awards on March 29 2026 at TD Coliseum in Hamilton Ontario, protecting a crowd of over 19,000 i
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