Canada’s navy sailed into hot water after stopping a vessel carrying Jamaica’s former prime minister.

The incident last spring led to the discovery that Canadian ships had been conducting live-fire exercises in Jamaican waters in contravention of international maritime law, possibly because they were using outdated maps, says the Jamaican Defence Force.

Bruce Golding, prime minister from 2007 to 2011, confirmed in an interview with Nationwide 90 FM in Kingston that he was the political figure mentioned in Postmedia reports about the incident from March 2012.

“I saw a small boat approaching my vessel,” Golding said in the radio interview last week. “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 said 10 Canadians approached his fishing trawler in international waters. He said they didn’t search his vessel and were polite throughout the exchange.

The following day, Golding said, he phoned Chief of Defence Staff Maj.-Gen. Antony Anderson — Jamaica’s top soldier — to look into why the Canadians were there.

The Jamaicans were aware the Canadian navy would be in the area from March 23 to 26 as part of a U.S.-led anti-narcotics operation in the Caribbean, but as they followed up on Golding’s inquiry, “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 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,” Jarrett said.

He said Canada sent its apologies “and the entire situation was deemed an unfortunate error.”

Neither the High Commission nor the Canadian Military could be reached for comment.

Canada is currently participating in Operation Caribbe and Operation Martillo — a U.S.-led multinational effort tackling the drug trade in the Caribbean and surrounding waters.

Paloma Aguilar, press secretary for Minister of Defence Peter MacKay, did not comment on the incident, but said the Canadian military was “proud to have strong relationships with partners like Jamaica to address common defence concerns.”

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The JDF, meanwhile, said the incident did not have a lasting impact.

“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.”