CAAB

Norad links at risk if U.S. goes it alone with controversial measure: think-tank Opponents label defence system a 'façade'

Mike Blanchfield
Thursday » October 2 » 2003
The Ottawa Citizen

Canada will kill its exclusive military partnership with the world's only superpower if it does not support the United States' anti-ballistic missile shield, a Washington think-tank warned yesterday.

If Canada refuses to back the Pentagon proposal, the North American Aerospace Command would cease to exist, Dwight Mason, a former foreign policy adviser to the Clinton administration, said in a policy paper released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The federal government is negotiating with the U.S. about possible participation in the
system of interceptor missiles that would shoot down an incoming missile -- essentially a bullet hitting a bullet -- from a rogue state such as North Korea.

In a policy paper titled Canada and the Future of Continental Defence: A View from Washington, Mr. Mason said the signals sent by the federal government in opening talks with the Bush administration earlier this year appear to indicate that the government will support missile defence.

But if Canada opts out, said Mr. Mason, "for the first time in more than 60 years, Canada would have excluded itself from an important aspect of North American defence. Such a decision would change the mission of the Norad. Space and missile warning functions would move elsewhere. Canadian access to U.S. military space programs and related information would diminish or vanish."

The Bush administration wants to have six interceptor missiles in Alaska and four in
California by this time next year. It wants another 10 in Alaska by 2005. The project is estimated to cost $22 billion.

The Canadian government is to decide later this fall whether to support the plan. No
missiles would be based in Canada nor would the U.S. system cost the government any money, although the missiles would pass through Canadian airspace.

Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy dismissed predictions of Norad's demise as overblown.

Norad has an increasing role to play defending the continent following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Mr. Axworthy, now the head of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.

"Most people will tell you the real risk to North America is not missile defence, it's in all kinds of intrusions that can come in through lower tech -- ships, planes and other forms," said Mr. Axworthy, who was in Ottawa yesterday for a symposium of opponents of missile defence.

"If Norad gets tied into or imbedded into the missile defence program, it may distort the role Norad could effectively play in providing a protection against the real risks."

Critics say the technology behind the shield is unreliable and setting unrealistic
expectations.

The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of U.S. Congress, said in a report last week that the system has too many technical deficiencies to shoot down a missile.

And Canadian Nobel Prize winner John Polanyi labelled the shield "a painted façade -- the appearance of defence."