Canada’s decision to hold talks with Washington on a proposed US missile defense program has breathed new life into the country’s peace movement.
The federal government agreed earlier this month to start official talks on joining the defense shield, which would use satellites, radar and ground-based weapons to track and destroy ballistic missiles.
New Defense Minister David Pratt acknowledges he does not know the extent of Canada’s involvement yet but the plan could involve beefing up the country’s presence at North American Aerospace Defense Command in the US state of Colorado.
"The Americans have made it clear that they’re rolling out this missile defense system in October, and that they’re going to be doing it without Canadian money and without Canadian territory," Pratt added.
"So the preliminary indications are that this is not going to cost the Canadian taxpayer any significant amount."
A decision about joining the missile shield, he said, will be "based on Canadian interests, the protection of Canadians in general and the people and property of Canada".
Canada opposes using weapons in space, Pratt added at a media briefing last week, and the Americans understand that. He also denied that the defense shield would spark another arms race.
"We’re not going to see thousands and thousands of missiles deployed, as we did during the 1970s. I just don’t think it’s going to happen."
But Ernie Regehr, director of Project Ploughshares, a research group that provides information on peace issues to Canadian churches and peace activists, says opposition to Canada participating in the missile plan is building.
"I believe that when Canadians understand the financial details of this plan and its extraordinary limited capacity, they’ll see it’s a sideshow and we should move on to more important things," he said.
Canada is likely to have a federal election in the spring. On Tuesday, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton said he plans to make missile defense a major issue in that election.
"This is Star Wars II," said Layton. "The Canadian people should tell the government that we don’t want any part of it," he said.
Layton was referring to the proposed strategic defense initiative of former US president Ronald Reagan (1981-89), which focused on using lasers or particle beams to destroy incoming ballistic missiles, and was dubbed ‘Star Wars’.
Layton’s party is raising money for newspaper advertisements that began appearing Thursday urging Canadians to oppose joining the new plan.
"It’s about Canada’s sovereignty and it’s about Canada’s place in the world," Layton said in an interview. "We can either be part of it or we can be a voice against it. I believe Canadians are against it."
Regehr said it will be difficult for the NDP to make missile defense a major election issue. "It’s very unusual that defense issues and foreign policy questions are central to Canadian election campaigns, but this is an important issue that won’t be resolved before the election".
"The peace movement and groups opposed to this plan were always around, opposing nuclear proliferation and the trade in small arms, but this issue has captured the attention of politicians and the media."
Layton wants to push for a parliamentary vote that he says would flush out members of the governing Liberal Party who disagree with the plan to hold talks with US officials.
"Mr. Martin doesn’t want to have (a vote) because there are too many members of his own caucus who don’t think it’s a good idea," Layton said.
The NDP leader and other opposition politicians believe Martin is using the prospect of a missile defense partnership to patch up Canadian-U.S. relations, which suffered when his predecessor Jean Chretien refused to join in the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
US President George W. Bush and Martin appeared to get along well when they met earlier this month at the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, announcing later that Canada will now be able to bid for rebuilding projects in U.S.-occupied Iraq.
But street protests against Canada joining the defense plan have already spread across the country.
Throwing "missiles" made of cardboard into the air, demonstrators in the Atlantic coast city of Halifax protested last Saturday.
Members of the Halifax Peace Coalition waded into the snow, donned placards with labels like Missiles, Warheads, Missile Defense and Defense Contractor, and started a fusillade of projectiles made from toilet paper tubes.
"We’re working under the slogan that cardboard missiles are just as effective as the real ones and a whole lot cheaper. So that’s why we decided to do a missile," the coalition’s John Diamond told reporters.
Demonstrations were also held in other provinces across the country.
The antiwar Raging Grannies, a group of senior citizens that was formed in the 1980s to protest nuclear proliferation, protested a Canadian role in missile defense when Martin visited the city of Edmonton in western Alberta province, last week.
"If Canada partners up with the United States, then that makes us also a target for the animosity of the countries that hate the United States – with good reason," said Raging Grannies member Marilyn Gaa in an interview.
"Canada has nothing to gain by being a partner in this national missile defense (program). It shows support for a program which will unbalance the stalemated arms race."
