Canada Refuses Further Role In Missile Defense
By Oliver Moore - The Globe and Mail -24 February 2005
Days after informing the Washington, the federal government formally
announced Thursday that Canada will refuse any further participation
in the controversial missile defence shield that the United States
is building.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew made the decision public
after months of equivocating by the Liberal government and days
of denials that a decision had been made.
"After careful consideration of the issue, we have decided
that Canada will not participate in the U.S. ballistic missile defence
system," Mr. Pettigrew said in the chamber of the House of
Commons.
He insisted that the decision - which has reportedly left the Bush
administration nonplussed ñ will not "in any way"
hurt ties with the United States.
"We will carefully examine all options and pursue our priorities
vigorously," he said.
The announcement came only days after Frank McKenna, the next ambassador
to the United States, set off a political storm by saying that Canada
is already participating in the missile shield. He said that an
amendment to NORAD, the continental joint air-defence pact, meant
that Canada's de facto participation had begun.
Mr. McKenna made his comments on Tuesday, about the time, Prime
Minister Paul Martin has now acknowledged, that the United States
received the formal refusal from Canada.
"The official Canadian position was conveyed by Foreign Minister
Pettigrew to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at our meetings
in Brussels," he told reporters.
"Since then, I have discussed it with ambassador Cellucci,
Mr. Graham has discussed it with [Deputy Defence Secretary Paul]
Wolfowitz in the United States and I would expect to be discussing
it again, with President Bush, hopefully today or in the very near
future."
Mr. Martin's timeline contradicts comments from government MPs this
week in the House of Commons, where opposition politicians were
told that they would be informed "when a decision is made."
On both Tuesday and Wednesday, Defence Minister Bill Graham insisted
that nothing had changed on the missile-defence file and that a
decision was forthcoming.
The minority Liberals could have lost if missile defence had come
to a vote in the House of Commons. A number of senior government
sources have recently told reporters in The Globe and Mail's Ottawa
bureau that the federal government felt that the deep unpopularity
of missile defence among Canadians made further participation a
non-starter.
Mr. Pettigrew said that Canada will continue to contribute to the
security of the continent through the expanded mandate of NORAD,
which will track incoming missiles, and an integrated response to
maritime threats.
"We will enhance the protection of North America," he
said. "...We will work closely to build the success of [border
agreements] and engage Mexico to trilateralize, to better align
our roles, priorities and interests."
Mr. Martin said in his comments, made moments later after a cabinet
meeting, that the Liberal's military priorities are "the ones
that we set out yesterday" in the budget, primarily borders,
Arctic sovereignty, coastal defence, intelligence-gathering and
increasing the size of the army.
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