Game Over for NORAD

CBC is reporting that

Prime Minister Paul Martin will reject Canadian participation in the U.S. missile defence program, CBC News has learned.

Martin plans to announce in the House of Commons as early as Thursday that the country will not partake fully in the controversial program, the CBC's French-language network reported Tuesday.

The news comes hours after Canada's next ambassador to the United States, Frank McKenna, set off a storm by saying Canada is already taking part in the program because it has agreed Norad can monitor the skies for incoming missiles.

Martin's planned announcement will mark an abrupt change from his position 16 months ago during the Liberal leadership race, when he signaled that Canada should partake in missile defence. Since then, Martin has insisted that he hasn't reached a decision on whether Canada should be a full partner.

Prime Minister Paul Martin will reject the missile shield as early as Thursday.

NORAD had a long and fruitful run; it was a model for countries on how to put aside their opposing interests and jointly defend the longest undefended border in the world. (That isn't as much of an oxymoron as it sounds, for Soviet bombers during the Cold War, in order to attack the US from over the Pole, had to overfly Canadian airspace.)

However, this is not the first time the Canadians have stabbed us in the back over NORAD before. The first (and most dangerous) time was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the signal to go to full alert went out of Washington, but not Ottawa.

For you see, PM Diefenbaker saw no need to activicate prudent defensive measures, and his foreign minister found nuclear weapons distasteful. As a result, at a time when we were closer to a full scale nuclear exchange than at any time in the history of the world, it took considerable cajolery by the US Government to get Diefenbaker to issue the orders alerting the Canadian squadrons for continental air defense and their officers in NORAD HQ in Colorado Springs.

We took this backstabbing treachery to heart; for after the Crisis, every "Canadian" slot in NORAD has had an American backup officer ready to fill in instantly if there ever should be an alert and Canada dithers again. I think it is now highly likely that those officers are quietly reviewing their duties in case NORAD is dissolved.