Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Nucs in Canada?

I was listening to CBC radio, Canada's national broadcast company and heard something about Nuclear weapons in Canada. I found this on their website.

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. - An American veteran who
says he guarded a secret stash of nuclear weapons in
Newfoundland claims his government would rather see
him dead than admit to violations of international law.

Almon Scott, who worked as a guard at the Argentia
military base between 1963 and 1965, claims that
years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on
Canadian soil, he was guarding them at a secret
weapons lab in Placentia Bay.

This article caught my attention and I'm still not sure what upsets me, or what upsets me more, about it. Disliking America (the politics, not the individual people) is easy these days but can I summon up the energy to be angry with the government of 40 years ago? I think I can find the energy to be upset with my (the Canadian) government for being involved in some fashion or another.

Finally, the remark "...years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on Canadian soil..." bothers me. I didn't know that we ever did that.

I know the Kiwies require American (or those of all nations) ships to be certified Nuclear weapon free before entering it's waters. They used to accept the old "neither confirm nor deny.." comment but I think that stopped in the early 90's.

Is that what the "nuclear weapons on Canadian soil" comment signifies? That aircraft carriers and such might have nuclear weapons but did not have to report them after 1965? That would be barely acceptable. I can only hope that we never knowingly had nucs in Canada. That would be end of my last bit of political idealism.

Mine is not an anti-military viewpoint, merely an anti-proliferation one. Canada needs to increase it's military and it's support of the military it currently has. I don't know about British subs so much, but a fleet of new helicopters should be only the start. Actually, I was a Tom Clancy fan and read the book and saw the movie for 'Run Silent, Run deep" so I want the subs, too.

Well, time for some research*, were there once nucs on Canadian soil and did the Canadian government know about it?

*Not by me, of course.

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