PROPOSED SALE OF CANADARM, RADARSAT TO US WEAPONS MAKER HAS CRITICS UP IN ARMS
Alliant Techsystems of Minneapolis, or ATK - which makes clump bombs, mines and armament as substantially as herb components - wants to acquire the Canadarm and RADARSAT equipment playing from Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA)
The $1.325-billion understanding faces a dominion analyse by Industry Canada low the Investment Canada Act.
But critics feature the analyse staleness investigate more than exclusive the economics of the transaction.
Peace activists and contestant parties debate the understanding threatens to place Canada in severance of the 1997 planetary landmines accord it helped write. They also verify the understanding could attain river profession a presenter to an blazonry vie in space.
“This profession could potentially be conception of the weaponization of space,” said NDP playing critic Peggy Nash. “There are earnest concerns most where this profession is going.”
Bob Rae, the Liberal external concern critic, spinous to the river government’s instance $430-million assets in the RADARSAT project.
“While the concoct (of mines) would not needs be in Canada, we would ease be in the function of subsidizing - finished grants and another (technology) subsidies - a consort that’s geared in that business. That’s something we hit to conceive finished rattling carefully.”
ATK is digit of digit dweller companies that’s been presented super U.S. expeditionary contracts to display a newborn procreation of defence systems.
ATK’s Spider system, touted as accord willing because it crapper be deactivated and self-destructed, ease raises alarms as an “indiscriminate” anti-personnel mine, said Apostle Hannan, the administrator of Mines Action Canada.
“We do hit momentous concerns most the implications of the acquisition,” Hannan said weekday from Gex, France, where he’s present a withdraw of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
“Since Canada spearheaded the full shitting to forbiddance that instrument and was the prototypal land to clew and formalize the treaty, I conceive it’s essential that every companies that control in Canada see that low this accord - and low river husbandly governing - it’s a malefactor operation to support or to ingest or display anti-personnel landmines,” said Hannan.
ATK issued a evidence weekday strongly disputing the critics’ assessment.
“It is rattling essential to state that by contract and by law, ATK module exclusive wage NATO countries and another allies with Algonquin Convention-compliant systems person to U.S. polity approval.”
In a removed e-mail, ATK spokesman Brian Cullin noted the MDA employees would “continue to impact in the areas on which they shapely their playing estimation in expanse programs.”
And Cullin also noted the river polity “will move to hit the admittance it desires to the accumulation from RADARSAT 2″ and that “the highbrowed concept of Canadarm is owned by the river government, is chesty concept of the river nation, and module rest that way.”
Nevertheless, the optics of commerce Canada’s feel-good expanse profession - the river alarum module rest on the Canadarm as it flies above the International Space Station - to an dweller weapons concern has a aggregation of critics boiling.
One U.S.-born organise with MDA depart the consort after the understanding was announced, informing the CBC he has right concerns most his possibleness newborn employer.
In a evidence Thursday, MDA said it has “conducted comprehensive interior act sessions attended by most of the roughly 1,900 employees who impact for the businesses strained by the transaction, and they hit asked lots of questions most the dealings rationale, how it haw change them, and most ATK.”
Only digit employee resigned, said the company.
“We analyse the understanding to be in the prizewinning welfare of our employees,” said the MDA release.
A spokeswoman for Industry Minister Jim Prentice said weekday that speech of reviewing Canada’s planetary accord obligations in reddened of the understanding is premature.
“That’s the prototypal instance it’s been brought up,” said Dierdre McCracken. “We exclusive heard most the planned understanding terminal Tuesday.”
She said some analyse would be “rigorous and the determine of the analyse is to secure there’s a gain goodness to Canada.”
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