US: "We Will Deploy"

Canada Thursday formally pulled out of the US Missile Shield program, with Prime Minister Paul Martin insisting his country will maintain positive control over its airspace.

“After careful consideration of the issue, we have decided that Canada will not participate in the US ballistic missile defence system,” Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said in the House of Commons Thursday.

The decision from Ottawa seemed to put an instant strain on cross-border relations.

“We will deploy. We will defend North America,” said US ambassador Paul Cellucci. “We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty -– its seat at the table -– to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada.” He was quoted by the Canadian Press.

From Washington's point of view, the sudden announcement was seen as a confusing signal, coming just days after Canada's newly-appointed ambassador to the US indicated his country was already participating in the Missile Shield program. He indicated the NORAD agreement between the two countries had been amended in such a way that Canada was already on board with the program. Frank McKenna's remarks came at almost the same time Prime Minister Martin's office made a call to Washington, announcing his decision not to participate in the anti-missile effort.

Then, twice this week, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham insisted nothing had changed and no decision had been made.

“The official Canadian position was conveyed by Foreign Minister Pettigrew to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at our meetings in Brussels,” Martin told reporters, as quoted by CP. “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.”

FMI: http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html