[Ruxpercnd]

Isn't Canada getting a little psycho about the Arctic? Arctic sovereignty? You know... if you had people living there I could see it. But... getting your panties in a knot over arctic ice is.... well... paranoid.

$1:

April 10, 2008
Canada Bars Sale of Satellite Maker to U.S. Buyer

By IAN AUSTEN

OTTAWA — The Canadian government blocked the sale of the country’s large space equipment and satellite maker to Alliant Techsystems of Minneapolis on Thursday.

The $1.3 billion bid for the space operations of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates is the first takeover rejected under Canada’s 23-year-old foreign investment law.

The proposal raised sensitive issues about Canada’s Arctic sovereignty that crossed party lines. It also revived a debate about control of Canada’s aerospace industry that stretches back to a 1959 decision to cancel the development of a Canadian fighter jet in favor of purchasing American aircraft.

The move was all the more surprising given that it came from a Conservative government that has sought warm relations with the Bush administration and generally dismissed nationalist sentiment. An earlier Conservative government introduced the current foreign investment laws, which emphasize inviting rather than controlling foreign capital.

In a brief statement the industry minister, Jim Prentice, said that he had informed Alliant, or A.T.K. as it is commonly known, that he was not satisfied that the deal would “be of net benefit to Canada.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Prentice said that the government had no further comment. Neither MacDonald Dettwiler nor Alliant responded to requests for comment.

The major asset of MacDonald Dettwiler, a satellite in an unusual polar orbit that uses radar to peer through clouds and under the soil and ice, has also proven to be the greatest stumbling block to the company’s sale.

While owned by MacDonald Dettwiler, most of Radarsat-2’s construction and launch costs were financed with 450 million Canadian dollars from the government, which now has broad access to its images.

When the satellite was launched in October, the government called it a crucial element of its efforts to assert control of the Arctic. Canada has long clashed with the United States and other countries about its claim to the Northwest Passage, a potential shipping channel through the Arctic. High commodity prices have also prompted interest in minerals that lie under the region.

“This satellite will help us vigorously protect our Arctic sovereignty as international interest in the region increases,” the Canadian government said in a news release issued at the time of the launch.

Since A.T.K. initiated its bid, several legal specialists and many politicians, including some Conservatives who are not known to be critics of the United States, charged that American laws would effectively give Washington control of the satellite.

“If the United States becomes the licensing authority, Ottawa’s ability to control what the satellite is used for and to commandeer the equipment in emergencies might be lost,” Michael Byers, a professor of international law and global politics at the University of British Columbia, told a parliamentary hearing last month.

“Suppose, for instance, that Canada wanted priority access for sovereignty assertion purposes just as a major war involving the United States was breaking out in the Middle East,” Mr. Byers said. “One can even imagine the U.S. government using RADARSAT-2 in ways that directly contradict Canada’s interests.”

Among the critics is Marc Garneau, a former astronaut and one-time president of the Canadian Space Agency.

“It is certain that other countries with strategically important space companies would not allow such foreign takeovers,” Mr. Garneau told Parliament.

While the United States government has not commented about the sale, Daniel Friedmann, the president and chief executive of M.D.A., has rejected the idea that the Canadian government would lose any control of the satellite.

Mr. Friedmann, however, has his own complaints about the Patriot Act and other recent measures in the United States. Their restrictions against foreigners working on sensitive projects like satellites, he said last week, limit M.D.A.’s ability to bid on contracts in the United States. That effectively has left the Canadian government as the company’s only customer, a fact which prompted the sale.

The public profile of M.D.A. and its predecessor companies is much greater in Canada than its financial records would suggest. Most Canadian schoolchildren still learn that the robotic arm in the space shuttle was made in Canada. The attachment last month of a M.D.A.-built, Canadian-financed robotic arm on the international space station was prominent news for several days.

Several critics of the sale have compared it to the decision of a Conservative government in 1959 to shut down a program to produce a fighter known as the Avro Arrow. While the aircraft was advanced for its time, it had few prospects of significant foreign sales and was a drain on Canada’s finances.

Although Bombardier, which is based in Montreal, is a leading producer of executive jets and regional airliners, the termination of the Arrow program is still regularly cited as a major setback to Canada’s aerospace industry and even became the subject of a television miniseries in 1997 starring Dan Ackroyd.

Raymond Simard, a Liberal member of Parliament, said the M.D.A. sale “has the potential of being an Avro Arrow. It will be a benchmark decision. And 10 years down the road, we’ll be looking back and saying, ‘My God, we made a bad decision.’ ”

M.D.A. now has 30 days to appeal the government decision.

[BartSimpson]

Personally, I think it's about damn time that Canada started taking her sovereignty seriously. Maybe Canada will take it seriously enough to invest in guarding the northern four fifths of her territory with something more substantial than dog sled teams.

[Robair]

Finished with my wo-man 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind.

Paranoid, great now I've got Ozzy on the brain.

Stupid article, I disagree with it completely.

Oh yea, and the '59 decision on the arrow wasn't to cancel it in favor of American jets, it was an American missile system that didn't work...

[Arctic_Menace]

Rux, I'll stop getting my panties in a knot over the arctic when the Americans stop trying to claim it as theirs or as "international waters"...

[Public_Domain]

[sandorski]

Paranoid? Psycho? Ask again when we start invading other Nations based on Lies.

[lostalex]

sandorski sandorski:

Paranoid? Psycho? Ask again when we start invading other Nations based on Lies.

hmmm, the natives might have something to say about that... lol. oh n/m, don't wanna burst yur little "Canada is the only just and right nation" on earth paradigm.

[Public_Domain]

[ziggy]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Personally, I think it's about damn time that Canada started taking her sovereignty seriously. Maybe Canada will take it seriously enough to invest in guarding the northern four fifths of her territory with something more substantial than dog sled teams.

When all the military equipment is froze cock stiff those rangers on their dogsleds with 303 British Enfeilds will do as they have for a long time.Stay alive and laugh at the keekee khabluna.(crazy white man)

[lostalex]

Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:

lostalex lostalex:

sandorski sandorski:

Paranoid? Psycho? Ask again when we start invading other Nations based on Lies.

hmmm, the natives might have something to say about that... lol. oh n/m, don't wanna burst yur little "Canada is the only just and right nation" on earth paradigm.

Oh, we're far from it, lmfao, who could claim that...

We aren't better. Let's just say...

We're less worse,

In the 21st century so far, I've yet to see Canada fuck up even 1/10th as badly as America...

you speak the truth.

[Red_Eye]

I agree Canada is letting go of their soveregnty from norther territory, Imagration and laws to the economy.

[lostalex]

i say canada gives up the arctic circle and northern terroitories to the natives, and support the US effort to clam the passagae as international waters, and the US in a parallel move gives back Texas to the mexicans automatically making all texans mexican citizens. we can shut up all the europeans that constantly flame on us about the natives, and also get rid of texas and al the dumb racist hillbillys, and free up a major trade route in one swoop. kill 2 birds with one stone.

although it sounds counter-intuitive, giving back the north and south could actually be a very smart move.

[Red_Eye]

Can I have some of that that your consuming?

[Chumley]

lostalex lostalex:

i say canada gives up the arctic circle and northern terroitories to the natives, and support the US effort to clam the passagae as international waters, and the US in a parallel move gives back Texas to the mexicans automatically making all texans mexican citizens. we can shut up all the europeans that constantly flame on us about the natives, and also get rid of texas and al the dumb racist hillbillys, and free up a major trade route in one swoop. kill 2 birds with one stone.

although it sounds counter-intuitive, giving back the north and south could actually be a very smart move.

Or, we could give all of North America back to the natives, and invade Europe and settle there.

[Chumley]

Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:

lostalex lostalex:

sandorski sandorski:

Paranoid? Psycho? Ask again when we start invading other Nations based on Lies.

hmmm, the natives might have something to say about that... lol. oh n/m, don't wanna burst yur little "Canada is the only just and right nation" on earth paradigm.

Oh, we're far from it, lmfao, who could claim that...

We aren't better. Let's just say...

We're less worse,

In the 21st century so far, I've yet to see Canada fuck up even 1/10th as badly as America...

that could be because we have 1/10th of thier population...