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Relying on a mainstream press that is more interested in stick-wielding men chasing rubber discs on ice, Ottawa without prior warning or public debate has decided that it will reignite Canada‘s nuclear relationship with India. That decision, which arrived with no fallout, sets the stage for Canada to export dual-use nuclear technology and re-initiate nuclear power reactor sales to India. The government and its secretive Atomic Energy Canada Ltd, won‘t say what type of material Canada would provide, fuel or technology, but stressed a puzzling confidence that India will not use the stuff for its military nuclear-weapons program. You don‘t have to be a nuclear scientist to know that “dual-use” means the material can be used for both civilian and military purposes, which brings us to the conundrum — Why the sudden confidence that India will not betray Canada again? Canada has played a strident role in India‘s nuclear march which has directly and indirectly led to the proliferation of a nuclear K-mart in Asia. We gave India a nuclear research reactor in the early seventies and the South Asian behemoth promptly used the plutonium manufactured in the reactor to make a bomb. India then tested the bomb at the infamous Pokhran desert site in 1974 triggering howls of outrage around the world and frightening Pakistan into speeding up its own nuclear program. Canada retaliated by cutting off nuclear assistance to India but by then the country had transferred enough technology to independently build seven Canadian Candu ‘clones‘. In 1998, the Canadian taxpayer funded arms race between Pakistan and India blew up with India detonating five nuclear test bombs prompting Pakistan to explode six of its own. While working with India, the tax-dollar guzzling Atomic Energy of Canada was training Pakistan‘s nuclear scientists and engineers in Karachi, Ontario and New Brunswick. All of them were working for Pakistan‘s nuclear godfather, Dr. A.Q. Khan, who is now under house arrest for making millions of dollars in the nuclear black-market. Despite this track record, Ottawa believes that India has to be rewarded with the renewal of nuclear ties because it supports efforts to check Iran‘s nuclear program. Paul Martin and his Liberal government do not mind that New Delhi refuses to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and wants to keep developing its bombs. And Ottawa does not seem to care about India‘s past betrayals or worry that what is sent to India may end up as ingredients for a bomb-in-a-box. Canada‘s nuclear flip-flop with India is a dangerous mistake. It also makes a mockery of Canada‘s reputation as a champion for a safer world. | ||||
