Tell the government not to reconsider the Radarsat II decision

April 11, 2008

As you know opponents (including you) of the sale of the company MDA - maker of the Canadarm and the Radarsat II, Canada’s only remote sensing satellite  -  scored a huge victory on Thursday when Industry Minister Jim Prentice announced the government would not be allowing the sale of he company to go ahead because it was not “in the interests of Canada.”  While he was  not explicit about referring to Canada’s “national interests” - which would protect us from a NAFTA challenge - the government nonetheless seems committed to the decision. They made a great deal of it the House of Commons, taking credit for the decision and linking it to Arctic sovereignty.  If they intended to reverse it or use it as leverage to force changes in the deal they would not likely have made us much noise about it.

Write a short letter to the editor praising the decision (if you can’t stomach praising this government) for its decision and reinforcing it by giving the reasons it is the right decision.

ALSO...We do not know what is going on behind the scenes. Ministers like Jim Flaherty will be totally opposed to this and there may still be a reversal; big shareholders like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund may way in privately or publicly against the decision.

Copy your letter to Industry Minister Jim Prentice at either or both of the following addresses:

Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca  

Some facts to incorporate into you letters:

This is the right decision because:

• The decision is the morally correct one  because ATK, the US company trying to buy MDA, makes making land mines,  is the largest supplier of depleted uranium munitions to the US military and is a major supplier of cluster bombs. This sale would have offended the values of Canadians and foreign policy of our country and should be stopped. [Prentice has apparently expressed moral objections himself.] 

• Canada has put over $440 million into this company which is the key partner with the federal government in Canada’s space program and that investment would effectively disappear with the sale.

• A legal opinion by Stephen Shrybman of  Sack, Goldblatt, Mitchell LLP concluded that Canada would clearly lose control over Radarsat II: “Under U.S. regulations concerning remote sensing space systems such as RADARSAT-2, U.S. national interests take precedence and will supercede the authority Canada now exercises under the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act over the operation of Radarsat-2.”

• Astronaut Marc Garneau stated in commenting on the sale that MDA represents "the crown jewel" of robotics and aerospacApril 11, 2008

• Stephen Harper has said that Arctic sovereignty is a key objective of his government. Had this sale gone through - or if it still goes through - achieving that goal with Radarsat in the hands of the US government would make that goal extremely difficult

• The principal purpose of Radarsat II is to defend Arctic sovereignty yet the US does not recognize Canada’s sovereignty and they would have ultimate control over the satellite that helps us prove our case.

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