Could someone tell me what this is all about. I guess I caught up to the story late. Everyone's reporting how confused they are with canada's stance but no longer reporting what the issue itself was.

Thanx in advance.

Canada said that they do not want to be involved in the North American Missile Defence. The american's told Canada that it's sad that they're relinquishing sovereignty over Canadian Airspace. That they'll continue to set it up and decide themselves, wihtout canadian consultation, when and if to shoot down the missiles.

Martin says tthat he still expects to be notified. BUt the Us ambassador here says otherwise.

Essentially America is being a bully, and Martin is backing out of something that he really cant especially with all the NATO ties and everything that was prepared during hte cold war.

i dont get it. how are you giving up your sovereignity and how is america being a bully?

we're giving up our soveriengty to our airspace bc by martin saying he doesnt want to be involved in the missile shield (with money and all) they're still going ahead with it. They'll control it but bc of martin's statement, he wont get a choice in the matter.

We lost our sovereingty i believe, bc Canada made some deal with the US in 1960s during hte Cold war with the DEW Line and other early detection safety precautions. The deal was that the states and canada would work together for continental protection and that the states was allowed to 'control' certain areas of canadian airspace and that most officers working would be american and they were immune from Canadian courts. So the americans got a lot of power over defence in regards to Canadian airspace at that time. The big thing for canadians was that every decision must've been approved by two top generals; one would be canadian and one American.

But i guess since martin isn't contributing, the states are continuing with it and they're being bullies by not listening to the PM.

Hmm .... thanx for the updates.

Martin's being a pussy for backing out on this. Needs to shell some money into the military and gain some respect. I remember reading stories of back in the world war days and those stories of soldiers were spectacular. Now we need to hitch a ride with the americans to fight a war (and drive bad humvees while we're there).