Canada Must Reject Participation in the Golden Dome

Richard Sandbrook

Wikideas1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Canada must reject participation in Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile-defence project, and soon, to minimize the fall-out from the US president.

This latest version of “Star Wars” will prove ineffective, at enormous cost, against a modern missile offensive, while militarizing space. This is the conclusion of numerous experts.

To adopt such a defensive shield would upset the nuclear deterrence principle of mutually assured destruction. This principle constrains all nuclear powers. However, if one power seeks to negate this principle, establishing the basis for surviving an initial strike on an opponent, that opponent will respond with technological advances to quickly counter the threat. The result will be space-based missiles, and heightened insecurity for both sides.

In addition, Canada’s major security threat currently derives from the American president’s repeated talk of annexation. We must not take those threats lightly. If Trump is willing to invade the cities of Democrat-controlled states in the US, we should not expect him to respect Canada’s borders. He has already declared these borders to be imaginary. Further integration of Canada’s armed forces with the America’ armed forces is precisely what we don’t need. We need greater independence, to counter the fascist threat from the south.

If Canada is of value as a pluralistic and democratic country, we need to avoid both annexation and absorption as a vassal state within a “Fortress North America.” The latter is where the Golden Dome and accompanying economic concessions will lead. Do we want to be bound to an authoritarian superpower, which, in its “fossil-fuels-or bust” obsession, is on the wrong side of history in a climate-stressed world?

Maintaining substantial autonomy for Canada, and for the values for which we stand,  requires, immediately, our rejection of participation in the “Golden Dome,” regardless of the fall-out.

Richard Sandbrook is Vice-President of Science for Peace and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto.