The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

Chicken Little and the sky is falling scenario gets as much credence as this blockbuster book where the author claims that everything Canada does is governed by what the United States might think or do to us. There is no question that decision making does to some extent consider the reaction and relationship with those with whom we want to do business.

Book examines Washington's power over Ottawa

Updated Sun. Nov. 5 2006 11:45 PM ET

Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Fears that the White House would retaliate against the Liberals drove the Chretien government to take on British Columbia over a controversial weapons range, says the author of a new book.

Military historian John Clearwater used documents obtained under the Access to Information Act to trace this and other incidents where Ottawa appeared to bend to Washington's will over weapons testing.

"We never say No to them,'' Clearwater, author of the newly released book Just Dummies, said in an interview.

"We never say No to any testing. Sometimes we try to hold it off for as long as we can. I think the trend here is, no matter what the U.S. asks for, eventually we say Yes.''

The book alleges that the Chretien government worried that the American response to B.C.'s threatened closure of the Nanoose ocean range in the spring of 1997 could be "out of proportion,'' and lead to punishing trade sanctions, similar to what New Zealand faced in the 1980s for similar defiance.

"Rumours began to circulate of a covert attempt to undermine the government,'' Clearwater writes.

Nowhere does Clearwater present evidence the U.S. made direct threats, but he paints a picture of an almost paranoid reaction among Canadian officials and decision-makers.

The book also chronicles the 1970s testing of the U.S. artillery shell that was meant to carry the neutron bomb, as well as tests involving cruise missiles and the B-2 stealth bomber.

Foreign Affairs officials refused to be interviewed for the book, he said.

In 1997, the NDP government of former B.C. premier Glen Clark set off waves of panic within the Defence and Foreign Affairs Departments when it summarily cancelled an agreement that allowed the Canadian government to lease the Nanoose Bay range to the U.S. Navy.

Clark's government was upset over the American refusal to negotiate over Pacific salmon fishing.

Nanoose Bay, off eastern Vancouver Island, belongs to the provincial government, but because of the dispute it was eventually expropriated by the federal government.

The U.S. has conducted underwater tests at the range, considered the most advanced ocean weapons proving ground in the world, since the mid-1960s.

During the dispute, federal Justice Department lawyers said the Clark government was frustrating Ottawa in critical areas such as national defence and international relations.

Clark accused the Liberal government of "treason,'' saying it was bizarre that British Columbia had to defend the rights of all Canadians against the federal government.

Briefing documents uncovered by Clearwater show former defence minister Art Eggleton was warned from the outset that U.S. law-makers could go ballistic over the closure and it would be seen as "one more reason to question Canada's reliability as a defence partner.''

Policy chief Dr. Kenneth Calder warned of crippling trade restrictions and pointed to New Zealand as an example, the book says. In the late 1980s, the South Pacific country denied U.S. nuclear ships access to its harbours. In that case, the Americans ended a decades-long military alliance and imposed sanctions.

"The political injury to Canada-U.S. relations and the potential linkage to much larger bilateral issues is far greater than the significance of the loss'' of the weapons range, said Calder's briefing note.

Clearwater says the fears were justified, especially in light of former prime minister John Diefenbaker's claim that the White House lent covert support to his overthrow by the Liberals in 1963 general election.