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Canada Faces No 'High-Level Threats' to Join US Missile Program

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New Democratic Party of Canada defense critic Randall Garrison said that the debate on whether to join the US missile defense program is part of the national defense review which is ongoing, and a new draft policy is expected to be drawn up by early 2017.

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Ottawa has no reason to join US missile defense program as the nation faces no direct high-level threats, New Democratic Party of Canada defense critic Randall Garrison told Sputnik.

"There are no good reasons for Canada to consider at this time joining the US ballistic missile defense program," Garrison said. "Canada decided not to participate and I think that was a good decision. I think we have no evidence of high priority direct threats to Canada from ballistic missiles."

In April, the Canadian lawmaker announced in a release that the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is secretly discussing Canada’s participation in the US "Star Wars" ballistic missile defense program.

"First of all, we pointed out to the public since there wasn’t any high profile announcement that the debate has been reopened. Most people were not aware of that," he explained. "Secondly, we’re going to try to make sure that public input into the national defense review includes public input on this question from those who continue to be opposed."

Garrison added that the debate on whether to join the US missile defense program is part of the national defense review which is ongoing, and a new draft policy is expected to be drawn up by early 2017.

"The United States has spent more than a hundred billion dollars on a system that only provides partial protection against a limited launch, and has very low effectiveness figures," he stressed. "Even if Canada participated in such a system it’s not clear it would provide much protection to Canada. So that’s what we’re going to be submitting as our input [to review]."

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Garrison explained that Canada has other major defense priorities such as replacing CF18s fighter jets and developing a shipbuilding strategy to change the country’s fleet.

The Canadian government previously succumbed to public pressure and declined participation in the US missile defense program.

The US-designed ballistic missile defense system was approved in 2010, during a NATO summit in Lisbon. A range of European countries, including Poland, Romania, Spain and Turkey agreed to deploy elements of this system on their territories.

The ground-based missile defense systems are located in Alaska and California, while some US officials are advocating for a third location in the Eastern United States.

In the 1980s, the United States developed numerous concepts for space-based ballistic missile defense under the Strategic Defense Initiative, also referred to as Star Wars, a program intended to defeat Russia's sizable nuclear arsenal.

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