Canada Readies Military Unit to Respond to WMD

Canada’s military has readied and steadily expanded a special operations unit in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks for responding to attacks involving chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, The Ottawa Citizen reported today (see GSN, April 13).

Called the Joint Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Company, the unit has grown from 46 members to more than 100.  It employs an arsenal of equipment ranging from advanced protective gear to robots that could be deployed at contaminated attack sites. 

The work of the unit could include locating and disabling an unconventional weapon or gathering evidence for the trials of terrorists who developed or used such a device.

The group collaborates with Canada’s Public Health Agency, which investigates biological threats, and the forensic and explosive disposal units of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  It trains in finding and identifying WMD agents, and its leaders advise senior policy-makers on antiterrorism efforts.

“It's not a large unit, but it's very surgical in nature," said Maj. Stephane Boucher, the unit’s former commander.  "You don't need an 800-man infantry battalion to do what we do.  You just need exceptional soldiers with exceptional capabilities."

Boucher warned that his unit could decontaminate its own personnel following a chemical or biological attack, but it would lack the capacity to handle the victims.  That responsibility, he said, would be left to civilian agencies such as police and fire departments.  "There are very little threats out there that you can't decontaminate with bleach and water," Boucher told the Citizen. "The reality is that every pumper truck in every fire hall can do that."

Boucher called Canada’s large coastline one of the country’s greatest vulnerabilities.  He said most of Canada’s large ports are equipped with radiation sensors, but a radiological “dirty bomb” or nuclear warhead could be smuggled from a large vessel on to a smaller ship and then ferried to a remote area where it could be taken ashore.

A smuggler, he said, "might come through one of the many inlets on the coast of [British Columbia] and load off the device on to a fishing trawler and then take it into a small fishing village" (David Pugilese, The Ottawa Citizen, July 17).

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