[A-List] FW: [UGLY] Canadarm maker violated landmine treaty: engineer

[Michael Hudson <michael.hudson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: FW: [UGLY] Canadarm maker violated landmine treaty: engineer

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From: malcolm gear <malcolm.gear@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: malcolm gear <malcolm.gear@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:21:03 -0500
To: <UGLYNEWWORLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [UGLY] Canadarm maker violated landmine treaty: engineer

Canadarm maker violated landmine treaty: engineer

Updated Thu. Jan. 17 2008 9:25 PM ET

CTV.ca News

An engineer has quit his job for one of Canada's leading aerospace technology companies, saying the Canadarm maker is violating the landmine treaty.

Paul Cottle, a 31-year-old American-born engineer, resigned from his job of three years at Richmond, B.C.-based company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), after the company announced it was selling its satellite division to an American company.

Cottle charges that the American company, Alliant Techsystems of Minnesota (ATK), builds weapons that kill civilians and soldiers alike.

Last week, MDA announced it was selling its satellite and space division to ATK for $1.3 billion.

ATK is a well-known maker of depleted uranium shells like landmines and cluster bombs.

Cottle told CTV News that ATK makes weaponry, including anti-personnel landmines, which contravenes Canada's mine ban treaty.

"When this explodes, it spreads steel shrapnel over the area the size of a football field," he said.

Cottle resigned from his position at MDA when he learned about the sale of his division.

"I knew right away that I couldn't work for them," Cottle said.

"The next day I went to my project manager and said I'm not going to do one more lick of work, because anything I do from now on simply adds to the bottom line of ATK when the sale completes."

Lloyd Axworthy, the former foreign affairs minister who created the treaty which bans anti-personnel landmines, said that the company sale could potentially pose a problem for the Canadian government.

"If the manufacturer of this special landmine that the American company is involved in has already been condemned by the landmines monitor, then I think we've got a real problem," he said. "Especially if there's a continuing of public dollars going into the company to support the space work, there's a real association that takes place in that case," he said.

"I'm sure the treaty parties would investigate it and I think we would put ourselves in a real political bind with some embarrassment to ourselves as a country."

MDA, which helped develop the well-known Canadarm, would not give an interview but released a statement, saying it will comply with any Canadian laws and the sale is in the best interest of its employees.

ATK, the American company purchasing MDA, said in a statement that it will only provide NATO countries and other allies with Ottawa Convention-compliant systems subject to US government approval.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger

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