CANADA HAS SACRIFICED its independence as a sovereign nation by refusing to participate in the U.S. missile defense program, after it had initially agreed with Washington's strong urging to join them in developing a space-based weapons system for detecting and shooting down incoming missiles. Now that Paul Martin, the Canadian Prime Minister, has decided to rate the Bush administration lower than Canadian public opinion, which opposes Canada's involvement in the missile defense program, Martin has as good as told Washington that, by refusing to help out with American missile defense, he is handing over Canada's sovereignty to the United States. The Bush administration was willing to allow Canada a vote, should a hostile foreign nation lob a missile at Canada, about whether the United States would shoot that missile down. But now that Martin has told Bush that Canada wants to make its own defense decisions and that missile defense is not in accordance with Canadian values, Washington is just going to decide on its own "when to fire at incoming missiles over Canadian territory." Martin still insists on claiming that changing his mind on committing Canada to join in the development of a missile defense system does not mean the United States has the right to invade Canada's sovereign air space without first asking Canada's permission. But, as Conservative member of Parliament Gordon McKay said, "the prime minister's insistence on being consulted is 'delusional.' How can [he] realistically believe the U.S. will consult him?"

Then again, it's possible that the U.S. would not have consulted Canada about invading their air space even if Martin had agreed to participate in the missile defense program. After all, we are talking about a country that abducted a Canadian citizen at Kennedy Airport while said citizen was waiting to board a flight back home to Canada, put him on another plane headed for Syria, and handed him over to Syrian officials who imprisoned and tortured him for over a year before he was finally released without being charged with any crime. Would a country that could and would do such a thing be likely to have pangs of conscience over invading Canada's air space without permission?