ShareThisBy JEFF SALLOT
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended machine-gun practice on the Great Lakes as Washington considers whether the live-fire drills pose an environmental danger to fish and a safety hazard for boats.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Monday that Canada is concerned about possible lead poisoning of the lakes, noting that the use of lead shot and sinkers in fishing gear is already banned.
Canada has informed the United States about its environmental worries, he said. "We're concerned most particularly in the environmental aspect."
MacKay said he is less concerned about the safety of boaters. "I have seen no report that suggests anyone is in any peril," he said. The live-fire exercises "are not in close proximity of civilians."
Canadian diplomats will monitor public meetings in U.S. Great Lakes cities as the Coast Guard explains its proposal to set up target-practice shooting zones.
MacKay suggested that Washington is reviewing its decision to arm Coast Guard lake boats with deck-mounted heavy machine guns. He said the previous Liberal government reached an agreement with Washington three years ago on the interpretation of the 1817 Rush-Bagot Treaty, which banned warships with cannons from the Great Lakes.
The current interpretation of the treaty, one of the world's oldest arms-control pacts, would allow the Coast Guard to use its heavy machine guns in patrolling the U.S. side of the Great Lakes.
The Coast Guard believes it needs the weaponry to deter terrorists trying to enter the United States from Canada.
The machine guns can fire up to 650 rounds a minute, and the Coast Guard has conducted at least 24 live-fire drills on the lakes since January, firing about 3,000 rounds of lead ammunition each time.
U.S. officials want to set up 34 live-fire practice ranges on the Great Lakes, a proposal that has alarmed many municipal officials, environmental groups and boating and fishing associations on both sides of the border.
MacKay said the working of the Rush-Bagot treaty "is currently under review. There has been a suspension of all activities of live-fire exercises until November."
He said Canada "has made its views known to the United States, and clearly, we will follow these consultations in the United States to make sure those views are further known, on the environmental side, the security side, to see that we get a proper resolution."
Unlike its Canadian namesake organization, the U.S. Coast Guard is a part of that country's armed forces. The Coast Guard apparently did little to publicize its plans for live-fire ranges until recently. It has now scheduled nine public meetings in U.S. cities to explain how the practice ranges will operate.
Coast Guard officials say they will notify boaters, fishermen and commercial shipping interests several days in advance of any live-fire practice. They will also send a second patrol boat to the vicinity to warn off civilian boaters.
