Recently attention has be given to building a fence between Canada and the United States [listen to Senator Leahy on As It Happens) . Immigration has been cited as a key driver. It started with the proposal to build a fence along the Mexico-US boarder, and then the logic of the situation drove the discussion to consider other boarders. While the US has several neighbours, including the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, unlike these, the Canada-US boarder is not separated by a natural hurdle of ice and water. Therefore building a 8,891km fence is the obvious solution.
There are several reasons why Canada should be interested in the construction of fence: control of drugs and firearms are probably the most relevant in today’s environment. But in the past, draft dodgers have resulted in friction in Canada-US relations and further in the past the defense of Canada was certainly an issue. Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red, prepared by the US army in the 1930’s suggests how recently such plans were under consideration. A more recent report [1] on those invasion plans notes that there is a history of military action between the two countries:
“…there have been real invasions of Canada by Americans in the past. During the Revolutionary War, General Benedict Arnold led a failed attack on Canada, and during the War of 1812 U.S. troops attacked Canadians several times, but were driven back. In 1839, Americans and Canadians met in a deadly confrontation over a border dispute it cost the life of one American cow and a Canadian pig.
“In 1866, about eight hundred Irish-Americans in a group called the Fenian Brotherhood tried to make a statement for Irish independence by invading Canada to agitate the English. After crossing the Niagara River into Ontario they defeated a small group of Canadian militia. But when the British approached with a large force of troops, the Fenians mostly retreated back to the United States, where they were arrested. Some were captured by the Canadians and were eventually hanged.”
Would a fence protect us? The American think it will protect them.
Save our Pigs!
Leave a Reply