Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
With the end of the Cold War, Canada's efforts went beyond trying to
save the BWC. Now the emphasis was on enhancing its effectiveness
through an elaborate compliance and verification system. But progress
was slow—at least until the 1994 Special Conference on BW Verification,
attended by 79 interested States Parties, which created the specialized Ad
Hoc Group of Experts with a mandate “to develop proposals for a legally
binding verification protocol in time for the Fourth Review Conference in
1996.” By July 2001 there was considerable optimism within the Depart-
ment of Foreign Affairs that the proposed Verification Protocol of the
BWC, based on nine years of continuous consultations between scien-
tists and diplomats, would finally be accepted by the 145 member states
gathered at Geneva for the Fifth Review Conference. These hopes were
dashed in August, when US arms control delegates informed the Geneva
meeting that the proposed verification system was both inoperable and
dangerous. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 have made further
discussions of the verification process even more difficult.
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Preventing Bioterrorism after 9/11
In September 2001 the Canadian government was quick to respond to
the threat of bioterrorism. First on the agenda was the Anti-Terrorist Bill
(C-36), which dramatically increased the federal government's capabili-
ties to deal with terrorism in its many forms. This was followed in Octo-
ber by the even more sweeping Public Safety Bill (C-42). Administra-
tively, a number of security programs had already been implemented
by the Department of National Defense and Health Canada's Centre for
Emergency Preparedness and Response, originally established in July
2000 “as the country's single coordinating point for public health security
in Canada,” with special responsibility for enforcing regulations on the
importation of human pathogens and biosafety in laboratories, adminis-
tering the National Emergency Stockpile System, training and coordi-
nating provincial and local public health officials, and tracing disease
outbreaks globally. In addition, provision was made for the creation
of the National Advisory Committee on Chemical, Biological, Radio-
Nuclear Safety and Security.
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Most of the Canadian government's initiatives have had dual purposes:
to deal with the possibility of a bioterrorist attack on Canada, and to re-
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