Hawaii nuke-alert fiasco unlikely in Canada; missile strike hardly top of mind
TORONTO — The possibility of an incoming nuclear warhead from a country such as North Korea does not appear to be a major concern for Canadian emergency management authorities, according to government information available to the public.
The weekend fiasco in Hawaii, where people spent 40 minutes expecting an incoming strike based on an erroneous alert, has highlighted a preparedness gap in Canada, where references to a nuclear attack are conspicuous by their absence.
Nor does Canada yet have the kind of system that helped quickly spread the faulty alert — attributed to someone pushing the wrong button during a test.
“A nuclear warhead or missile attack? No, we don’t have the system, so an error couldn’t occur,” said Darryl Culley, president of a company that offers emergency preparedness training to governments and organizations. “In the past two or three decades, we really haven’t seen any investment into a type of warning system for an attack.”