Man Takes Stand In Canada: Beckley Native Questions Sale of Half of Company to US Arms Maker
A man from Beckley has made headlines in Canada for quitting his job.For three years, Paul Cottle worked as an engineer at MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, an information solutions company in British Columbia.
In January, the CEO gathered all employees and told them half the company would be sold to Alliant Techsystems, a Minnesota-based arms manufacturer known as ATK.
“I knew [ATK] was nothing I wanted to be involved with,” the 31-year-old said. “Leaving my job … was an absolute certainty that I knew right away.”
So he quit right then.
ATK describes itself as “an advanced weapon and space systems company.” It is the world’s leading supplier of solid rocket motors and the largest U.S. manufacturer of ammunition.
It also makes cluster bombs, depleted uranium shells and landmines.
“I’m not anti-war. I’m not against engineers in my position working for the military or working for an arms company,” Cottle said, pointing out that he was hired at MDA to work on a Canadian military project. “What I am against is working for a company that makes weapons that have been shown to be as to harmful to civilians as to soldiers.”
He never expected to get so much attention for quitting his job, he said. A reporter in Halifax found out about his decision. That reporter told someone at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Since then, he’s done about a dozen interviews with Canadian reporters.
“I was especially surprised about how much the media attention was focused on me personally, as opposed to the sale of the company,” said the Woodrow Wilson High School graduate.
Now, Cottle and some others in Canada are trying to spread public awareness about the $1.325 billion sale. They want officials to block the transaction, which still must be approved by both Canadian and American regulators.
ATK wants to buy MDA’s information systems and geospatial services divisions, Cottle said. The company would then get control of the Radarsat-2, considered the most advanced commercial radar satellite in the world.
In December, the satellite was launched for the Canadian Space Agency. It is used for both military and civilian purposes and was funded by almost $500 million in Canadian tax dollars, Cottle said.
Cottle and other opponents believe ATK’s acquisition would be a violation of the Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the development, production and use of landmines. The United States has not signed the treaty.
Allowing the deal to go down “would not be in the best interest of Canada,” he said.
Cottle is still an American citizen. Three years ago, he moved to British Columbia.
“One of the reasons I came to Canada is so that my tax dollars wouldn’t be spent on companies like ATK,” he said. “The main reason I came to Canada is because I really, really like it here in Vancouver.”
He left West Virginia in the 1990s when he went away to college at Cornell University in New York. He visits West Virginia about once a year, he said.
His father, Jack Cottle, lives Beckley. He is a retired illustrator for the National Mine Academy.
“I’m proud of him,” Jack Cottle said of his son. “It’s very ethical of him to do. He’s very strong morally.”
And his son always stood up for what he believed in - ever since he was a Boy Scout, Jack Cottle said.
“He had more merit badges than anybody, and he was on the verge of being an Eagle Scout,” he said. “And he told them he didn’t believe in God and they kicked him off.”
Paul Cottle recalled that incident with a laugh. He was 15 or 16, he said.
When he filled out his application to become an Eagle Scout, he wrote “atheist” when the form asked his religion. Later, he got a letter from the national council telling him he was no longer a Boy Scout.
Representatives of the Boy Scouts National Council met with him and said he could still be a Boy Scout if he would say his religion was “none” rather than “atheist.” He refused.
“I’m not really a person I’d say is outspoken,” he said. “I do have things that I believe in very strongly and don’t compromise on.”
Cottle thinks that stopping the acquisition is a long shot, but he’s trying anyway.
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” he said. “But it’s not very likely.”
Recently, some Canadian political figures have publicly questioned the ATK-MDA deal, he said.
Also, “one other guy in my company has quit,” he said. “Other people are doing more subtle things.”
For example, some people have begun selling black T-shirts with white peace symbols that they wear to work on Wednesdays. Some have circulated petitions.
ATK spokesman Brian Cullin said the company is “very proud of our national security role.”
“We do not believe we make any system that’s indiscriminate.” Cullin said.
He added: “Any of the systems that we deploy overseas are Ottawa Convention [Mine Ban Treaty]-compliant.”
As for Cottle, it only took about three weeks to find another job. He now works as an engineer for a medical imaging company - and he even got a raise.
© 2008 The Charleston Gazette
I am SO proud of this guy, I can’t put it into words. And I’m so glad that he found another higher paying job so quickly. Inspirational! Spread this story!
The man’s a confused contradiction: He says he’s NOT anti-war, but then says, “One of the reasons I came to Canada is so that my tax dollars wouldn’t be spent on companies like ATK.”
Those who are too weak to stand up always criticize those who do. Those of us who have consistently stood up know the harsh consequences of doing so. Mr. Cottle is fortunate to have landed on his feet. Good for him.
Well, karlof, I’d like to rush to his defense, then. A person who is not anti-war can certainly be against cluster bombs, DU armaments, even illegal invasions and occupations. Even one who is firmly against starting wars, may come under military attack some day, and may know that they will stand and fight. You don’t have to be anti-war to have some sense of decency. Remember, not all nations or individuals get a choice in the matter.
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, according one of their web sites (http://ss.mdacorporation.com/careers.shtml) was already working the intel. and defense sectors.
The problem isn’t that they’re being sold to another defense industry company (it actually seems consistent).
The problem is that bright, young and talented people work in the killing industries in the first place.
This is what integrity looks like! Now if americans would divest themselves of their bloody investments, that would be another great step.
Karlof1, wouldn’t you be confuse too. With all the lies and saying one thing and doing another, is what this administration has excell to do, confuse the majority of american. A company that fabricate cluster bomb should be drag in court for crimes against humanity.
If we workers take a notion,
we can stop all speeding trains.
Mighty ships upon the ocean
we can tie with mighty chains,
Every farm and every factory,
every mine and every mill,
mighty armies of all nations
will at our command stand still!
— Joe Hill
Not anti war? Who cares. The man has integrity and some wars unfortunately, have to be engaged in if your country is under attack.
If more people spoke out as he did we wouldn’t be in the mess were in…if he doesn’t speak exactly as we want, then we should ask ourselves…what would we have done…
I was confused about the US Empire when I was growing up in the 1960s, but I educated myself and ended my confusion. Integrity? He’s willing to work for one company that creates death rather than another that does same? Did the governemnts of Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran or N. Korea, (and the list goes on) attack the USA, or is it the US Empire that has waged hot and cold wars on the world’s people? The documents prove the US Empire has actively engaged in premeditated aggression to maintain its gross disparity in resource consumption, and has done so since its conception in 1776. The very mode of communication being used here–the internet–is a direct spinoff of that planned agression; does that justify that agression? Was it worth 500,000 dead children in Iraq, as Clinton expressed through Albright?
The man is a part of the Death Machine, and you say he has integrity!?
karlof, just because you knew 10 years ago that the military was up to something other than protecting our shores does not mean that every bright university graduate was privy to the same enlightened wisdom. Further, you could claim that everyone that pays taxes or uses the currency is part of said machine, but you seem to have no interest in any of these people waking up and making a difference. You read about this guy? Should really get your blood boiling… http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/13/7039/
Wow all I can say is MASSIVE KUDOS to Paul Cottle!!! I raise my glass of Chardonnay and toast you, sir. Well informed, smart, ethical and a Boy Scout (actually an Eagle Scout were it not for the Boy Scout’s discriminatory and antiquated policies). Can’t beat that. Canada seems so much more civil overall than the USA; can’t blame Paul for packing his bags and calling Canada home. It’s so cool how the Canadian media gives Paul Cottle some positive exposure. Of course here in the corporate media owned and occupied USA, this man’s actions would deliberately be ignored-or be given a negative spin by Bill O’Reilly, Hannity, or other neo-con Murdoch media clowns.
At the beginning of the 70s, I found myself working “for the man” at a factory that made ordinary household items we all use many times per day.
During a strike, I found company with (leftist!) unionists who revealed to me that our Canadian factory was Canadian in name only — that we were actually working for a US multinational whose primary function south of the border was manufacturing ordnance to carry napalm (made at another “Canadian” factory) — the results of which had just been seared into our minds by the shocking photo of little Kim Phuc running naked down a Vietnamese road, her clothes and skin burned off by an American air attack on the village of Trang Bang. (Incidentally, Kim now lives in Canada). Furthermore, it would be possible to turn our plant into a munitions factory, by the simple replacement of press turntables — literally overnight. I quit that job pronto. It’s operations have since been moved to Mexico!
So it is nothing new that Canadian, or American-owned corporations on Canadian soil, or North American fascist (corporatist) entities (Dow Chemical was launched by Canadian-born Herbert Henry Dow) should unite to develop and build the violent infrastructure required to perpetrate and defend their “interests.”
What is unfathomable (rather, it is all too understandable, given the degree of mind-control) is that men like Cottle are a tiny minority, today. In 1972, I also may have been a minority, but it felt like we were part of a powerful movement. http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/DowVietnam.htm
“Perhaps the forces that now menace freedom are too strong to be resisted for very long. It is still our duty to do whatever we can to resist them.”
Aldous Huxley
BRAVE NEW WORLD REVISITED
1958
Big_Money–Yeah, we’re all compromised in some way as we are all part of the same machine, which is something I’ve remarked upon before. A lot of folks here have the same sort of problem with Ray McGovern’s past exploits for the CIA. The item you linked to shows the same sort of person trying to atone for past sins–murder, and enjoying it, in his case. Indirectly, all US citizens are killers. I object strenuously to being a part of that, as anyone with principles ought. If the arrangements of my life were different, I would have left the USE long ago, but my responsibilities preclude that. I loath being a cynical pessimist, but I see no grounds for optimism, being a deprogrammed eater of the red pill.
Eventually, the chemicals within my body I never knowingly injested will cause some of my cells to become cancerous, the cancer will metastasize, and the Empire will claim another victim. My best efforts will delay this, but I am still a dead-man-walking.
Oh, my, karlof, I’m sorry you feel so dark. Have you ever dabbled with your chakras? Sometimes, to harmonize oneself with the universe in the most intangible of ways can protect one from the tangible elements that cause such pain.
I’d suggest, if everyone is a part of it, then the only way that it can be undone is for everyone to move in the direction of away from it. Some people have a heck of a lot farther to go than others, but still, I encourage the glorification of those who make such a stand. There’s nowhere near enough of them.
I am generally anti-war, but not anti self-defense. In fact, I have considered taking advantage of the neo-con right’s insistance on having a country awash in guns to buy an assault rifle of my own to defend against the day this fascist government formally declares martial law and tries to crush what dissent is left.
I say good on Mr. Cottle. It’s good to know that everyone in/from the Mountaineer State is not an inbred, knuckle-dragging, know-nothing, fundi-Xtian!
All life lives by killing and eating other life, but mostly refrains from killing and consuming their own species; we supposedly civilized folk have a taboo and laws against cannibalism. I would say humans engage in a different form of cannibalism–we kill our own kind to consume their resources. We apparantly revere this type of behavior because we laud those most successful at it or boast about our exceptionalism. Tom Englehardt calls it “Victory Culture.” Certainly, once you realize it for what it is you try to distance yourself from it–to turn your gaze away from the Hydra lest you be turned to stone. I grew up with Superman–Truth, Justice and The American Way! Note the contradictions with reality. It’s quite shocking to discover your whole culture, mores, norms are a fraud, that you’ve been lied to your whole life, and not just about Santa. Perhaps Mr Cottle just had that epiphany, or sadepiphany as my daughter calls it, which has directed him to a new path. Ta!
“The problem is that bright, young and talented people work in the killing industries in the first place.”
The other jobs for these people are now largely overseas, a phenomenon that began in the Reagan administration.
Cool, What a right on dude. Canada needs more people like this.
I would trade our Prime Minister, or the Premier of BC for another just like him.
Cottle’s complaint is that:
“What I am against is working for a company that makes weapons that have been shown to be as to harmful to civilians as to soldiers.” (Please, what are the weapons of war that are safe for civilians?)
But as for where he has been working: “information systems and geospatial services divisions”, and admits to having worked on a project for the Canadian military.
Reading between the lines, he is a programmer, or other technology worker, who was mentally able to keep the disconnect between his role and the end product big enough when he was working for a “Canadian” (not evil US where he on principle moved from) “information solutions” company (you don’t get your hands dirty at that company; it’s a white-collar job; you write the code for the targeting satellites or the bomber onboard systems or whatever).
But now the connection is all too clear to him. Good for him for the brave step, because giving up a well-paying job is always hard. But now, on principle, he must stay away from anything that reeks of military deployment, if he fully understands the connection between the military and the sector of technology he was working in.
Way to go, Paul Cottle!
I made a similar decision nearly 30 years ago. My first “real” job, I was an electronics technician for a war contractor. I worked on communications systems used in surveillance systems, and rationalized that “at least I’m not making bombs.”
But the company I worked for did make components for bombs. So I quit, and vowed never to take such a job again.
But I eventually realized that if you have a job and pay taxes, or even take part in the economy, you are a part of the war machine. In 2004, I decided to leave the US, so that no fruits of my labour would go toward the state-sponsored terrorism of the US.
To karlof1, I can only say that everyone progresses at their own rate. I progressed in steps, and made decisions that took me further from supporting The Beast.
You criticize one person’s progressive decision, while claiming “I would have left the USE long ago, but my responsibilities preclude that.” What sort of hypocrisy is that? Do others not have rights to their own “responsibilities?” Why are your responsibilities such that you continue supporting the War Empire, and yet others are not?
Cut others some slack, and maybe you’ll cut yourself some, as well — just the antidote for a dark mood!
Way to go, Paul Cottle! It makes lots of sense to take such a brave stand on such a difficult situation.
http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html
Thanks
Jan–I never criticized his decision; I said he displayed contradictions. I also do NOT support the USE; like everyone else, I cannot AVOID supporting it as its revenue tentacles are everywhere. If you use the dollar, you support the Empire. Nuff said.
We at the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines were quite inspired by the courage Paul Cottle showed. Thanks Paul!
If you have a second, check out our open letter to him at www.uscbl.org.