"Canadian involvement in US missile defense would undermine decades of Canadian efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons," they said in an open letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

"It would represent our acquiescence and willingness to become an active participant in a permanent nuclear future," said the letter. "As such, it would directly collide with the wishes of the Canadian people who have expressed overwhelming support for nuclear disarmament."

Canadian participation in the US defense system "would require the reversal of a 30-year Canadian policy opposing the weaponization of space," said the letter.

The US plan is "enormously expensive" and would have long-term negative consequences on global security and "Canadian sovereignty over future foreign affairs and defense matters," said the letter.

It was signed by some 100 Canadian personalities, including former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, singers Bryan Adams, Richard Desjardins and Sarah McLachlan, anti-globalization author Naomi Klein, film maker Alexandre Trudeau, son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and a Catholic bishop and a Nobel chemistry laureate.

WAR.WIRE