Get to bottom of sub fiasco

Anyone who bought a second-hand car that rarely worked and was always in the shop would reasonably be demanding a refund or at least an explanation from the vendor. They would certainly be angry.

For some reason, however, the Canadian navy seems strangely untroubled by the fact it bought four rust-bucket submarines from the British navy, none of which has seen significant operational duty since they were acquired for the bargain price of $890 million in 1998. One of them, HMCS Chicoutimi, has been in dry dock undergoing repairs since it caught fire on its maiden voyage from Britain to Canada in 2004.

In fact, the welds on all four boats were found to be defective before they even left Britain. In the case of the Chicoutimi, the internal steelwork was corroded, hull valves were cracked and the air turbine pumps were defective.

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