For the committee's information, for five years I taught as a professor of international law at Duke University in North Carolina. I know a reasonable amount about the way the United States applies its laws extraterritorially.
I would remind you of the controversy over the Helms-Burton Act, whereby the U.S. government sought to regulate the activities of foreign companies with respect to a third state, namely Cuba, and the fact that the United States at one point in doing that sought to deter a challenge in the WTO by threatening to invoke a national security exception.
The legislation that exists with regard to remote sensing satellites in the United States would support such an extensive view of U.S. extraterritorial application as well. I have no doubt that if the space division of MacDonald Dettwiler were sold to ATK, the U.S. government would exert powers over this satellite in ways that exceed Canadian national interests.
I agree entirely with Mr. Shrybman and his legal analysis. I think he's right on. For me this is a red flag that calls into question even the possibility of authorizing the sale.