A few kilometers from the Canadian capital, sinking several hundred meters underground, hides a bunker frozen in the past, like a relic of the nuclear threats of an ancient time, threats which seem to resurface.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, “it became a real question: people wanted to know if they could come and take refuge here”, says Christine McGuire, director of the Diefenbunker which has become a museum in the end of the Cold War.
However, although it has retained most of the characteristics of the anti-atomic shelter it once was for the Canadian high command, “it could not resist current nuclear weapons”, underlines the person in charge of the complex.
Secretly built in the heart of the Cold War in a peaceful village about thirty minutes from Ottawa, the bunker could house more than 500 people, including the Prime Minister, in the event of a nuclear attack. Families, however, were not accepted.
From the outside, the complex of more than 9,000 square meters, the equivalent of two football fields spread over four levels, is only a small metal shelter and a mound of earth. Inside, a long blast tunnel leads to a maze of narrow white corridors dotted with black vertical stripes.
“The tapes are there to keep you from feeling like the place is closing in on you,” says 67-year-old guide Graham Wheatley, pointing to the long cold hallway. “They give the illusion that the ceiling is higher than it really is. At least that’s what the psychologists say,” he adds with a laugh.
Room after room, the volunteer takes visitors on a journey through the Canada of the 1960s, highlighting the technical specificities of this extraordinary installation.
A cafeteria, an operating room, a control center, a studio for national radio or even a vault to house the Bank of Canada’s gold, everything has been designed so that more than 500 people survive 30 days under earth. “It’s time for the radiation to dissipate,” explains the museum director.
Demilitarized at the end of the Cold War, the Diefenbunker reopened as a museum in 1998, welcoming more than 70,000 people a year.
It is a “meaningful reminder of how close to annihilation we came during the Cold War,” says Christine McGuire.
In all, about 2,000 government and private bunkers have been built in Canada, far fewer than in the United States or Europe, estimates Andrew Burtch, Cold War historian at the Canadian War Museum.
“In Canada, much of the planning was based on the assumption that radioactive fallout would be our main threat, and not necessarily direct strikes on Canadian cities,” adds the expert.
“The idea was that the Russians would not waste their bombs or missiles on Canada, but rather target the United States.”
With the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow, “we find ourselves today in a similar situation”, laments the expert. “It’s a somewhat disconcerting time.”
A sign that these tensions are still relevant, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the Russian-American New Start treaty on nuclear disarmament, also saying it was ready to resume atomic testing.
“This fear (of a nuclear attack) is still very real,” says the director of the Diefenbunker, who says she is receiving more and more calls on this subject.
“Anxieties are returning. Current global tensions are bringing back ghosts of the Cold War,” says Christine McGuire.
22/02/2023 08:18:17 – Ottawa (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
