Topic: Cold War
Civil Defence Order 1959
Extracted ftom the Canadian Army Manual of Training; Survival Operations (1961), (Revised May 1962); CAMT 2-91
1. This Order may be cited as the Civil Defence Order, 1959.
2. In this Order, the expression "civil defence powers, duties and functions includes powers, duties and functions relating to the matter of "preparation for civil defence against enemy action" mentioned in section 4 of the National Defence Act.
3. The Minister of National Defence shall have and exercise the following civil defence powers, duties and functions:
a. provision of technical facilities and operation of a system to give warning to the public of the likelihood and imminence of an attack;
b. determining the location of a nuclear explosion and the pattern of fallout, and giving the necessary warning of fallout to the public;
c. assessment of damage and casualties from attack and fallout;
d. controlling, directing and carrying out re-entry into areas damaged by a nuclear explosion or contaminated by serious radioactive fallout, decontamination work in those areas, and the rescue and provision of first aid to those trapped or injured;
e. direction of police and fire services in seriously damaged or contaminated areas which are the object of re-entry operations, including the control of traffic and movement of people in those areas;
f. direction of municipal and other services for the maintenance and repair of water and sewer systems in seriously damaged or contaminated areas;
g. provision of emergency support to provincial and municipal authorities in the maintenance of law and order and in dealing with panic or the breakdown of civilian authority; and
h. maintenance and operation of emergency communication facilities.
4. The Minister of National Health and Welfare shall have and exercise the following civil defence powers, duties and functions:
a. assistance to provincial and municipal governments and to others in connection with the organization, preparation and operation of:
(1) medical, nursing, hospital and public health services, and
(2) services to provide emergency accommodation, emergency feeding, emergency supplies, guidance and welfare assistance for persons who have lost or left their homes because of acts of war or apprehended acts of war; and
b. maintenance and operation of the Civil Defence School at Arnprior, Ontario.
5. The Minister of Justice shall have, and through the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, shall exercise the civil defence power, duty and function to assist provincial governments and municipalities and their police forces, except as provided in section 3 above, in
a. maintaining law and order; and
b. controlling and directing traffic in connection with civil defence exercises and operations.
6. The Prime Minister shall have, and through the Emergency Measures Organization, shall exercise the following civil defence powers, duties and functions:
a. the ca-ordination of civil defence planning by departments and agencies of the Government of Canada;
b. the preparation of civil defence plans in relation to matters that are not the responsibility of any other department or agency of the Government of Canada;
c. assistance to provincial governments and municipalities in respect of preparation for civil defence where assistance is not the responsibility of any other department or agency of the Government of Canada; and
d. general liaison with other countries, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with provincial governments on matters relating to civil defence.
7. Where any matters in sections 3, 4, 5 or 6 would, but for this Order, be a power, duty or Function of a Minister other than the one referred to therein, that power, duty or function is hereby transferred to the Minister referred to in the section in which that matter is mentioned.
8. This Order does not have the effect of transferring the control or supervision of any members of the public service from one Minister of the Crown to any other Minister of the Crown, or from one department or portion of the public service to any other department or portion of the public service."
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