Canadian Army looks for a few good guns to fend off polar bear threat

OTTAWA – They went to toe-to-toe with the Taliban in the dusty laneways of Kandahar without batting an eye, but it’s the mighty polar bear that’s giving the Canadian army pause for thought.

The military had been on the lookout for an “anti-predator weapon” with which to equip both Arctic Rangers and regular force units whenever they operate on their own in the North.

In the meantime, it has issued First World War vintage Lee-Enfield rifles to units based in southern Canada whenever those northern response companies are dispatched to the Arctic.

The Rangers have always carried the rifles, first introduced to the British Army in 1895.

The owner of a popular wilderness tour in the North said the military’s skittishness about polar bears is justified.

But Ryan St. John, of Arviat, Nunavut, says non-lethal means, such as rubber bullets and cracking shot gun shells, can also be effective in scaring off the bears.