A few kilometers from the Canadian capital, several hundred meters underground, a bunker frozen in the past is sinking like a relic of the nuclear threats of yesteryear, threats that seem to be re-emerging.
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After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, “it became a real question: people wanted to know if they could flee here,” says Christine McGuire, director of the Diefenbunker, which has eventually become a Cold War museum.
Although it has retained most of the features of the nuclear shelter that was once for the Canadian high command, “it could not withstand current nuclear weapons,” points out the person in charge of the complex.
The bunker, secretly built in the heart of the Cold War in a peaceful village about 30 minutes from Ottawa, could house more than 500 people, including the prime minister, in the event of a nuclear attack. However, families were not admitted.
From the outside, the complex of more than 9,000 square meters, the equivalent of two football pitches, spread over four levels, is nothing more than a small metal shack 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 so you don’t feel like the place is approaching you,” says 67-year-old guide Graham Wheatley, pointing down the long, cold corridor. “They create 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 by room, the volunteer takes visitors on a journey through Canada in the 1960s and sheds light on the technical features of this extraordinary installation.
A cafeteria, an operating room, a control center, a studio for national radio, or even a vault for the Bank of Canada’s gold, everything is designed to allow more than 500 people to survive 30 days underground. “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 and welcomed more than 70,000 people annually.
It’s a “meaningful reminder of how close we came to annihilation during the Cold War,” says Christine McGuire.
In all, about 2,000 government and private bunkers were 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 attacks on Canadian cities,” adds the expert.
“The idea was that instead of wasting their bombs or missiles on Canada, the Russians would target the United States.”
With Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, “we find ourselves in a similar situation today,” the expert laments. “It’s a somewhat worrying time.”
In a sign that those tensions are still relevant, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Moscow is suspending its participation in the Russia-US New Start nuclear disarmament treaty, and said he also stands ready to resume nuclear testing record.
“This fear (of a nuclear attack) is still very real,” says the director of the Diefenbunker, who claims to be receiving more and more calls about this topic.
“The fears are coming back. Current global tensions are bringing back ghosts of the Cold War,” says Christine McGuire.