On January 14, my government (Canadian) secretly flew a test sample of American plutonium into the country, preventing the proposed protests of a number of environmentalists, including myself. This unprecedented act is the culmination of a series of attacks on the democratic process by the nuclear industry and the government in this country. We are now beginning work towards the next ritual, which will happen in the spring, when we expect to try and block a shipment of Russian plutonium coming up the St. Lawrence, which will almost certainly land us in big trouble. What is interesting to me is that it gives a political meaning to the upcoming spring that is casting its shadow back here onto February. I see the icy winter with different eyes when I come out of my meetings. It reminds me of our frozen politics: of a helicopter flying along the cold north road. And so we await the spring breakup along the big river.