Pat Kipping, centre, holds hands with other protesters as they form a circle outside the Debert nuclear fallout shelter on Feb. The women protesting that day, many of whom were linked to legendary Nova Scotia activist Muriel Duckworth and Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, first learned of the exercise from a small article published in The Chronicle Herald in July 1983. The spots inside were reserved solely for high-ranking government and military officials and even some members of the media - nearly all of whom would be men.Īnd the women outside were incensed about who the government had been deemed worthy of protecting. On that day, an estimated 329 people were expected to go inside the Debert bunker to participate in a dress rehearsal for nuclear war. The protesters had come from all over the Maritimes, wielding signs and body bags, wearing clown wigs and lab coats. On Feb. 29, 1984, a leap year, they stood chanting outside the gates of Camp Debert, home to Atlantic Canada's only government fallout shelter designed to withstand a nuclear attack. It was the end of the world as they knew it and these women felt anything but fine.

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