HALIFAX - The military's decision to scrap one of the first major naval ships designed and built in Canada has provoked a legal broadside.
HMCS Fraser is the last of seven St. Laurent-class destroyers. Four have been scrapped, one sank en route to a scrapyard and one became an artificial reef.
A reef society in Nova Scotia, which owned the decommissioned ship for 11 years, sold her back to the Department of National Defence last year for $1.
The society believed it still had input into her future and was shocked Friday to hear that the military was going to scrap the derelict vessel.
Rick Welsford, head of the Artificial Reef Society of Nova Scotia, says his group has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, claiming it retains an ownership interest.
He says the terms of sale include a clause specifying that, should DND decide to scrap the ship, his group has the right to submit a counterproposal.
Welsford says his group presented a detailed plan for turning the vessel into an artificial reef, but was turned down without explanation.
The claims have not been tested in court.
The 1950s-era HMCS Fraser was decommissioned in 1994 after nearly four decades of service.
