I'm pretty sure most informed Canadians, and those that take an interest in where their taxes are going know what is going on. Too many people stick
their heads in the sand and then when they find out after the fact scream about it.
NASA launched the Canadian observation satellite in 1995. Since then the American government has controlled 15 percent of RADARSAT-1's observation time. Furthermore, the U.S. has full access to all archived RADARSAT data more than 6 months old.
American federal agencies also pay extra subscription fees like the US$3.4 million paid in late July for RADARSAT-1 data to monitor locations around the world for 12 months.