Up There

By Melissa August, Val Castronovo, Rachel Dry, Daren Fonda, Michael Jackson, Ellin Martens, Benjamin Nugent, Michele Orecklin, Julie Rawe, John Rosenblatt, Josh Tyrangiel

NORTHERN EXPOSURE Does the U.S. have to worry about its nearest neighbor's ability to protect itself? Some recent actions of the Canadian military are cause for concern:

--A tenth of the country's armor can fit on a single commercial freighter, and last week Canadian troops had to storm that freighter to get it back. The equipment, en route home from Kosovo, had been held up by the shipping firm because of an unpaid bill.

--The military scrapped a $2 million plan last month to develop the world's first combat bra, because soldiers didn't want one.

--In 1998 it agreed to pay for a soldier's sex-change operation.