For years, Ed Sweeney served in the Canadian Armed Forces living at CFB Valcartier military base starting in 1991. While he faced the ordinary dangers that come with serving with the 5e régiment d’artillerie légère du Canada, including a deployment to Bosnia in 1995, he also faced a grave danger at home. For decades, the Department of National Defence (DND) and two private companies, SNC-Lavalin and General Dynamics, were contaminating local water sources around the base and the neighbouring municipality of Shannon, Que., with a dangerous carcinogenic called trichloroethylene.