THE SILENCE OF THE SLEEPWALKERS: NO RESPONSE TO PEACE QUEST’S QUESTIONS ON NUCLEAR POLICY FOR CAPE BRETON’S ELECTION CANDIDATES
On April 4, Peace Quest Cape Breton sent a letter on Canada’s nuclear weapons and disarmament policy to the declared candidates of the four main national parties (Conservative, Green, Liberal, NDP) contesting the two federal election ridings in Cape Breton. (We were unable to contact the NDP candidate for Sydney-Glace bay until April 16.) The letter – see below – requested responses to three key questions by April 21, a week before polling day:
should Canada sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), adopted by 122 states in 2017?
what can Canada do to help reduce nuclear risks and dangers at a time of sharply escalating geopolitical tensions?
how should Canada commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945?
As of April 23rd we had received no responses, a local political silence reflecting a general national failure to engage seriously with an issue of major global – and existential human – concern. Of the four main party platforms, only the Green Party’s mentions the nuclear threat, calling, in a section on ‘Disarmament and Ethical Military Policy,’ for Canada to “sign and ratify the Treaty to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [TPNW] and press for global disarmament”. The Green platform also calls for an expansion of “Canada’s role in global peace efforts, with a focus on climate security, nuclear disarmament, and conflict prevention”. Incredibly, neither the Liberal, Conservative, nor NDP platforms feature the words ‘nuclear’ or ‘disarmament’ (either nuclear or conventional). In the Liberal and Conservative platforms, a key theme instead was rearmament, an unthinking, sleepwalking embrace of further, drastic militarization in the Arctic and Europe at the expense of the kind of diplomacy, and détente – and investments in human and environmental security – actually capable of making us safer.
PQCB campaign coordinator Sean Howard commented: “There are many issues of pressing concern with regard to Canada’s foreign and defence policy – the imperative to work to end the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza; the need to increase international aid and assistance and increase support and resources for the United Nations; the urgency of halting the development and/or banning the deployment of fully autonomous weapons such as AI-enhanced ‘killer robots’; the need to reaffirm global prohibitions and norms against landmines and cluster munitions; etc. We chose to focus on nuclear weapons not only because they are by far the most indiscriminate and dangerous weapons on Earth – the only weapons capable of destroying life on Earth – but because, for decades, they have been virtually invisible in Canadian elections, to the great detriment of both our security and democracy. The fact we received no answers doesn’t mean we weren’t right to raise the alarm.”
Text of Letter and Questions sent to main party candidates
Dear Candidate X,
On behalf of Peace Quest Cape Breton, I am contacting all main party candidates running in both Cape Breton ridings to pose a few questions relating to Canada’s role in promoting nuclear disarmament and reducing the risks – currently fast-rising – of nuclear war. At this busy time – and with apologies that we were not able to contact you earlier in the campaign – we would be deeply grateful if you could spare a few minutes to answer the three questions set out below, with some basic background and context provided. We are requesting all candidates to provide responses by April 20, allowing a week before polling day for us to compile and share the answers with our members and supporters, as well as the media and general public. We would, of course, also be happy to answer any questions by email, or meet with you or a member of your campaign team.
Although there are many issues of pressing concern with regard to Canada’s foreign and defence policy, we have chosen to focus on nuclear weapons and disarmament – a topic grossly neglected in federal election campaigns since the end of the Cold War – out of deep alarm at the current sharp spike in nuclear tensions, with the famous ‘Doomsday Clock’ of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists now set closer to apocalyptic midnight (89 seconds) than ever. The combined shock of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the re-election of US President Donald Trump has led some states to seek the supposed protection of nuclear weapons, whether supplied by others or acquired for themselves; indeed, two recent opinion pieces (in The Hill Times and The Globe and Mail) have even floated the idea of Canada building or buying the Bomb. The time may be short to arrest the current decline and fall into nuclear crisis and a calamity of unfathomable proportions; and the election seems to us a precious opportunity to engage on the topic of Canada’s nuclear policies with those who seek to earn the trust to represent us.
Peace Quest Cape Breton is a non-partisan citizens group formed in the traumatic wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, dedicated to promoting a culture of peace and justice, cooperation and compassion in our communities, region, nation, and world. Locally, in 2013 we campaigned successfully for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) – then, as now, led by Mayor Cecil Clarke – to join Mayors for Peace, a global coalition of cities and towns, based in Hiroshima, working for a nuclear-weapon-free world. We are a member of the International Peace Bureau (IPB), and we work closely with sister peace groups in Nova Scotia, across Canada, and beyond.
In peace, thanks in advance for your responses, and with sincere best wishes from everyone in our group,
Sean Howard
Campaign Coordinator, Peace Quest Cape Breton
Nuclear Disarmament and Nuclear Dangers: Three Key Questions on Canadian Policy
1. Should Canada sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)?
Background: In 2017, 122 states – two thirds of UN membership – adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), comprehensively banning all nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons related activities. In force as international law since January 2021, the treaty also contains a series of pathbreaking ‘positive obligations’ on victim assistance, environmental cooperation, and international cooperation, designed to provide support to individuals and communities affected by the two atomic bombings and over 2,000 nuclear tests.
The treaty is currently only opposed by the nine nuclear-armed states and their nuclear-dependent allies in NATO and elsewhere. In 2020, 56 former senior political leaders from NATO – including, from Canada, two Prime Ministers (Jean Chretien and John Turner), three Foreign Ministers and three Ministers of National Defence– signed an Open Letter in support of NATO states signing the TPNW, describing the treaty as “a beacon of hope in a time of darkness”, and arguing that the treaty “can help end decades of paralysis in disarmament.” In words whose wisdom would soon be confirmed by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the 56 former leaders argue in reflect that ‘deterrence’ is a deeply unreliable and unstable basis for national or international security: “By claiming protection from nuclear weapons, we are promoting the dangerous and misguided belief that nuclear weapons enhance security.”
Canadian accession to the TPNW has been urged by numerous parliamentarians, serving and retired, former senior diplomats, and many scholars, experts, and public figures, including Setsuko, Thurlow a survivor (hibakusha) of the Hiroshima bombing and a Canadian citizens since the 1950s, who received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). These and other voices have also urged Canada, as part of its review of the merits of the TPNW, to attend Meetings of States Parties and Review Conferences as an observer – as a number of NATO states have already done – and also to contribute its considerable resources and expertise to advance the humanitarian and environmental goals of the treaty.
2. What can Canada do to help reduce nuclear risks and dangers?
Background: this country prides itself as being a staunch supporter of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a treaty which would make it illegal for Canada to seek to acquire nuclear weapons, and which mandates negotiations to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. At various key junctures in the nuclear age, Canada has reformed its own nuclear policies, and urged reforms by others, designed to reduce dependence on nuclear weapons and the inherently high-risk strategy of ‘deterrence.’ Canada chose not to become a nuclear-armed power after World War 2; by the mid-1980s, no US nuclear weapons were based in Canada or deployed with Canadian armed forces; after the Cold War, Canada pressed for changes to NATO nuclear doctrine, calling in particular for the adoption of a risk-reducing ‘No First Use’ policy. Through the 21st century, however, many commentators have noted a steady lessening of Canada’s global stature as a champion of non-proliferation and disarmament diplomacy. Standing at another nuclear crossroads, what can Canada now do, working with allies in NATO and at the UN, to help revive prospects of a world unimperiled by the spectre of annihilation?
3. How should Canada commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings?
Though it often seems like a hidden history, Canada played a major role in the Manhattan Project that culminated in the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, providing crucial materials (uranium), technology (refinement), and both logistical and scientific support to the programme. For many years, Canada also helped support the US and British military nuclear programmes, as and has always been a dominant global figure in the civil nuclear energy industry. As the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches in August, how should the government and parliament remember and reflect on Canada’s role in those fateful events? And do you believe that Canada’s history and status as an important nuclear nation deserves to be better known and more widely discussed?
