Join a webinar on the need for Canada to sign the UN Nuclear Ban Treaty, featuring Liberal MP Hedy Fry, NDP MP Heather McPherson, Green Party MP Elizabeth May, Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe as well as Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing, who jointly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Canada has not joined 122 countries represented at the July 2017 UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination. It also declined to sign the resulting UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which recently garnered its 50th state signatory meaning it will enter into force in 90 days.
Nuclear weapons are one of the most serious threats to humanity. Nuclear explosions over cities could quickly kill tens of millions. 1% of the 13,400 nuclear weapons in the world could disrupt the global climate & threaten billions with starvation in a nuclear famine.
Canada’s 2017 defence policy ignores the threat of nuclear weapons to human survival (North Korean nuclear weapons are mentioned once). But, the defence policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged” makes two dozen references to Canada’s commitment to the nuclear-armed NATO alliance.
The Trudeau government asserts it cannot ratify the UN Ban Treaty because of Canada’s membership in NATO, which has a nuclear weapons first-strike policy.
The NDP, Greens & Bloc Québécois have all called on Canada to adopt the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Some Liberal & Conservative MPs as well as 1000s of Canadians, have also called on Canada to adopt the Treaty.
As the treaty is about to become international law, this discussion on Canada’s policies on nuclear weapons with Parliamentarians is more urgent than ever.
Hosts: Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Coalition
Co-Sponsors: PeaceQuest, Science for Peace, Les Artistes pour la Paix
Nov 19, 2020 06:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
