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Welcome to Canadian Pugwash Group
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Submitted by
Bill Bhaneja, Member, Canadian Pugwash Group and Co-founder, Canadian Peace Initiative(CDPI), www.departmentofpeace.ca
On 30 November 2011, a Private Members Bill C-373: "An Act to Establish a Department of Peace in the Federal Government" was introduced in the House of Commons for first reading by the NDP MP Alex Atamanenko. The Bill was co-seconded by Green Party MP Elizabeth May and Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis.
The full text of the bill c-373 can be accessed on the Parliament of Canada website at the link: http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&billId=5280365
The Bill has a section on 'Arms Control and Nuclear Disarmament'. See pages 7-8 and p.14 for relevant references including a specific mention on page 14 that the proposed Peace Department will "facilitate the role of all parties and relevant government departments in advancing the development of a nuclear weapons convention for the establishment of national and international legislation and policies on the responsible us, disposal and future elimination of nuclear weapons."
There is a comprehensive article on the tabling of Bill C-373 prepared by Koozma J. Tarasoff along with a photo of the press conference at the Parliament Hill on November 30th. It can accessed at: http://spirit-wrestlers.blogspot.com/2011/12/atamanenko-tables-department-of-peace.html
The Hill press conference was attended by the three sponsoring MPs of the Bill as well as three representatives from civil society: Theresa Dunn, Co-Chair and Bill Bhaneja Co-founder of Canadian Department of Peace Initiative(CDPI), and Doukhobour historian Koozma Tarasoff. |
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A Nuclear-Free Arctic – WHY NOW?
By ADELE BUCKLEY
[Peace Magazine Jan-Mar 2012, pg. 16-18]
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There is a renewed international recognition of nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) as an element of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. The Arctic could be added to the existing seven nuclear-weapon-free zones, covering 116 countries. The outcome of the 2010 Review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) includes an agreement to move forward on long-awaited discussions for a Middle East nuclear-weapon-free zone; that concept is better known than the proposed Arctic NWFZ. Both were included in NPT documents from 2010. |
Climate change has created a “new” Arctic. With access blocked by ice and snow for much of the year, economic activity has been limited. Now, environmental protection is ever more important in the face of opening of new sea lanes for transportation, new resource exploration on sea and land, and exploitation of fisheries. Aboriginal communities must make continuous adjustments for survival, as they handle changes in their resources, which they derive from the fauna and flora of land and sea. Although it has diminished, obsolete Cold-War-type military activity still exists:- regularly scheduled military exercises and nuclear-armed submarines patrolling under the ice. The opportunity to recognize that there must be a natural evolution to a nuclear-free Arctic exists, but we must implore the international community to begin to act now[1] while the window is open.
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Read more: A Nuclear-Free Arctic – WHY NOW?
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The just-launched Nuclear Abolition Forum (NAF), October 21, 2011, has the inaugural issue of its journal on its website www.abolitionforum.org. The forum encourages a wide cross-spectrum of dialogue through the website " Canadian Pugwash members serving as consultants to NAF:- Douglas Roche, Ernie Regehr, Erika Simpson, Murray Thomson, Adele Buckley, Walter Dorn. |
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Paul Meyer – Presentation for UNGA First Committee, New York, October 13, 2011
It is good to return briefly to this locale in the bowels of the UN to speak to a subject which deserves more attention. The Space Security 2011 publication provides an excellent overview of the developments taking place that are relevant to outer space security. Its description of the ever increasing number of participants in outer space and the wide array of services which are provided via space-based assets, reminds us of the heavy dependence all humanity now has on the continued peaceful use of outer space. If this benign environment was ever to become a battleground for destructive military operations, the disruption of global space activity would be immense. Even the mere threat of this occurring would have detrimental consequences for international security and prosperity.
Read presentation [pdf]. |
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embassymag.ca November 9, 2011
By Paul Meyer
In multilateral diplomacy, as with other forms of international relations, states frequently are inclined to defer dealing with problems, rather than undertake the heavy lifting that is often required to resolve them.
This seems particularly to be the case in the field of multilateral arms control and disarmament—the subject matter of the United Nations General Assembly's First Committee, which has just wrapped up its annual session in New York.
Read [doc] |
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SETSUKO THURLOW, United Nations General Assembly First Committee October 26, 2011
Dear Members of the First Committee and guests,
I am privileged to have this opportunity to share with you a small part of my experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
On August 6, 1945, as a 13 year-old grade 8 student in the Student Mobilization Program I was with about 30 other girls working at the Army headquarters as a decoding assistant. The building was 1.8 km from the hypo-centre. At 8:15 a.m., the moment I saw a brilliant bluish-white flash outside the window, I remember having the sensation of floating in the air. As I regained consciousness in the silence and the darkness, I found myself pinned by the ruins of the collapsed building. I could not move, and I knew I was faced with death.
Read address [pdf]. |
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Remarks by Paul Meyer at UNGA First Committee Event, October 18, 2011 New York
It is a pleasure to be once again at the First Committee and see many friends and colleagues, although it is accompanied by a less pleasant sentiment of déjà vu and disquiet that the blockage at the CD still continues five years later. Even the most casual observer of the multilateral disarmament scene will be struck by the lack of results in the achievement of new international agreements.
Read the remarks [pdf] |
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