CANADA, THE BOMB, AND THE BAN TREATY

SEPTEMBER 2021

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR FEDERAL ELECTION CANDIDATES, CAPE BRETON CANSO & CAPE BRETON SYDNEY-VICTORIA

Background

In July 2017, 122 states adopted the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), popularly known as the Ban Treaty: a comprehensive prohibition of all nuclear weapons and related activities (developing, manufacturing, testing, etc.). The Treaty entered into force – becoming international law, fully binding on its members – in January this year, after Honduras became the 50th state to ratify.

As of September 1, there were 55 states parties, a number expected to steadily grow, with opposition to the Treaty largely confined to the ‘nuclear nine’ – US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea – and the 32 so-called ‘nuclear umbrella’ states in NATO and elsewhere. The Liberal Government in Ottawa, under strong pressure from Washington, boycotted the UN negotiations and continues to dismiss – while refusing to debate – the Treaty’s merits, claiming that nuclear weapons remain necessary for the defence and security of Canada and its allies in the 21st century.

But on September 21 last year seven prominent Liberals – including former Prime Ministers John Turner and Jean Chrétien – were among 56 former leaders from 20 non-nuclear NATO states to sign an ‘Open Letter in Support of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’. “The coronavirus,” the letter opens, “has starkly demonstrated the urgent need for greater international cooperation to address all major threats to the health and welfare of humankind. Paramount among them is the threat of nuclear war.” “Because “there is no cure for a nuclear war,” the luminaries argue, “we must show courage and boldness – and join the treaty.”

The following questionnaire invites the Liberal, Conservative, NDP and Green Party candidates in both Cape Breton ridings to state for the public record their views on ‘Canada, Nuclear Weapons, and the Ban Treaty’, an issue that may literally be one of life-or-death for the planet.

Note: Peace Quest Cape Breton, a non-partisan citizens’ group formed in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, is a member of the International Peace Bureau (IPB), a partner of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Questionnaire

1. In April 2021, a Nanos national opinion survey showed that “a strong majority” – 74% – “want Canada to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, despite pressure it may face from the United States.” Do you agree?

2. In the same Nanos poll, 76% of respondents – 79.8% in Atlantic Canada – agreed that “the House of Commons should have committee hearings and debate Canada’s position on nuclear disarmament”? Do you agree?

3. The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) proclaimed August 6, 2021, ‘Hiroshima Memorial Day’, describing it a “day to remember the devastation” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 “and to renew our commitment to ensuring freedom from the threat posed by nuclear weapons” in today’s world. (CBRM has also twice adopted unanimous resolutions calling on Canada to join the Ban Treaty.) Do you agree that nuclear abolition – ‘Global Zero’ – is the only true alternative to nuclear disaster? If so, how best do you think Canada could ‘renew its commitment’ to that goal?

4. Though Canada does not have nuclear weapons, and its forces are no longer equipped with American nuclear weapons, as a member of NATO’s secretive Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) Canada does help formulate, modify, and review detailed plans for the first use of nuclear weapons – and Canadian forces continue to routinely train for multiple scenarios involving a nuclear exchange with Russia. Do you believe Canada should still be involved in such planning and training? And do you believe any alliance or nation has the right to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons first in any conflict?

5. Multiple, increasingly sophisticated scientific studies have shown that even a ‘limited’ nuclear war – involving a tiny fraction of today’s 14,000 nuclear weapons – would not ‘only’ kill millions from firestorms and radiation, but trigger catastrophic, irreversible climate breakdown, threatening hundreds of millions more with starvation, cold, and disease. Do you agree with the science that nuclear weapons pose as serious a threat to the planet and the climate as global warming? If so, do you agree that proposals to advance nuclear disarmament should form part of Canada’s national climate change strategy?