“How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament"

Paper authored by Douglas Roche, O.C. and Tariq Rauf
Jointly issued by:
Canadian Pugwash Group
Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention
Project Ploughshares
May 17, 2024

Media Release May 17, 2024

Four Leading Canadian Nuclear Disarmament Groups Urge Diplomatic Action to To Respond to “Grave Crisis”

The four leading nuclear disarmament groups in Canada have called on the Government to launch a new diplomatic initiative to respond to the “grave crisis” of nuclear disarmament today. They urge Canada to convene a high-level international meeting, including civil society, to break the logjam caused by the nuclear weapon States’ refusal to significantly reduce their nuclear arsenals.

Examining the “complementarity” of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons with the Non-Proliferation Treaty would reinvigorate nuclear diplomacy “This is the time for Canada to rediscover and reassert a leading role, as a middle power, to promote the cause of human security,” the paper said.

Also, the initiative would be a contribution to the U.N. Summit of the Future, to be convened September 22-23. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the Summit “will be an important moment for the world to gather around concrete reforms to the global disarmament architecture.”

The four groups — Canadian Pugwash Group, the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention and Project Ploughshares — jointly issued a paper, “How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament,” authored by Douglas Roche, former Senator and former Ambassador for Disarmament, and Tariq Rauf, former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency,    

The paper also said Canada should work urgently with other middle powers for an end to nuclear sabre-rattling, taking nuclear weapons off alert status, and for the U.S. and Russia to resume negotiations on reductions of strategic weapons.

The Canadian Pugwash Group is led by Cesar Jaramillo, who is also Executive Director of Project Ploughshares. Dr. Jonathan Down chairs the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and Alex Neve chairs Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

For more information contact Bev Delong bevdelong@shaw.ca.

“How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament”

Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C. was a Senator, Member of Parliament, Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament, and Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta. In 1988, he chaired the U.N. Disarmament Committee. Among his books are The Human Right to Peace (Novalis, 2003) and How We Stopped Loving the Bomb (Lorimer, 2011). His latest is Keep Hope Alive: Essays for a War-free World (Amazon, 2023).

Tariq Rauf is the former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency, and former Director of the Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He is currently a Vienna-based member of the Board of Directors of Atomic Reporters and was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons to advance nuclear disarmament set up by the foreign minister of Japan. He mentors young diplomats in nuclear disarmament topics.