The Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C.

The Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C., is a former Canadian Senator, parliamentarian, diplomat and author.  He is Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Middle Powers Initiative, an international network of eight international non-governmental organizations specializing in nuclear disarmament issues. In 2010, the City of Hiroshima named him an Honorary Citizen for his extensive nuclear disarmament work and particularly for founding the Middle Powers Initiative.

Mr. Roche has been a Canadian Senator, Member of Parliament, and Ambassador for Disarmament, and also a Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta. He was elected Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Committee at the 43rd General Assembly in 1988 and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

He has authored over 20 books including How We Stopped Loving the Bomb (Lorimer, 2011), his memoirs: Creative Dissent: A Politician's Struggle for Peace (Novalis, 2008), The Human Right to Peace (Novalis, 2003), The United Nations in the 21st Century (Lorimer, 2015), and Recovery: Peace Prospects in the Biden Era (Khalid Yaqub, 2020).  His most recent book is Keep Hope Alive: Essays for a War-Free World (Amazon, 2024).

He has received many awards for his work for peace and non-violence including the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation for World Peace Award (Canada) and the United Nations Association's Medal of Honour.  In 1995, Pope John Paul II presented Douglas Roche with the Papal Medal for his service as Special Advisor on disarmament and security matters and, in 1998, the Holy See named him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.  He was given Lifetime Achievement awards by the Canadian Pugwash Group and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2005, and received the Distinguished Service Award of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians for his "promotion of human welfare, human rights and parliamentary democracy in Canada and abroad" in 2009.

Click here for more information and a complete biography.

Some selected speeches and publications by Douglas Roche are available below.

 

Related Materials
"U.S. vetos UN Security Council resolution for immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Gaza" - The Hill Times (subscription required), November 25 2024
"Is the abolition of nuclear weapons really an impossible dream?" - The Hill Times (subscription required), October 17 2024
"Suddenly, there he was all over the United Nations" - The Hill Times (subscription required), September 30 2024
"Canada should invest in diplomacy, instead of spending more on defence" with Ernie Regehr - The Globe and Mail (subscription required), September 17 2024
"We are in perilous times, yet Canada is silent on the proliferation of nuclear weapons" with Ernie Regehr - The Globe and Mail, June 27 2024
"Clark makes passionate plea for a return to ‘co-operation across our differences’ in politics today" - The Hill Times (subscription required), May 27 2024
“How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament" by Douglas Roche 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
"Canada’s salute to militarism is sad" - The Hill Times (subscription required), April 15 2024
Heather "McPherson has suddenly become one of the most important MPs in Ottawa" - The Hill Times (subscription required), March 25 2024
"Trudeau may not be able to fend off NATO’s ceaseless demands for more money" - The Hill Times (subscription required), March 4 2024
"Canada and Oppenheimer race the Doomsday Clock" - The Hill Times (subscription required), January 24 2024
"McPhedran, May, McPherson, Davies defy government, attend UN meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons" - The Hill Times (subscription required), December 4 2023
"Opinion: Path to peace is paved by sustainable development" - Edmonton Journal, November 30 2023
"Young leaders question Canada on nuclear disarmament" - The Hill Times (subscription required), November 20 2023
"Darkness of violence must not kill hopes for peace" - The Hill Times (subscription required), October 10 2023
"Guterres’ new agenda for peace ignored by most big media" - The Hill Times (subscription required), July 31 2023
"Guterres has a good pencil, but NATO has a big hammer" - The Hill Times (subscription required), July 17 2023
"At 100 years old, Kissinger pushes back against demonizing China" - The Hill Times (subscription required), June 21 2023
"The nuclear threat is real" - The Hill Times (subscription required), May 25 2023
"Trudeau is right to resist defence lobby’s call for more military spending" - The Hill Times (subscription required), April 21 2023
"Canada quiet as Ukraine war inches Doomsday Clock closer to midnight" - The Hill Times (subscription required), January 30 2023
"Feds’ purchase of F-35s indicates Canada has given up on peace-building as best route to global security" - The Hill Times (subscription required), January 16 2023
"A path to peace in a time of polycrisis" - The Hill Times (subscription required), December 15 2022
"Peace movement in Canada has a new leader, it’s Cesar Jaramillo" - The Hill Times (subscription required), October 31 2022
"The world doesn’t want another Cuban Missile Crisis" - The Hill Times (subscription required), October 12 2022
"Canada needs to give more support to UN’s new Agenda for Peace" - The Hill Times (subscription required), September 22 2022
"The ugly truth about nuclear disarmament" - The Hill Times (subscription required), September 5 2022
"Influx of women into nuclear disarmament gives us hope, unless they work for a NATO country" - The Hill Times (subscription required), August 10 2022
"World’s only surviving multilateral nuclear weapons treaty is on the verge of collapse" - The Hill Times (subscription required), July 18 2022
"Canada’s absence at nuclear prohibition treaty meeting a disappointment" - The Hill Times (subscription required), June 27 2022
"The United Nations can help us get through these dark days" - The Hill Times (subscription required), June 9 2022
"UN faces biggest crisis in its history due to political impotence of Secretary General Guterres" - The Hill Times (subscription required), April 25 2022
"Canada’s middle power diplomacy is far from ‘errant nonsense’" - The Hill Times (subscription required), March 30 2022
"Putin has shown, in a demented and terrifying way, why the possession of nuclear weapons must be outlawed now" - The Hill Times (subscription required), March 7 2022
"Magnitude of Ukraine crisis cannot be overstated, and the international system is marked by chaos" - The Hill Times (subscription required), February 28 2022
"Ottawa Declaration hits sensitive nerve inside federal government" - The Hill Times (subscription required), February 14 2022
“World cooperation is more necessary now than ever before, and Parliament needs to come together” - The Hill Times (subscription required), November 22 2021
"Is the political machinery of government killing idealism?" - The Hill Times (subscription required), October 4 2021
"20 years since 9/11, what have we learned?" - The Hill Times (subscription required), September 2 2021
"How can humanity get back on a track to peaceful and sustainable development? Question looms large as G7 leaders prepare for crucial summit in U.K." - The Hill Times (subscription required), May 13 2021
"View of Canada’s approach to defence spending needs a wider lens" - The Hill Times (subscription required), April 16 2021
"Canadians want nuclear disarmament and our government should act" - The Hill Times (subscription required), April 7 2021
"Canada should join the push to create a nuclear weapons-free world" - The Globe and Mail (subscription required), January 22 2021