SANSAD News-release November 26, 2017
Canada Should Sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty
A screening of the new documentary on the devastating effects of nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan and the US, “Where the Wind Blew” was held at SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver on November 24. The film was introduced by Dr. Jennifer Simons, founder and President of The Simons Foundation and followed by a panel of experts comprising Alimzhan Akhmetov, founder and director of the Centre for International Security and Policy, Astana, Kazakhstan, Paul Taylor, former Canadian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and M. V. Ramana, Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC. The event was organized by The Simons Foundation and the Institute for the Humanities, SFU, and was supported by SANSAD.
The following call to the Government of Canada to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty was presented by Chin Banerjee, President of SANSAD and endorsed by people gathered for this event:
VANCOUVER DECLARATION ON THE NUCLEAR BAN TREATY
A Call on Canada to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
We, the undersigned citizens of Canada gathered in Vancouver, BC on November 24 to discuss the devastating consequences of the testing, development and use of nuclear weapons at this time when the world is facing the most urgent threat from the deliberate or accidental employment of these weapons, call on the Government of Canada to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Ban Treaty has been agreed upon by the majority of the world’s nations and opened for signature on September 20th, 2017 despite the opposition of all nuclear-weapons possessing states and their military allies. We understand that, though neither possessing nor developing nuclear weapons, Canada has opposed the treaty because of its military alliances, compromising its long-held goal, shared with the global community, of a world without nuclear weapons. We urge Canada to sign the treaty to add its voice to the considerable moral force of the treaty against the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of the continued development and potential use of these weapons of mass destruction.
We believe moral force is a great power in defense of humanity. By signing the Ban treaty Canada will not only strengthen this force in the world but also show its commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons and in good faith work to end NATO’s reliance on nuclear weapons and in order that NATO conforms both with the NPT and the Ban Treaty. Canada will then be able to join and lead other signatories in the further goal of a nuclear-weapons free world.
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South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, sansad.org