Advocates want Canada to take up historic arms control leadership role in fight for nuclear disarmament

With threats of deploying nuclear weapons amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, disarmament advocates and experts are hoping that Canada uses the spotlight to return to its historic role as a champion of disarmament. Bucking the request of some NDP and Green Party MPs and state parties, Canada chose not to attend the first meeting of the state parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in June. Instead, the Canadian government has highlighted its commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which has been in force since 1970. Advocates argue both treaties are effective tools towards nuclear disarmament. While the NPT limits non-nuclear states, the TPNW strives to eliminate nuclear weapons altogether. Ninety-one countries have signed the TPNW, but no NATO country is a member, nor is any nuclear weapon power. Paul Meyer, former Canadian ambassador to the UN conference on disarmament, said he sees hope and pitfalls amid current geopolitical turmoil to advance the cause of nuclear disarmament. “It’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that nuclear weapons are back in view and the good news is that nuclear weapons are back in view,” he said in a Nov. 28 interview in Ottawa. He said nuclear weapon threats shook an assumption people around the globe held that the thousands of nuclear weapons that are stockpiled can be ignored. “ a rude awakening to be reminded as a result of President Putin’s nuclear sabre rattling that these nuclear weapons of mass destruction are very much still with this. That they can be used irresponsibly in issues of coercion and intimidation,” he said. “It’s not only a problem of whose hands they are in, but a problem inherent in the existence of weapons, the use of which would be devastation and also a gross violation of international humanitarian law.” He said that the threats may galvanize attention towards nuclear disarmament. Putin has said that nuclear weapons could be used in Ukraine if needed, but many experts have downplayed the real threat of the “nuclear taboo” being broken. Meyer was in Ottawa to receive a distinguished achievement award from the Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Former diplomat Paul Meyer says the spotlight on nuclear threats is 'good and bad news' for the fight for disarmament. Photograph courtesy of Paul Meyer He said some diplomacy options have been reduced given the Russian invasion and the West’s international isolation of Moscow. “You don’t make progress by just talking to your friends,” he said. “You have to be prepared to engage adversaries and we need to get back to that.” When the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks treaties between the United States and the former Soviet Union were reached in the 1970s, Meyer said it wasn’t amid a “rosy” international security atmosphere. While in Ottawa, Meyer held meetings with arms control and disarmament officials at Global Affairs. The former diplomat said Canada’s NATO membership doesn’t preclude it from playing an active role on nuclear disarmament. “You don’t give up your sovereignty when you become a NATO member,” he said. “The current NATO nuclear policy is just that—a policy. can be changed. It’s not a legal requirement for membership,” he said. “I do hope that Canada will be a voice of moderation.” He noted the work that Canada has done historically on disarmament, including as part of the Ottawa Treaty to ban the use of landmines in the 1990s, which was advanced by then-foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy. “We weren’t just sitting back waiting for others to do the right thing that we were championing,” Meyer said, remarking that Canada should be an observer at the next meeting of the state parties to the TPNW. Concerns over North Korea’s ballistic missile program and its nuclear weaponry threat has also pushed calls for nuclear disarmament. The Canadian government’s recently released Indo-Pacific strategy supports South Korea’s goal to achieve a “denuclearized, peaceful, and prosperous Korean Peninsula.” Royal Military College and Queen’s University professor Jane Boulden, an expert on the United Nations and nuclear disarmament, said Canada has stuck to the NATO line of the TPNW. “I think we are a distance from where we used to be in the international community in terms of our role and status on arms control issues. We’re not as much as an active participant or a leader as we used to be,” she said. Boulden said Canada used to be able to find areas as a non-nuclear power to move the arms control debate along, noting Ottawa’s work on verification and compliance. “We’re mirroring the NATO line and not necessarily doing a whole lot else. We could, but we’re not,” she said. She said one aspect of that positioning is that it looks like nuclear deterrence is working. “Russia has been very clear in not wanting to engage the prospect of escalation and the same thing in reverse,” she said. The Canadian government has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a number of levers, including arms support for Kyiv and economic sanctions on Moscow, but has been seemingly muted in addressing nuclear disarmament during the situation. Green Party MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) said in the House of Commons on Oct. 31 that it was a “profound disappointment” that Canada didn’t send a delegation to the first meeting of state parties of the TPNW. “We must do more to end the threat of nuclear war. As we look at Canada's role as a member of NATO and what is happening right now with Vladimir Putin mentioning specifically the potential threat of using nuclear weapons, that must be denounced so strongly at all times,” she said. May cited the role Canada had performed when campaigning for the Ottawa Treaty on landmines. “Had we pursued aggressively the work we should do as a non-nuclear state without being so subservient to our nuclear state neighbour, as we did in the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines, we could perhaps have kept the world much safer from Vladimir Putin,” she remarked. Liberal MP Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Ont.), parliamentary to the foreign affairs minister, responded that Canada has a “clear policy” of disarmament and non-proliferation. “The NPT, a treaty with near-universal adherence, is at the root of Canada's nuclear policy. It is also unquestionably the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime,” he said. Liberal MP Robert Oliphant says nuclear deterrence is the current reality of the world. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade He remarked that “several” of the TPNW’s commitments are “incompatible” with Canada’s NATO obligations. Oliphant also noted that nuclear deterrence is “currently a reality.” Canadian Global Affairs Institute fellow Julie Clark, who studies nuclear disarmament, said Canada should return to its historic position of not being afraid to speak out unilaterally in support of arms control and nuclear disarmament. “Canada has often been able to balance our responsibilities and commitments to the belief that we can contribute to a better world in some way,” she said. “What’s happening right now, is there seems to be more a desire to follow and stay within the stated messaging from our allies, from NATO. There is a lack of independent boldness that Canada has on the world stage previously.” “We are taking a more subdued approach at this moment,” Clark said. She said it is essential for Parliament to hold a debate on the future of nuclear weapon prohibition. “The House of Commons needs to have a conversation about this,” she told The Hill Times. “The fact that two parties really want to engage in a conversation on this, and the Conservatives, they want a say in this as well because they have a different position than either side. ... So they all need to have a conversation.” That parliamentary debate should include a discussion on Canada’s humanitarian and NATO commitments, which Clark said will require “boldness and bravery.” That debate would allow Canada to define its position and explain why it is positioning itself in such a way, she said. nmoss@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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Advocates want Canada to take up historic arms control leadership role in fight for nuclear disarmament

Canada's past work as a champion in the fight to ban landmines in the 1990s should guide Ottawa's approach to nuclear disarmament, say advocates.

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