The Canadian Press,
28 January 2010

Conference urges Canada to press policies against nuclear weapons

OTTAWA - Activists are urging the Canadian government to play a bigger role in the effort to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Anti-nuclear groups including Project Ploughshares and the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to speak out on disarmament.

They say Canada should press NATO to review its nuclear strategies and urge the removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Europe.

They also say the government should encourage the involvement of civil society in the nuclear debate by sending NGO delegates to a conference later this year which will review the non-proliferation treaty.

The activists held a two-day conference in Ottawa this week to set out a Canadian agenda on disarmament.

Doug Roche, former MP, senator and one-time Canadian ambassador for disarmament, says the world has a clear opportunity for progress since President Barack Obama has committed himself to disarmament.

In Prague last year, Obama said nuclear disarmament can be achieved, although it will take years and may not arrive in his lifetime.

Roche said Wednesday the conference recommendations recognize the importance of the president`s move.

"Those recommendations centre on the need for Prime Minister Harper to find early opportunities to speak out on behalf of the support that President Obama needs and also to give support to those calls that are now being made for a new global treaty to ban nuclear weapons," Roche said.

He said there are 23,000 nuclear weapons around the world, with the power of 150,000 Hiroshima bombs.

To use them, he said, would be immoral and illegal, so why not get rid of them?