The Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons | Le Réseau canadien pour l’abolition des armes nucléaires
published in The Hill Times, December 9, 2024
Statement of CNANW, Canadian Pugwash Group, Project Ploughshares and Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention
Five Recommendations Arising From the Roundtable
September 9, 2024
Ernie Regehr, who has devoted a lifetime of work to the nuclear disarmament movement in Canada, will receive the Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (CNWC) 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award.
CNWC is a civil society initiative sponsored by the Canadian Pugwash Group and endorsed by more than 1,000 recipients of the Order of Canada, who have called for Canada to work for comprehensive negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons. “We are proud to give this year’s Award to Ernie Regehr for his expert leadership for half a century to rid the world of nuclear weapons,” said Alex Neve O.C., CNWC Chairperson.
Regehr was the founding Executive Director of Project Ploughshares in 1976. In that post, he led a civil society movement in 1999 successfully urging the Government of Canada to use its influence to have NATO review its nuclear weapons policies. He later partnered with Dr. Jennifer Allen Simons, president of The Simons Foundation Canada, on Arctic security and Canadian defence policy issues.
His book, Disarming Conflict: Why Peace Cannot Be Won on the Battlefield, published in 2015, is an authentic study shattering the illusion that war is necessary for peace. His citation as an Officer of the Order of Canada stated: “He is one of Canada’s most prominent and respected voices on international disarmament and peace.” Additionally, he has been awarded the University of Waterloo’s 50th Anniversary Alumni Award (2007), the Arthur Kroeger College Award for Ethics in Public Affairs (2011), and the Pearson Peace Medal (2011).
Throughout his career, Regehr has modelled for his colleagues in the peace movement the importance of a respectful, open approach among themselves and in their relations with parliamentarians and officials.
The Award will be presented Oct. 24, 2024 at Regehr’s lecture, “The Arctic and the East-West Nuclear Confrontation,” sponsored by CNWC and the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Sciences Building, 120 University Private, Ottawa. The public lecture, beginning at 4 pm, will be followed by a reception.
Previous recipients of the CNWC Achievement Award are:
2011 Murray Thomson
2012 Bev Tollefson Delong
2013 Fergus Watt
2014 Adele Buckley
2015 Paul Dewar
2016 Peggy Mason
2017 Metta Spencer
2018 Debbie Grisdale
2019 Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford and Dr. Jonathan Down
2021 Dr. Jennifer Allen Simons
2022 Paul Meyer
2023 Tariq Rauf
Contact: Elaine Hynes
CNWC Secretariat
cnwc@pugwashgroup.ca
Re Canada’s Role in Nuclear Disarmament
Letter to Bev Delong (co-ordinator), Canadian Pugwash Group, Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and Project Ploughshares. This is a response to a letter sent to Global Afairs Canada on October 30, 2023.
Linked below is the paper entitled, “How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament,” authored by former Senator Douglas Roche, O.C. and Tariq Rauf, former head of Verification and Security at the International Atomic Energy Agency, and published by the four leading nuclear disarmament organizations in Canada:
Canadian Pugwash Group
Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention
Project Ploughshares
This paper is intended to further Canadian government action in response to the grave crisis in global nuclear arms control and disarmament.
Roche/Rauf: How Canada Can Regain Leadership in Nuclear Disarmament
Dr. Jonathan Down succeeds Dr. Sylvie Lemieux and Mr. Robin Collins as Chairperson of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Dr. Jonathan Down, an active supporter of nuclear disarmament for more than 30 years, will serve as chairperson of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, effective March 31, 2024.
He replaces Robin Collins and Sylvie Lemieux who served as Co-Chairpersons for a period of three years. Highlights of their work include the promotion of, and outreach for, a Peace Table for Ukraine and Russia and several important Roundtables generating focused recommendations to the Government of Canada, especially on reduction of nuclear weapon risks.
The nomination of Dr. Down, presented by former Senator and Ambassador for Disarmament, the Honourable Douglas Roche O.C., Chairperson of the CNANW Search Committee, was unanimously approved by the CNANW Steering Committee and endorsed by the 17 member organizations of the Network.
Dr Jonathan Down is a recently retired Developmental Paediatrician and lives in Victoria, BC. He became a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1986, the same year he founded a local chapter of Project Ploughshares in Manotick, Ontario where he was then living. As did many, he had expected that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR would eventually lead to peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Dr. Down, together with Dr Mary-Wynne Ashford, formed a teaching partnership in Victoria giving peace talks in local high schools and community venues, and gathered support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (the Ban Treaty). Their work was acknowledged by the 2019 Distinguished Achievement Award from Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Dr. Down was President of IPPNW Canada from 2019-2023 and remains on the Board.
The outgoing Co-Chairpersons of the CNANW, Sylvie Lemieux and Robin Collins, remarked that “Dr. Down has already brought us much leadership in the disarmament field, and contributed a great deal to our network over the years. We are now happy to pass the baton over to him.”
The new Chairperson will continue to receive the support of Dr. Lemieux and Mr. Collins, together with the steadfast advice of Bev Delong, who remains a lifetime member of the Network’s Steering Committee.
Other Steering Committee members are Dr. Nancy Covington, Dr. Arnd Jurgensen, Mr. Cesar Jaramillo, Dr. John Guilfoyle, Dr. Richard Denton, and Dr. Erika Simpson.
The member organizations of the CNANW are:
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Project Save the World (publishers of Peace Magazine)
Canadian Federation of University Women
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Canadian Peace Research Association
Canadian Pugwash Group
Friends for Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
Group of 78
Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Coalition
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada
Project Ploughshares
Religions for Peace Canada
Rideau Institute
Science for Peace
United Nations Association in Canada
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Canada section)
World Federalist Movement – Canada
Contact CNANW by email: network.cnanw@gmail.com
Website: www.cnanw.ca
The CNANW is a project of Canadian Pugwash Group.
CNANW: “We believe that the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons are abhorrent and morally wrong. We call on the Government of Canada to work urgently with other nations to conclude a Convention which will set out a binding timetable for the abolition of all nuclear weapons in the world.”
PDF (in English): CNANW Chair Dr. J Down Announcement
PDF (en français): RCAN Dr. J Down Annonce