The Honourable Chrystia Freeland,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
125 Sussex Drive, |
Ottawa ON K1A 0G2
Email: chrystia.freeland@international.gc.ca
9 October 2018.
Dear Minister Freeland,
As President of the Rideau Institute and on behalf of the civil society organizations listed below, I am writing today in regards to Recommendation 21 of the unanimous report1 on Canada and NATO, tabled by the Standing Committee on National Defence on 18 June 2018. That recommendation reads:
Recommendation 21
That the Government of Canada take a leadership role within NATO in beginning the work necessary for achieving the NATO goal of creating the conditions for a world free of nuclear weapons. That this initiative be undertaken on an urgent basis in view of the increasing threat of nuclear conflict flowing from the renewed risk of nuclear proliferation, the deployment of so-called tactical nuclear weapons, and changes in nuclear doctrines regarding lowering the threshold for first use of nuclear weapons by Russia and the US.
The National Defence Committee has identified a constructive and timely approach for Canada to begin a long-overdue conversation within NATO on how to move away from the nightmare of mutually-assured destruction toward the vision of sustainable common security grounded in the UN Charter.
As we conveyed in a separate letter to the NDDN Committee Chair, Stephen Fuhr, this pragmatic and forward-looking recommendation also reflects a proud, but too-long neglected, tradition of collaborative parliamentary work in support of Canadian leadership in global efforts for nuclear disarmament.
The ball is now in your court, Madame Minister, to ensure that our government rises to the challenge.
Accordingly, through you, we call upon the Government of Canada to respond positively and promptly to this recommendation, including sharing its vision for realizing this work within NATO. This could include, in our view, identifying which NATO body should be tasked and which other NATO members Canada might cooperate with in advancing this important and urgent work.
Very sincerely,
Peggy Mason,
President, Rideau Institute
Alphabetical List of Supporting National Organizations
- Canadian Peace Initiative, Chairperson Saul Arbess
- Canadian Pugwash Group, Chair Paul Meyer
- Group of 78, Chair Roy Culpeper
- Project Ploughshares, Exec Director Cesar Jaramillo
- Religions for Peace Canada, President Pascale Frémond
- Rideau Institute, President Peggy Mason
- Science for Peace, Rob Acheson
- Soka Gakkai International Association of Canada (SGI), General Director Tony Meers
- World Federalist Movement – Canada, Exec Director Fergus Watt
1 Please note that the focus of this letter is only Recommendation 21. We take issue with other aspects of the report, such as the regrettable failure to call for NATO to adopt an unequivocal No First Use of nuclear weapons policy, but that is not the subject of this letter.