Nuclear Threats and Canada’s Disarmament Diplomacy”

This year the keepers of the so-called “Doomsday Clock” at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have set it at 100 seconds before midnight on the basis of nuclear and climate risks– and that determination was done in January before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [...] It has been exacerbated in recent years by the termination of the INF Treaty with accusations of Russian cheating and the suspension of the bilateral strategic dialogue in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. [...] The International Committee of the Red Cross was an early champion, stressing that no adequate humanitarian response was possible in the wake of a nuclear weapon detonation with its horrific combination of blast, heat and radioactivity and the prohibition of these weapons was the only sure way to ensure they were not used. [...] Although both supporters and opponents of the TPNW are parties to the NPT, the advent of this new treaty has opened up a schism between the camps with respect to fulfilling the NPT’s Article VI obligation on nuclear disarmament. [...] One of these focused specifically on nuclear threats and reads in part: 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.