Thank you very much for inviting me. It is a great privilege to be here. We are gathered here this evening to remember the horrific – and to date only – use of atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on 6 and 9

The increasing frustration of the non-nuclear weapons states parties to the NPT was further exacerbated by the continuing deadlock of the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, bound as that forum was by a consensus model, which clearly frustrated the will of the overwhelming majority. [...] Let me turn now to the 2023 Doomsday Clock Statement by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of American Scientists ( The Doomsday clock was created in 1947, two years after the founding of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project). [...] The latest Doomsday clock statement, published on 24 Jan 2023 begins: “This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. [...] The 3 Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.” Before focusing on the nuclear risks specific to the Ukraine conflict, it is useful to remind ourselves of the extent of the nuclear danger, as reflected by the Doomsday Clock, prior to the Ukraine war. [...] And each and every one of us in Canada has a vital role to play in reminding the government, the public, and the media of the growing nuclear dangers and the urgency of Canadian leadership on concrete steps to achieve nuclear disarmament.