Peace and disarmament voices should be heard

Two groups of Cape Bretoners spoke up clearly last week for peace and disarmament – and their voices deserve to be heard in the media.

On Sept. 19, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality unanimously adopted a resolution tabled by Councillor Amanda McDougall (District 8) to endorse the new United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and call on the Government of Canada to support and sign it.

In 2013, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) voted to join Mayors for Peace (M4P), an international anti-war alliance of over 7,000 councils, headquartered in the atom-bombed Japanese city of Hiroshima. There are currently 105 Canadian councils in M4P and CBRM is the first to take the bold step of calling on Ottawa to abandon its ill-conceived opposition to a carefully crafted multilateral agreement which, as the resolution states, “may prove instrumental in determining the fate of the planet” by establishing “a clear and comprehensive prohibition against the most dangerous and destructive weapons on Earth.”

Word of CBRM’s stand is spreading fast through the Canadian peace movement, and will hopefully inspire other councils to follow suit.

The TPNW has just opened for signature at the UN General Assembly and while the Trudeau government looks away 11 ‘Citizen Signing Ceremonies’ have been held across the country, with peace-loving Canadians tweeting signed copies of the treaty to hashtag #bannukes.

One such ceremony, well-attended and passionate, took place at Cape Breton University on Sept. 21. It was the UN International Day of Peace. Councillor McDougall was among the speakers, stressing the need for leadership and activism at all levels of government, and throughout society, to counter the culture of nuclear violence currently dragging the planet to disaster. Sean Howard

Main-a-Dieu

(Campaign coordinator, Peace Quest Cape Breton)