Pugwash students commit to world peace
Local high school first in Canada to declare itself nuclear-weapon-free zone
Pugwash has been synonymous with world peace, nuclear disarmament and awareness of the environmental challenges brought on by climate change for more than 60 years.
Now, students at Pugwash District High School (PDHS) — where some of the delegates met during the original Pugwash Conference in 1957 — are making their voices heard about the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
Students recently gathered with representatives from Thinkers Lodge and the Centre for Local Prosperity to unveil a plaque declaring the school as a nuclear-weaponfree school. It’s the first high school in Canada to make the declaration.
“It really reaffirms our connection to the original Pugwash conference, when Cyrus Eaton brought scientists from both sides of the Iron Curtain to Thinkers Lodge to discuss nuclear disarmament,” Pugwash school principal Shawn Brunt said, “Pugwash is known as the place of peace and we’ve done a lot of work with Thinkers Lodge over the years, and some of our teachers have been connected to the Thinkers Lodge.”
It also can’t be overlooked that part of the school is named in honour of Joseph Rotblat, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
The plaque says the threat of nuclear weapons harming all life on Earth is too great to ignore, so students, faculty and the school community declare the school as a nuclear weapon-free zone and collectively oppose the use of nuclear weapons and call for total disarmament.
Cadence Steeves, who graduated from PDHS last June, started work on the initiative last year. She said it may seem silly for a small rural high school to declare itself nuclear weapon free, but Pugwash’s place in history and the ongoing Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs causes the community to have more awareness and that the students, staff and alumni have a small but mighty voice in changing the world.
“We have shown that it is possible for a school and community to band together to denounce a weapon of mass destruction. And while our voices from Pugwash may not be able to change legislation or the nature of war, they may change the minds of people at Amherst Regional High School or Cobequid Educational Centre,” Steeves said. “This could then change the minds of many more people in other villages, towns and cities, leading to a snowball effect that could make real change at a political level.”
She said their small but mighty act can push forward a movement, causing many institutions to denounce weapons of mass destruction and influence real legislative change.
Robert Cervelli with the Centre for Local Prosperity said the initiative is very meaningful because Pugwash is not just any high school.
“It’s Pugwash high school in Pugwash where the international movement first began,” Cervelli said. “There are some 32 national Pugwash chapters around the world, and they all stay in touch and have conferences every year. They’ve influenced a lot of nuclear policy throughout the documents since the original conference in 1957.”
Cervelli said the foundation was laid in 2019 when Steeves attended a peace meeting the Centre for Local Prosperity hosted at Thinkers Lodge in Pugwash. Another conference in 2021 further inspired her to begin a petition that led to the declaration calling for a nuclear weapon-free school.
He sees other schools following Pugwash’s lead.
“That’s the dream. Someone has to go first, so it’s appropriate that it’s Pugwash high school,” he said. “The threat of nuclear war is probably worse now than it was during the Cold War. More and more youth are waking up to this and that’s the message from Pugwash high school.”