The nuclear nightmare is real

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2024 (491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I read the June 1 article A Nightmare Scenario by Jason Halstead, a Free Press copy editor and photographer, who was reviewing Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War — A Scenario. I thank Halstead for exposing in easily understandable language the insanity of the threat and risk of mutually assured destruction as an effective justifiable deterrent to war.

But he did not mention that the very existence of nuclear weapons is an existential threat and risk to the human race.

Any one possible use — by accident, insanity, terrorist, criminal, religious fanaticism, cyber-attack, an arrogant or ignorant decision or even an error in judgment — can cause destruction of the human species and civilization as we know it.

He also did not mention that there are existing treaties to abolish nuclear weapons or expose Canada’s failure to support them.

I write this letter to generate action by every person in Canada of any age to call on every elected official local, provincial and federal to stand up for nuclear weapon abolition, worldwide justice and an effective enforceable rule of law legal system to prevent wars and to sustain peace as was intended by the United Nations Charter, UNESCO Charter and universal Declaration of Human Rights after the lessons learned from the Second World War.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 granted the right to nuclear weapons to only five countries. These five countries had already demanded, and been granted in 1945, veto powers over all decisions of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly. Clearly, USA, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China have not used their veto powers and their right to nuclear weapons for worldwide justice, or to benefit the global human family, or for equal opportunity for all to flourish.

The NPT in article 6 obliged all five parties of those parties to negotiate in good faith dismantlement of all nuclear weapons.

Fifty-four years later, they continue to violate that commitment. The treaty violation is not enforceable.

Why? What can be done about it?

Not only that, but four other countries now have nuclear weapon systems and capacities: India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.

Not surprisingly, Ukraine says if they had not given up nuclear weapons to appease Russia, Russia would not have attacked the Ukraine in 2022.

Iran would not be saying we need nuclear weapons to deter the United States and Israel.

India and Pakistan would not be saying we need them to deter each other.

North Korea and China would not be saying we need them to deter the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan and North Korea. Turkey would not be saying we need them as a deterrent for national security. Canada would not be saying we need U.S., U.K. and France to have them to protect Canada.

Logic would say give every country a nuclear weapon as a deterrent to be equitable.

This madness and inequitable threat and risk to present and future generations, to a civilization that has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, and to nature is untenable, immoral and must be addressed urgently.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) saw the need. Despite Canada’s opposition, ICAN drafted and achieved signing and ratification by 70 countries the coming into force of a treaty several years ago to abolish nuclear weapons. It is now binding on every country that signs and ratifies it. It is called the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Why does Canada as a a microcosm of the global human family, with a reputation as a peacekeeper, not challenge the unacceptable status quo? Why not stand up for the global human family suppressed by the unjust, inequitable, insane world order controlled by the five veto-power countries who have nuclear weapons, and the four other countries allowed to have them?

Why does Canada not stand up for global security for all to have justice and equal opportunity to flourish?

The answer is that we who live in Canada have not yet exercised courageously the freedoms, prosperity, human rights and responsibilities we enjoy to demand that our political leaders, corporate decision makers, philanthropists and the grassroots do so.

We know we will be punished for awhile for waging positive peace by those who benefit and profit from wars, violence, exploitation, oppression, manipulation and abuses of power and by doing so risk the survival and equal opportunity for the thriving of all justly and equitably.

We have not made this demand because we have not yet expressed our willingness to accept the transitional sacrifices to wage with non-violence the cause of positive peace for the justice and benefit of the human race, for nature and for future generations.

Let’s join hands, hearts and spirits with love, loyalty and service for the global human family and wage positive peace for the best interests of ourselves, our children, future generations, nature and sacrifices of prior generations who have left us with some wisdom, goodness and human creations of enduring beauty and value.

How? Start by signing and ratifying the TPNW and reasonably and with responsibility, but boldly and courageously, as a country pursue more and more support for worldwide justice and an effective and enforceable global rule of law system.

There is no option except an inevitable predictable catastrophe caused by human-caused climate change or nuclear weapons or whatever next humans invent to destroy the human species.

Nature will be better off without humans unless we learn and practise healthy mutually beneficial co-existence — before it is too late.

David G. Newman, K.C., is a retired lawyer in Winnipeg.