• About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

The hypocrisy of the Liberal’s nuclear policy

by Yves Engler
November 26, 2020
Reading Time: 4min read
The hypocrisy of the Liberal’s nuclear policy

Photo from Yves Engler's website.

A Vancouver MP’s last-minute withdrawal from a recent webinar on Canada’s nuclear arms policy highlights Liberal hypocrisy. The government says they want to rid the world of nuclear weapons but refuse to take a minimal step to protect humanity from the serious threat.

A month ago Liberal MP Hedy Fry agreed to participate in a webinar on “Why hasn’t Canada signed the UN Nuclear Ban Treaty?” The long-standing member of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament group was to speak with MPs from the NDP, Bloc Québécois and Greens, as well as Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Setsuko Thurlow, who co-accepted the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

More than 50 organizations endorsed the webinar that took place Thursday. After the press was informed about an event seeking to press Canada to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Fry said she couldn’t participate due to a scheduling conflict. Asked for a short video to play during the webinar Fry declined.

Did the Prime Minister’s Office intercede after becoming aware of Fry’s participation and the 27-year veteran of the House of Commons caved to their pressure?

Fry’s withdrawal from the exchange of ideas captures the hypocrisy of the Liberals’ nuclear policy. They publicly express a desire to abolish these ghastly weapons but are unwilling to upset any source of power (the PMO in Fry’s case) and the military/Washington (in the PMO’s case) to achieve it.

Last month Global Affairs claimed “Canada unequivocally supports global nuclear disarmament” while two weeks ago a government official repeated their support for a “world free of nuclear weapons.”

These statements were made in response to renewed focus on nuclear disarmament after the 50th country recently ratified the TPNW, which means the accord will soon become law for the nations that have ratified it. The treaty is designed to stigmatize and criminalize nukes in a similar fashion to the UN landmine treaty and Chemical Weapons Convention.

But the Trudeau government has been hostile to the initiative. Canada was one of 38 states to vote against -123 voted in favour – holding the 2017 UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination. Trudeau then refused to send a representative to the TPNW negotiating meeting, which two-thirds of all countries attended. The PM went so far as to call the anti-nuclear initiative “useless” and since then his government has refused to join the 85 countries that have already signed the Treaty. At the UN General Assembly two weeks ago Canada voted against the 118 countries that reaffirmed their support for the TPNW.

In isolation the gap between the Liberals’ nuclear weapons pronouncements and actions is striking. But if one broadens the lens, the hypocrisy is substantially more astounding. The Trudeau government says its international affairs are driven by a belief in an “international rules-based order” and “feminist foreign policy” yet they refuse to sign a nuclear treaty that directly advances these stated principles.

The TPNW has been dubbed the “first feminist law on nuclear weapons” since it specifically recognizes the different ways in which nuclear weapons production and use disproportionately impacts women. Additionally, the TPNW strengthens the international rules-based order by making these weapons that are immoral also illegal under international law.

There’s a terrifying gap between what the Liberals say and do on weapons that continue to pose an existential threat to humanity.

Yves Engler is a Montreal-based writer and political activist.

Tags: CanadaHedy Frynuclearnuclear weaponsTrudeauYves Engler
Send

Related Posts

NB Power review: few details and no climate action requirement
Energy

NB Power review: few details and no climate action requirement

April 14, 2025

Ongoing concerns about energy poverty and spikes in NB Power bills sparked public protests earlier this month. On Monday, Premier...

Italy is like Canada? Linking decolonial experiences [video]
Culture

Italy is like Canada? Linking decolonial experiences [video]

April 10, 2025

Recent governments in New Brunswick, including the recently-elected Holt government,  have declared that they will not change the name of...

Mount Allison audience hears how Canada’s ‘settler-colonialism’ explains its support for Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians
Palestine

Mount Allison audience hears how Canada’s ‘settler-colonialism’ explains its support for Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians

March 25, 2025

Indigenous scholar Veldon Coburn introduced a panel discussion on the similarities between Canada and Israel on Friday with a blunt...

Trump presidency is the United States showing its true colours 
Politics

Trump presidency is the United States showing its true colours 

March 21, 2025

With Trump and trade issues dominating the headlines it is easy to forget the experience of U.S. foreign, and indeed...

Load More

Recommended

Délai prolongé! COOP Média NB offre d’emploi : Journaliste vidéo autochtone

Toujours pas de justice cinq ans après le meurtre de Chantel Moore

4 days ago
Livestream: Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

Livestream: Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

11 hours ago
The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

4 days ago
New Brunswick man among activists detained in Egypt ahead of March to Gaza

New Brunswick man among activists detained in Egypt ahead of March to Gaza

2 hours ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

X
Did you like this article? Support the NB Media Co-op! Vous avez aimé cet article ? Soutenez la Coop Média NB !
Join/Donate