Declarations of a New Canadian Foreign Policy

Publisher:  People's Assembly on Foreign Policy, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1980  
Pages:  2pp  
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX2145

Abstract:  This declaration has been developed over the last year by the People's Assembly on Canadian Foreign Policy (PACFP), an umbrella group of organizations and individuals who are concerned about peace. The declaration, which aims to provide a consensus of view of Canada's peace forces. Will be considered at national conference of PACFP in December, 1980 in Ottawa. At this point a final draft of the declaration will be written; the group hopes to make use of the declaration in approaching government.

The declaration begins by calling on the government and people of Canada "to recognise that survival and peace are the most vital issues facing all people and governments in the world today. The fundamental right is the right to survive and the only hope for survival is conversion from the life-destroying system of international affairs to the life-supporting (system) - suffocating the arms race is the first essential step".

The declaration proposes that Canada work for the formation of a World Peace Makers Association of Nations, in co-operation with the United Nations. Member countries should be willing to participate in a demilitarisation process involving the renunciation of the use of nuclear weapons, a gradual decrease in both military expenditures and alliances and the establishment of a permanent peace-keeping force.

Other proposals include: 1) conducting a world referendum on disarmament; 2) Canada's devoting 0.7% of GNP to aid developing nations and 0.1% of its military spending for peace education and research; to plan for converting industries from arms manufacturing to life-supporting types of production; 4) the establishment of a Cabinet portfolio for peace and disarmament; and 5) the strengthening of existing arms control treaties.

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