15 March 2004
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada
80, rue Wellington
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Our help is in the name of the Lord … who made heaven and earth
… Psalm 124:8
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
We write to urge you to guide Canada toward an intensified commitment
to nuclear disarmament and binding controls over ballistic missiles as
the most effective and practical means of working for the safety and protection
of Canadians. Strategic ballistic missile defence systems, we believe,
can never satisfy the deep human yearning for immunity from nuclear terror.
Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear weapons promise destruction so complete that only the language
of human annihilation hints at the potential catastrophe that lurks in
the 30,000 nuclear weapons still threatening this world. Tragically and
ironically, having committed the folly of building these weapons in the
name of security, humankind now scours technology and science for ways
to avoid the devastating insecurity that the splitting atom promises.
Proposed Security solutions like ballistic missile defence fail to counter
the nuclear threat and precipitate further insecurities. This is illustrated
by current United States BMD initiatives: Expenditure of US$200 billion
over the past 50 years has led to a meagre result -- a proposed system
that is designed to address only a handful of the 1000-plus nuclear tipped
strategic missiles capable of striking North America. Even this minimal
system lacks operationally tested capability. Russia and China are moving
to counter any defensive capabilities that the proposed system might one
day deliver, and the United States continues to develop new nuclear weapon
designs and threatens to resume nuclear testing. This sets the stage for
a dangerous and cyclical defence-versus-offence dynamic in the strategic
environment. We deplore the ongoing militarization of relationships and
continuing nuclear arms competition this entails.
In this context, we repeat our declaration that “inasmuch as we
are called to share in God’s redemptive purpose and to restore the
covenant of love and blessing between God and His creation, we are called
also to pursue national policies which seek to reduce, and ultimately
to eliminate, our reliance on the destructive power of nuclear weapons
for advancing the national interest.” (Canadian church leaders letter
presented to the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister
on December 14, 1982.)
Weaponization of Space
The Pentagon itself lacks confidence that the ground-based, mid-course
interception system that Canada is considering supporting can ever be
made to work, and so it pursues a space-based element that violates an
overwhelming global consensus against the weaponization of space. In its
current budget request the Pentagon pledges to begin development of a
space-based weapons test bed in 2005 and plans deployment and space-based
testing beginning in 2012. We note with dismay that in the face of this
explicit US intention to make space-based weapons an integral part of
ballistic missile defence, Defence Minister David Pratt's 15 January 2004
letter to the US Defence Secretary makes no reference to Canada's commitment
to preventing the weaponization of space.
The weaponization of space and related BMD developments are hollow attempts
at technical solutions that only intensify the nuclear threat. Prime Minister,
the responsibility to protect Canadians and all humankind from the threat
of nuclear terror is a grave and urgent imperative, and we urge you to
re-emphasize the historic position of successive Canadian Governments
that "the only sustainable strategy for the future is the elimination
of nuclear weapons entirely. The only realistic objective for the international
community is progressive reduction of the existing number of nuclear weapons
leading to their elimination. " (Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation:
Advancing Canadian Objectives, Government Statement. Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade, April 19, 1999.)
Verifiable Compliance
It is only through a redoubled commitment to reduce existing nuclear
arsenals and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and strategic range
ballistic missiles that our safety can be enhanced. Recent promising developments
related to Iranian and Libyan willingness to eschew nuclear weapons development
and to commit their nuclear facilities to international inspections point
the way forward. Diplomacy to bring North Korea back into verified compliance
with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must be part of the "sustainable
strategy" that, as referred to above, the Government of Canada promotes.
A World Free from Fear and Free from Want
It has been the witness of Canadian churches to successive Prime Ministers
that the possession, use, or threat to use nuclear weapons can never be
understood to be within God's plan for creation. The extraordinary squandering
of resources in the vain pursuit of technological immunity from nuclear
weapons, especially while new weapons and new nuclear use strategies are
still being introduced, is itself an offence against the will of the Creator.
There are urgent worldwide human security crises in health care and the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, in small arms proliferation and spreading violence,
in entrenched poverty, in human rights violations. As a workable alternative
to wasting resources on unworkable strategic missile defence schemes,
we call on the Canadian government to fulfil its public promise to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals and so halve absolute global poverty
by 2015. We are called then to a vision of a world free from fear and
free from want – a world where people live in peace, confident their
basic needs will be met. Canada should pursue security according to this
vision.
What We Must Do
We call on you to make it clear to Canadians that this country has never
advocated BMD or space weapons as a credible means of dealing with a strategic
missile borne nuclear threat. Furthermore we urge your government to unequivocally
reject the expensive futility of ballistic missile defence. We call on
you to focus on the more realistic pursuit of diplomacy and verification
technology to mitigate the missile threat, and further, to encourage the
United States to do the same. The reallocation of the billions now squandered
on strategic ballistic missile defence could achieve works of wonder to
the benefit and sustainable security of all humanity.
We praise our Creator for the abundant life which [is] granted to us
in this land, we pledge ourselves to support the pursuit of justice and
equity in all lands and we commit ourselves to work toward the removal
of the arsenals of destruction which frustrate the search for justice
and which threaten life itself, in our land and throughout the world.
(Canadian church leaders letter presented to the Right Honourable Pierre
Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister on December 14, 1982.)
Please be assured of our prayers and support as you undertake to fulfill
your important responsibilities. May God’s own Spirit light your
path.
You must put my laws and customs into practice; you must keep them, practice
them; and so you shall be secure in your possession of the land. The land
will give its fruit, you will eat your fill and live in security. Leviticus
25:18-19
Signed,
The Most. Rev. David Crawley
Acting Primate
The Anglican Church of Canada
His Grace Bishop Baghrat Galstanyan
Primate
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church, Canadian Diocese
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Bellous
Executive Minister
Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec
The Right Rev. Maurice Hicks
General Superintendent
British Methodist Episcopal Church
+Brendan M. O’Brien
Archbishop of St. John’s
President
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Presiding Clerk
Richard McCutcheon
Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Rev. Rick Myer
Moderator
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada
The Rev. William F. Veenstra
Canadian Ministries Director
Christian Reformed Church in North America - Canada
Fr. Marcos Marcos
Protopriest
Coptic Orthodox Church in Canada
The Rev. Fr. Messale Engeda
Presiding Priest
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Canada
The Rev. Raymond Schultz
National Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Metropolitan Sotirios
Archbishop
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada)
Henry Krause
Moderator
Mennonite Church Canada
The Right Rev. Seraphim
Bishop of Ottawa and Canada
Archdiocese of Canada of the Orthodox Church in America
The Very Rev. Anthony Nikolic
Polish National Catholic Church of Canada
The Rev. P. Alex McDonald
Moderator, 129th General Assembly
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
The Rev. Siebrand Wilts
Clerk
Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America
M. Christine MacMillan
Commissioner
Territorial Commander
The Salvation Army
Canada and Bermuda Territory
Metropolitan Archbishop Wasyly (Fedak)
Primate
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
The Right Rev. Peter Short
Moderator
United Church of Canada
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