Respected Canadian disarmament negotiator Earl Turcotte has been removed from his post following American complaints that his stance on the international Convention on Cluster Munitions was too aggressive. Turcotte has since informed his colleagues that he will be resigning from the Department of Foreign Affairs in order to independently advocate for the Convention, which he helped […]
Archive | February, 2011
Steven Staples discusses F-35s on CTV Power Play
Watch Steven Staples discuss Canada’s controversial purchase of F-35s with Lt.-Gen. George Macdonald on CTV Power Play.
The human cost of war
The human cost of war sometimes seems like just one more statistic. But what’s at stake is lost lives and broken families. Ernie Regehr discussed the grim task of calculating war deaths on his Disarming Conflict blog earlier this week (“Counting the War Dead,” Disarming Conflict, 7 February 2011). Tabulating the human cost of war […]
Canada: Time to play a leadership role in nuclear disarmament
Last month Canada assumed the presidency of the main UN disarmament body, the Conference on Disarmament (CD). Paul Meyer, who served as Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament in Geneva from 2003 to 2007, argues that Canada needs to look outside the CD if it is to help advance the non-proliferation and disarmament cause.
Canadian Auto Workers staff continue to support Ceasefire.ca
The Canadian Auto Workers’ staff made another $15,000 donation to the Rideau Institute’s Ceasefire program. Annie Labaj, Director of the CAW’s International Department, called attention to the important work that the Rideau Institute and the CAW have conducted together, including assisting in campaigns against the sale of MacDonald Dettwiler (maker of Radarsat and the CANADARM) and against […]
U.S. ends, Russia begins colour-coded terrorism alerts
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has announced that the United States will be phasing out the colour-coded terrorism alert program in favour of a system that is supposed to better inform the public about the nature and meaning of terrorism threats. Homeland Security asserts that the colour-coded system was useful in the wake of 9/11 but is now […]