https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/fb33b45c4b996b47811d78c69afcb52c.pdf 52a84a655e3b963c955d90f1d88e5065 PDF Text Text BEEN BY THE IWIfUSTER ll ^ib BRIEF OF MANITOBA PEACE COUNCIL j y "fy C>£s PRESENTED TO POLITICAL PARTIES REPRESENTED IN MANITOBA PROVINCIAL LEGISLATE PREPARED FOR PRESENTATION TO THE MANITOBA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT MARCH 13. 1961 NO NUCLEAR WARHEADS IN MANITOBA NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN CANADA TOTAL DISARMAMENT NOW - ^» i .. "Tomorrow will be just one year since That Day - the day that ended theworld, we used to live in and reduced our lives to an elemental struggle against hunger, sickness, grief, and despair. Here in this camp outside Portage la Prairie, 7,000 of us who managed to pull through are living as best we can in former Air Force barracks and hangars. Some are living in tents and sod huts in an attempt to avoid the terrible overcrowding. 9 9 ^°' It has been hard to separate reliable information from the rumours which fill the air; but it is now generally agreeji that Canada was hit by about 140 megatons on the one day that the war lasted. Twenty cities were hit as well as the major defense installations and facilities. About 2 million people were killed that first day. More than that have died since, but nobody agrees about the exact figure. The injured didn't have much chance with the hospitals gone and medical supplies burned up and the doctors mostly dead. As for the injured—well, there was starvation, and there was typhus, and a cold winter froze a good many more. Then there were a lot of people who just went out of their minds and either killed themselves or died because they could not make the effort to survive. Winnipeg was hit by two weapons, of 3 and 2 megaton equivalence. The 3 megaton bomb was exploded near Portage and Main. They say there's a crater there now nearly 2000 feet across and over a hundred feet deep. The rupture zone surrounding the crater had a diameter of about three quarters of a mile and in this region almost no structure, including underground ones, survived. The force of the blast and its heat destroyed nearly everything in a circle extending northward just past Kildonan Park, westward along Portage to the vicinity of the Deer Lodge Hospital and southward along the Pembina Highway to include the main built up section of Fort Garry. The area of destruction of frame buildings was somewhat larger and extended as far as Sturgeon Creek. The smaller bomb was detonated several miles to the east and completely destroyed Transcona. Ironically enough, radiation oau.sed little harm immediately; first the heat and fire and flying debris got in their deadly blows. But the fallout came soon enough. It is now calculated that an amount of fission products equivalent to a two and one half megaton all-fission explosion was produced by the two weapons used on Winnipeg. Of this amount, about a bit less than two megatons of energy equivalent came down as local fallout| the rest was dispersed in the stratosphere and will come down as world wide fallout. The local fallout was distributed down wind over an elongated area about 40 miles wide at its widest point and about 100 miles long - approximately 2500 square miles, stretching south-east to the U.S. border." A0027628 76-000775 �2. The foregoing are excerpts from a recently published "Story based Upon Facts" written by Professor Fred Kelly of the Physics Department of the University of Manitoba. While the locale is Winnipeg, it could well be any city in Western or Eastern Ganada. The facts come from a report submitted to the Joint U.S. Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy in June, 1959« Since then, the destructive powerof weapons possessed both by the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. is many times greater. To add to this already grim picture, we would like to quote here some facts about radiation and Strontium 90. Unfortunately these facts are not too well known. - "Since the first hydrogen bomb explosion seven years ago, radioactive debris has been settling to the earth in increasing amounts. Two-thirds of this world-wide fallout occurs in the northern hemisphere, with the heaviest concentration between 40 degrees and 50 degrees north latitude - a region which includes most Canadian cities." - "Strontium, like calcium, is a bone seeker. Radiations from strontium 90, therefore, are concentrated in the bone and also the highly radio-sensitive bone marrow. Since the strontium 90 in our diet all comes from fallout these radiations pose a totally new health hazard for mankind." - "The Canadian government also is trying to establish how much strontium 90 has accumulated in our bones. According to the latest report, the average adult has had a three-fold increase in the past two years. We are not told how much more is found in adults with above average concentrations - or in children." (Radiation Protection Division, bulletin No. CNHW (RP-2). - "Children accumulate 7 to 8 times as much strontium 90 as adults because their bones are being formed. School age children have been absorbing radioactive strontium 90 at this accelerated rate over most of their lives; younger children and babies began getting it before birth. Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling states, "The only safe amount of strontium 90 in the bones of our children is zero." Despite all that has been quoted above, in this year - 1961 - 16 years after Hiroshima, the danger of the atomic bomb continues to hang over the heads of Canadians from coast to coast. Despite the horror which we continue to feel on hearing of the effects of the Hiroshima bombing, and in spite of the increasing activity for the banning of nuclear weapons, certain circles in Canada are prorogating the introduction into Canada of these hideous weapons. Manitoba is to become a nuclear province. The Manitoba Peace Gouncil, a Council of individuals and delegates from many Manitoba organisations, has, since its inception in 1949, campaigned tirelessly for a ban to nuclear weapons, for a tan on t h e testing of these weapons, and for ah agreement on disarmament. During the period in which we have striven for these aims, we have annually lobbied the parties in the Manitoba Legislature. In presenting our brief this year, we are encouraged in the knowledge that since our Peace Lobby in March, I960, three new organisations - CUCND, Winnipeg Disarmament Committee, and ybice of Women - have come into existence in Manitoba; also propogating a ban to huclear weapons from Canadian soil. These organisations have encouraged thousands of Manitobans and people throughout Canada to speak out for peace. However, we feel that still more concentrated effort must be made to create public opinion which would Absolutely reject any elected representative who would place in jeopardy the lives and future of the people of Manitoba. A0027628_77-ooo776 �3. So it is that we demonstrate tonight at our Provincial-Legislature, requesting that each party, each MIA in this session of our Legislature, declare himself on the vital question of welfare or warfare. Will you join in the sacred task of keeping Canada free from nuclear weapons? Political parties, Members of Parliament and Governments are not power unto themselves. Each MLA has been elected to the Manitoba Legislature to fulfill certain expectations and to express the various wishes of his constituents. While the interests of your constituents might vary - they all have a common desire to live in Peace. We would, therefore, expect that our elected representatives will respond to this growing peace sentiment and be in the lead; otherwise you will be left behind. We ask you and the Provincial Government to disassociate itself from Defence Minister Harkness and others who are accusing anyone talking about peace as an alternative to this awful arms race, as playing into the hands of the enemy, weakening ourlcountry, etc. Theirs is a psychology of fear that is used to intimidate people, to try to compel us to blindly follow such leaders as they, no matter what the consequences. Is there an alternative to neutrality? NO! There can be no other alternative for Canada than to adopt a foreign policy of non-alignment. A nuclear armed Canada is no alternative. Bomb shelters are only an escape from reality, not an alternative. Our geographic position, rather than calling upon us to be a junior partner in North American suicide, places upon us a responsibility to mankind. This responsibility can best be served not by subservience to U.S. military plans, but by declaring Canada a nuclear-free zone of pre-oecupation. Yes. Preoccupation with showing the rest of the world that war is insane and only through peaceful endeavours can our planet be made a safe and better place in whieh to live. Disarmament - not armaments. Welfare - not warfare. Each year our national budget, and indirectly our provincial budget, includes exaggerated estimates for defense spending. This money is being spent even though the needs of the Canadian people require that this money be alloted for building schools, hospitals, better roads, etc. Such projects could create jobs for all the near million unemployed Canadians. Experience since 1945 has shown that war contracts cannot provide steady employment. For example, the change of policy in respect to the Avro "Arrow" resulted in 4800 being laid off at Malton, Ontario. In Canada there is a great crisis in education. There is also a crisis in municipal financing. Provincial and federal treasuries are operating on a deficit. If money spent on obsolete military weapons and projects - such as the Dew Line, which has now been declared 'ineffective', even before completion - and in dangerous undertakings such as the purchase of Honest John Rockets - were to be diverted to peaceful pursuits, many of these crises would be eliminated. Provincial responsibility We are led to believe that to one degree or another, land rights within the boundaries of a province, fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. Therefore, any decisions which may bring nuclear warheads to Manitoba, to Camp Shilo, would have to be made with the agreement of the Manitoba goverA0027628_78-000777 �4. We, therefore, urge that all parties and all MLA's in this Legislature urge upon the provincial government to tell Ottawa that the people of Manitoba will not permit our peaceful province from becoming a nuclear base and a target for nuclear retaliation, or victim of accidental nuclear mishap. We should tell the federal government that we want to develop Churchill as a great shipping port, not a launching site for U.S. missile tests (top secret or otherwise). A recent accident has resulted in the U.S. threatening to discontinue their use of Churchill. We welcome the departure from Manitoba of U.S. military personnel. However, this accident could have been fatal to U.S. and Canadians alike. Churchill should become a gateway through which Manitoba products are sent to all parts of the world. Let us give Churchill, Manitoba, the title of "Port of Peace". Having done this and assuring that there would be no foreign troops on Manitoba soil, we should then tell the federal government that our province strongly objects to the continued spending of money taken out of Manitoba by taxes, etc., for purposes of war. In doing this our province would be making a mighty contribution to the future of Canada. The growing voice for peace by the people of Manitoba would thus be expressed, Manitoba would then become a leader of men and respected throughout the world. Join hands with the people of Minnesota and the Dakotas People of the U.S.A. and Canada are natural friends. Last year in our brief we suggested that the provincial government requests of the state of North Dakota the sending of joint appeals to our respective federal government for a ban on nuclear weapons. Tonight we would like to modify this proposal somewhat. We feel that the interests of the people of Manitoba, of the Dakotas, and of Minnesota, are like interests as concerns the desire to live in a peaceful world. Why couldn't the Manitoba government propose to the government of these three states the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the area encompassed by the borders of our province and their states. This could perhaps be done through the rededication of the Peace Garden, which was originally established as a token of the friendship of the peoples of Canada and the U.S.A. At the Peace Garden roses are planted and reach full bloom. Do we not want our children also to fully bloom? Do we want the roses in the Peace Garden and our children to have an even more violent end than the roses and children of Hiroshima? Canada - the newly-independent nations - and the UN A policy of neutrality in relation to the existing military alliances would not isolate Canada from the world scene; in fact it would make us a more respected nation. Premier Roblin on a number of occasions made reference to his plan to build a school in an African country. This we think is all for the good. We would further suggest, however, that arrangements be made to make available to all countries desiring it, one of our richest resources - our wheat. During the past few weeks large sales were made to several countries. There is no doubt, however, that these sales could have been greater had we instead offered credit in the sale of this commodity over a period of a year. Such credits could have been made if we would divert money from military defence spending to the real defence of human life and human dignity. In respect to the African people we would like to ask our government - Did the provincial government offer to send food to The Congo during their recent crisis? Why did no party in the legislature speak out on the murder of Lumumba? i A0027628 79-000778 �5. The United Nations is going through a very severe crisis, due particularly to its unsavory and inconsistent role in The Congo. While not wanting to enter into any argument at this time we do feel that the UN could very well take a look at itself and how it is fulfilling its original charter. A little rededication at this time to the charter on which it was founded could go a long way. Much hope in 1945, and still today, is placed in the UN, This hope cannot be satisfied as long as the UN "continues to pussyfoot with colonialists and their tutored 'yes men! such as Mabutu and Kasavuba in The Congo. Also the UN cannot hope to be a world organisation as long as the People's Republic of China remains outside of it. In support of opinions recently expressed at the -Commonwealth Conference, we feel that our provincial government should press for (a) the immediate transfer of credentials from the representative'of the island of Taiwan to the legal representatives of China's 670 million people, the People's Republic of China, as member of the UN, and (b) Canada to immediately extend recognition to the People's Republic of China, and further extend our trade relations with that country. Peace - a matter of life or death Today the question is not as simple as peace or war. Today life or death. A nuclear war would set humanity back hundreds of to U.S. military plans Canada is expendable in a nuclear war. If under those conditions we ahould tell our U.S. neighbor, "You can the question is years. According we are expendable do without us now". Also let us not spend any more time or money on discredited civil defence, partly hidden under the flowery term of 'national dissaster'. The office at 1767 Portage Avenue (the Metro Civil Defence Board) should be turned into a Youth Scientific Research Centre, or some such useful club. We do not need a Civil Defence Co-ordinator, but we do need a physical education director. Andy Currie would have done better to have stayed put in his former occupation as Provincial Education Director. We are opposed to any war pacts which are outgrowths of the cold war. We would like to see the abolishment of all such pacts, whether they be the Warsaw Pact, NATO, NORAD, CENTO, and/or any other. Particularly we are opposed to belonging to any pact which includes in it German militarists, such as we find representing West Germany today in NATO. One look at the ruling circles in West Germany and an illusion is created that we are thrown back some twenty years. Nazis are in high offices, in the judiciary, and in the cabinet. And to add to this, West German generals, notorious Nazi killers, are heading sections of NATO command. Speidel is guilty of grave crimes against humanity. Today he commands Canadian troops in NATO. Enough is enough. Did Canadian sohs die in the fight against fascism only to make it possible for their brothers fifteen years later to be ordered about by the Hitler high command, wearing the NATO insignia? To give a lead in disarmament perhaps this provincial government could suggest to Ottawa that Canada propose to one member of the Warsaw Pact, simultaneous withdrawal from our respective military commitments. In concuiusion we recommend to the parties in this legislatures1. That this legislative session go on record opposing the stationing in . Manitoba of the Honest John rocket and requests, 2a,. That the federal government unequivocally declare itself against the introduction of nuclear weapons anywhere in Canada, or in the hand"~ 2 * 628 80.000779 Canadian t r o o p s , and for t o t a l world disarmament. �63. That a referendum be taken among all Canadians 18 years and over before any decision is taken to bring nuclear weapons into Canada. 4. That this legislative session embody in a resolution a demand for "the banning of the A bomb and all nuclear weapons". 5. That this legislative session declare the last week in March as "Peace Week" in Manitoba. A similar proposal regarding Winnipeg has been placed before Winnipeg City Council. In closing we wish to quote from the Appeal of the Peoples issued by the Bureau of the World Council of Peace. "TODAY THE PEOPLES of the world are living under constant threat of nuclear war; they cannot accept the failure of international negotiations. Disarmament is indispensable to save mankind and guarantee peaceful coexistence. The peoples must demand disarmament. They have the power to enforce it. The recent successes won by mass action prove it. We call for a world conference open to all countries, members and nonmembers of UNO alike, to secure general and controlled disarmament by successive stages. We consider that, in order to avert the most immediate peril, the first stage must include the banning of all the means of delivering nuclear weapons and the closing down of foreign military bases. We ask all governments to declare their readiness to take part in such a conference and their determination to produce concrete results. We ask all governments to begin now to create favorable conditions for the holding of this conference. To this end, they must avoid any action liable to aggravate the cold war, renounce nuclear tests, and respect the sovereignty and independence of other states. WE CALL ON EVERYBODY TO SUPPORT THIS DEMAND.!' Manitoba is an historic province. Let us keep it as a landmark of peaceful endeavours and not the graveyard of military adventurism. On behalf of the Manitoba Peace Council we wish to thank you for being concerned enough to accept our brief. Yours respectfully, MANITOBA PEACE COUNCIL. A0027628_81-000780 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDNW01140 Title A name given to the resource Brief Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 13-Mar-61 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived ÒAtomic weapons - Canadian policy,Ó RG25-A-3-b, vol. 5961, file 50219-AM-40, pt. 3, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Department of External Affairs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource NATO, atomic cooperation, atomic information, Canadian Weapons Policy Description An account of the resource Brief of Manitoba Peace Council Presented to Political Parties Represented in Manitoba Provincial Legislature Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en