Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Senator Gold, would you take another question?

Senator McPhedran: Thank you so much. I’m trying to understand a bit better about the procedures and the timing of this bill and of this amendment, and I want to check. Am I correct that there were no amendments proposed to this bill in the other place and that over two weeks ago it was unanimously accepted in the other place?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Honourable senators, my question is to Senator Gold, the government leader in the Senate. There are more than 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine, and the Zaporizhzhia plant was on fire after being shelled by Russian invaders earlier today.

Russia added to its naked, illegal aggression against Ukraine a threat to use its nuclear weapons, and few doubt that the megalomaniac Putin is capable of such massive annihilation of 500,000 people with just 1 of the smaller weapons of Russia’s more than 4,000 warheads.

My question is about Canada’s weak silence in the face of this particular threat. Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey all host U.S. nuclear weapons. Another 26 countries joined the U.S. and those 5 host nations to “endorse” the possession and use of nuclear weapons on their behalf as part of defence alliances, including Canada as a member of NATO.

Senator Gold, the Government of Canada was not even in the room for the negotiations that led to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW, that was activated in January 2021. In the words of the Honourable Lloyd Axworthy yesterday, Canada has been shamefully absent from the nuclear table. In a few months, the first meeting of states parties to the TPNW will be hosted by Austria. Will Canada at least send a delegation of young Canadian leaders and parliamentary observers to this historic meeting, along with other NATO members such as Norway, that are going to do so?

Senator McPhedran: Since 2018, Canada has voted against the annual resolution at the UN General Assembly that welcomes the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Senator Gold, does this Prime Minister and his cabinet know that his father, the Honourable Pierre Trudeau, made it his personal mission to persuade NATO to assess its unquestioning pro-nuclear weapons policy? When will Canada wake up to this monumental threat to all of humanity and engage in the international, rules-based order of which the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is now law?