Ploughshares Monitor SPRING 2013 | VOLUME 34 | ISSUE 1
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Nobel Peace Lecture Exploiting loopholes The Obama moment Milestone for Murray From war to peace: Canadian aircraft engines Will President make good Ploughshares co-founder A European tale sent to countries at war on that nuclear promise? Murray Thomson’s 90th The Ploughshares Monitor SPRING 2013 | VOLUME 34 | ISSUE 1 Security in Mali Project Ploughshares outlines five principles to guide Canadian interventions by John Siebert TheA Ploughsharesquarterly publicationMonitor | Sum- of Project Ploughshares • Available online: www.ploughshares.ca 1 Contents The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 34 | Issue 1 PROJECT PLOUGHSHARES STAFF Spring 2013 John Siebert Executive Director Kenneth Epps brockenshire Lemiski Maribel Gonzales Matthew Pupic debbie Hughes Wendy Stocker Tasneem Jamal barbara Wagner Happy 90th, Murray! Cesar Jaramillo 3 A tribute to Ploughshares co-founder Murray Thomson. The Ploughshares Monitor is the quarterly by Debbie Grisdale journal of Project Ploughshares, the peace centre of The Canadian Council of Churches. Ploughshares works with churches, nongovernmental organizations, and governments, in Canada and abroad, to advance policies and actions that prevent war and armed violence and build peace. The Nobel Peace Lecture Project Ploughshares is affiliated with 6 the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, From war to peace: A European tale. Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo. Office address: Project Ploughshares 57 Erb Street West Canada’s contributions to peace Cover story Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6C2 Canada 519-888-6541, fax: 519-888-0018 10 and security in Mali [email protected]; www.ploughshares.ca Ploughshares outlines five principles for an intervention. Project Ploughshares gratefully acknowledges the ongoing financial support of the many by John Siebert individuals, national churches and church agencies, local congregations, religious orders, and organizations across Canada that ensure that the work of Project Ploughshares continues. Obama’s second chance 14 Will U.S. President pursue a nuclear weapon-free world? We are particularly grateful to The Simons Foundation by Cesar Jaramillo in Vancouver for its generous support. All donors of $50 or more receive a complimentary subscription Canadian aircraft engines sent to The Ploughshares Monitor. Annual subscription rates for libraries and institutions 18 to countries at war are: $30 in Canada; $30 (U.S.) in the United States; $35 (U.S.) internationally. Single copies Canadian manufacturers exploit export loopholes. are $5 plus shipping. by Kenneth Epps and Brockenshire Lemiski Unless indicated otherwise, material may be reproduced freely, provided the author and source are indicated and one copy is sent to Project Ploughshares. Return postage is guaranteed. SidEbAr: Powering combat missions Publications Mail Registration No. 40065122. ISSN 1499-321X. 22 Canadian-built engines in Angola, Chad and Colombia. The Ploughshares Monitor is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index. Photos of staff by Karl Griffiths-Fulton Printed at Waterloo Printing, Waterloo, Ontario. Printed with vegetable inks on paper with recycled content. We acknowledge the financial support COVEr: A group of Tuareg men in traditional dress are silhouetted on the crest of a sand of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund dune at an oasis, west of Timbuktu, Mali. Tugela Ridley/IRIN of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Happy 90th, Murray! A tribute to Ploughshares co-founder Murray Thomson by debbie Grisdale ast December friends and witnessed with dismay the growth in colleagues gathered to cele- post-colonial militarism, with newly inde- brate the birthday of a man pendent countries spending vast amounts who has been at the centre of borrowed money to build up military of the Canadian peace institutions rather than invest in human Lmovement for more than half a century. development. Those meetings led to Active in many organizations and founder Project Ploughshares, originally described of more than one, Murray Thomson as a “working group on militarism and holds a special place in the history and de- underdevelopment.” Early on, the focus velopment of Project Ploughshares. expanded to include nuclear disarma- AbOVE: Murray Thomson has been at the centre of the In 1976 Murray met Ernie Regehr to ment. Canadian peace movement for more than 50 years. explore a joint study project. Both had In a November 1980 issue of the Koozma Tarasoff The Ploughshares Monitor | Spring 2013 3 MUrrAY THOMSON TribUTE Hamilton Spectator, Murray described the prepare for war.’” work of Project Ploughshares in those Born in Honan, China, Murray Thom- first years: son was a “mishkid,” a child of Canadian missionaries. When the Second World War We have one foot in the grass-roots and broke out he was at the University of one with the decision makers. We are Toronto. Like many other young men at gathering statistics on the arms trade, in- that time, he left school and signed up creasing public awareness, trying to link with the air force. By 1944 he had earned disarmament and Third World develop- his wings, but he never went overseas. The ment and studying ways of making the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hi- defence industry into a civilian industry roshima had a profound effect on him. to protect workers’ jobs. He would later say, “Hiroshima made me When Murray turned 85, he founded Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which, at last count, brings together more than 600 recipients of the Order of Canada (including Ploughshares co-founder Ernie Regehr), from all walks of life, in the cause of nuclear disarmament. Murray had many contacts and was a pacifist.” Somewhere along the way he critical in keeping the working group fi- became a Quaker. nancially afloat in the early days. When In the years before Project funding became a little more stable, he Ploughshares, Murray’s interests and work came onboard as a part-time employee, took him to southeast Asia, where he focusing on public education and mobi- worked in international development and lization, as well as government relations. adult education. After his time with Murray was instrumental in the emergence Ploughshares, he founded or co-founded of Ploughshares local groups. He and Peace Brigades International, Peacefund Ernie Regehr co-edited The Ploughshares Canada, and Canadian Friends of Burma, Monitor. among other organizations that have After Murray retired from his staff po- played important roles in speaking truth sition at Ploughshares he maintained a to power. strong connection with the organization, Murray’s sense of humour and playful- serving on the Board in the 1980s. Over ness has carried him, and many others, the years, he has collaborated with through dark times. His office was just Ploughshares on many projects, including down the hall from mine for a number of the one he is currently most strongly iden- years and his tireless optimism was an an- tified with—Canadians for a Nuclear tidote to flagging energies. “Inch by Weapons Convention (CNWC). As Mur- bloody inch,” he’d say, “we’ll beat ’em yet, ray observed in an article in Maclean’s in kid”—referring to such powerful forces as March 1980, “Canadians need to question the military-industrial complex. the ancient belief that ‘if you want peace, In 1990 Murray was awarded the Pear- 4 The Ploughshares Monitor | Spring 2013 MUrrAY THOMSON TribUTE son Peace Medal by the United Nations more than a cursory nod of recognition Association of Canada and in 2001 he re- from those who determine Canadian for- ceived the Order of Canada. His Order of eign policy.” Canada citation starts: “He has devoted a The second track “is the one which lifetime to world peace.” And his work has Doug Roche, John Polanyi, Ernie Regehr, continued, nonstop. Michel Bastarache, Lauren Isabelle, and When Murray turned 85, he founded about 600 others of us have been travel- Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Con- ing, some of us for almost four years.” vention, which, at last count, brings to- This is the CNWC. gether more than 600 recipients of the “The third track places greater focus on Order of Canada (including Parliament and on political priorities, Ploughshares co-founder Ernie Regehr), while combining elements of the first two from all walks of life, in the cause of nu- tracks. It involves the sustained work of clear disarmament. CNWC informs and Doug Roche in initiating and urging on educates Canadians on the increasing the Middle Powers Initiative. It also has danger of nuclear proliferation and nu- had NGO involvement in finding ways to clear war. The signatories support and strengthen initiatives.” debbie endorse the United Nations Secretary- Murray made a point in emphasizing Grisdale is the representative General’s five-point plan for nuclear dis- the importance of the analysis provided of the armament, including the endorsement of by Project Ploughshares in pursuing a Anglican Church of a nuclear weapons convention. Through world free of nuclear weapons. How does Canada on the education, CNWC seeks to engender the the Canadian government spend money Governing political will to adopt a nuclear weapons designated for Canadian security? Committee of Project Ploughshares. Her convention as a component of Canadian Ploughshares “showed that Defence got original tribute to Murray foreign policy. the lion’s share, 75 per cent or more, while Thomson appeared in the december 2012 issue of A similar initiative has been started with Disarmament received less than one per Crosstalk,