Peace Train Canada’s Journey to the United Nations

By Bernadette Wyton

WHAT IS THE TPNW?

Accidental or premeditated detonation of nuclear weapons poses one of the greatest risks to life on earth. This is reflected in the doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists now set at 89 seconds to midnight―the most dangerous setting in its history. 

Even as the hourglass empties, many countries maintain a blind faith in security through threat of mutually assured destruction. There are now nine nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea) competing in a revival of the nuclear arms race. 

There have been many international arms control and disarmament agreements, starting with the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, that helped curb the nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war. Unfortunately, these have waned or been completely abandoned over the last few decades. We are left with the stark reality that the only way to remove the risk to all life posed by nuclear weapons is to abolish the weapons. 

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) bans the use, threatened use, development, manufacture, acquisition, possession, stockpiling, stationing, and installation of nuclear weapons. It is a rational, proportional response to the extreme and imminent threat of nuclear weapons. 

The TPNW was adopted (122 in favor, 1 opposed, 1 abstention) in March 2017 after a series of UN conferences focused on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war. This landmark agreement went into force on January 22, 2021. As of September 2024, 73 countries have ratified or acceded to the TPNW and 94 countries have signed it. 

Canada does not support the TPNW and has opted out of observing all three Meetings of States Parties to the TPNW. It has described the treaty as “well intentioned” but “premature”, and has consistently voted against an annual UN General Assembly calling upon states to sign, ratify, or accede to it at the earliest possible date. 

Seven former Canadian prime ministers, foreign ministers, and defence ministers (Lloyd Axworthy, Jean-Jacques Blais, Jean Chretien, Bill Graham, John McCallum, John Manley, and John Turner) signed an open letter in 2020 calling on current leaders to “show courage and boldness – and join the TPNW.”

A 2019 poll showed that 74% of Canadians think Canada should join the TPNW, even if the United States pressures it not to do so.

On March 2, 2025, Peace Train Canada (PTC) boarded its second peace train from Montreal to New York for five days of engagement at the UN’s Third Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW.

The journey was richly rewarding through the shared experience of learning and exchanging ideas at an international level regarding the ongoing threat posed by nuclear weapons and those who harbor them.

PTC was represented by fifteen peace trainers, including seven who travelled on the peace train from Vancouver to Ottawa last November. Many thanks to all including the special contributions of:

Elizabeth May (Green Party MP) – who challenged us to ‘do’ another peace train together in support of the TPNW, especially in the absence of official Canadian participation. Her courage, camaraderie, and commitment to peace raised our hearts and PTC’s profile at the TPNW.

Jase Tanner (videographer) – who is PTC’s enthusiastic, dedicated, hard-working, and skilled videographer.

Christophe Elie (musician) – who played music for PTC and coordinated progressive music for change including the official PTC evening event he organized at the Common Ditch, participation at an event with the People’s Music Network and Joel Landy (Songs of Freedom), and participation at an evening event with Dave Kolker and his band at the Bitter End.

Keith Wyton – who managed all the paperwork for PTC official accreditation, registration, presentation, and participation in related events such as the UN group tour.

Walter Dorn (Professor, defense studies, Royal Military College and the Canadian Forces College) – who, as one of PTC’s national advisors, offered to join us at the UN and helped guide us through the streets of New York and the entire week of TPNW proceedings.

As with the first peace train, outcomes were beyond expectation. We were pleased to have accomplished our goals to: register an official working paper with the UN, deliver a speech to the states parties outlining our view, host an evening of music, take an official tour of the UN, connect with the Canadian ambassadors to the UN, and establish key contacts with others working in the field of disarmament.

Our work was greatly facilitated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), tasked by the UN to oversee all organization related to the NGOs. We remain grateful for the inspiring leadership of the Honorable Melissa Parke (ICAN Executive Director) and the efficient, attentive facilitation provided by Annette Willi.

We were delighted to finally meet some of our Canadian mentors in person at the TPNW, including Marilou McPhedran (Senator), Cesar Jaramillo (Project Ploughshares), Jennifer Simons (The Simon’s Foundation Canada), and Setsuko Thurlow (Hiroshima bombing survivor, ICAN member).

PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR THE TPNW

Elizabeth provided PTC a window into the proceedings of the Parliamentarians for the TPNW during their day-long gathering of members from across world and the political spectrum, including from Japan, Norway, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, France, French Polynesia, Canada, Scotland, and Austria.

We were able to connect with the Parliamentarians during their photo session, and again during their press conference. An MP from Italy, Laura Boldrini, was particularly impressed with our peace train and expressed interest in the idea for Italy and for Europe.

The photo of Parliamentarians that ICAN posted on their website is one with PTC peace trainers lined up in front of them. It is a delightful reminder of the agency we have when extending our hearts and minds together.

“With nuclear threats on the rise—from Russia’s rhetoric during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine to recent statements from Israeli officials suggesting nuclear use, alongside growing nuclear-sharing arrangements and modernization efforts by nuclear-armed states—the parliamentarians underscored the urgency of universalizing the TPNW.”(ICAN)

PTC STATEMENT TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Under Article 12 of the TPNW, states parties must “encourage States not party to this Treaty to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to the Treaty, with the goal of universal adherence of all States to the Treaty”.

This encouragement, directed specifically to Canada, was a key part of the statement PTC delivered to the UN under the Universalization section of presentations.

The statement also described adherence to nuclear deterrence programs as terrorism, menticide, and theft: Security through provocation of mutually assured destruction is terrorism. It is mentIcide, where health right down to the helix of life is bartered for power and supremacy. It is theft of our mental stability and our physical resources to care for each other and the polycrisis at hand, including the climate emergency.

These terms were inspired by the following:

Terrorism - Joseph Rotblat said, Nuclear deterrence is the ultimate form of terrorism. He was the only scientist that had the conscience and courage to leave the Manhattan Project due to its unwarranted scourge on humanity. He later came to Canada, redirecting his gifts to the establishment of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

Theft - President Dwight D Eisenhower famously said, Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientist, the hopes of its children.

This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. 

Menticide – or ‘killing of the mind,’ is a term coined by Joost Merloo. It is a systematic,

intentional undermining of a person’s conscious mind, often through manipulative psychological techniques of oppression (i.e. waves of threat and terror, lies, propaganda, censorship) to incite a state of panic and negative emotions (i.e. fear, hate, isolation, intolerance, anger, anxiety, panic, hopelessness, isolation). 

Societal menticide results in an epidemic of mental illness known as mass psychosis. It occurs when a large portion of a society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions, paving the way for tyranny. 

Nuclear weapons violate the physical, psychological and ethical foundations of human life. 

Abiding with them requires a collective madness, heading in the opposite direction of everything we value. The true power of these weapons of uncontrollable mass destruction is concealed from the masses behind a veil of secrecy and orchestrated, like the Wizard of Oz, by the conjuring of a military elite. 

These dynamics are extremely important to understand as part of the environment peace workers now find themselves in. (See YouTube whiteboard animation: Mass Psychosis - How an Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09maaUaRT4M) 

LESSONS FROM THE THIRD PLENARY SESSION 

Many of us found the third plenary session of this third meeting of states parties to be most memorable. It was entitled, The True Cost of Nuclear War – Understanding the knowns and unknowns and countering the fallacy of limited nuclear conflict. Following are some impressions we came away with that will continue to inform the work of PTC:

Melissa Parke (ICAN Executive Director) began with a plea to all of us (government and non-government individuals) to “take on some of the most pernicious misconceptions about what nuclear weapons do, how a nuclear war would unfold, and how nuclear policies, practices, and rhetoric of nuclear armed states endangers every living being on this planet. 

Annie Jacobson (author of Nuclear War, a Scenario) laid out facts garnered from military experts regarding how exactly a nuclear war would unfold. Her compelling book cracks into the inner sanctum of the nuclear warring complex, providing a view that informs the nature and urgency of our work toward prohibition. 

Three thousand nuclear warheads are poised around the world in high alert, ready to launch at any moment. A nuclear exchange would unfold in a matter of seconds and minutes, not hours and days. 

Three times a day, every day, US military personnel conduct unfolding scenarios of a nuclear attack in war game simulations. They all end in conflagration. Every ending is so unimaginably devastating that there are NO plans for an aftermath. When deterrence fails, whatever might be left has been preemptively abandoned to suffer alone, much like the callous and immoral abandonment of the Hibakusha after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

With 12,000 nuclear warheads tended around the world, as Hibakusha representative, Mr. Hamasumi stated, “That war is not over yet.” 

Nick Ritchie (Department of Politics, University of York, Interrnational Security) affirmed that adherence to the fallacy of nuclear deterrence can only end in one of two ways: disarmament or nuclear war. He described the nature of extreme risk and uncontrollable consequences of a nuclear exchange and debunked the perennial argument that the risks can be managed by skillful statecraft. 

As Nick pointed out, practicing ending the world three times a day is not just about the day the bomb goes off. This is immoral injury to what it means to be human. It takes a daily moral toll along with the political, economic, and human toll. This is the slow daily violence of living with nuclear weapons. 

Edwick Madzimure (Founding Director, WILPF Zimbabwe) reminded us how nuclear weapons feed power imbalances, global insecurity and geopolitical tensions. They do not keep the peace, as so often claimed. They do not block aggression, as we have seen in the Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine situations. 

She spoke of health issues related to uranium mining and the disposal of nuclear waste; of the extreme monetary cost of nuclear weapons programs (only 3% of one country’s nuclear program being enough to solve world hunger); and of nuclear programs diverting funds from efforts to address the climate crisis. 

Edwick emphasized that the only solution to these problems is a total nuclear weapons ban. She reminded us that Africa is a nuclear-free zone. 

Her presentation pointed to possible projects for PTC: 

 to help establish nuclear free zones across Canada.

 to become more familiar with Canada’s role, past and present, in feeding the nuclear arms industry, especially though uranium mining.

 to become more familiar with the Dene of Deline, on whose backs uranium was packed out for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Zia Mian (Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and TPNW Co-chair of the scientific advisory group) emphasized that leaders have known about the catastrophic consequences of developing nuclear weapons for 120 years, and have consistently responded to the terror by selfishly increasing it through enhanced weapon production and use. 

When President Truman was debriefed regarding these consequences and the potential destruction of all life, “there was no effort to stop, to not test, to not use.” Instead, the US secured the first test, the first use, and first threat of use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the aftermath, there was no pause, no restraint, no apology or act of contrition but an immediate escalation that ushered in the curse of the global arms race. 

Zia described nuclear weapons as multi-dimensional violence. He expressed the need for us to: 

 de-silo nuclear arms programs

 hold scientists and leaders accountable for their contribution to nuclear violence.

 clearly articulate our shared view

 shape a new kind of engagement to “fight the power”

 learn how to deal with nationalism and nation states that put their interests above humanity.

Zia reminded us of the Einstein-Russel Manifesto calling for an end to nuclear weapons and to “Remember your humanity and forget the rest.” 

The forum provided by the UN for the TPNW is, in itself, an antidote to nationalism. Most peace trainers experienced the borderless power of global citizenship and uniting in common purpose within the diversity of so many colors, cultures, and minds of people from around the world. 

A woman from French Polynesia called for the need to push for global accountability and reparations for those countries and peoples damaged by nuclear explosions. Many of her people suffer from leukemia. She pointed out her objection to the way language is used to hide the violence of nuclear weapons. What is referred to as nuclear “tests” that devastated her country were actually bombs dropped on them – one of them 150 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. What they suffer is muted by the term “consequences.” What was unleashed upon them was sheer violence. 

A large part of PTC’s ongoing work has to do with sharing narratives about war and nuclear weapons that align with their reality. As Annie Jacobson pointed out, we need to work with ministries of education to socialize this kind of knowing and perspective. We agree that the words we use, the stories we tell, and the people in the room matter. 

The wars and violence we see unfolding today are fueled by ignorance and lies. Being able to counter this in a consistent, informed, open, discerning way was at the heart of PTC’s request to our government last November to establish and fund a center of excellence for peace and justice. 

CANADIAN AMBASSADORS TO THE UN 

Although Bob Rae, Canadian Ambassador to the UN and President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was not able to meet with PTC, we were invited to meet with Canada’s other Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Michael Gort, along with staff members, Meline Svadjian and Christopher Gibbins. 

Canada does not support prohibition of nuclear weapons, reserving the right of retention and potential use of nuclear weapons on its behalf. 

One excuse for this is NATOs pressure to maintain nuclear war capability. Meline also expressed concern about the cost of joining the TPNW. 

Walter Dorn asked how much that might be. The answer was $50,000. Keith immediately responded by saying we could have that to them by next week. 

Canada does support the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). As non-proliferation is a shared goal, PTC should learn more about the NPT to discover possible linkages that might open government leaders to the idea of at least observing TPNW meetings. 

UN JOINT STAFF PENSION FUND CHIEF EXECUTIVE 

Through the recommendation of PTC advisor, Michael Cooke, peace trainers had the pleasure of meeting with Rosemary McLean and learning a little about the inner workings of the UN from her perspective as Chief Executive of Pension Administration of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF). Her dedication and innovative approach to this huge and complex aspect of UN operations is astounding. She currently oversees a budget of US$156,944,800 serving over 86,000 beneficiaries globally. 

THE POWER OF ONE 

Surprisingly and fittingly, our peace train trip to New York was marked from beginning to end by the influence of one person, John Lennon, inviting us to imagine a better world, living as one in peace.

PTC boarded the peace train to New York from beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their bed in, emerging with the famous melodious refrain, “All’s we are sayin, is give peace a chance.” 

When we arrived at the UN, the only sculpture gracing the patio in front of the main entrance is the knotted gun – a monument to non-violence and peace created in memory of Lennon’s assassination. 

Strolling through Central Park, just before we left New York, we encountered the “imagine” memorial mosaic in honor of Lennon and his timeless invitation to peace. A fitting end to a journey that started for us by singing his song, Imagine – a song PTC has been singing since we first boarded a train together in November of last year.