Events

WAKE UP! IT’S TWO MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

The New Nuclear Threat: Pushing the Big Buttons

While the terrifying and cartoonish sabre-rattling of the US and Korea may have abated, the world has learned that even in 2018, nuclear destruction is just one ego away. No longer can we credibly spin a “limited” nuclear war, as weapons now in existence are several leagues more powerful than those of WW11. Black political farces that continue to unfold will continue to ramp up the arms race. Nuclear nations at present have only one goal: a  greater ability to destroy than others. No single nuclear nation will credibly denuclearize because no other  nuclear nation will sacrifice its perceived advantage, and staged efforts to represent cooperative denuclearization will continue to ramp up the horror show.

Yet people need reminding in a personal way what is at stake. We cannot lose sight of the human horror of nuclear bombs – mere stains on the sidewalk that used to be human beings; ghastly lifelong mutilation; the agonizing death of radiation poisoning. This is not mere fear-mongering. This is one out-of-control ego button away.

Our one hope is that people all over the world are hungry for PEACE – real peace, lasting peace, humane and compassionate peace. We need to join together in efforts to ensure nuclear buttons never get pushed. We need to keep up the pressure on governments to scale back their nuclear arsenals and work toward a more humane co-existence. We need to get Canada to ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Join us in Beacon Hill Park on August 9 and hear both political and citizen views on what needs to be done to ensure nuclear weapons will be abolished all over the world.

Following the event there will be a Lantern Ceremony in the pond nearest to the Beacon Hill Bandshell.

Hiroshima / Nagasaki Memorial and the New Nuclear Threat

BEACON HILL PARK BANDSHELL, AUGUST 9, 7:00 – 9:00

Featured Speakers:         Nils Jensen, Mayor for Peace

                                        Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, CNANW

Featured Performers: Uminari Taiko Band

                           Hanne Fair, Flautist

Sponsored by Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network, Physicians for Global Survival and Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

For more information, contact  jcdown@shaw.ca

The Growing Danger of Nuclear War and what we can do about it? A free talk with Nobel Peace Prize recipient and co president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Dr. Ira Helfand, MD.

When: Friday February 9, 2018 7PM-9PM

Where: HSD A240, University of Victoria

Dr. Ira Helfand, MD is President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), recipient of the 1985 nobel Peace Prize, and he is co-founder and Past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, IPPNW’s US affiliate.

He has published studies on the medical consequences of nuclear war in the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, and the World Medical Journal. Dr. Helfand serves on the committee which oversees PSR’s work for nuclear abolition and has a special interest in the danger of accidental war and the need to de-alert nuclear weapons. His also the author of IPPNW’s publication: Nuclear Famine: Two billion people at risk-Global impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and human nutrition”.

In September of 2015 Dr. Helfand addressed a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, and in May of 2016 he led the session on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear war at the United Nations Open Ended Working Group meeting in Geneva.

Dr. Helfand was educated at Harvard College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

This is a free event hosted by VIPDN and sponsored by the Uvic Centre for Global Studies, Physicians for Global Survival, Social Environmental Alliance and the Canadian Network for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons