At this time of year, we get to reflect on what we have done in the past 12 months and what the New Year might hold.
We are surrounded by challenges.
For many, these are personal ones.
Global ones—greenhouse gases, decreasing biodiversity, and violent conflict suggest that we are exceeding the planet's capacity to support us—crowd in on us further.
While it is natural to focus on the issues that are closest to one’s doorstep, we increasingly see that everything is linked.
As a physician, I would like to point out how important peace is for our health. Peace affects every aspect of our existence. Internal peace is a cornerstone of good mental health.
Peace in the family is foundational to the relationship between women and men. It contributes to parenting that helps children to understand who they are and how they can contribute to community well-being.
It helps to create communities where everyone is included. It allows us to look at the environment that supports us through a different lens.
On the other hand, violence does exactly the opposite. Whether psychological or physical, it ruins internal equanimity and dissolves relationships, creating communities that breed fear and where love is absent. It is mirrored in how we treat the environment.
Thankfully, we live in Canada, where violence is largely illegal and only allowed in very prescribed circumstances, such as in defence of our security.
Peacekeeping is vital, whether in Squamish or across the globe.
Yet, we have a world where peace-making seems to be on the back burner. Violent conflict rages in more countries than at any time in the past generation. Global security is dependent on the use and the threat of use of nuclear weapons. We are convinced that our safety is ensured by a mutual suicide pact. Simply, if we are attacked, our response will make sure that none of us will survive.
At the very least, the thinking that has led us to this impasse is unhealthy. We have grown accustomed to using violence to resolve conflict. Nuclear weapons are its worst symptom. We have global bans on chemical and biological weapons, cluster munitions and land mines. The Total Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons bans nuclear weapons, but none of the nuclear weapons states and their allies have supported it.
Obviously, abolishing nuclear weapons will not prevent us from using violence, but it will allow us to explore pathways to security that do not hold the potential to end life as we know it.
In the New Year, Canada has an opportunity to change this. There is a meeting of the parties to the TPNW in New York in March. Canada could send a representative to explore what is possible to make the world safer. I urge you to ask Patrick Weiler to support this.
This is not a partisan issue.
Recently a motion in our House of Commons to support engagement with the TPNW was supported by all parties.
We are one human family that inhabits an increasingly fragile homeland. Nuclear weapons must not be used.
If you feel like me, share those concerns with others. Bring it up in conversations with those who are involved in making policy at the local, provincial, national and global levels. Join the various civil society organizations that educate and advocate for peace.
Perhaps, this time next year we will be a little closer to the peace that will make all our lives a little healthier.
John Guilfoyle
President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada
Squamish
