Vancouver B.C. Resolution

U.S. BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENCE and the
VANCOUVER SPACE PRESERVATION RESOLUTION

Honourable Councillors and Members of the Peace & Justice Committee:

My name is Alfred Lambremont Webre and I am International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS); a founding Director of the No Weapons in Space Campaign (NOWIS), a coalition of Canadian groups and individuals dedicated to preventing the weaponization of space; and a participant in the Canadian Coalition to Oppose Missile Defence (CCOMD), organized by a group of citizens and civil society organizations from across Canada to keep Canada out of the United States administration’s missile defence system.

I have been invited to submit this report on U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence and the Vancouver Space Preservation Resolution, adopted by the Vancouver City Council on October 23, 2003. I appear here in my own right as a citizen of Vancouver, and not as a representative of organizations and registered charities with which I am affiliated.

The evidence is now incontrovertible that the United States intends to weaponize space (initially via the Ballistic Missile Defence system) and thereby dominate both Earth and Outer Space, which is the peaceful evolutionary heritage of humankind. Here in Canada, Paul Martin, both as Leadership candidate and as Prime Minister, follows a hidden timetable dictated by the U.S. Presidential Directives on Ballistic Missile Defence.

This hidden timetable was promulgated on December 16, 2002, when U.S. President George W. Bush directed the U.S. Department of Defense to: “(1) develop and deploy missile defenses capable of protecting not only the United States and our deployed forces, but also friends and allies; (2) also structure the missile defense program in a manner that encourages industrial participation by friends and allies, consistent with overall U.S. national security; and (3) shall promote international missile defense cooperation, including within bilateral and alliance structures such as NATO, and shall negotiate appropriate arrangements for this purpose.” U.S. President George W. Bush, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD-23 – December 16, 2002.

Up until Sunday, April 27, 2003, Canada had a long-standing opposition to U.S. plans for a missile-defence system. On that Sunday, consistent with the United States Presidential Directive, then Liberal Leadership candidate Paul Martin made a surprise statement reversing Canadian policy and proposed that Canada join in the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence program on CTV News, stating: “I certainly don't want to see Canada isolated from any moves that the United States might take to protect the continent. If there are going to be missiles that are going off over Canadian airspace … I think that we want to be at the table (before that happens).” CTV News April 27, 2003. In an apparently orchestrated move, this surprise announcement was followed on the same Sunday, by similar public statements of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Defence of Canada, reversing Canada’s long-standing opposition to U.S. plans for a missile-defence system and stating that Canada should join in negotiations for U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence.

With Paul Martin as Prime Minister of Canada, the U.S. Presidential Directive has been fulfilled. On February 23, 2004, Canadian federal defence minister David Pratt refused to rule out U.S.-controlled missile launches from northern Canada as part of the missile defence shield. Addressing this issue, Pratt stated on the CTV program, Question Period, "We're not saying no. We're not saying yes." Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic territory, may be high on the list of possible U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence missile interceptor and radar sites. Minister of Defence Pratt’s non-denial reveals that the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence system is not designed for response to rogue state missiles, as the U.S. Space Command states. Rather, located in Nunavut, for example, the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence system will be probably deployed as anti-satellite weapons and/or interceptor weapons in a United States preemptive nuclear attack against Russia, or in a United States retaliatory strike against a Russian nuclear first strike.

When our Canadian federal government is in such compliant obedience with U.S. Presidential Directives to weaponize space and integrate with U.S. nuclear war planning, it is thus in default of its constitutional obligations to protect the health and safety of our population. Therefore, it is vital that other levels of government, such as the Vancouver City Council, take proper municipal action to protect the health and safety of our population, our environment and our future.

The objectives of the Vancouver Space Preservation Resolution are to protect the health and safety of our citizens from the dangers of nuclear war and space weapons in view of the blatant default by other levels of government; to stop Canada from joining U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence; to outlaw Ballistic Missile Defence systems globally; and to prevent the weaponization of space. The Resolution embodies a strategy which protects the sovereignty of our Canadian soil from integration into United States nuclear war-making, and also provides a global solution to U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence as a global problem.

The Vancouver City Council Peace & Justice Committee is in a position to provide continuing support to this life-protecting strategy. You can nurture and grow the number of sister cities and jurisdictions participating in this growing plan under the Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Resolution to outlaw U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence and ban the weaponization of space through the Space Preservation Treaty. This Treaty will not only prevent the weaponization of space but specifically outlaws all land or sea-based missiles with anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities. This decisively bans Ballistic Missile Defence and functionally reinstates the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. The ABM Treaty prevented the weaponization of space until the United States unilaterally abrogated it in June 2003 in order to build Ballistic Missile Defence.

Members of the Peace & Justice Committee can support non-governmental organizations like our own in helping Canadian and British Columbia municipalities adopt the Vancouver Resolution and enrol in the strategy to stop Ballistic Missile Defence and prevent the weaponization of space. For example, a Toronto municipal resolution has been developed based on the Vancouver Space Preservation Resolution. Our colleagues in Toronto have begun the process of its adoption by the Toronto City Council. You can continue your vigorous support for adoption of the Vancouver Resolution by all Canadian cities through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities as well as to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM).

2006 Vancouver World Peace Conference

You have shown your leadership, initiative, and commitment to world peace by announcing you will hold a World Peace Conference in Vancouver, B.C. in 2006. War can be ended and a state of world peace can occur as the permanent war economy is transformed into a peaceful, cooperative Space Age economic democracy. The 2006 Vancouver World Peace Conference can be a forum which provides the community of nations with the necessary structural and legal tools for stopping the arms race and the war industry before it expands into space.

I urge you to consider expanding the mission statement of the 2006 Vancouver World Peace Conference to include that of developing and serving as Host City for a 2006 Space Preservation Treaty-signing Conference. The Vancouver Resolution calls for “a treaty-signing conference for the Space Preservation Treaty, as Canada did in the treaty-signing conference in December 1997, where 122 countries signed the Convention Banning Land Mines, known as the Ottawa Convention.” What more fitting goal of the 2006 Vancouver World Peace Conference than to permanently ban Ballistic Missile Defence systems, and prevent the weaponization of space through the 2006 Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Conference?

It is a political fact that Canada does not have a Lloyd Axworthy as Foreign Minister now, who convened the 1997 Land Mines conference and would under normal circumstances convene such a 2006 Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Conference.

By working together as a team, the Vancouver City Council Peace & Justice Committee and non-governmental organizations can activate the United Nations and co-host U.N. Member Nations to come to Vancouver and hold a 2006 Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Conference, with Aboriginal First Nation leaders as honoured participants. We on the non-governmental side have developed a draft working project plan for the Space Preservation Treaty Conference, setting out the agenda, and structure of the Treaty Conference.

The outcome of a 2006 Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Conference would be the outlawing of Ballistic Missile Defence systems, a permanent ban on space-based weapons, and the creation of an independent outer space peacekeeping agency to enforce this ban. This ban will prevent the arms race and the permanent war economy from expanding into outer space.

Therefore, I respectfully propose that this Peace & Justice Committee delegate its Star Wars subcommittee to meet with non-governmental organizations and others to consider and, if approved, to develop and host a 2006 Vancouver Space Preservation Treaty Conference.

We and future unborn generations of Vancouverites thank you.

VANCOUVER SPACE PRESERVATION RESOLUTION

Vancouver, B.C. City Council

3. Space Preservation Treaty (File 1263)

MOVED by Councillor Cadman
SECONDED by Councillor Woodsworth

WHEREAS, the termination of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty on June 13, 2002, permits research, development, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of space-based weapons, thereby promoting an arms race in space;

AND WHEREAS, the Space Preservation Treaty will establish a permanent ban on all space-based weapons, on the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit; and the permanent termination of research and development, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons;

AND WHEREAS, the Space Preservation Treaty will establish an outer space peacekeeping agency to monitor outer space and enforce the permanent ban of space-based weapons;

AND WHEREAS, the Space Preservation Treaty permits space exploration, space research and development, testing, manufacturing or deployment that is not related to space-based weapons or systems, including civil, commercial, or defence activities such as communications, navigation, surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, or remote sensing;

AND WHEREAS, the Space Preservation Treaty facilitates investment in clean, safe and sustainable technology, products and services to support expanded, cooperative, non-weapons space ventures and the consequent stimulation of the national and world economy;

AND WHEREAS, the Space Preservation Treaty preserves the peaceful, cooperative uses of space for all residents of Vancouver and prevents harmful health and safety impacts on residents from space-based weapons testing.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, Vancouver City Council urge the Prime Minister of Canada to sign the Space Preservation Treaty and have the House of Commons of Canada ratify it;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, Vancouver City Council urge the Government of Canada to convene a treaty-signing conference for the Space Preservation Treaty, as Canada did in the treaty-signing conference in December 1997, where 122 countries signed the Convention Banning Land Mines, known as the Ottawa Convention;

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT, this resolution of Vancouver City Council be sent to the President and Executive of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for information.

CARRIED
(Councillors Ladner and Sullivan opposed)
(Councillors Green and Louis absent for the vote)

Adopted October 21, 2003
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20031021/regmins.htm