from Philip Ehrensaft:
I will establish a working group for those members interested in nuclear proliferation. Contact me via Bitnet — R14644@UQAM or at Dept. de sociologie, UQAM, CP 8888, Succ A, Montreal, P.O. 53C 3P8.
Robert Reford received a $10,000 research grant from CIIPS for a study of Canada’s national security interests in the Pacific.
John Holmes (CIIA, Toronto) was a Canadian participant in a joint CIIPS-Academy of Sciences of the USSR symposium in Moscow on issues of international peace and Security in September.
Pat Alcock has joined Science for Peace’s growing staff as national office coordinator for the 1988 Arctic Conference,whose director — Franklyn Griffiths — is spending this year at Stanford University in California.
The Canadian government’s answer to protests about the renewed testing of the cruise missile by the US is “that the cruise now being tested is an airborne weapon, while the prospective European agreement covers only ground-based intermediate-range missiles.”
— Robert Duff, Toronto Star
Soviet Arctic Policy
The attention of all Arctic nations, not the least the USSR, has become noticeably focused on their relationship to that region of the globe since the increasing military interest in the area has become generally known. Canada’s “sitting duck” position between the two super powers has become an acute and potentially costly position as the DoD contemplates the purchase of 10-12 nuclear submarines to patrol and protect Canada’s interests and sovereignty there.
In a speech in Murmansk Oct. 1, Mikhail Gorbachev outlined Soviet proposals aimed at a reduction of the level of military confrontation in the Arctic. A letter of transmission from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa to President George Ignatieff states, “The Soviet side considers this programme as a ‘Northern Dimension’ of a comprehensive system of international security and as an invitation to all interested parties to a serious dialogue on the whole range of issues of security and cooperation in the North.”
Copies are available from the Bulletin or directly from the Press Office of the USSR Embassy in Canada, 400, rue Stewart St., Apt.1108, Ottawa K1N 6L2.
Focus: Treaties
As its first “public venture” the new Markland Group Ca brochure is enclosed with this copy. of the Bulletin) and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs co-sponsored a workshop on Treaty Compliance at Trinity College (U of Toronto) June 19. The workshop attracted eighteen lawyers or professors of law and diplomats who selected three areas of concern to study: treaty administering agencies national compliance legislation systems involving progressive publicizing of possible violations.
To continue the inquiry a second workshop will be held in late November or December with CUPS support.
Founder and chairman of The Markland Group is SfP member Douglas Scott. Other SfP members participating in the organization are Hanna Newcombe, Bruce Conard and Walter Dorn.
At the Fourth Conference on Astronautics of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (Nov. 3-4, Ottawa) Welter Dorn will deliver a paper, Airborne and Satellite Verification of Arms Control Agreements: Past, Present and Future. The conference marks the 25th anniversary of Canada’s space program.
Focus on Education
B.C. Chapter News
Michael Wallace and Luis Sobrino are teaching a non-credit course on Nuclear War: Political and Scientific Issues at UBC. This is the second year that SfP has sponsored the course. We are hoping that once we have established the relevance of the issue it will be easier to institute a full-credit course. We are also hoping that Seymour Melman will be nominated as a Cecil and Ida Greene Visiting Professor for 1988-89. His field of study is the military economy and how it impacts the nation’s economy as a whole. — Vera Webb
Funding Research
Until a planned January, 1988, referendum among members of the American Math Society, the monthly Notices is providing a forum for on the issue of defence funding. Chandler Davis (U of T) discusses SDI as a funding source and ethical implications of taking proffered funds in the November issue. The Bulletin will copy this section for you if you do not have access to AMS publications.
New McGill Course
“As of January, 1988, a 300-level course tentatively entitled ‘Deterrence Avoidance and Arms Control, War and War Limitation will be at McGill. Thanks to the good offices of Jim Tully, the Dept. of Political Science has agreed to be the sponsoring department for hte course and will provide a substantial part of the funding and other resources. The (McGill) study group (for peace and disarmament) will contribute $2000 and several of the executive committee members will be giving lectures in the course … This course will be open to undergraduate students in all faculties across the campus.” — Don Bates, Chairman, MSGPD
The preceding statement comes from MSGPD’s annual report. Other actions of interest to SfP members: MSGPD sponsored the organization of the SAGE group of four Montreal teenagers who toured Canada with the NFB film, “If You Love This Planet”, reaching 125,000 Canadian high-schoolers with their message. The four young people accompanied the Canadian delegation to the Moscow 1987 IPPNW Conference where they contacted Soviet students.
Images
Coming Nov. 13 in Montreal, a day-long Professional Development Institute as part of the Quebec Provincial Ass’ns of Catholic and Protestant Teachers, PACT/PAPT annual convention. In cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada, the Institute will focus on “Images for a Peaceful Planet”, an exploration of ways of integrating film, video and imagery for peace in any subject area, K thru Adult Ed. Other collaborators are Peace Education Network/Quebec, the Professional Educators’ Development Service of McGill University and the Quebec Ass’n for Adult Learning. For more information, contact Joann Harrison, Education Office, NFB D-5, P.O. Box 6100, Station A, Montreal H3C 3115, or Rosemary Sullivan, Pigeon Hill Peacemaking Centre, 1965 St. Armand Rd.,Pigeon Hill, P.Q. JOJ 1TO.
Toronto Lectures
Wednesday lectures for November and December at University College: Clarke MacDonald, Freeman Dyson, Ian Hastie, Meyer Brownstone, John Lamb, Liisa North. For information and programs, contact Eric Fawcett at 978-5217 or 486-9801. The Harbourfront Free Forum in Toronto, in recognition of International Disarmament Week, presented a panel on Security and Alternatives to National Military Defence.
Peace Studies at UCSB
U.S. member Walter Kohn (Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara) is on the Steering Committee of the University’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. The Institute was established in 1983 to stimulate and support research and teaching at all campuses of the university on topics related to international peace and conflict. The Institute attempts to stimulate new and innovative research that will allow the application of scholarly insights from fields that have not traditionally been associated with the study of peace and security.
A new voice —
Catherine Armstrong’s is the voice that greets you when you call the Science for Peace National Office since October 1. She takes over as secretary for George Ignatieff and of Science for Peace from Molly O’Reilly who served as Science for Peace’s first paid employee for a year.
Catherine is also editor of News Of The Phoenix, newsletter for the Swansea Area Seniors Association, Toronto.
Polanyi in Science
A condensed version of the lecture delivered by John Polanyi when he received the Nobel Prize in Stockholm last year appears in the 8 May issue of Science (AAAS, 1333 H St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20005 USA).
“The objective in this work,” writes Polanyi, “has been one which I have shared with the two other 1986 Nobel Lecturers in Chemistry, D.R. Herschbach and Y.T. Lee, as well as with a wide group of colleagues and co-workers who have been responsible for bringing this field to its current state.” Some Concepts in Reaction Dynamics is the title.
Bulletin grows
Recommended by the Research and Education Directors and approved by the Board of Directors, the Bulletin is to increase in size; this month to an authorized six pages, perhaps to eight later.
It is beginning to have a staff — Philip Wallace, Professor Emeritus of Physics, McGill University, former Principal of Science College, Concordia University, and Philip Ehrensaft, Professor of Sociology, Université de Quebec a Montreal, take on responsibility for reviews for the Bulletin. Plans are to develop a critical and helpful service for educators in peace and conflict studies.
A cautionary word, however, comes from SIP board member Ursula Franklin, who points out that she can read the Bulletin as soon as it comes. Other, lengthier publications she has to lay aside for time to read — which may or may not come.
Massey Lectures
Gregory Baum (McGill) will deliver this year’s Massey Lectures on the CBC Ideas series Nov. 2-6. His theme is “Compassion and Solidarity: The Church for Others”. According to Michael Higgins (St. Jerome’s College Waterloo), writing in the Globe & Mail, the “Baum Massey Lectures are an effort to advance a critical social theory that enjoys the support of the Canadian Roman Catholic episcopate, Pope John Paul II and an increasingly vocal and influential minority in the church.”
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