Organizers of a provincial protest say 100 people came out to the front lawn of the B.C. legislature in a plea to the Canadian government to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
A Vancouver Island group for peace and disarmament stood in a peace-symbol formation in Victoria asking Canada to join the United Nations treaty which places restrictions on the weapons.
Co-founder Tamara Lorincz wants Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to join the treaty against the development, production and possession of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).
She says people in cities across Canada and the world held similar events Saturday asking powers like Canada, the U.S., and Great Britain to hear their pleas.
“It’s just not Canadian citizens that were out in Victoria today saying that. There are over 132 countries that are beating at the United Nations saying that they don’t want their citizens, they don’t want humanity to be at risk of these weapons of mass destruction any longer.”
Lorincz says nuclear disarmament is more important now than ever.
“Humanity is at a crossroads. We have to be working towards peace and disarmament.”
More than 800 recipients of the Order of Canada have signed an open letter urging Justin Trudeau’s government to join the talks.
Canada was one of the countries to spearhead the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, as well as the impetus behind the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which banned the use of anti-personnel mines.
However, it has since been absent from more recent United Nations talks to ban nuclear weapons.
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