 July 24, 2005UNA-Canada's disarmament education programme - funded by conflicting interests? by Ottawa Raging Grannie Ria Heynen The latest UN Communiqué of the National Capital Region Branch included an article called "Wishing for a world without weapons". It explained that during a workshop for students, held by the United Nations Association of Canada, the question was asked: "What kind of a world do you want to live in?" The strongest message that came out was: we want to live in a world without weapons. The result is that UNA-Canada now has a Disarmament Education Programme for the High School level. This programme deals with the definitions of disarmament and non-proliferation. It includes the issues of small arms and light weapons, landmines, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, chemical and biological weapons (CBW). The last lesson before the conclusion deals with "the road to disarmament and non-proliferation" especially focussing on alternative forms of conflict resolution. It is all available on the internet for the teachers; it includes a complete lesson programme for each of the 7 lessons. It also has an on-line Student's Manual, a tool meant to complement the in-class lessons; this manual provides students with a list of youth-oriented local action ideas. My concern is that this programme was put together with the support of Canada's Department of National Defence - DND, and Foreign Affairs Canada, along with - as stated in the article - the "Simon Fraser Institute". The writer of the article describes the official launch of the programme, which took place at Lester B. Pearson Catholic high school here in Ottawa. It involved a five-member panel: a representative from each of: UNA-Canada, the Canadian Teachers' Federation, Mines Action Canada, Foreign Affairs and DND. I was disturbed by the remark made by the representative from DND, that indeed there is a legitimate use for weapons, citing the example of Canada's role in Afghanistan, a role with which many Canadians have great problems. The recent remarks made by the new Chief of Defence, General Rick Hillier, do not make me more comfortable. He said about the increase of Canadian military in Afghanistan and the function it will have: "We're not the public service of Canada; we're not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people." He goes on to call the Taliban and al-Qaeda "detestable murderers and scumbags". Sorry, but this is rhetoric I expect from Mr. Bush, not from a Canadian high official. I have been in touch with UNA-Canada and found out the following: 1) It is not the "Simon Fraser Institute" which is supporting this high school programme, but the Simons Foundation, an institution which promotes peace issues. 2) Neither DND nor Foreign Affairs has been involved in writing the lesson programme, nor will they be involved in the future - let us hope so. Those two departments have so far only supported it financially. When I still questioned this, the person from UNA-Canada remarked: "But we do need the money, because we ourselves are always short, so what do we do?" 3) My question: how can UNA-Canada, with the UN year of peace and disarmament (2000) and now the UN's (Unesco) "decade of peace", feel comfortable to have the DND and Foreign Affairs logo on this disarmament education programme? After all, those two departments are working closely with the corporate establishment, and certainly the weapons industry has enormous influence on them. The answer from UN Canada was unsatisfactory for me, so I might follow up on this issue. |
Ottawa
Raging Grannies