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Arms race not for outer space

Whistler to discuss weapons in space and what citizens can do to lobby for space preservation

What: Weaponizing Space & Potential for Space Preservation Treaty

Where: MY Place

When: Monday, July 12, 7:30 p.m. Admission by donation.

Though it may be bigger than even our wildest dreams, there’s still no room in space for weapons, according to Alfred Lambremont Webre.

Webre is the International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space, a non-profit organization based in Vancouver, which is committed to banning space-based weapons and protecting the sanctity of outer space for all humankind.

Webre is coming to Whistler on Monday, July 12 to encourage local citizens to lobby for the preservation of outer space.

He’s not the only one concerned about a future arms race in space.

Last year the United Nations General Assembly held a vote on a resolution calling for negotiations to prevent a nuclear arms race in space.

The vote was 174 to 0 in favour of the treaty. The United States abstained from the vote, along with Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

"(Almost) all of the nations on the face of the planet want a space preservation treaty to keep space weapons-free," said Webre.

The U.S. on the other hand has a different agenda which has been slowly unfolding during the George W. Bush administration, said Webre.

In December 2001 President Bush pulled out of the 30-year ABM treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was put in place in 1972, prohibiting ballistic missile defence systems.

This in turn stopped space weapons because ballistic missile defence systems are entry-level space weapons.

Webre said Bush broke the decades-old treaty in much the same way a renter would break a lease, without a second thought to the other party involved in the treaty.

"What we’re doing is we’re going back to the Cold War with the Bush administration plans for world dominance and instability," said Webre.

The U.S. pulled out of the ABM treaty months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those attacks were part of the official justification for breaking the ABM treaty.

"Today the United States and Russia face new threats to their security," states a 2001 press release from the White House Web site.

"Principal among these threats are weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means wielded by terrorists and rogue states. A number of such states are acquiring increasingly longer-range ballistic missiles as instruments of blackmail and coercion against the United States and its friends and allies.

"The United States must defend its homeland, its forces and its friends and allies against these threats. We must develop and deploy the means to deter and protect against them, including through limited missile defense of our territory."

Next Bush called for the U.S. to enter into negotiations with its allies and friends for industrial contracts around the ballistic missile defence system.

"That’s why Canada began the negotiations," said Webre.

"It’s like the George W. Bush administration put a monkey on Canada’s back. Well, there’s no reason to follow that and it goes against 50 years of Canadian policy and it goes against what 174 nations have voted for anyway."

During the Bush administration’s campaign for missile defence, Canada’s position has moved from opposition to caution, with calls for the government to enter into talks with the U.S. to discuss their plans.

And so Webre is calling on cities in the province to follow Vancouver City Council’s lead and pass a space preservation resolution.

This resolution supports a permanent ban on space weapons. It also urges the Canadian government to convene a treaty-signing conference for the Space Preservation Treaty, in the same vein as the 1997 Ottawa Convention where 122 countries signed the Convention Banning Land Mines.

Six B.C. communities have passed the resolution to date, including Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Burnaby, Sparwood and Bowen Island.

"The more that we in British Columbia, for example, and our cities can begin to pass this resolution and create a space preservation zone in the air, then we create a foundation on which the nations of the earth can come here for a treaty conference," said Webre.

He said getting Whistler to pass the resolution would send a powerful message.

"What greater signal could there be to the countries that are coming to Whistler for the 2010 Olympics than to pay respect to them and their country and say ‘yeah, we want to ban all weapons in space and preserve it as a common heritage of human kind,’" he said.

The key said Webre is to get people educated about the subject and to encourage a group of citizens to lobby council to pass the resolution.

The discussion at MY Place is brought to the community through the co-operation of Lawyers Against the War, the Institute for Cooperation in Space and The Whistler Forum.

"It’s very much in the hands of the Whistler community," said Webre.

"It’s the community that really has to talk about these things and to make it part of their agenda. To us it fits right in with the lead up to the 2010 Olympics."

Admission is free but donations to ICIS will be accepted.