THUNDER BAY – Growing up, Robin Faye was taught to duck and cover, a Cold War tactic students learned in the event of a nuclear weapons attack.
Largely those fears disappeared in the late 1980s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But they’re back, thanks in part to leaders like North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, racing to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the mainland United States, and newly elected American President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday threatened to wipe the Asian nation from the face of the planet if North Korea doesn’t back down.
On Wednesday Faye set up shop at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Law School, inviting the public to sign a petition calling for a ban on nuclear weapons, mirroring efforts by the United Nations, where a new treaty has been adopted by 51 nations which demands that nuclear weapons to be outlawed.
Countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Austria and New Zealand led the way, though the nine nuclear countries, including the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, France and Britain abstained from the negotiations – while Canada is not one of the countries planning to sign the treaty.
“It won’t be signed by our prime minister, so we’re here to show that there are citizens that would like to sign it, would like Canada to sign this treaty, which is against nuclear bombs,” Faye said. “It’s a ban on the proliferation of nuclear weaponry.”
Faye said the impact of an nuclear explosion would be felt around the world, and as tensions mount in southeast Asia, she’d like cooler heads to prevail.
“Why I’m taking the lead on it locally is I feel strongly that we should not be destroying the planet. We only have one planet and any nuclear bomb that goes off anywhere affects all of us. We have witnessed the tragedies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and why do we want to see that continue? I want to put a stop to that,” Faye said.
“I feel it’s my civic responsibility to speak out at times like this.”
Faye’s petition will be available for signing until 6 p.m. in Room 2002 at the law school, housed in the former Port Arthur Collegiate Institute building on Red River Road.
