Abrogation of our non-proliferation leadership would destroy the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty: Whitlock
Re: “Eyre is right: our long-term security would be greatly enhanced by a credible, even small, Canadian nuclear force” (Matt Gurney, Opinion, Feb 9, 2026).
It’s difficult to read a lengthy opinion about whether Canada should own nuclear weapons which doesn’t once mention the global non-proliferation regime that Canada helped establish 80 years ago.
At that time Canada also helped invent nuclear energy, along with the capability to turn it into life-saving radioisotopes to diagnose and fight disease.
To invoke a timely notion: this was a major hinge moment in this country’s history, coming on the heels of a devastating world war and the eve of a new world order that Canada would help construct.
With that world order now under threat and Canada seeking strength from within, a second hinge moment is upon us.
Canada has always been a nuclear superpower, from the moment it emerged from WWII with the world’s second largest nuclear program and a peaceful blueprint for its use (a blueprint now extending coast to coast).
This blueprint excludes nuclear weapons not because we lack the knowledge or resources to pursue them, but because we believe the world is safer with less nuclear weapons, and less countries owning them.
For almost 60 years the umbrella for peaceful nuclear cooperation has been the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), enabling Canada and other countries to share advances in medicine, agriculture, water supply, and industry without spreading nuclear weapons.
Abrogation of our non-proliferation leadership would destroy the NPT, much the same as a US invasion of Greenland would have destroyed NATO.
These are challenging times, and Canada has shown that the sustainable response in challenging times is to broker peace, not break the peace. Let’s learn from history and give common sense a chance to prevail.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeremy Whitlock
Nuclear consultant and former Senior Technical Advisor at the IAEA Dept. of Safeguards
Dr. Jeremy J. Whitlock
Stratford, Ont.
(The writer is a nuclear consultant and former senior technical adviser at the IAEA Department of Safeguards.
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