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Question 3: The 1995 Policy Review and Since

Canada is a member of many international organizations, including the G8, NATO, the Commonwealth, La Francophonie, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Arctic Council. Should our participation in any of these be strengthened, or adjusted?

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Contributor:	1864
Date:	2003-05-01 01:46:06
Answer:
I believe I am somewhat familiar with the workings of NATO but not of the others. I am curious why the UN is not on this list. I believe Canada should give highest priority to its membership in the UN. The other memberships are obviously not unimportant but their interests and activities should not detract from what we try to achieve within and through the UN, and everything we do in them should be within the framework of international law that the human family has achieved through the UN. Where our policies are sometimes at odds with the institution in question, we should be prepared to negotiate and compromise only in so far as we do not compromise international law and international undertakings arrived at in the UN. For example, within NATO I believe Canada should remain a committed but non-cooperative and non-compliant member on the issue of NATO's continued reliance on nuclear weapons and should never agree to any feature of the nuclear policy except if it is demonstrably moving towards the elimination of nuclear weapons as per undertakings within the NPT.
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