The First Twenty Years: G78 Peace Policies in the 80s
by Tim Creery
Toward a comprehensive foreign policy
The Group of 78 grew out of the conviction of the founders that Canada was too embedded in the
confrontation of the Cold War. They wanted the country to be more innovative in seeking co-operative
international policies that would shift the emphasis to arms reduction and disarmament, fair global
governance through the United Nations and its institutions, and an equitable global economic order to
reduce the appalling gap between rich and poor. The founders were alarmed by such Cold War
developments as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the introduction of intermediate-range nuclear
missiles in Europe, and the rising turmoil in the Middle East.
The first policy conference was held in the fall of 1984 and included a tribute from founding member
Gordon Fairweather to Andrew Brewin, who had died since the founding of the Group. The gathering
was held at Stoney Lake, near Peterborough. Both that year and the next, the Stoney Lake conferences
produced general policy statements updating, and expanding on the 1981 statement.
The 1984 document, A Foreign Policy for the 80's, called for a moratorium on all space weapons, steps
to reduce nuclear weapons, renunciation by NATO of first use of nuclear weapons, efforts to constrain
the arms trade, and support for an international satellite monitoring agency. The Group started stressing
the importance of measures to improve the economic outlook of the poorer countries, including what
turned out to be the losing battle to improve Canadian foreign aid. With separate sections on human
rights, and the environment and the oceans, the conference document illustrated the Group's intention to
deal with the whole sweep of foreign policy, "linking peace and security with the building of an equitable
world order". The document was signed by 148 people.
The 1985 conference statement, To Combine Our Efforts, commended the Mulroney government for
declining to participate in President Reagan's "Star Wars" project. It said that "security is a by-product of
global and economic well-being rather than a goal to be attained by the application of power". In August
of 1985 the Group had published a magazine-size book of articles by members, Canada and the World;
National Interest and Global Responsibility, responding to the government's green paper on foreign
policy. Founding Member John Polanyi wrote in an article debunking Star Wars, "To whatever extent
one side has defences, to that same extent the opposing side can be considered to have been disarmed."
The 1985 conference statement once again broadened the scope of Group of 78 policy interests, but
continued to give priority in the Cold War context to the nuclear threat. Members such as King Gordon,
Escott Reid, Dr. Polanyi, George Ignatieff, Major-General (ret) Leonard Johnson, Ernie Regehr, Anatol
Rapoport, and Murray Thomson - to mention only a few - brought much experience or expert knowledge
to bear on the issues of disarmament and arms control.
The conference report dwelt also on the importance of stimulating public interest in foreign affairs, the
importance of UNESCO in global cultural co-operation, and the desirability of ratifying the Law of the
Sea convention. In a section on "Peacemaking and Human Rights", the statement dealt extensively with
measures to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, then turned to the issue of opposing military
solutions and outside intervention in Central America. Development co-operation, crushing poverty in
Africa, and the environment were also treated at some length. The statement was signed by 89
participants at the conference.
Elaborating the theme of common security
By the 1986 conference, members had something of a summer-camp spirit, complete with a song starting,
"Stoney Lakers here we come ..." That year's conference theme, Canada and Common Security: the
Assertion of Sanity, became the title of the G78's next collection of articles, published early in 1987.
King Gordon, who in these years was co-chair of the G78 along with Ann Gertler, said in his introduction
to the book that common security implies "a viable and realistic alternative to the adversarial
relationship". It is "the principle of collective action to maintain peace, solve economic problems and
protect human rights". The book concluded with a summary statement of the conference by Penny
Sanger, executive secretary of the Group at that time, in which she recalled Ann Gertler's opening
statement: "The war system remains intact and will do so until we have something to replace it."
Returning to Stoney Lake for the last time in 1987, the conference had as theme The United Nations, a
Security Alternative for Canada. Among its resolutions was one deploring the continuation of cruise-missile testing over Canada. At the suggestion of Joanna Miller a working group was established on an
alternative defence policy for Canada. The report of the conference welcomed reductions in Cold War
tensions and deplored the hawkish tone of the Mulroney government's defence white paper, with its
projection of 10 to 12 nuclear-powered submarines for Canada. (They never slid down the ways.) The
conference called for a phase-out of defence production incentives, the complete separation of Canadian
forces from NORAD, the purchase by Canada of all parts of the North Warning System on Canadian soil
and their allocation to the Canadian Air Defence Command. It wanted more attention to UN peace
operations and better training for Canadian participation in them.
Meanwhile, an idea originating among G78 members, particularly the late Professor Maxwell Cohen, at
the 1984 conference, had come impressively to life in the summer in Ottawa: an international conference
of top lawyers and scientists considering the constraints of law on nuclear weapons.
In 1988 the annual policy conference was held at Lake Couchiching on the topic International Trends:
Potential for Change. Earlier in the year the Group had issued a statement urging the demilitarization of
the Arctic; it also joined with a number of other peace groups in an open letter on disarmament; the
others were Operation Dismantle, Project Ploughshares, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, and the World
Federalists of Canada..
Defence policy must support foreign policy
In 1989 the Group finally brought out its Alternative Defence Policy paper, a measured rebuttal of the
confrontational thesis of the 1987 defence white paper. The document is notable for an introduction by
King Gordon, among the last things he wrote before his death early in 1989. Gordon had been disturbed
by the narrow focus and harsh tone of Canada's defence policy statements compared with the broader
vision and moderate tone of foreign policy statements. One of his paragraphs stands up today as a brief
prescription for Canadian defence policy:
"An alternative defence policy for Canada must be both consistent with and supportive of Canada's
foreign policy. It must be designed to enhance common security in the international community, to fulfill
our commitments under the United Nations Charter, and to assist in the peaceful resolution of disputes. It
must support international peacekeeping efforts - as previously demonstrated with great distinction - and
encourage international co-operation to enhance stability and justice in a global society."
The paper itself called for "an expanded role for Canada in both peacekeeping and peacemaking", and for
more educational and training opportunities in peacekeeping and peacemaking. Greater emphasis should
be placed on capability for disaster relief. It reaffirmed the policies adopted at other conferences. It said,
"The arms trade is the contemporary analogue of the slave trade. It should be regarded as a crime against
humanity and abolished." That had to be a distant goal, it admitted, but we should make a start by such
steps as an international arms register, and an end to defence production sharing with the United States.
The 1989 conference was held at the University of Ottawa. On the topic Canada and Her Neighbours:
the U.S. and the U.S.S.R..
In 1990, the Group held the first of the conferences at Econiche in the Gatineau, which continued through
the nineties. That year, too, a dinner was held in tribute to J. King Gordon, with Gordon Fairweather and
Marie-Hélène Courtemanche-Boyle as co-chairs.
Looking back over the G78's formative years we can see a constant and energetic effort to broaden and
deepen its elaboration of a peace-centered foreign policy. The scale of the effort proved to be more than
the resources of the Group could support, but that is a different story, though very much the same story as
the G78's problems today. In the meantime, the ending of the Cold War and flowering of the Global Age
have brought many changes along the lines the Group had urged, retained some features it deplored, and
introduced new concerns or heightened others, such as human rights, local conflict, and environmental
quality.
