October 16, 2008, Ottawa: Many in the Canadian disarmament community were happy to attend the October 15th launch of Hon. Doug Roche’s memoires in his latest book “Creative Dissent: A Politician’s Struggle for Peace”. The following morning, Doug Roche presented his 80th birthday speech called “It’s the Future, Stupid!” The speech, dealing with the continuing threat posed by 25,000 nuclear weapons, takes its theme from Senator Roche’s new book: “To the policy-makers of the present, I say, if I may paraphrase Bill Clinton’s famous election cry, ‘It’s the Future, Stupid.’ Get over your wooden-headedness. We are hurtling into a future of more discord, more terrorism, more danger. As Kofi Annan said: ‘We are asleep the controls of a fast-moving aircraft’.” The panel responding was composed of Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, Ernie Regehr O.C., of Project Ploughshares and Prof. Erika Simpson of the University of Western Ontario. Doug’s birthday was celebrated over lunch and was highlighted by tributes to Doug for the extraordinary contribution he has made to the national and international disarmament community. – Bev Delong, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
|
 |
