Mr. Speaker, this week we learned of the passing of Stanislav Petrov.
Stanislav Petrov was on duty at a Russian nuclear early warning centre in 1983 when computers wrongly detected incoming missiles from the U.S. He decided they were a false alarm and did not report them to his superiors. Had he not done so, we might have had a nuclear war by mistake, by accident.
What happened that day illustrates the danger and utter absurdity of the atomic bomb and the arms race, a madness that continues to this day. That is why we need to continue to work towards nuclear disarmament.
Canada's absence today at the United Nations, at the signing of the nuclear weapons ban treaty is shameful. The world deserves better.
Thank you, Stanislav Petrov.