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Controlling Access
Canada relies on a mix of national and multilateral export controls on sensitive goods, technology and expertise, to help control or deny access to WMD-related material and technology at home and abroad. Export control regimes (see listing) bring like-minded countries together to set international standards to control exports of WMD-related equipment and material.
Canada's Global Partnership Programme, which was launched during our country's Presidency of the Group of 8 in 2002, helps address threats posed by the Cold War legacy of WMD and related materials, initially from the Russian Federation. There, the Programme is helping to dismantle decommissioned nuclear submarines, destroy Russia's extensive chemical weapon stocks, upgrade protection at nuclear facilities, redirect former weapons scientists into other work, and improve biosecurity and biosafety.
To help control existing stocks of WMD-related materials, UN Security Council Resolution 1540 requires all states to enact and enforce domestic controls to prevent non-state actors from gaining WMD-related materials.
Intercepting illegal shipments of WMD-related items – for example, under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) – also disrupts or cuts unlawful WMD trafficking networks to further deter illegal proliferation.
