NDP, Liberals call for changes to Canada’s bill ratifying cluster bomb treaty

OTTAWA – The NDP and Liberals are calling on the government to amend a controversial bill that would ratify Canada’s participation in a treaty to ban deadly cluster bombs.

Canada signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008, but the Conservative government waited until last year to introduce the legislation that would ratify it.

The legislation has sparked criticism because it contains a provision that would allow the Canadian Forces to be involved in the use of cluster bombs in joint operations with the United States, which has opted out of the convention.

Opposition parties say the bill does not conform to the letter or the spirit of the convention — banning the use of cluster munitions.

The bill passed second reading on Wednesday and was referred to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

A single cluster bomb contains hundreds of baseball-sized explosives that often fail to explode and can lie dormant for decades, posing an ongoing hazard to innocent civilians, especially young children in dozens of post-war countries.