Today is the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  In Japan today, 50,000 people stood for a minute of silence at Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicentre of the August 6th, 1945 blast.  It was an attack that killed up to 140,000 people.  Three days later, the bombing of Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more, prompting Japan’s surrender and an end to the Second World War.

Tonight at Toronto City Hall, Canadian actress and activist Shirley Douglas will be the featured speaker at the Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemoration.  79 year old Douglas is urging the Canadian government to take a leading role in the world wide movement to abolish “nuclear” weapons. “Go to the UN, represent the country and be a leader,” Douglas told the New AM 740’s Goldhawk Fights Back.  She said, Canada should follow the lead of the Barack Obama administration in the United States, “and we have to be with him.  He’s the person who’s saying, we must abolish nuclear weapons and I want to start with a cutting of a third.”