An unusual policy typewritten 40 years ago crept its way into Revelstoke City Council's meeting Tuesday.
The city's Policy C-6 from 1985, on the subject of nuclear weapons, was rescinded by council on Jan. 28, on grounds of being outdated and beyond councillors' scope of influence.
The original, 1950s-font document, just one page long, declares that the city won't become a nuclear weapons zone, and that council will ensure "all avenues will be used to discourage the placement of nuclear weapons, by any level of government, in the City of Revelstoke."
"It's an interesting one," Coun. Tim Palmer said at Tuesday's meeting after presenting the motion to rescind the policy. "I think it would be natural for people to wonder, 'Why do we have a nuclear weapons policy in the first place?' It goes back to the '70s and '80s. There was a movement amongst local governments in the anti-nuclear environment to have that kind of policies, to say, 'we're not going to build nuclear bombs in our community.'"
Palmer added that council arguably doesn't have jurisdiction to wield such policy, with it being reduced to a "political statement." However, he alluded to being in a similarly "unstable world" today, four decades later.
"It was from 1985 and written in Courier font on a typewriter," Coun. Aaron Orlando added, but it's unlikely whether this kind of policy had any effect in keeping communities safe from nuclear armament. After the meeting, he told Black Press Media while the policy may lack utility today for the city, it may still pique the community's interest.
"We urge the Government of Canada to become a world leader in the enhancement of global peace, in urging the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and in spearheading talks between the superpowers for the reductions in nuclear weapons on both sides," the policy concludes. "We urge the Government of Canada to lead the world toward nuclear disarmament."
Orlando solely opposed the carried motion to rescind the policy, and invited members of the public to consult the original document themselves via the city's website.
The 1985 policy is available online at revelstoke.civicweb.net/filepro/documents.
