Operation Dismantle : Operation Dismantle was founded in 1977 by James Stark and Peter Brown with the purpose of mobilizing public opinion to put pressure on governments to negotiate an end or reversal to the arms race. With its headquarters in Toronto, and later in Ottawa, the organization sought to establish branch organizations across Canada which would support it in its endeavours. It also sought to recruit individual members and general supporters who would aid in particular through financial contributions or letter writing campaigns. In 1981, the organization had some 550 members. These increased to over 10,000 supporters and members some ten years later and included twenty branches, with branches existing in major centres across Canada.
In pursuit of its goal of global disarmament, Operation Dismantle called for a global referendum on disarmament. This would be introduced in the United Nations General Assembly by one nation, with the help of co-sponsors. Following acceptance of this motion, the United Nations would decide on the wording of the ballot which would then be voted on in the different countries. To gain support for this objective, Operation Dismantle lobbied Members of Parliament. It also carried out referendums at the municipal level, which showed that three quarters of Canadians were in favour of balanced multilateral disarmament.
In 1983, Operation led a coalition of labour unions and peace groups to challenge Canada's testing of the Cruise Missile over Canadian territory. Although its court challenge went all the way to the Supreme Court, the organization was unsuccessful in preventing the Canadian government from stopping the testing. Operation Dismantle reached the height of its influence in the early 1980s. However, it was unable to use its success with the municipal referendums to put pressure on the Federal Government to work toward global disarmament. Part of the problem was that it did not co-ordinate its efforts sufficiently with other groups pursuing the same objective. Of these groups, it worked most closely with the World Federalists of Canada. Their membership overlapped and they co-operated on such issues as the municipal referendums or the court challenge to Cruise Missile testing. However, this was only one of the issues which the World Federalists supported. Operation Dismantle focussed almost solely on the issue of nuclear disarmament and arms reduction. With the demise of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, this became less of a pressing issue for the Canadian public and influenced the support, both financial and other, which it gave to Operation Dismantle. Also, personality differences among the executive of the organization hindered it from putting all its energy into pursuing its objectives. Furthermore, dependent almost exclusively upon financial contributions from the public, the organization was unable even in the best of times to collect sufficient money to mobilize all its endeavours behind the goal of nuclear disarmament or arms reduction. All these influences led Operation Dismantle to disband in 1989 and merge with the World Federalists of Canada.
