CEP was one of the sponsors of a Vancouver conference on preventing crimes against humanity which ended March 21 st . A group of Chinese victims of World War II biological warfare attended the conference to appeal for international support in the pursuit of justice for the first victims of modern biological warfare.

Its estimated that fifty thousand civilian Chinese died as a result of Japanese biological warfare attacks in 1940 and 1942. In the first attack, germ bombs containing bubonic plague were dropped on populated areas. Two years later, the Japanese military released anthrax pathogens.

A group of survivors filed a lawsuit in Tokyo court in 1997, seeking compensation and an apology. Although the court confirmed a breach of international law by the Japanese military, it rejected compensation claims because of international treaties and state immunity. That decision is now under appeal.

The Canadian defense department recently began an historical inquiry into use of Anthrax at the Suffield experimental station in Southern Alberta. The victims group is requesting a broadening of the inquiry since there is now evidence that the Canadian government had access to information about the Japanese biological warfare program through collaboration with the U.S. in the 1940's and 1950's. They are asking the Canadian government to launch a comprehensive investigation into Canada’s biological weapons program.