Our June newsletter is being brought to you by our National Coordinator Alley McDonald.

This June we want to highlight VOW's upcoming fundraiser event "Steeped in Peace" & call for storytellers!; Women in Black protest; Resist NATO event; and so much more happening this month!

Be sure to scroll all the way down for upcoming events, calls to action, and recommended resources!

VOW's work of peace, anti-war and demilitarization merits your support! Make a donation. Even better, join our growing number of Monthly Peace Partners. Consider $5 or $50 or any amount in between. Become a Peace Partner today!

In the lead-up to the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding–taking place in June 2026 in Ottawa, Canada–the Environmental Peacebuilding Association® (EnPAx®) and Conference partners are hosting the Path to Ottawa, a global, consultative series of events and initiatives. 

This initiative will feature regional, national, and thematic events hosted by institutions around the world, designed to engage diverse communities on environmental peacebuilding issues relevant to their communities and contexts. Events are expected to occur between June 2025 and March 2026.

Institutions interested in hosting or convening an event as part of the Path to Ottawa are encouraged to apply via this form. The form also provides more information regarding event criteria, application guidelines, and timelines.

An online information session about the Path to Ottawa will be on Monday, 2 June, 2025 at 10am and 4pm CET to accommodate different time zones. Both sessions will be conducted in English and recorded. You can access the 10am session at this link and the 4pm session at this link. 

Organized by:
New Japanese Immigrant Committee of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.

Co-hosted by:
Toronto Japanese Prefectural Association
Hamilton Chapter, NAJC (National Association of Japanese Canadians)

With support from: Professor Kaori Yoshida, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Special Guest Speaker:
Setsuko Thurlow (Hibakusha, Member of the Order of Canada, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)

Program Highlights:

·  Film screening: The Vow From Hiroshima + Q&A session

·  Opening Performances:
Koichi Yosakoi Ambassador Kizuna International Team Canada
Inner Truth Taiko Dojo

·  Cultural Exhibits:

o    Panel display by the Niigata Kenjinkai: Isoroku Yamamoto – The Naval Officer Who Hoped to Prevent War

o    Cultural booths from various other prefectural associations

Format:
Hybrid (In-person & Online Participation Available)

Event Website:

 80 Years on: Learning from Hiroshima and Nagasaki Together with the Next Generation

Welcome to the Peace and Friendship Gathering 2025! Join us at the Tatamagouche Centre for a meaningful few days of connection, learning, and community. This event is all about coming together to celebrate peace and friendship in a beautiful setting. We'll have workshops, discussions, and activities focused on building relationships and fostering understanding. Don't miss this opportunity to be a part of something special. See you there!

We have a moral and legal responsibility as a country to prevent genocide.
Yet Canada continues to arm Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Our leaders refuse to see, hear or even speak about what’s happening. But we’re not going to let them ignore it.

It’s time to call it what it is. Genocide.

Israel has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in the last 18 months—including 20,000 children. Our country is complicit in these ongoing deaths by buying and selling military goods and technology with Israel. Canada is even profiting off these murders.

As the catastrophe wrought by Israel’s continued assault on Gaza grows, we’re calling on the Canadian government to immediately suspend all trade in arms and military technology with Israel.

It’s time for MPs to join the growing call for a two-way arms embargo on Israel.

We'll be at Gaza square once again this Sunday morning with hot chocolate and coffee, buttons and posters, lawn signs and colourful chalk! Come say hi and meet your fellow neighbours/organizers as we make our presence known and continue to build safety in our community!

World Refugee Day honors the strength and courage of refugees and encourages public awareness and support of the refugees, people who have had to flee their homelands because of conflict or natural disaster. The Day offers an opportunity to build empathy and understanding for the plight of refugees and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.

To share information about your organization’s activities related to this event, subscribe to our peer-to-peer SDG list.

June is National Indigenous History Month, a time for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together to celebrate and reflect on the history, cultures and experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. 

“National Indigenous History Month is an opportunity to centre Indigenous voices and experiences, and to recognize that Indigenous histories are critical to understanding our present,” says Rob Innes, chair of the Indigenous Studies Department and co-chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Communications Standing Committee.  

June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day. This is a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. 

Although these groups share many similarities, they each have their own distinct heritage, language, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs.

In cooperation with Indigenous organizations, the Government of Canada chose June 21, the summer solstice, for National Indigenous Day, now known as National Indigenous Peoples Day. For generations, many Indigenous peoples and communities have celebrated their culture and heritage on or near this day due to the significance of the summer solstice as the longest day of the year.

Events & Resources

British Columbia

Ontario- McMaster University, Toronto

Alberta

Nova Scotia

PEI

Saskatchewan

Manitoba

Quebec

New Brunswick

Newfoundland & Labrador

Yukon

Northwest Territories

Nunavut

June 11th, 2017 -  Pictured: Lyn Adamson, Erin Hunt, Steve Staples, and Judy Deutsch. A workshop on abolishing nuclear weapons at Friends House.

Judy was a fierce and uncompromising fighter for justice, out of love for her family and all the people of this world. She was an anti-Zionist Jew who spent over three decades fighting for the rights of the Palestinian peoples. She was devastated by the genocide in Gaza, and has worked tirelessly and passionately to counter the Israeli narrative of perpetual victimhood and the conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism, and to expose Israeli crimes against humanity. Her other passionate cause was to fight for radical action to counter climate change and its mass humanitarian impacts, and to fight against the hypocrisy and irresponsibility of people in power. She wanted to leave the world a better place for future generations. Judy will be remembered with deep love and never forgotten. In her honour, please consider making a donation to an organization providing humanitarian relief in Gaza.

Car­ney stated that Cana­dian offi­cials have been in dis­cus­sions at the highest level with the White House on par­ti­cip­a­tion in the Golden Dome.

Yet, Cana­dians also deserve to par­ti­cip­ate in pub­lic con­sulta­tions and have a par­lia­ment­ary hear­ing about the coun­try's involve­ment before any final decision is made, because of the ser­i­ous risks and costs.

World BEYOND War has just released its 2025 edition of Mapping Militarism, which uses 24 interactive maps to highlight the state of war and peace on our planet. Each map allows the viewer to spin the globe, zoom in and out, scroll the timeline back through the years, or switch from map view to list view. Try it.

By Charlotte Akin, Programmes & Outreach Lead and Sasha Imbleau, Stop Killer Robots, with research contributions from Rosa Lee

Autonomous weapons systems are the range of weapons systems that detect and apply force to a target based on sensor inputs, rather than an immediate human command. This means that after decision-making and activation by a person, there is a period when the weapon system can apply force to people or objects without any additional human approval: the specific object to be attacked, and the exact time and place of the attack, are determined by sensor processing, not by humans. While we shouldn’t panic about humanoid robots taking over the world as depicted in The Terminator or other sci-fi movies, we should be concerned by the real prospect that human control over the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets will be replaced by sensors, AI, and algorithms within weapons systems. 

Promoting and protecting the rights and agency of women, girls, and gender-diverse people experiencing armed conflict is at the heart of the WPS agenda. Weapons play a central role in the perpetuation of violence. But the connections between disarmament and arms control as measures to advance the WPS agenda remain underexplored in all three iterations of Canada’s National Action Plans on WPS. 

2025 is the 80th anniversary of the invention of nuclear weapons and their first use in New Mexico, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The threat that nuclear weapons could be used again in conflict or by accident is as high - if not higher - as it has ever been. 80 years of living under this existential threat is enough. We must eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us.

It is generally understood that – in purely technical terms –100 percent irreversible nuclear disarmament is impossible since knowledge about nuclear weapons cannot be erased. Given time, resources and a willingness to endure international backlash, a weapons programme could always be reconstituted post disarmament. However, steps can still be taken to provide confidence that disarmament measures are sufficiently irreversible. Bearing this in mind, what are the political, legal, normative, and technical measures available to States to provide confidence that steps along the path to disarmament are adequately irreversible? What is the feasibility of implementing those measures for various disarmament activities?

Join author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession and exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments and criticisms are all welcome.

Mondays 6PM EST

Be sure to renew your membership and donate to support our important work building a culture of peace in Canada and so that we can continue to hire youth throughout the year. Make a donation today!