Peaceful vigils for Gaza. You don't have to be a grandmother to show your support.

*Events have been taking place across Canada January 3rd-5th. There are still three locations: Hamilton & Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia with events taking place on January 5th, 2026

The Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network (CWPJN) condemns the recent U.S. military attacks against Venezuela, and joins the international call for emergency actions against war on Venezuela.

In response to the U.S. military’s direct attacks on Venezuela and the U.S. capture of Venezuela’s President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, CWPJN calls for cross-Canada emergency actions on or around MONDAY JANUARY 5 outside the U.S. embassy, consulates and other public spaces.

Missile Defense, as the term implies, is defending against enemy missiles carrying an explosive payload. The origin of these anti-missile systems dates back to the Cold War space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, an era when intercontinental ballistic missiles could be deployed in space to launch satellites to orbit or travel thousands of miles carrying nuclear weapons. Missile defense systems were deployed by both superpowers in the 1960s, but proved to be technically infeasible and prohibitively expensive. They were ultimately abandoned.

Feasibility and cost notwithstanding, the U.S. military and weapons contractors succeeded in pursuing these systems during the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. Now, Donald Trump has launched the ambitious Golden Dome project, yet another missile defense program based on technologies and space-based interceptors proven to be unworkable.

In this webinar, we will hear three experts discuss the technical and policy aspects of Golden Dome.

*Radar sites in Ontario will be linked to Golden Dome. Canada will potentially squander $61 billion to participate in this U.S. "missile shield" program. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/golden-dome-mcguinty-9.6932329

Nominations are now open for the 2026 Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth (PACEY) Award.

Do you know of a youth project that addresses peace, nuclear disarmament and/or climate issues and that could be boosted by a prestigious award with €5000 in prize money to help it succeed? If so, we encourage you to nominate it for the 2026 PACEY Award.

Nominations are easy. And if you are young and involved in such a project, you can nominate it yourself. The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2025.

While Sudan faces one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, the violence is being ignored. Join us for a teach-in exposing the genocide being carried out by the RSF and the global powers profiting from mass killings. Raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis and how to aid. This is a space to learn, ask questions, and turn awareness into action.

Speakers:

Dr Eman, from Sudan Doctors Union-Canada ( International Humanitarian and Development Expert ).

Ranya Elfil, from Sudanese Canadian Communities Association (SCCA)-board member ( leading Advocacy efforts on immigration and humanitarian response ).

Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania blends actual recordings and scripted performances to tell the devastating true story of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl trapped in a car under Israeli military fire, and the first responders who tried to save her.

Read more about the film here: https://www.tiff.net/events/the-voice-of-hind-rajab

As a part of our "Building an Anti-Imperialist Neighbourhood Struggle" Public Educational Series, please join us to hear from Rigel Sergent, Spokesperson, Movimiento de Inquilinas e Inquilinos, anti-eviction movement in Venezuela. They are a part of their parent organization: Movimiento de Pobladoras y Pobladores, combative Chavista platform for urban struggle, that occupies unused urban land.

We will also be joined by Blanca Eeekhout, who has previously served as the Minister of People's Power for the Communes and Social Movements of Venezuela, a leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and is the current president of the Instituto Simón Bolívar for Peace and Solidarity Among Peoples (ISB) which advocates for peace, solidarity, and human rights in Venezuela!

In Militarized Global Apartheid Catherine Besteman offers a sweeping theorization of the ways in which countries from the global north are reproducing South Africa's apartheid system on a worldwide scale to control the mobility and labor of people from the global south.

In January, 2026, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of the book Militarized Global Apartheid with the author Catherine Besteman.

When you register for the club, we will send you your choice of a paperback, kindle, Google Play eBook, or Kubo eBook.

We'll let you know which parts of the book will be discussed each week along with the Zoom details to access the discussions.

When:

For one hour on January 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2026, beginning at UTC 17:00, which is 7:00 a.m. in Honolulu, 9:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, 11:00 a.m. in Mexico City, 12:00 noon in New York, 6:00 p.m. in Yaoundé, 6:00 p.m. in Berlin, 8:30 p.m. in Tehran, 10:30 p.m. in New Delhi. It is the next day at 6:00 a.m. in Auckland.

Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the second feature film project by Abby Martin, is a groundbreaking anti-imperialist environmental documentary.

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, this film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism.

VOW will have a table at the screenings, and welcome our members to join us. If you are interested to join us, email us at info@vowpeace.org

In February, 2026, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of the book Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy with the author Rose A. Dyson.

When you register for the club, we will send you a PDF of the book.

We'll let you know which parts of the book will be discussed each week along with the Zoom details to access the discussions.

When:

For one hour on Wednesday February 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2026, beginning at UTC 23:00, which is 1 p.m. in Honolulu, 3 p.m. in Los Angeles, 5 p.m. in Mexico City, and 6 p.m. in New York, and . . .

. . . the next day, Thursday, at 7 a.m. in Beijing, 8 a.m. in Tokyo, 10 a.m. in Sydney, and 12 p.m. noon in Auckland.

Canada must immediately cut off all direct and indirect support for the U.S.’ acts of war and military violence.

Early on January 3rd, the U.S. carried out a violent military assault on Venezuela, bombing the capital, causing numerous fatalities, and abducting President Nicolas Maduro. These illegal, unilateral, and criminal acts of aggression against Venezuela threaten peace and stability across the entire region and fit into a long history of violent U.S. interventions in Latin America and around the world.

Canada must take immediate action to:

• Condemn this clear act of war, demand Maduro’s immediate release, and denounce all U.S. aggression on Venezuela.

• Cut off any military support to the U.S. war on Venezuela, including the use of Canadian naval vessels, military personnel, Canadian-made arms, or military intelligence to support U.S. strikes.

• Rescind Canadian sanctions on Venezuela and resume diplomatic relations with Caracas

All out in solidarity with Venezuela!

We, the undersigned anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations, condemn the U.S. violent attacks on the rights of Venezuelans, and violations of Venezuela’s sovereignty. 

The U.S. bombed civilian and military areas of the city of Caracas, the capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira in the early morning of Saturday January 3rd under the cover of darkness to sow terror in the country, killing civilians and destroying Venezuelan infrastructure in the process.

The Venezuelan people are resisting and we must support them.

Mobilize and coordinate mass resistance against this violence. Take to the streets, organize rallies and teach-ins on your university campuses, mobilize in your unions to demonstrate solidarity and shut down the supply chains of imperialism, including resolutions, pickets and protests outside of arms factories and ports that are providing the weapons for this aggression. For those outside the U.S., Venezuelan movements and organizations are asking for mobilizations outside of U.S. embassies, U.S. military bases and diplomatic installations around the world. 

For the first time, this report exposes a pipeline of military goods flowing from Canada to Israel via the U.S., facilitated by a deadly loophole in Canadian law. The hundreds of documented shipments of explosives and aircraft parts – from Canadian factories and through Canadian ports – contain vital components of both Israel’s F-35 fighter jets and the bombs they are dropping on Gaza.

"Yesterday the mighty Coalition for the Gaza Family Reunification Program in Canada issued a letter to our Prime Minister and relevant officials.

I encouraged everyone to take a read to understand direct Canadian complicity in violence against Palestinians. It takes many forms, as do the publicity stunts that intend to convince us otherwise. Here is but one example, disguising racist policies. The Canadian program has been used to collect unprecedented and disproportionate information on families and handed over to Israel and Egypt, both surveillance run entities. It has knowingly separated families. It has also been used to justify the intrusive securitization and violations of family members. 

We know these families comprise some of the most vulnerable human beings on earth. We also know that 50% of the Gazan population was children averaging the age of 5 years old when the genocide began. 

The letter can be found below and is also available here.

For those wondering what to do, we have also created a toolkit with more detailed information and action to demand better of Canadian officials here. 

For those in Ottawa, you can go visit and hear from some families pleading for the lives of their loved ones with weekly vigils on Wednesdays in front of the IRCC headquarters downtown (300 Slater Street)."

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