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

Join us for the third and final webinar of the series 'Global Dialogues of Change', where we have explored alternatives to punitive and carceral "justice", as well as feminist strategies for preventing gender-based violence. This closing conversation will focus on practical, community-based approaches to moving beyond criminalization, with organizations from different regions sharing how they are already building safety outside policing and punishment. This session will also create space to identify shared priorities for future action as we continue imagining feminist responses to harm grounded in care and social transformation. 

Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine is privileged to share our first film showing of 2026 with partner, Princess Cinema.

On January 29, 2024, a five-year-old Palestinian girl named Hid Rajab and six members of her family attempted to obey an evacuation order by Israel's military before their home in Gaza City was to be bombed. The Israeli military shelled and shot at the fleeing vehicle, killing Hind's family and trapping the young girl in the wreckage. Hind was able to place a call to the Palestinian Red Crescent begging for help as darkness falls. She waited 3 hours for an ambulance to be granted permission by the Israeli military to come to her only to have it shelled by a tank just as it reached her. The two paramedics were murdered- as was Hind herself.

The film will be introduced with opening remarks by Robert Massoud, founder of Zatoun. 
In deference to the film's subject it will not be followed by the usual conversation / Q&A.

On Friday, Jan. 30th at 3 pm, NIAC President, Jamal Abdi, will join journalist and analyst Negar Mortazavi and award-winning foreign affairs correspondent and author of All the Shah's Men, Stephen Kinzer, in conversation. The panel will unpack the current situation inside Iran and the geopolitical landscape, including U.S. and Israeli calculations following the 12-day war last June that killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, and where we go from here. 

Reducing the Threat of Nuclear War - online conference

Our nation and world are in a period of continuing danger and difficulty: The recently passed Pentagon budget is higher than ever and is funding a new generation of nuclear weapons; The tragic Israel/Gaza Conflict continues; The Russia/Ukraine conflict remains a source of increased danger of nuclear war; The attacks on Venezuela opens a new front of “forever wars”. The egregious costs of the weapons buildups is draining our tax dollars from critical civilian needs, among which are K-12 public schools and higher education. This Conference continues the tradition of trying to increase cooperation and collaboration among those advocating for nuclear disarmament and social and economic justice.

Join the Toronto Chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement for a special 2-part book club on Ghassan Kanafani's The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine. This interactive book club will take place in-person over two evening on Sunday February 1 and Saturday Feb 7.

The first session aims to provide relevant context and background for understanding Palestinian revolutionary history and the second session builds upon these learnings as it applies to the Revolt period itself. Both sessions are interactive with breakout group discussions and planned activities.

Please sign up to join using the link in bio @pymtoronto

This course addresses a central challenge facing societies today: What can unarmed civilians do when militaries attack, invade, or occupy their communities? What real alternatives exist beyond fighting back with violence? Prevention is always the best strategy, and it becomes possible when societies commit to the pursuit of peace by peaceful means. Yet in an increasingly militarized world, communities also need practical and credible methods of protection when violence breaks out. This course responds to that need by exploring the why, what, and how of Unarmed Civilian Defense (UCD) — a proven, people-powered approach for safeguarding civilians and resisting violence without weapons.

The course includes three core components: 1) a six-week online course; 2) three interactive live sessions; and 3) an end-of-course strategy simulation.

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.

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used to deport migrants, replace workers, predict “crime,” dox activists, and target weapons. Meanwhile, its energy consumption continues to exacerbate the climate crisis and nuclear risks. This panel will explore these harms and discuss how to abolish this techno-fascist nightmare.

Military bases, especially foreign ones — current and sought — generate wars. The United States has used its bases in Latin America and the Caribbean to attack Venezuela, while threatening to take over Greenland to build more bases there. Iran is bordered by seven nations with U.S. bases. The nations to the south and east of China are packed with U.S. bases, as is Europe, as is Israel. Africa has foreign bases from several empires. Russia is making more use of its bases in Belarus.

On February 23, 1903, the United States took over Guantanamo from Cuba. It has never restored it. People across Latin America have used this date to organize events opposing bases, militarism, and the Monroe Doctrine. We made it a global day of action for the first time in 2025. We’re expanding our second annual collection of events to include the February 21-22 weekend.

What you can do: Use our resources to easily plan a local educational or activist event of any kind: a panel, a protest, an art display, a banner-drop, a sit-in, a press conference, a film screening, a rally, a march.

We call on individuals and organizations around the world to join the Global Days of Action to #CloseBases on February 21-23, 2026, by organizing events at military base sites or other locations near you.

In March, 2026, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of four powerful antiwar picture books for all ages with the author Kathy Beckwith.

When you register for the club, Kathy will send you four signed books!

One book will be discussed each of the four weeks.

We'll let you know the Zoom details to access the discussions.

When:

For one hour on Tuesday March 3, 10, 17, and 24, 2026, beginning at UTC 00:00, which is 2 p.m. in Honolulu, 4 p.m. in Los Angeles, 6 p.m. in Mexico City, and 7 p.m. in New York, and . . .

. . . the next day, Wednesday, at 8 a.m. in Beijing, 9 a.m. in Tokyo, 11 a.m. in Sydney, and 1 p.m. in Auckland.

46 years ago, Gene Sharp contended, in this award-winning article, that war can realistically be abolished - if societies prepare for a credible, civilian-based nonviolent defense system capable of deterring and defeating aggression. Today, however, we are no closer to the abolition of war than in 1980. Is Sharp’s notion of civilian-based defence defective? Can we modify Sharp’s approach to make this abolition a realistic goal?

Please note this is a hybrid event. If you are attending online, please register HERE for zoom.

Registration is now open

PEGASUS Institute is an educational NGO fostering collaboration at the nexus of global health, peace, and environmental sustainability, with a focus on advancing health equity for all, in particular marginalized populations. Our 2026 conference, Interconnected Futures: Pathways to Justice in Global Health, Peace, and Environmental Sustainability (three days), will bring together a diverse community to share innovative strategies, research, and ideas for tackling today’s interconnected challenges, such as from the climate crisis, inequality, to political violence and health inequities.

PEGASUS 2026 aims to strengthen our recognition of the interconnection of health, peace, and the planet. Advancing justice across these domains requires inclusive, interdisciplinary, and community-driven approaches. As the world is confronted by climate crisis, structural inequality, political violence, and global health inequities, this conference offers space to share experiences, strategies, research, and ideas that reflect intersectional, decolonial, and equity-oriented perspectives.

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)."

Legacy Donations

Your legacy gift helps ensure that VOW’s critical work continues for years to come. Whether it’s advancing our disarmament education program, advocating for peace, or working to end nuclear threats, your gift will directly support the next generation of peacebuilders!