Our July newsletter is being brought to you by our National Coordinator Alley McDonald and Co-Chair Lyn Adamson. We are announcing VOW's 2023 Strawberry Social & Fundraiser, VOW's 2023 Peace Leadership Retreat, and Alley McDonald & Tamara Lorincz's engagement in Global Affairs Canada's 2023 Civil Society Consultlations on Disarmament, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control.

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 $500 or any amount in between. Become a Peace Partner today!

With financial support from generous funders including the family of Ann Gertler, Tamara represented VOW and WILPF Canada at the “International Summit for Peace in Ukraine” in Vienna from June 9th-12th. 

Check out VOW's website to learn about the conference's final declaration and more!

Tamara went on a week-long trip to British Columbia in June--travelling to Grand Forks, Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Victoria. Read more about her speaking tour and incredible advocacy work in B.C. on our website!

With Tamara Lorincz & Alley McDonald

Wednesday, July 26th
7:30pm-9pm ET 4:30-6:00 PM PT

Register in advance

Co-organized by the WILPF Canada and VOW

Join our webinar to hear from Tamara Lorincz, member of WILPF Canada and VOW, and Alley McDonald, the National Coordinator of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), as they talk about their recent peace trips to Ottawa, Vienna, London, British Columbia and Brussels.

Tamara will highlight her attendance at the "International Summit for Peace in Ukraine" in Vienna and Alley will talk about the Global Women for Peace United Against NATO events in Brussels and online. They will also talk about their recent participation in the 2023 Civil Society Consultations on foreign policy with Global Affairs Canada and officials with the Department of National Defence in Ottawa at the end of June. There will be time for a discussion and Q&A period. All welcome!

Read Tamara’s latest article, “Peace in the Seas: A Call for the Demilitarization and Protection of the Oceans.”

There are many good articles including “Climate Change Worsens Gender-Based Violence,” “Climate Collateral” and more! See the Table of Contents here! 

We call ourselves Global Women for Peace United Against NATO and we have produced a Declaration for Peace (written in many different languages), outlining our message of peace, justice, solidarity, and common security. 

The Declaration and list of signatories will be sent to the NATO headquarters, NATO members and partners, and their parliaments, together with the EU Commission and members of the European Parliament. We will make sure our voices are heard – our voices for peace and justice.

As part of the international protests, we are organizing a programme of events in Brussels, home of the NATO headquarters. This will take place from July 6th to 9th; there will be meetings, debates, seminars, and street actions – and much of it will be available online as well as in person. 

The US and Canada are key members of the war organization NATO. Activists from the US and Canada will discuss their countries' history of involvement in NATO and in the wars in Europe and Afghanistan and call for the end of war-mongering NATO.

Join us on Saturday, July 8th @ 10am EDT, as VOW's National Coordinator, Alley McDonald, and Advisory Board Member for Veteran's for Peace, Ann Wright, co-host the webinar with a panel of incredible speakers from Canada and the USA.

Panel Speakers include: 

Shivangi Misra-Chair of the International League of People's Struggle & International Human Rights Lawyer

Tamara Lorincz- WILPF Canada & VOW Member

Rebecca Irby- New Detroit, A Racial Justice Organization

Medea Benjamin- CODEPINK

Joseph Gerson- Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security

By registering below, a link will be provided to you that gives you access to all of the webinars taking place by Global Women for Peace United Against NATO on July 7th & 8th.

International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War are planning a second-annual 24-hour peace wave on July 8-9, 2023. This is a 24-hour-long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun.

This is just prior to an annual NATO meeting, and we will take the opportunity to oppose all military alliances.

July 9 is also the anniversary of the day in 1955 when Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and seven other scientists warned that a choice must be made between war and human survival.

Join the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War as we welcome Earl Turcotte, an esteemed advocate for nuclear disarmament and conventional arms control. 

Mr. Turcotte will engage in a discussion about the heart of disarmament advocacy. He will recount some of his personal experience and lessons learned as an advocate for arms control and disarmament, both inside and outside the Canadian Public Service and, for a few years, with the United Nations Development Program

Be sure to mark your calendar for this hugely important and informative event.

The panel will speak for the first hour (9:00 am EST or 1:00 pm UTC).

During the second hour we will open the floor for questions/comments from the audience.

We are asking everyone to register in advance - this way you will get an automatic reminder before the event.

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We've got some great speakers on really timely topics. You won't be disappointed.

• Bruce Gagnon - Panel discussion moderator

• Tamara Lorincz - Censorship Industrial Complex - How NATO, national intelligence services and universities coordinate and weaponize information

• Ray McGovern - US Missile Bases in Poland & Romania – 'Cuban Missile Crisis in Reverse'

• Juyeon Rhee - US-NATO expansion into the Asia-Pacific

• Lisa Savage - Declining Empire Chases Fading Dream Of Full Spectrum Dominance

• Christian Sorensen - How corporations form the backbone of space militarization?

• Professor Em. Dave Webb - The drive to militarise & weaponise space

This Q&A panel discussion, hosted by Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), Youth Fusion, and World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP), will consider how progress on environmental protection is hampered by armed conflict, nuclear threats, and the massive diversion of resources into weapons and war. In this webinar, we will explore the potential of common security and global governance to foster cooperation to more effectively address climate, peace, and disarmament issues. This intergenerational dialogue will bring together youthful energy and innovation with seasoned expertise and experience, actively engaging our audience to build stronger pathways to a peaceful and sustainable future.

Held in two online sessions:

-Session 1 on July 13 timed to suit participants in the Americas/Africa/Europe/Middle East.

-Session 2 on July 20 timed to suit participants from Asia/Pacific.

The arms race is moving into space. Since the end of World War II, the US has aimed to “control and dominate” space. In 2019 the Trump administration created the ‘Space Force’ to further operationalize this space control mission. Now, as the US sets it sights on maintaining its global unipolar hegemony, the militarization of space is proceeding more rapidly than ever.

This webinar will be presented by Bruce Gagnon and Dave Webb, and address the realities and dangers of space militarization, including how the profiteers of the military-industrial complex drive the process.

The first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will meet from 31 July–11 August 2023 at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria.

Click here to find Conference Resources 

NPT News in Review - subscribe now to receive monitoring and analysis throughout the Preparatory Committee

The petition called on the Government of Canada to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to send an official delegation to observe the second meeting of the parties of TPNW in New York in November.

You can read the petition text here.

You can also read or watch MP Mathyssen present the petition by scrolling through the Hansard Debate on her name here. VOW is now awaiting a response from the federal government to this petition.

VOW is grateful to our youth peace campaigner Sarah Rohleder for organizing this petition. We are also excited that Sarah is able to continue to work for VOW this summer thanks to a generous donation.

Now is the time to stop this planned purchase before it happens!

The government's own Letter of Interest to potential armed drone suppliers lays out scenarios for Canadian military drone use. One describes surveillance of public protest within Canada. Another scenario is modeled after the infamous US drone strike program, featuring a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." 

These scenarios are deeply disturbing. The Canadian military should not even be considering these kinds of activities, let alone purchasing billions of dollars of new weapons systems to carry them out.

Take action now to cancel the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) planned armed drone purchase.

Send an email to your MP calling for Canada to cancel the planned purchase of its first armed drones.

Join VOW members in signing the petition calling upon Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal government to put an end to the continuing miscarriage of justice that Hassan Diab is facing, and refuse any future request for Diab’s extradition to France.

Call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Urging him to protect Hassan Diab

Send a Letter for Canada to take immediate action to end the injustice against Dr. Hassan Diab 

In August 2023, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of the brand new book War Made Invisible with the author Norman Solomon as part of a small group WBW book club limited to 18 participants. Norman will send each participant a signed hardcopy 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 four Fridays, August 4, 11, 18, 25, 2023. The time is 23:00 UTC (similar to GMT). That is to say:

Friday at 1 p.m. in Honolulu, 4 p.m. in Los Angeles, 6 p.m. in Mexico City, 7 p.m. in New York.

Saturday at 7 a.m. in Beijing, 8 a.m. in Tokyo, 9 a.m. in Sydney, 11 a.m. in Auckland.

The aim of this brief is to challenge the securitization and the militarization of the climate crisis in the U.S. and EU, underscoring the climate crisis as a human rights and feminist issue. It explores feminist perspectives and situates the militarization of the climate crisis within a
growing body of feminist foreign policy frameworks of analysis. In addition to conducting desk research, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP) conducted 10 interviews with feminist, anti-militarist, and environmental experts from the U.S., Germany, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Mariana Islands, the
Philippines, Mexico, and Yemen. Their experiences and work informed the arguments and takeaways for U.S. and EU policymakers.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons released the fourth annual report documenting massive investments in global nuclear weapons spending. Through an ever-changing and challenging security environment, from security threats of climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons spending has steadily increased, with no resulting measurable improvement on the security environment. If anything, the situation is getting worse.

Published in advance of the 2023 Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee, this briefing book provides an overview of critical issues and offers recommendations to governments for the PrepCom and beyond.

Written by Ray Acheson • Published in June 2023 by Reaching Critical Will, a programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Please consider making a donation to Reaching Critical Will to help them cover the costs of materials and information services that Reaching Critical Will provides.

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!