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

This October, we want to highlight VOW's upcoming rally for the Global Days of Action to End the War in Ukraine, 2023 White Poppy Campaign, our Joint Submission on Canada for the Universal Periodic Review to the United Nations Human Rights Council, 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!

It has come to our attention that individuals claiming to be a member of our VOW board, Janis Alton, have hacked her email and are sending emails requesting online gift cards be purchased from amazon. 

Any messages that you have received from her in the last few days - especially one requesting funds - are not from Janis. Please do not respond to those emails in any way. And, in no circumstance send any money. We are heartbroken that Janis would have been violated like this and want to ensure that you are all aware. 

VOW Board will never request gift cards be purchased on our behalf.

Please forward any such emails to:

stop-spoofing@amazon.com

Sincerely, the VOW Board of Directors

Rally for Peace Now! End the War in Ukraine!

Join VOW members in Waterloo Public Square (75 King Street) in Waterloo, Ontario on Tuesday, October 3rd from 5:30pm-6:00pm.

Organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace

More info: info@vowpeace.org

Coordinated Across Canada by:

Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network

peaceandjusticenetwork.ca

White poppies were started in the UK in 1933 by women who had lost husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends in World War One, to send the message 'Never Again' about war. Click here for more information.

Let us know if you plan to host a white poppy making party, or wish to participate in handing out white poppies this year!

Send us a photo of you with your white poppy!  info@vowpeace.org

For more info on the Canadian white poppy campaign, and how to make your own, go to: https://vowpeace.org/peace-poppy-campaign/

You can order white poppies starting October 7th from:
https://peacepoppies.ca/lapel-poppies/ 

VOW and WILPF-Canada jointly made a submission to the UN Human Rights Council for its Universal Periodic Review of Canada. Our submissions are in English and French. Canada will be reviewed on November 10, 2023 in the morning Geneva time. You can learn more about Canada’s upcoming review here.

In our submission, we argue among other things that the federal government’s rising military spending and weapons purchases undermines the economic and social rights of Canadians. We believe that militarism is a threat to human rights.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. The UPR provides each State the opportunity to report on the actions it has taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to receive recommendations from other countries and civil society organizations. Find out more here.

Tamara has been selected to join the Climate Action Network (CAN)-Canada civil society delegation and attend COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates between November 30-December 12. Tamara has been a strong voice for climate peace, stop the wars-stop the warming, cut military spending for climate finance, and demilitarization for decarbonization at the climate summits. She has collaborated with activists around the world to put peace in the centre of climate action and justice. She has challenged governments and industry to stop fossil fuel development and fossil fuel-powered militarism and war. This year is the first year that peace has been on the agenda at the Conference of the Parties. Help Tamara amplify the message of peace at COP 28 with printing material, buttons and transportation.

You can e-transfer your financial support to her directly at tlorincz@dal.ca

Each year the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space holds Keep Space for Peace Week in early October.

This year our theme is "the dangers of crowded orbits."

We urge concerned global citizens to help spread the important message during space week that the militarization, weaponization and nuclearization of space is massively problematic.

One thing you can do during that week to help spread links to our website, YouTube page and other social media platforms.

Click on the button below to access social media linktree for links to all our platforms.

Let us know what you plan!

An international photo exhibition that examines aspects of dispossession and inspirational Indigenous efforts to transform its effects. The exhibition is open to the public and will feature three in-person speaker events. No registration required.

Thursday, October 5th: 7:00pm-8:30pm

"Overcoming Colonialism" Panel Discussion with South African and Palestinian voices.

As countries across the so-called Global South are working to reshuffle world order, Western governments have unleashed a swift political, economic and cultural backlash towards these opposing states and social movements. Ajamu Baraka, Pan-African human rights activist, geopolitical analyst and national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, joins Zubairu Wai, Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Development Studies, in a conversation about the role of Black radical and peace movements in opposing the Western liberal democratic tradition and militarism.

What are the implications when governments target critical voices? What is the importance of having an internationalist perspective? And what can we do to challenge censorship against social movements?

Join the conversation.

The opening of the event on Tuesday, September 26, will feature three speakers: Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford (UK) will lead off in the morning, followed in the afternoon by Kai Brand-Jacobsen, President, Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania, and Irvin Waller, Professor, Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa and Author in a hybrid virtual and in-person program. The conference will continue with virtual sessions of panels and speakers until Monday, October 2, 2023.

Speaker: Retired Colonel Jacques Baud will discuss his latest book and research about the war in Ukraine. Baud is a former member of strategic intelligence in the Swiss military, a specialist in Eastern Europe and former head of Doctrine of the United Nations Peace Operations.

Colonel Baud was engaged in negotiations with top Russian military and intelligence officials right after the fall of the USSR. He was seconded by the Swiss government to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to head NATO’s Small Arms and Light Weapons program in Brussels from 2013 to 2017. Baud was involved in NATO programs in Ukraine, including after the Maidan Revolution of 2014. He is very knowledgeable about the war in Ukraine and is a well-known military analyst in Europe. He is fluent in French, English and German. He is the author of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, including "Operation Z: The Hidden Truths about the War in Ukraine Revealed," “Putin, Game master?”, “Governing by “Fake News” and “The Navalny Affair”, all published by Max Milo. His newest book is his “Ukraine Between War and Peace” (https://maxmilo.com/). We highly encourage you to order his books through your local, independent bookstore.

The webinar will be moderated by Tamara Lorincz, Member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and WILPF Canada.

The Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network is coordinating the Global Week of Action in Canada from October 1 – 8. Find a protest in your city and check the website for ways to take action and updates as more cities are added! 

It is time for immediate ceasefire, peace negotiations, and a commitment to send no more weapons to the war in Ukraine.

Read the CWPJN statement for the week of action: https://peaceandjusticenetwork.ca/2023mobilization

Read the Vienna Declaration "Stop the War, Start Negotiations".

The Coaching Coalition for Humanitarians is providing a webinar, Feel Better Now: Self-Care Tools for Aid and Development Workers, to humanitarian and development workers with practical tools and tips based on our over 27 years of combined coaching experience in this area.

At this free 1.5-hour webinar participants will learn how to lead well while feeling calm, clear and confident.

By attending on Tuesday October 10th participants will receive: 

· Practical tools to relieve stress, anxiety and overwhelm

· Experiential learning to feel calm

· Tips to prioritize and lead teams

· Steps to help with conflict

Cesar, Executive Director of Canada's Project Ploughshares and current Chair of the Canadian Pugwash Group, is a prolific author and speaker on peace issues. He has addressed the UN General Assembly First Committee, the Conference on Disarmament, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, as well as states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to the Arms Trade Treaty.

In Person: HTTPS://SHORTURL.AT/BIJP0

On Zoom: HTTPS://SHORTURL.AT/MPNZ9

@Scienceforpeace.org

We are planning a summit on Saturday July 6 and a rally on Sunday July 7, as well as various other actions in the days before and after that weekend -- including working with allies planning a peace walk from Santa Monica, California, to join us in Washington, D.C. with events all along the way.

If you'd like to attend the summit, the rally, or both, or to be informed of webinars and zoom calls leading up to these events, click RSVP. Note that we will not be able to email you unless you opt in to emails.

We say yes to peace and no to NATO!

We favor the abolition of NATO.

SPONSORED BY: CODEPINK, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, International Peace Bureau, RootsAction.org, United National Antiwar Coalition, Veterans For Peace, World BEYOND War

Canada Post has released a fantastic new set of stamps called “Quebec Feminists: At the Forefront of the Fight for Equality” that features Simonne Monet-Chartrand (1919-1993) who was very active with the Voice of Women. Simonne was a well-known social activist, pacifist, feminist, speaker, writer and unionist in Quebec. In 1961, she joined the pacifist movement Voix des femmes, and in 1962 helped to organize the Train de la paix, a delegation of the movement which presented their demands to the federal government. In 1963, she attended a conference of the International Democratic Federation of Women in Moscow, which called on the United Nations to devote a year to peace, nuclear disarmament and international cooperation. Monet-Chartrand co-founded the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) in 1966 and in 1968, she co-authored a report submitted to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. A decade later, in 1978, she co-founded Concordia University’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute for feminist studies.

Learn more about Simonne’s life.

Read more about these stamps of the three remarkable Quebec feminist activists from Canada Post

Despite the catastrophic health and environmental consequences, the threat of nuclear weapons has persisted with the tragic war in Ukraine, with nuclear weapon tests, NATO’s nuclear weapons exercises, and nuclear weapons modernization.

Please take a minute to write to party leaders calling on the Canadian government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and to send a delegation to observe the Second Meeting of State Parties for the TPNW in New York at the end of November.

The Government of Canada has published statements saying “We are committed to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons." The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), to which Canada is a signatory, does not directly address complete elimination and prohibition of nuclear weapons. Canada as a member of the UN Conference on Disarmament and the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament, has an obligation to promote internationally the elimination of nuclear weapons.

As a non-nuclear state, Canada is in a best position to comply with the articles of the TPNW and to guide its allies and other nations toward a world free from nuclear weapons.

Sign the petition and call upon the Government of Canada to sign and commit to ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and to urge allies and other nations to follow suit! 

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on October 2nd, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

The International Day is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness". The resolution reaffirms "the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence" and the desire "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence".

United Nations Day, on 24 October, marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being.

There is no other global organization with the legitimacy, convening power and normative impact of the United Nations. No other global organization gives hope to so many people for a better world and can deliver the future we want. Today, the urgency for all countries to come together, to fulfil the promise of the nations united, has rarely been greater.

UN Day, celebrated every year, offers the opportunity to amplify our common agenda and reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter that have guided us for the past 77 years.

UNSCR 1325 was adopted as the result of the commitment and vision of both civil society and the member states of the U.N. to address the policy gap of counting the role of women in peacebuilding and the long-term impact of conflict on their lives.

Resolution 1325 addresses two critical issues—the inordinate impact of violent conflict and war on women and girls, as well as the crucial role that women should, and already do play in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Women’s full participation and involvement is important to every aspect of achieving and sustaining peace and stability within a community.

After the failure of the Paris Peace talks in 1960 and the resulting concern for world peace, women across Canada joined together to form VOW, what would become a women’s organization advocating for cultures of nonviolence. Muriel was among them. Soon after, she became a founding member of the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace and within a month, the group had successfully blocked the United States from dumping nuclear waste off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Muriel went on to serve as VOW’s national president from 1967-1971. Muriel Duckworth played a pivotal role in the creation and development of Canadian women’s social and peace movements at the local, provincial, and national levels. Recognized for her contributions by many institutions, she received eight honorary doctorates from universities, is a member of the Order of Canada, and received the Person’s Award. But despite these and many other awards, it was her ability to motivate and mobilize communities into activism, her championing of diversity, and her relentless commitment to creating a better world that are truly her greatest achievements.

On 20 July, Secretary-General António Guterres presented to Member States his Policy Brief on A New Agenda for Peace, which outlines his vision for multilateral efforts for peace and security, based on international law, for a world in transition. It outlines an extensive and ambitious set of recommendations that recognize the inter-linked nature of many of the challenges we face.

Featuring panelists: Dimitri Lascaris, Canadian lawyer and journalist; Mary Anne Grady Flores, longtime peace activist from Upstate New York who has campaigned against the testing of DU weapons in Puerto Rico; and Glenn Michalchuk, National President of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, and Chair of Peace Alliance Winnipeg.

In our September 19th webinar, we invite you to a discussion with three of the initial organizers from Europe – Ulla Klotzer of Finland, Kate Hudson of the United Kingdom and Kristine Karch of Germany – on the background and goals of Women Say No, the issues with NATO from a global peace perspective and the work for us all going forward to win peace and a new vision of security. It will be moderated by another of the initial organizers of Women Say No, Paki Wieland of Massachusetts Peace Action and Code Pink.

In October 2023 World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of Shadows with the author Peter Manos as part of a small group WBW book club limited to a group of 18 participants. We will send each participant a signed paperback, and 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 Saturdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28. 

Where: Zoom

Buying one ticket covers all four sessions plus the book.

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!