Happy New Year!

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

This January we want to highlight the Mass Hunger Strike for Gaza; Let's Talk: Open Meeting with Tamara Lorincz; the Peace Protector Uniform Project; NATO/Militarism in Africa – Women Speak Out webinar; 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!

Canadians are on a rotating hunger strike. This means that every single day, numerous Canadians from coast to coast will be on a hunger strike. 

While a genocide of the Palestinian people is being committed by the state of Israel, Canadians won't stop hunger striking until our representatives enforce an arms embargo.

To organize a group hunger strike for a particular day (e.g. health care workers, sports team), contact us at gazastarving@gmail.com 

The VOW board, alongside Labour for Palestine Canada, World BEYOND War, and the Independent Jewish Voices Canada, have endorsed this campaign.

Join us to send a clear message to the Canadian government that we will not stand idly by while genocide happens in real time. We demand an arms embargo on Israel NOW!

Let’s talk about what is going on in the world, how we are doing and what we should do in 2024 to help bring about peace and justice. This is an open meeting. All welcome. Hosted by Tamara of WILPF & VOW. All welcome. Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87272797487?pwd=SFQxem8xMExLWk5BY1BkZ3FrWU14QT09

Meeting ID: 872 7279 7487

Passcode: 222092

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kASOilBHS

Note: there is an International Day of Action called for a ceasefire in Gaza on Jan. 13, 2024. We can discuss this and other upcoming campaigns and actions. Also note that July 2024 is the 75^th anniversary of NATO, the No to NATO Network and Women Against NATO are mobilizing a counter peace summit: https://www.no-to-nato.org/

Stop the War Coalition has called an International Day of Action “Ceasefire: Stop the War in Gaza”

https://www.stopwar.org.uk/

This will coincide with a March on Washington DC for Gaza: https://events.worldbeyondwar.org/event/march-on-washington-for-gaza/

The Peace Protector Uniform is on display at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax from January 17 to February 24, 2024. 

Please contact us at nsvoiceofwomen@gmail.com if you would like to display the art piece. Postcards are available that can be sent to politicians urging them to demilitarize and to spend on a culture of care and peace. We will send you some! 

The QR code on the postcard includes the link to our webpage. Please take a moment to complete the feedback activity and share your top priority for a transformed Canadian 'military'.

Michael Lynk is Professor Emeritus of Law, Western University, London, Ontario, where he taught international and Canadian human rights law, labour law, and constitutional law. Between 2016 and 2022, he served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, delivering regular reports to the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

This interactive session is in-person and on Zoom.

In-person: 15 King's College Circle- Paul Cadario Conference Centre, Toronto, ON M5S 3J3

To Register:

On Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/4f6jnb7z

@Scienceforpeace.org

Why did Hamas commit such atrocities on October 7? Why has Israel responded with this disproportional assault on Gaza? What will it take to envision a future beyond war, in which both Palestinians and Jews are safe and free?

Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is also Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents, an MSNBC political commentator, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. 

The PACEY Award supports youth projects which advance effective policy action to cut carbon emissions, enhance the transition to renewable energies, address and resolve international conflicts, abolish nuclear weapons, reduce weapons budgets and investments, and/or support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Priority is given to projects making the connections between peace, climate and nuclear disarmament issues, and their increasing relevance in current times.

If you know of a youth project that addresses peace, nuclear disarmament and/or climate issues that could be boosted by a prestigious award and €5000 in prize money, we encourage you to nominate it for the PACEY Award. Deadline for nominations extended until January 8th, 2024. 

Nominations are easy. And if you are young and involved in such a project, you can nominate it yourself. Nomination form found here.

PACEY Awards Ceremony which takes place online on Friday January 26. Participants at the PACEY Awards event will then vote to determine the three winners. The award event will also include short reports of the exciting projects of some of the previous PACEY Award winners. 

Join our panel discussion with three extraordinarily experienced and well informed Middle East scholars who have long been devoted to creating a just Israeli-Palestinian and Middle East peace.

Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine and is currently Co-Convener of SHAPE (Save Humanity and Planet Earth.)

Irene L. Gendzier, Professor Emerita at Boston University, Dept. of History and Political Science, and member of the African Studies Center.

Assaf Kfoury is a Lebanese-Palestinian mathematician and professor in the Computer Science Department at Boston University and a long-time associate of Noam Chomsky.

Thirty Muslim men remain detained as the Guantanamo Bay prison enters its 23rd year of operation. Sixteen have long been cleared, some for as long as twenty years, while billions have been spent keeping them there. Why is Guantanamo still open? Will the Biden administration fulfill its goal of closing the prison? What can we do?

The Arctic plays a central role in the Earth’s climate and an increasingly important role in international relations and politics. As the region undergoes profound transformations due to combined impacts of climate change and geopolitical tensions with the ongoing war in Ukraine new questions of governance come to the forefront of debates about the future of the region.  

Register Here

Please sign and share the statement on “Peace for Climate Justice” to the Prime Minister, Environment & Climate Change Minister Guilbeault and Foreign Affairs Minister Joly

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.

Help reach 25,000 signatures. Sign and share widely. Deadline is February 19, 2024, at 4:26 p.m. (EDT)

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! 

Sign the petition by January 5, 2024

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) subsidiary, has initiated Canada’s first-ever major projects for permanent disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear reactors;

These projects involve the Government of Canada’s "legacy" waste: in-situ disposal of two shut-down AECL reactors, and a precedent-setting Near Surface Disposal Facility at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario;

Project approvals could violate Article 29(2) of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”

Sign the petition by January 10th, 2024

Help us oppose the Trudeau government's plan to spend $2.5 billion of public tax dollars for a fleet of eleven MQ-9 Reaper drones and more than $400 million for the Hellfire missiles for these drones. These are the drones that the Israel is using to kill Palestinians and the US uses for its targeted assassinations in other countries.

Canada should invest in a green, care economy not a war economy!

#NoArmedDrones

Education is a human right

The right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education accessible to all.

Education is key to sustainable development

When it adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, the international community recognized that education is essential for the success of all 17 of its goals. Sustainable Development Goal 4, in particular, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.

Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

Although this situation has been improving, the world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. The General Assembly will hold a Global Stocktaking on SDG7 in April 2024 to assess progress and recommend solutions.

The science is clear: to limit climate change, we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels and invest in alternative sources of energy that are clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable. Renewable energy sources – which are available in abundance all around us, provided by the sun, wind, water, waste, and heat from the Earth – are replenished by nature and emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air.

The International Day of Clean Energy is a call to raise awareness and mobilize action for a just and inclusive transition to clean energy for the benefit of people and the planet.

Jill Carr-Harris has honed her knowledge of the strategy and tactics of nonviolent action by participating in successful campaigns in India on behalf of marginalized communities. She has now turned her attention to Canada and the issue of how to build effective peace and climate movements through well-orchestrated nonviolent campaigns, including an upcoming Caravan of Peace in Nova Scotia. ADD JILL'S VIDEO

AGSS is World BEYOND War’s blueprint for an alternative security system – one in which peace is pursued by peaceful means.

AGSS relies on three broad strategies for humanity to end war: 1) demilitarizing security, 2) managing conflicts without violence, and 3) creating a culture of peace. These are the interrelated components of our system: the frameworks, processes, tools and institutions necessary for dismantling the war machine and replacing it with a peace system that will provide a more assured common security. Strategies for demilitarizing security are directed at reducing dependency on militarism. Strategies for managing conflict without violence are focused on reforming and/or establishing new institutions, tools and processes for assuring security. Strategies for creating a culture of peace are concerned with establishing social and cultural norms, values, and principles necessary for sustaining a thriving peace system and the means to spread it globally.

Available as eBook, audio book, or PDF, in numerous languages, all free.
Also as a short summary PDF, in numerous languages, all free.
Also as an online study guide, free as well.

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!