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Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
VOW's July Newsletter
July 2024 Updates

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

This July we want to highlight Walking Together for Peace; Donate to our campaign stop Canada's Militarization of the Arctic; No to NATO, Yes to Peace in Washington D.C.; 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!

JOIN/RENEW/DONATE
War On Gaza-Updates
*Scroll down for April Events & Actions*
Genocide in Gaza to Decolonizing Palestine
In-Person Event
Thursday, July 4th, 2024
7pm-8:30pm ET
60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto

While our attention and hearts are focused on Gaza, civil society cannot abandon the wider fight for Palestinian rights and a better future for everyone between the River and the Sea.

Jeff Halper is a Jewish Israeli-American peace activist and author, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and a founding member of the Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign.

Register Here
Shameful decision to sue students protesting genocide
City News Everywhere

On Tuesday, the University of Waterloo administration filed an injunction against the student protestors seeking “damages in the amount of $1,500,000, including damages for trespass, damage to property, intimidation, and ejectment.”

The University has demanded that the students disband the encampment, stop interfering with the University’s Senate and Board of Governors meetings and restore the space immediately.

In a social media post, the student group Occupy UWaterloo claimed the administration's decision as "incredibly shameful" considering the students are protesting the university's "complicity in a genocide that's almost nine months in and has claimed the lives of over 40,000."

Learn More Here
GAZA SQUARE
In-Person Event
Every Sunday, 11am to 1pm
371 Wallace Ave, Toronto

We'll be at Gaza square once again this Sunday morning with hot chocolate and coffee, buttons and posters, lawn signs and colourful chalk! Come say hi and meet your fellow neighbours/organizers as we make our presence known and continue to build safety in our community!

Learn More Here
Weekly Zap for Palestine
Virtual Event
Every Monday
12:00pm ET

TKARONTO: LET’S KEEP THE PRESSURE ON EVERY MONDAY! 📱🍉

Week after week, we’re keeping the momentum going with our Monday lunchtime zaps.

Our collective action is making waves, but we need to ensure our elected officials continue to feel the pressure until real change happens.

Gather with neighbours in an online space to phone, email, and fax representatives together! Guidance, script, and contacts provided. Invite your friends!

☎️Whether you’ve zapped before, or are just getting started, all are welcome in this weekly action! And if you’re interested in organizing in your neighborhood - these zaps are a great way to meet your people. Bring a friend or two! Facilitators from GTA ridings are present to offer support, demo live phone calls, and answer questions.

Register Here
Fuelling the Flames in Gaza: Exploring the legal consequences for states and corporations involved in supplying jet fuel to the Israeli military by SOMO
Article

This briefing aims to inform efforts to prevent corporate involvement in war crimes and other crimes under international law being perpetrated in Gaza, and support genocide prevention efforts by third states, companies and civil society actors. 

In the briefing, SOMO argues that companies supplying jet fuel may be considered to be providing material support to the military, aware of its foreseeable harmful effects. In line with international law and standards, companies should cease to provide supplies that can be used to enable, facilitate or exacerbate war crimes or other crimes under international law.

States should act to stop the transfer of such supplies to Israel, and an embargo on jet fuel and crude oil is an important means of achieving this.

Read the Full Briefing Here
Demand Israel stop escalating violence that could spur World War III
Petition

Canadian officials immediately condemned Iran for launching missiles towards Israel, but they ignored Israel’s brazen war crime that elicited Iran’s reaction. In so doing, they are enabling Israel to escalate its violence on Iran and the region, which could spur a global conflict.

Take a minute to email Justin Trudeau, Melanie Joly and Jagmeet Singh to demand they condemn Israel’s violence and reduce direct Canadian complicity with the Israeli military.

Send a Letter Here
VOW Updates
WALKING TOGETHER FOR PEACE -
PUGWASH TO HALIFAX
September 8th - 21st, 2024

Dear Friends, 

You are invited to join Voice of Women for Peace, Science for Peace  and Jai Jagat in a  grassroots initiative. From September 9  to September 21, 2024 a core group of peace advocates will walk the 200 km from Pagweak/Pugwash to Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia.

As we walk through diverse communities we will learn from others, also walking the path to peace.  Together we will explore the interconnected issues related to peace. Addressing rising temperatures, the threat of rising seas and wildfires includes climate justice. Understanding the burdens that deter us from healing the earth means to talk about militarization, colonization and racism. The overarching threat of nuclear weapons compels us to act. This is most important for youth in  facing this future. 

According to the ICANS (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) report “Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending“, the total nuclear weapons spending in the last five years was more than $387 billion. This is more than what the World Food Programme estimates it would take to end world hunger. Nuclear spending is only part of the annual global military spending of 2 trillion, 500 billion dollars.

We urge policy-makers to take concrete steps toward the reallocation of this massive budget for urgent climate, social, economic  and health care needs. We also call on Canada to support the abolition of nuclear weapons and to  sign onto the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). We  call on all nuclear weapon states to stop the production and sale of nuclear weapons immediately. 

We hope to re-awaken the great courage of  scientists and peace activists who gathered at the National Historic site of Thinkers Lodge in 1957, beginning the transnational Pugwash movement for nuclear disarmament and world peace.

Let’s rebuild Canada’s identity as a peacebuilder firmly rooted on a path of reconciliation, reparation and reciprocity. Let’s walk and talk so we can begin to walk the talk together. 

Sincerely,
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace

“There is no path to peace, peace is the way. ”  Mahatma Gandhi.

For more information please contact us at:
walkingtogether@vowpeace.org
Voice of Women, like Janis Alton, guide peace movement
Article by John Stewart

Read the lovely interview of our long-time member and director, Janis Alton, in the Mississauga News, Voice of Women, like Janis Alton, guide peace movement, says John Stewart.

"In recognition of Alton’s stalwart work, which ranges from hosting the annual June strawberry shortcake event at her Stavebank Road home, to housing the organization’s archives in her garage, to marshalling multiple annual delegations to the UN and crossing the DMZ between North and South Korea in 2015 with 30 peace activists from around the world including Gloria Steinem and Nobel laureates Leymah Gbowee and Maireed Maguire, she was recently awarded the Ursula Franklin Award.

The May 11 presentation at VOW’s Mother’s Day Awards Dinner cited her “exemplary” leadership of 20 UN delegations."

Thank you to our board member Charlotte Sheasby-Coleman for organizing the lunch with reporter John Stewart.

Read the Full Article Here
Peace Women of the Waterloo Region Gather:
Peace Breakfast & Supporting UW Student Encampment
In-Person Event

Alley and Tamara held a Peace Breakfast with activists at a café in Waterloo. They talked about what’s going on in the world, what they can do over coffee, and took photos with banners. Then they went to the students’ encampment for Gaza at the University of Waterloo to express solidarity.
Please donate to our campaign to stop Canada’s militarization of the Arctic

Canada’s new defence policy update, Our North Strong and Free, is planning a massive militarization of the Artic for NORAD and NATO. Canada is turning a vulnerable ecosystem that helps to regulate the climate and the oceans into a new theatre of war. Canada and the US are going to place missile systems, warships and fighter jets on the homeland of the Inuit people. For decades, they have called for the Arctic to be a Zone of Peace. Read the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s submission to the Senate’s report on the Arctic from 2023.

Read Tamara’s article “Women mobilize to oppose NORAD modernization and make the Arctic a zone of peace” in the People’s Voice, and her article “Canada’s militarization of the Arctic threatens Indigenous communities and the climate."

VOW and WILPF-Canada have sent urgent letters to the Inuit Circumpolar Council and to Governor General Mary Simon asking for meetings. We urge you to contact your Member of Parliament and the Prime Minister at pm@pm.gc.ca to say you want the Arctic protected and investments in the well-being of Indigenous communities not militarized. 

In case you missed it, please watch the recording of the “NATO in the Arctic” webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-NDBouZTWQ&t=1522s hosted by the International Peace Bureau and Women Against NATO.

DONATE: Please send a donation today to support VOW’s important work to make the Arctic a zone of peace: https://vowpeace.org/join-renew-donate/
Sign our petition for Canada to withdraw from NATO and have a new foreign policy of peace
In-Petition

Please sign and share widely our parliamentary e-petition #4949 to call on Canada to withdraw from NATO, remove its troops from Latvia on Russia’s border, and consult Canadians on a new foreign policy based on peace and cooperation.

Join activists from around the world to protest the biggest war machine in history, NATO, and build a movement for peace and global solidarity. There will be a big conference and rally organized by a coalition of groups. A counter-summit and rally to unwelcome NATO to Washington, D.C., in July: https://nonatoyespeace.org/

Sign the Petition Here
Julian Assange is Free!
In-Person Event

VOW is relieved that Wikileaks journalist Julian Assange is released from Belmarsh Prison in UK and the bogus charges against him are dropped! For many years, VOW has sent letters and organized actions to express our support for Assange. He bravely published US government documents and released US Embassy cables that revealed war crimes committed by the West in Afghanistan and Iraq and US wrongdoing around the world. Here are some photos of us with Assange’s father John Shipton in Toronto. Thank you to our board member Charlotte Sheasby-Coleman for her leadership on our efforts to Free Assange.

Watch the crucial video of US war crimes in Iraq in the “Collateral Murder” video clip that Wikileaks revealed.

Read Chris Hedges’ article “You Saved Julian."
Help Tamara get to Washington D.C. for the No to NATO, Yes to Peace events this July
In-Person Event
A summit and a rally in Washington D.C. on July 6-7, 2024

Tamara has been invited to speak about the climate and environmental impacts of NATO at the “No to NATO, Yes to Peace” conference and rally in Washington D.C. on July 6-7. Help her raise $700 for her travel and to bring her banners, handouts and buttons. You can e-transfer Tamara directly at tlorincz@dal.ca

Or send a cheque to: Tamara Lorincz, 511 Chesapeake Crescent, Waterloo, ON N2K 4G1

Tamara will also be joining the actions of the Global Women for Peace United Against NATO (GWUAN) as they protest during NATO’s 75th anniversary summit from July 9-11. Tamara will take photos, write an article and do a report back when she returns to Canada. She is also arranging meetings. In the lead up to the NATO protest, Tamara will be moderating a panel on why we need to oppose the U.S.-led military alliance with an incredible line-up of speakers including Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Medea Benjamin on Saturday, June 15. More details here and below:  https://worldbeyondwar.org/gaza-and-ukraine-to-wwiii-the-nato-problem/
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are nuclear conflicts! Help us stop these wars!
In-Person Event

Thanks to our peace campaigner Sarah Rohleder, for creating these graphics that remind us that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten a nuclear escalation and must urgently end. Russia and the United States possess nuclear weapons and are dangerously escalating war in Ukraine that risks their use. Canada must call for a negotiated solution to end the war in Ukraine and have lasting peace in Europe. Israel is a nuclear-armed state that is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and is threatening Syria, Iraq and Lebanon with air strikes that could lead to a nuclear conflagration in the Middle East.

The best way to reduce the nuclear risk is to end the wars and for all countries to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and disarm. Contact your Member of Parliament and the Prime Minister at pm@pm.gc.ca to call on Canada to join the TPNW.

Read Ray Acheson’s 2024 Non-Proliferation Treaty Briefing Book that provides an overview of critical issues and offers recommendations to governments for the PrepCom and beyond. Ray is the Director of Reaching Critical Will, WILPF’s Disarmament programme. Read the NPT Briefing Book.
VOW’s contribution to the Women, Peace & Security-Network Canada’s (WPSN) latest publication
Article

Read our contribution in the WPSN’s “’Foundations for Peace’ in Turbulent Times: Analysis of Canada’s Third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.” 

Tamara has an article “A Climate of Vulnerability: Fossil Fuel Extraction and Carbon-Intensive Militarism Threaten Women, Peace and Security.” 

Read WPS Third National Action Plan Here
July Events 
Bid on Peace: Annual Online Auction
Online Event
Monday, July 1st 9am ET- August 31st 11:45pm ET

It's that time of year again! World BEYOND War is holding an online silent auction with bids opening up on July 1st and running until August 31st! All proceeds from the auction will go to support our work to end war and build just and sustainable peace. 

Bidding opens at 9:00 EST on July 1st - be sure to place your bids so you don't miss out on these great items and experiences that were all generously donated to help WBW work to end all wars.

Bid on Peace Here
From Genocide in Gaza to Decolonizing Palestine: Moving towards a Democratic State for All Between The River and The Sea
In-Person Event
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024
170 Dundurn St. South, Hamilton
Unitarian Church of Hamilton
Jeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a founding member of the One Democratic State Campaign. 
Jeff is coming to Hamilton, ON to launch his book, "Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine!"
 
Admission is free, donations are accepted. Books will be available for cash purchase and autograph by Jeff Halper. 
 
Event sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices Hamilton and endorsed by Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War and Canadian Voices for Palestinian Rights. 
Learn More & Get Involved
No to NATO, YES to PEACE Conference
Global Women for Peace United Against NATO
In-Person & Virtual Event
A summit and a rally in Washington D.C. on July 5th-7th, 2024
Please join us July 5-7, 2024 for the NO to NATO: YES to PEACE conference preceding the 75th Anniversary of NATO in Washington, DC.
 

We will have great speakers and singers in our one-day conference on July 6. 

And great speakers and singers in the rally at the White House on July 7. 

And plenty of materials-fliers and graphics about NATO and the conference to send to your networks. 

Here is a new book on NATO that Medea Benjamin and David Swanson co-authored and will be available at the conference:

We look forward to seeing you in Washington, DC July 5,6 and 7....and we hope you can stay July 9-11 to protest the heads of state of all the NATO countries at the Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, DC.

Watch the “NO TO NATO, YES TO PEACE” People’s Summit and Rally in Washington DC on July 6 & 7

NATO is having its 75th anniversary summit: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/226799.htm NATO is one of the greatest threats to peace, human security, the climate and environment. Over the past thirty years, it has left a trail of death, destruction and environmental devastation from Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. It must be disbanded. For decades, VOW has called for NATO to be abolished and for Canada to work collaboratively with all countries in the United Nations system. Find out more on our web site “Women Against NATO."

A big coalition of peace and anti-war groups are hosting the “No to NATO, Yes to Peace” people’s summit on Saturday, July 6 and rally on Sunday, July 7 to counter the NATO summit. These peace events will be livestreamed at the World BEYOND War YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/worldbeyondwar You can learn more about the anti-NATO activities happening the U.S. capital here: https://nonatoyespeace.org/

Tamara will be speaking at the people’s summit and reporting about the anti-NATO activities. If you’d like to support her trip to DC, please e-transfer her at tlorincz@dal.ca or send a cheque to: Tamara Lorincz, 511 Chesapeake Crescent, Waterloo, ON N2K 4G1.

Learn More Here
Upcoming Events
Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Commemoration-
Now is the Time: Canada Sign the Ban Treaty!
In-Person Event
Tuesday, August 6th, 2024
6:30pm-8:30pm ET
Toronto City Hall Peace Garden, Nathan Phillips Square

Music by Ron Korb

Guest Speakers: Setsuko Thurlow & Rooj Ali 

Special Presentations- Benetick Kabua Maddison, Dr. Takashi Hiraoka

Mayors Proclamation

Commemorative musical piece- Dr. Saiichi Ariga

Songs led by Raging Grannies Lantern

Ceremony to conclude the evening

Further details TBD
Nobel Peace Conference 
Hybrid Event
Thursday, September 5th, 2024
13:00 – 17:00 CET.

The Nobel Peace Conference 2024 highlights the dangerous rollbacks of women’s rights across the world and look at best practices to counter them.

Among the speakers are Nobel Peace Prize laureates and world leading experts in women’s rights, decision makers and activists. Together, we will explore the link between women’s rights, peace and democracy, and discuss different solutions for empowerment and inclusion of women to promote justice and gender equality globally. 

The Nobel Peace Conference will be live-streamed to audiences across the world, with interactive programmes for our online viewers. Last year, the Nobel Peace Conference reached 120,000 digital viewers. 

Register Here
World BEYOND War- #NoWar2024 Conference: Resisting the USA's Military Empire
Virtual Event
Friday, September 20th-Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

A global 3-day conference, streamed virtually, with in-person events in Sydney, Australia; Wanfried, Germany; Bogotá, Colombia; and Washington, DC, U.S.

Ending all wars means closing all military bases. The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains a massive network of foreign military bases around the world, over 900 bases in more than 90 countries and territories.

Join us virtually – or in-person in Australia, Germany, Colombia, and the U.S. – for the 3-day #NoWar2024 Conference to learn about the impact of the USA’s military base empire and how to resist it. The conference will travel virtually across the globe, visiting sites near U.S. military bases, from Australia, to Germany, to Colombia, with the concluding event in Washington, DC, the heart of the U.S. military base empire.

Register Here
Calls to Action
Arms Embargo NOW
We’re coming together to demand the Canadian government impose a full, immediate arms embargo on Israel.
 
Canadian companies and subsidiaries supply a wide range of components to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet program, from machined parts, fuselage sections, and electro-hydraulic actuation system components, to power & thermal management system controllers...
  • Companies that participate in the F-35 program include: Honeywell, Magellan Aerospace, Apex Industries, ASCO Aerospace Canada, Ben Machine Products, PCC Aerostructures Centra and others. 
  • Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets have become emblematic of the loophole that allows Canadian-made weapons components to be transferred, unregulated and unreported, to Israel via the U.S.
  • Héroux-Devtek, headquartered in Quebec, contributes parts and landing gear to Boeing’s F-15 fighter jet  program. It’s among the Canadian companies that supply components for Boeing’s F-15s, which are used by the Israeli Air Force to bomb Gaza.
  • Canadian companies also supply parts for Boeing’s AH-64 Apache helicopters, which are also used by the Israeli Air Force.

Demand your MP take Action

Join the Call
No to NATO’s 2% GDP Target! Call on the Canadian government to cut military spending

NATO drives Canada’s rising military spending. In 2014, NATO allies pledged to increase their military spending to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP). According to NATO’s latest Defence Expenditures report, over the past ten years, Canada’s military spending has increased 100% from $20 billion in 2014 to over $40 billion this year, which is 1.4% of GDP. By 2030, Canada’s military spending will increase to $50 billion, which will be 1.7% of GDP. Military spending diverts crucial resources away from public needs putting more Canadians in poverty. Tell your Member of Parliament and the Prime Minister you don’t support NATO’s 2% GDP target, you want military spending cut for social and environmental needs and you want Canada out of NATO.

Read the NATO Defence Report Here
Petition e-4842
Foreign Affairs
Concerned citizens of Canada call upon the Government of Canada to end arms support to the State of Israel immediately.
 
What the Palestinian people are facing is nothing short of a major humanitarian crisis. The State of Israel has broken many international laws and by Canada sending arms to Israel they are directly cooperating in these crimes against humanity. As Canada is a member of the United Nations, it is their duty to ensure and uphold basic human rights to all.
 
We, as concerned tax paying citizens strongly condemn Canada's support of the apartheid regime and implore the Canadian government to stand for a ceasefire and allow aid for the Palestinian men, women and children.
 
Closed for signature July 25, 2024, at 2:31 p.m. (EDT)
Sign the Petition Here
Petition e-4922
Foreign Affairs

Taxpayer-subsidized charitable donations may well be Canada’s most important contribution to Palestinian dispossession;

 

Over the last five years, more than a billion dollars has been sent by Canadian charities to Israeli recipients. While some of this money may find its way into charitable ventures, a portion goes toward supporting the Israeli military and/or illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, activities which stand in contravention of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations and Canada’s public policy...

We, the undersigned, citizens or residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of National Revenue to:

1. Immediately investigate all Canadian charities providing funds to illegal Israeli settlement activity and/or the Israeli military;
2. Revoke the charitable status of all found to not be in compliance; and
3. Take concrete steps to prevent other organizations from engaging in such activities in the future.
 
Closed for signature August 8, 2024, at 6:08 p.m. (EDT)
Sign the Petition Here
Petition e-4979
Foreign Affairs

Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and has participated in every NATO intervention;

NATO has failed to uphold Article 1 of its charter “to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered...”

We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to, call upon the House of Commons to:
1. Withdraw from NATO;
2. Remove Canadian troops from Latvia;
3. Reduce military spending; and
4. Conduct public consultations on a new foreign policy based on peace and international cooperation.
 
Read more about this petition by clicking the button below.
 
Closed for signature October 8th, 2024, at 3:26 p.m. (EDT)
Sign the Petition Here
Tributes to Peace Women

Please let us know if you know of a member who has passed away, as we wish to recognize their contributions to VOW and to building peace in our world. Please let us know at info@vowpeace.org
Remembering a friend of VOW, Phyllis Creighton, peace and disarmament activist

With great sadness, VOW would like to acknowledge the passing of Phyllis Creighton, a renowned peace and disarmament activist based in Toronto. Phyllis was active with Science for Peace, the Canadian Pugwash Group and the Toronto Nagasaki Hiroshima Day Coalition. She opposed NATO and called for its dissolution. She wrote about peace issues with passion and incisiveness. Read some of her articles here.

Phyllis passed away on June 25th at the age of 94 years old. She will be fondly remembered and deeply missed. A memorial will be held for her on Monday, July 8 in Toronto. More information about the memorial can be found here.
Recommended Resources
The BBC World Service Two-Part Special- "The Hiroshima Survivor Who's Still Shouting for Peace"

The BBC World Service has just released a two-part special of its Outlook programme: “The Hiroshima Survivor Who's Still Shouting for Peace” and it is truly a moving and informative broadcast.

Setsuko was 13 when she survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. For decades she has been a leading voice in the global campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and she was instrumental in achieving the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Read More Here
2024 NPT Briefing Book

The 2024 NPT Briefing Book provides a guide to understanding the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and examines a range of critical issues, including:

  • Nuclear disarmament
  • Humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons
  • Nuclear weapon modernisation and spending
  • Doctrines, transparency, and nuclear sharing
  • Nuclear threats and risks
  • Non-proliferation

Written by Ray Acheson • Published in June 2024 by Reaching Critical Will, a programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Read More Here
Global spending on nuclear weapons up 13% in record rise
The Guardian

Global spending on nuclear weapons is estimated to have increased by 13% to a record $91.4bn during 2023, according to calculations from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) pressure group.

The new total, which is up $10.7bn from the previous year, is driven largely by sharply increased defence budgets in the US, at a time of wider geopolitical uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

Read the Full Article Here
'Julian Assange is Free': WikiLeaks Founder Strikes Plea Deal with the U.S. 

By Common Dreams Staff

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday reached a deal with the U.S. government, agreeing to plead guilty to one felony related to the disclosure of national security information in exchange for his release from Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom.

Read the Full Article Here
Canada’s hyper-militarization accelerates climate breakdown and threatens Indigenous communities
Space Alert Newsletter-Article

By Tamara Lorincz

"Since the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal party formed government in 2015, which was the year that the Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted, military spending has drastically increased and militarism has intensified in Canada. Shamefully, the Canadian government recently announced a new defence policy and a federal budget that will put fossil fuel-powered militarism into overdrive."

Read the Full Article Here
Does Canada uphold binding international law? The answer is No.
CodePink

By Kathleen Ruff

The International Court of Justice has ruled that the evidence shows that Israel has committed plausible genocide. The Court has ordered a number of provisional measures. Under the Genocide Convention, Canada is legally required to implement these measures and take all action possible to prevent genocide. Instead, Canada is aiding and abetting genocide by not immediately stopping the shipment of any weapons to Israel.

Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, along with others, have filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government to stop arms export to Israel.

Read the Full Article Here
Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler

Join author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession and exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments and criticisms are all welcome.

Mondays 6PM EST

Attend Here
United Nation's New Agenda for Peace

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.

Read More Here
Support the VOW Tru Earth Fundraiser!
Support VOW by shopping for your everyday eco-friendly essentials with Tru Earth!

Tru Earth products are manufactured in Canada and have plastic-free packaging. When you order through our fundraising page, 20% of the total sales value will go to VOW. 

Every year 700,000,000 laundry jugs are unable to be recycled and end up in landfills. To date Tru Earth and our community of Change Makers have helped reduced this by 2 million with our revolutionary laundry strip technology.

You can feel good knowing you are supporting VOW and purchasing products that reduce environmental impacts.

Check out our fundraising link! And share it with others!
SHOP HERE!
 Renew your membership and donate to VOW to keep up our good work!
Renew Your Membership & Donate!

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!
 

Our mailing address:
60 Lowther Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7
info@vowpeace.org

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