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

This September we want to highlight our Walking Together for Peace initiative; International Day of Peace; Orange Shirt Day; 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!

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/

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. 

Climate change is a threat to everyone. However, it does not affect everyone equally. Climate change's impacts perpetuate and even magnify structural inequalities. In fact, the climate crisis has greater impacts and disproportionate risks faced by women and girls around the globe, particularly in low-income countries.

This session aims to explore the role of women’s leadership for climate action and corporates efforts to sustainability.

Guest speaker: IFC, Jazz Pakistan

Walk with Grassy Narrows youth and community members to show that we are with them on their path to achieve mercury justice and freedom!

This is a family-friendly event. Rain or shine!

Grassy Narrows secured a historic no logging on their territory for the next 10 years agreement and important promises to clean their river and build a Mercury Care Home. They have the longest-running blockade in Canadian history, which has helped foster Indigenous resistance across Turtle Island and saved 15 million trees from being cut. 

But so much is still needed to right the wrong of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows.

In September 2024, community members and leaders will travel 1,700km from Grassy Narrows to Toronto to demand that Ontario and Canada:

1. Compensate everyone in Grassy Narrows fairly for the mercury crisis.
2. Respect the Grassy Narrows Indigenous Protected Area (end mining and logging plans in Grassy Narrows territory).
3. Support Grassy Narrows in restoring their community and way of life from the damage that mercury has done.

Check out FreeGrassy.net for more details as the event approaches.

#GrassyNarrows #FreeGrassy

The Canadian Friends Service Committee and Peace Brigades International-Canada invite you to attend a webinar on the export of Canadian military goods to Israel.

September 18 is the 6-month anniversary of the House of Commons vote to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”

And yet, as The Maple has reported, the Trudeau government authorized at least $28.5 million of new permits for military exports to Israel in the months prior to the vote; there are $94.5 million in unused export permits with expiry dates as late as December 31, 2025; and Quebec-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. has been approved by the US government to be the principal contractor in the “possible” sale of $83 million in high explosive mortar cartridges and related equipment to Israel.

This webinar will provide an update on the current situation of arms exports to Israel, highlight Canada’s international human rights obligations, and help build support for Members of Parliament to endorse an arms embargo.

Confirmed speakers: Noam Perry (American Friends Service Committee) and Kelsey Galllagher (Project Plougshares). More speakers to be announced.

The Eurasian Women’s Forum is a major influential international platform that enables women leaders from all continents to engage in a dialogue and adopt joint decisions on key issues.

The Eurasian Women’s Forum is an influential international platform that enables women leaders from all continents to engage in a dialogue and adopt joint decisions on key issues concerning international cooperation, sustainable economic development, the assimilation of new technologies, a healthy lifestyle, environmental safety, and the promotion of social charitable projects.

The Forum is attended by women parliamentarians, representatives of the executive authorities, international organizations, the business and scientific communities, public organizations, charitable projects, and respected members of the international women’s movement from numerous countries around the world.

The main theme of the Forum is, "Women for strengthening trust and global cooperation." 

The business programme architecture of the EAWF 2024 is based on a platform approach, which includes five thematic platforms and makes it possible to systematize priority areas of discussion:

	Women Shaping a New Agenda for Peace and Trust
	Women in the New Economic Reality: Technologies and Innovations
	Women for a Healthy Society and Social Well-Being
	Women for a Clean Planet and Food Security
	Women for the Preservation of Traditions and Cultural Diversity

The Forum's business programme includes plenary, strategic, expert, and discussion sessions with the participation of representatives of international organizations, parity platforms, project presentations, and business breakfasts.

Join us as we stand with Palestine and highlight the crucial role that labour unions play in the fight for justice and liberation. Together, we'll demonstrate that the struggle for a free Palestine is an essential part of the global workers' movement.

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!

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.

The International Day of Peace (“Peace Day”) is observed around the world each year on 21 September. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.

This year is particularly significant: It is the 25th Anniversary of the UN Resolution on the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. A/RES/53/243 B

In that declaration, the United Nations’ most inclusive body recognized that peace “not only is the absence of conflict, but also requires a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.”

Let us all create Peace Day every day!

Achieving global nuclear disarmament is the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations. It was the subject of the General Assembly’s first resolution in 1946, which established the Atomic Energy Commission (dissolved in 1952), with a mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction. The United Nations has been at the forefront of many major diplomatic efforts to advance nuclear disarmament since. In 1959, the General Assembly endorsed the objective of general and complete disarmament. In 1978, the first Special Session of the General Assembly Devoted to Disarmament further recognized that nuclear disarmament should be the priority objective in the field of disarmament. Every United Nations Secretary-General has actively promoted this goal.

In accordance with General Assembly resolution 68/32 and subsequent resolutions, the purpose of the International Day is to further the objective of the total elimination of nuclear weapons through enhancing public awareness and education about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination. In so doing, it is hoped that these activities will help to mobilize new international efforts towards achieving the common goal of a of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was created as part of the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). The TRC was charged to listen to Survivors, their families, communities and others affected by the residential school system and educate Canadians about their experiences. The resulting collection of statements, documents and other materials now forms the sacred heart of the NCTR.

Here, Survivors, their families, educators, researchers, and the public can examine the residential school system more deeply with the goal of fostering reconciliation and healing.

UN_Women (@UN Women) posted: The de facto authorities in #Afghanistan have enacted a law that bans women's voices in public, among many other oppressive measures.
These measures must be IMMEDIATELY reversed.

We stand in unwavering solidarity with Afghan women & girls.

For September, in which Slovenia has the presidency of the Security Council, the MAP provides recommendations on the situations in Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and Yemen.

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

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.

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!