Category: RELEASE

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Standing for Peace: NSVOW Protests the DEFSEC Arms Show in Halifax

Standing for Peace: NSVOW Protests the DEFSEC Arms Show in Halifax

From October 1–3, 2024, members of the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace (NSVOW) joined allies to protest the DEFSEC Atlantic arms show in Halifax. Each day, from 12 to 1 pm, we gathered to stand against the global arms trade and its direct links to violence in Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond.

As reported by Peace Brigades International–Canada, DEFSEC’s sponsors and exhibitors included some of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers, among them Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Leonardo, BAE Systems, and Rolls-Royce. According to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), these companies supply aircraft, artillery, naval weapons, and tanks that have been used extensively in attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

This protest came in the wake of alarming findings by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The International Court of Justice has also ruled that it is plausible that genocide is being committed against the Palestinian people.

By showing up at DEFSEC, we join a growing movement demanding an arms embargo now—calling on Canada to end the export of weapons to Israel and to fulfill its obligation to prevent genocide.

📢 We stand with peace activists across the globe in saying:
No more weapons. No more war. We choose peace.

For more details, you can read the full press release here: PBI-Canada Report on the DEFSEC Protest

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Sustain Her – music and silent auction

Join us Saturday March 5, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm for an evening of music, light snacks and a Silent Auction. Hear presentations from NS PeacemakeHers Camp participants and enjoy a performance by Sandy Greenberg, who will share her peace and feminist songs.

Where: Veith House — 3115 Veith Street, Halifax, NS

Suggested donation – $10 or pay what you can, at the door – let us know if you’re coming if you can! Funds raised from this event will support participants attending the 40th anniversary of the UN Commission on the Status o Women in New York this March, with a portion of the funds raised also to be donated to Veith House and NS Voice of Women for Peace.

Call for Silent Auction Donations – If you have items to donate to the silent auction please contact:

Sarah Morgan – morgansarahelizabeth@gmail.com or
Rachele Conway– r.conway@dal.ca.

 

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An open letter to Canada’s political leaders

Click HERE and sign our letter to Canada’s political leaders

The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace is the country’s oldest, national peace organization. We are concerned about the rise of militarism in our communities, increased arms sales overseas, and Canadian Forces’ airstrikes in the Middle East. We want Canada to Make Space for Peace and to be a leader in diplomacy, international law, nonviolence and disarmament. This election, please pledge your support for our peace priorities and after the election work with us and other civil society organizations on implementing them.
Our twelve peace priorities:

  1. Stop Canada’s bombing of Syria and Iraq and withdraw our troops from the Ukraine

  2. Open our borders to more refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq

  3. Sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty

  4. Cancel the $15 billion General Dynamics Canada contract to send weapons to Saudi Arabia and instead invest in a strategy for green jobs and renewable energy

  5. Stop the secretive $26 billion Canadian Surface Combatant program and instead build affordable housing and public transportation across the country

  6. Reduce military spending and redirect funds to social and environmental needs

  7. Implement the recommendations of the External Review into Sexual Misconduct and Harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces

  8. Launch a public inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and create a national strategy to end gender-based violence

  9. Hold a public inquiry into Canada’s complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees

  10. Convene public consultations for a green paper on national defence and security and on the establishment of a Department of Peace

  11. Advance the United Nations’ Security Council agenda on Women, Peace & Security

  12. Show leadership in nuclear disarmament and host an international meeting on the proposed UN Nuclear Weapons Convention to abolish these weapons of mass destruction
    Click HERE and sign our letter today

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VOW opposes “Mother Canada” War Monument

June 1, 2015

Re: Never Forgotten National Memorial Project

To Whom It May Concern:

It has come to our attention that a memorial commemorating Canada’s war dead is being planned for Green Cove, a scenic rocky point on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada (CBHNPC) along the Cabot Trail. This will be a 24 meter statue of “Mother Canada” along with parking and other constructed areas to accommodate visitors.

It is inappropriate for the site, as national parks are mandated to protect and preserve natural areas.  It will be built on a geologically significant area.  It will divert attention from the cultural celebration of nature, life and beauty, to the topic of war, death, and destruction.

Rather than honoring veterans, this is a misuse of money that would be better spent studying ways to create and preserve peace, and to help those current veterans who have come back alive, but broken, as well the families of those who have not come back at all.

In addition, the fact that a company that will be involved in the project has done the study shows a conflict of interest and a lack of an unbiased review of the project. The fact that corporate sponsors’ names will be displayed on the base of the statue is crass commercialism.

As a women’s peace group, we object to this government’s use of an oversized and misplaced woman’s image to tug at our heart strings, while it continues to glorify militarism and send Canadians to kill and die abroad. We are insulted that a woman who presumably represents our caring nature is actually being used for advertising. We object to the gratuitous appeal to sentimentality (“Commemorative Ring of True Patriot Love”, “With Glowing Hearts Sanctuary”), which serves to sugar-coat the reality of war. We are told again and again by those who have experienced war that it is hell, so let’s scrap the idea of a statue that makes war something to aspire to, and let’s start working on creating peace. That is what women want.

Sincerely,

Sandy Greenberg

on behalf of Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace