KWPeace – KWPeace

Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Ceremony at the Willow River Centre, 7am on Saturday 21 June 2025

What: Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Ceremony
When: 7:00am on Saturday 21 June 2025
Where: Willow River Centre
Location: 243 King Street East, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Website: https://www.kwmf.ca/indigenous

Sunrise Ceremony
June 21 @ 7am
Join Us For
Food Fire Speakers Drumming
Opening at Willow River Centre
Sacred Fire 7am-10am
Multicultural Festival 12pm

Rally Against Bills 5, 6, 17 at Kitchener City Hall, 11:30am on Sat. 31 May 2025

What: Rally against Bill 5, Bill 6, and Bill 17, aka Rally for People and Planet
When: 11:30am to 2:00pm on Saturday 31 May 2025 (speeches at Noon)
Where: Carl Zehr Square, Kitchener City Hall
Location: 100 King Street West, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Website 1: https://gren.ca
Website 2: https://environmentaldefence.ca/stop-bill-5/
Contact: Kevin Thomason – vice-chair@gren.ca

For your safety, never register for rallies, protests, or other events where civil disobedience may occur.

We need to stop Premier Ford’s Power Grab

Premier Ford promised to protect Ontario. But now that he’s been elected, he is already breaking that promise. His latest bill would give his friends special permissions to ignore laws that protect us and our environment.

No guardrails.
No accountability.

We can’t afford to let him and his cabinet get away with this.

Kevin Thomason writes:

It has been an unprecedented week as Doug Ford has tried to ram through the horrific Bill 5 while all the opposition MPPs have worked together to do everything in their power to stop it, join the Kitchener Rally Against Bill 5 on Saturday at 12:00 noon, participate in upcoming webinars and events, speak up against Bill 17’s devastating impacts on our communities, learn about the latest very disappointing Hidden Valley loss to developers in Kitchener, the Greenbelt Scandal continues with more concerning e-mails found, and more. Here’s the latest:

1) Bill 5 Pushback Grows – There are more protests, more groups speaking out. and actions against Bill 5 the “Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act”, a dangerous attack on our rights, environment, and democracy. First Nations, environmentalists, civil liberties organizations, labour, municipalities, and even Amnesty International have come out against Bill 5.

It was fantastic to see all opposition MPPs working together to do everything they could stop the bill this past week including an impressive filibuster at the Standing Committee meeting until midnight on Wednesday night. While the Ford government is promising amendments to try to quell First Nations concerns, Indigenous Leaders say it is too little, too late and frankly the government has made only ineffective, minor, superficial amendments as “window dressing” while completely ignoring the vast majority of concerns raised by tens of thousands of concerned citizens so far.

Protests/Rallies — There have been large protests including hundreds of people in Guelph last weekend. Please plan to join the Kitchener Protest Against:

Bill 5 — Sweeping powers to fast track development, bypass environmental protections, create law-free economic zones, ignore archeology, and violate Indigenous rights.

Bill 6 — Harsher penalties for drugs and trespass targeting homelessness with punitive measures rather than support.

Bill 17 — Prohibiting needed Green Development Standards, limiting development charges, enabling new MZO’s, encouraging dangerous inexpensive water and wastewater systems.

Date/Time: Saturday, May 31st at 12:00 noon
Location: Carl Zehr Square on King Street at Kitchener City Hall

National Indigenous Peoples Month & Pride Kickoff at Kitchener Market, 10am on Sunday 1 June 2025

What: National Indigenous Peoples Month & Pride Kickoff
When: 10:00am to 2:00pm on Sunday 1 June 2025
Where: In front of the Kitchener Market
Location: 300 King Street East, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=965234062444705

Food, craft vendors, live music and more!
Rain or shine!

Artivism Against Bill 6, Corner of King St. and Victoria St., 5pm on Thursday 29 May 2025

What: Artivism Against Bill 6
When: 5:00pm to 7:00pm on Thursday 29 May 2025
Where: Near King Street and Victoria Street intersection, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Online: Unsheltered Campaign and A Womb With A View
Contact: Two White Feather or Gentle Eagle at awombwithaviewmakesadifference@gmail.com

Lori Gentle Eagle writes:

A Womb With A View would love to create a Protect Art piece with those in attendance and have it stand along side speakers sharing their thoughts and signs held high by people who care. This Artivism would involve tying cloth or ribbon onto a basic scarecrow figure. Each cloth would have a statement or word written on it about the harm that would come with this Bill e.g. violation of human rights, criminalization of the poor, stigmatization of people who use substances, further displacement of Indigenous folks on their own lands, etc.

Artivism Against Bill 6
(a half-tone photo of a hand beside orange letters)

Collective Art | Bill 6 and Bylaw Info | Petition Signing

Stand against Bill 6 and the 100 Victoria by-law punishing unhoused individuals’ survival.
Help build collective art piece of resistance
Write a word naming this harm on ribbon and add it to a scarecrow figure. Scare away Bill 6!

Why Hope Matters – Nith Valley EcoBoosters webinar, 7pm on Thursday 15 May 2025

What: Why Hope Matters: The Practice of Evidence- Based Hope in a World of Climate Doom
When: 7:00pm to 9:00pm on Thursday 15 May 2025
Where: Online Webinar
Register: https://actionnetwork.org/events/how-to-be-hopeful-in-a-world-of-climate-doom
Website: Nith Valley Ecoboosters
E-mail: nvecoboosters@gmail.com

When it comes to the ongoing fight against climate change, it is easy to lose heart as stories about the disastrous impacts of global warming seem to make headlines every day. To flip the script on this “climate fatigue”, the Nith Valley EcoBoosters are hosting a free webinar on May 15th at 7:00 p.m.

Why Hope Matters: The Practice of Evidence- Based Hope in a World of Climate Doom, will feature guest speaker Dr. Elin Kelsey, an international thought leader, scholar and science communicator on climate emotions and the role of evidence-based hope, and the author of Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis. Dr. Kelsey will share positive climate success stories and where to find them, and discuss how they help us to be more enthusiastic, optimistic and hopeful with respect to our capacity to tackle the climate crisis.

You can register for this free webinar at Action Network or Nith Valley Ecoboosters

Our Speaker: Dr. Elin Kelsey

A woman with short hair wearing a white sweater and orange skirt smiles into the camera. She is is sitting outside on rocks, seen out-of-focus in the background. — Elin Kelsey

A leader in the solutions-focused environmental and climate justice
movement.

Award-winning author of more than a dozen books for children and adults including: HOPE MATTERS: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis.

Learn about evidence-based hope, a concept based on real progress and effective solutions that shifts the focus from fear to empowerment. While there are reasons to be anxious about the climate crisis, there are also reasons to be optimistic due to meaningful accomplishments.
Q&A will follow Dr. Kelsey’s presentation.

Earth Day Celebration — Special Screening of Beyond Crisis at KPL, Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 5:30pm

What: Film Screening: Beyond Crisis
a story of hope for a rapidly changing world
(Movie poster showing a man sitting on the roof of a barn, with water nearly up to the peak of the roof. There are several award logos at the bottom of the poster, and credits below that (both too small to make out at this resolution) Beyond Crisis
When: 5:30pm to 7:30pm on Tuesday 22 April 2025
Where: Kitchener Public Library, Main Branch, Auditorium
Location: 85 Queen Street North, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Register:Eventbrite Tickets

In honour of this year’s Earth Day, Kai Reimer-Watts has arranged a special screening of his 2018 documentary Beyond Crisis. You and your friends are warmly invited to this rare, free public screening of a powerful Canadian documentary on climate! Please register in advance so we can keep track of numbers, and share widely.

The event hosted by our local MPP Aislinn Clancy, and held in the film theatre at Kitchener Public Library (Main Branch, 85 Queen Street North). The one-hour documentary will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker (Kai) and MPP Aislinn Clancy. There will also be light food and refreshments. It is a non-partisan event for the broader community, to draw attention to climate change at this crucial time here in Canada, and while we are in a federal election.

Also, if you haven’t yet, please check out the Vote for Climate campaign led by the Waterloo Region Climate Collaborative! Non-partisan lawn and window signs are still available this election.

About the film

Beyond Crisis was a three-year filmmaking adventure led by Canadian climate activists, seeking to capture growing movements for change here in Canada and around the world advocating for bold climate action and a just response to the climate crisis. It launched at Princess Twin Cinema in Waterloo in 2018, and has since been screened in festivals, theatres, classrooms and community venues around the world, as a galvanizing story of our current ‘climate moment’ and the many possibilities we have for collective response. While it remains honest about the gravity of climate change, it is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring film about people, and the power of people to transform our realities and together forge brighter futures. It is highly artistic, creative and meditative in sections, and packed with insights from over 50 changemakers – many of whom are Canadian.

The film is only one hour long, split into five connected chapters: The Language of Change; A Dangerous Addiction; Feelings of Change; A Brighter Future; and Building a Movement. Each chapter has its own areas of focus, and together, they tell the story of many thousands of people all over the world working to change our current climate reality for the better. The film was designed in this way to keep chapters short, and to better stimulate ongoing audience engagement and community dialogue after each screening. Kai has received many positive responses by viewers on the film, its emotional/intellectual impact, and unique structure. You can check out the trailer on YouTube to see if it resonates with you.

Thank you for your ongoing support for Divest Waterloo and for your part in our collective action to raise awareness and engage our community on issues related to climate change, our pursuit of a low carbon economy, and our movement towards a just and sustainable future.

International Palestinian Children’s Day, 11:00am, Saturday 5 April 2025 at the Kitchener Market

What: International Palestinian Children’s Day
When: 11:00am on Saturday 5 April 2025
Where: Kitchener Market
Location: 300 King Street East, Kitchener, OntarioMap
Contact: wrfriendsofpalestine@gmail.com

Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine writes:

Dear Friends of Palestine,

Always amongst the debris are hidden gems that call for celebration. This week amongst the ongoing carnage of Israeli’s maniacal genocide, we have a moment of brightness, a key to Palestinian liberation that will be the prize of Palestinians. International Palestinian Children’s Day is on Saturday 5 April 2025, it is a mouthful that is easily missed, but, the children of Palestine need to be celebrated and it will be a joy this weekend to shine the spotlight on them, as we also remember their suffering.

Future health care worker
We will be celebrating their spiritual fortitude, their cultural strength and their physical and mental courage. They have been born into a world of chaos and genocidal occupation and still, like a tree growing out of a rock, the children have thrived, learned, loved and played, they have dreams and visions for the future. These children are the future leaders of Palestine and they will liberate Palestine and the world one day. It is in the eyes of this future health care worker that leadership to a better place is the vision and the focus, he and his peers will arrive at a place of justice, dignity and liberation for all.

This Saturday, join the Walk with Grief to lift your spirits, in addition, come to the table for International Palestinian Children’s Day that is just inside the market (Upper level), bring your children, they can colour pictures, write notes to the children of Gaza, share in the candies and other treats available for children.

Do not miss the moment, International Palestinian Children’s Day (IPCD), bring yourself, bring your children to celebrate the future leaders of Palestine.

Please join us at the Walk for Grief, this Saturday at 11am at Kitchener Market. Also, join us inside the market (upper level near front door) 7:00am to 2:00pm.

irene and WRFP

Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine
Instagram: @wrfriendsofpalestine

Film Screening: Bread and Roses, 5pm on Wed 12 March 2025 by Amnesty International UW

What: Film Screening: Bread and Roses
When: 5:00pm on Wednesday 12 March 2025
Where: United College Alumni Hall A
Location: 190 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, Ontario Map
Register: Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bread-and-roses-screening-tickets-1262702891339
Website: https://linktr.ee/AmnestyUW

To: Faculty and Friends of the Human Rights Program at United College,

Amnesty International’s UW Chapter cordially invites you to join us for the screening of the momentous and enraging documentary Bread and Roses. Directed by Sahra Mani and produced with Malala Yousafzai, as well as Jennifer Lawrence, the documentary follows three Afghan women post 2021 Taliban take-over as they begin to navigate life under the oppressive rule and fight for their autonomy.

What you need to know:

Snacks will be provided.

The Amnesty International UW Chapter aims to raise awareness and hands on support for both local Waterloo and international human rights issues. We ask our members what human rights issues they want our focus on, and for this term, our members chose women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is ranked last in the Women, Peace, and Security Index. Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, women and girls have faced an unprecedented loss of their rights and freedoms. Banning girls from post primary education, from working jobs or volunteer roles, from public life, and much more, the Taliban created the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis. Now, with the pulling of USAID contracts from an already reeling economy, the threat of survival looms over the lives Afghan women and their families.

Bread and Roses is a chant that finds its origins in the American women’s suffragette movement. It’s a call for bread, work, and education. The documentary, using guerilla techniques and phone cameras, shows the rise of the Taliban through the eyes of three female activists as they struggle to retain their basic rights. The film may be disturbing to some, as it covers the real and extreme risks of punishment and abduction.

We hope to see you there,

UW Amnesty International Chapter.

Reach out to us @aihumanrights on Instagram Or visit our link tree at https://linktr.ee/AmnestyUW.

Cutting Through Elections Noise, Friday 21 February 2025 at SDCWR

What: SDC Pre-Election Event To Focus On Community Power
When: 7:00pm to 9:00pm on Friday 21 February 2025
Where: Social Development Centre Waterloo Region (enter from Duke Street)
Location: 23 Water Street North, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Online: https://waterlooregion.org/sdc-pre-election-event-to-focus-on-community-power
Register: on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cutting-through-elections-noise-a-forum-for-building-community-power-tickets-1248691492869
Contact: Phone: +1‑519‑579‑3800, E-mail: sdcwr@waterlooregion.org

The last-minute announcement of a provincial election has left many of us reeling. And there’s a growing sense that our governments and political processes don’t work for us.

But what if we can turn our collective anxiety into something productive? That is our hope with “Cutting Through the Noise: A Forum for Building Community Power.” Happening Friday 21 February 2025 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, the event will create a space for us all to catch our breath, acknowledge our worries, and practise building local collective power in the face of systems that fail us.

Only together can we create the futures we want. Grassroots organizers, community groups, and residents from across Waterloo Region are welcome. Please RSVP today and share widely.

Things are not okay, and we can all feel it.

Mass layoffs seem imminent in the face of a looming tariff war. Housing costs are eating up an ever-increasing share of our incomes. Our schools are under-funded. Our hospitals are inundated. And homeless encampments have become entrenched, as more people are pushed into poverty. All of this against a backdrop of dizzying political announcements – new legislation, new funding, new election timelines – and yet, no improvement in the realities we see around us.

But history has shown us that social change is possible.

The rejection of encampment evictions at 100 Victoria St. in Kitchener. The overturning of land swaps at the heart of Ontario’s Greenbelt scandal. The change in a 13-year stance when Canada condemned Israeli settlements in occupied-Palestine. Time and again, we’ve seen deep-seated political forces fall apart in the face of sustained community action.

Let’s turn our collective anxiety into something productive.

Join us on Feb. 21 and together, we can combat the feeling that we’re on our own. We can listen and care for one another, even as our systems fail us. And in the midst of so much noise, we can practise building local, collective power to create the future we want.

Some Resources Your May Find Helpful in The Lead Up to Election Day

With the provincial election announced a mere 28 days before Election Day, we understand many voters don’t feel like they have enough time to get to know their candidates or the platforms of their respective parties. Here are some of the resources we’ve come across that you might find helpful:

A primer of questions about decent work and cost of living (Justice for Workers)
Candidate responses to questions compiled locally by One Millions Neighbours Waterloo Region
Resources for voters who care about Good Food for All (Sustain Ontario)
Search for your candidate’s campaign page (Elections Ontario)
Promises made by each of the 4 parties (Global News)
How to cast your vote on or before Election Day (Elections Ontario)

ACORN Town Hall at 2:30pm on Saturday 25 January 2025 at Kitchener Public Library

What: ACORN Region-Wide Town Hall meeting
When: 2:30pm on Saturday 25 January 2025
Where: Kitchener Public Library Main Branch, Room E
Location: 85 Queen Street North, Kitchener Map
Contact: Vonica Flear +1‑226‑545‑4359
E-mail: kw@acorncanada.org
Online: https://acorncanada.org/locations/waterloo-acorn/

ACORN is Holding a Region-Wide Town Hall to Identify Community Issues and Launch New Survey for Low-Income Residents

(Kitchener, ON) – ACORN is organizing a Town Hall on Saturday, 25 January 1025 at 2:30pm at the Kitchener Public Library for all residents of Waterloo Region to meet and discuss issues they’re struggling with, how the community can organize against these issues, and what they think ACORN should prioritize in 2025.

At the town hall, ACORN leaders will review ACORN’s campaign work on the local, provincial, and national level, and how ACORN members organize on various community issues like bad faith evictions, skyrocketing grocery prices, low social assistance rates, and more. We will also be joined by guest speakers including a Hamilton ACORN Organizer who will be sharing how ACORN members fought for and WON a strong anti-renoviction bylaw in Hamilton, and the importance of perseverance when fighting for change. To close the meeting, ACORN members will be launching our new tenant survey to shed light on the sheer scale of struggles low-income residents face across the Region.

We welcome all tenants and other low-income residents across Waterloo Region to join us and share their experiences during our break out discussion sections, following which ACORN leaders will hold an exercise to illustrate how to organize for change.

To speak with an ACORN leader about this event or discuss ACORN’s campaigns, please contact ACORN staff Organizer Vonica Flear at kw@acorncanada.org or +1‑226‑545‑4359.