Newsletters, articles and events for Kitchener-Waterloo's Peace and Social Justice activists
Author: KWPeace
KWPeace is a website to link the many Peace and Social Justice organizations in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and the Waterloo Region townships. KWPeace tries to provide a comprehensive calendar of events.
What: Enough Is Enough Expo When: 10:00am to 11:30am, Saturday 3 June 2023 Where: Carl Zehr Square, Kitchener City Hall Location: 100 King Street West, Kitchener Map Website: http://wesayenough.ca/ Contact: Jeff Donkersgoed <jeffd@waterloolabour.ca>
The Waterloo Regional Labour Council has invited over 200 progressive community organizations, charities, social justice minded groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, student groups, and unions from across the entire region to host a booth, with the intention of strengthening and building our community, sharing the terrific and important work that we do with each other and the general public, and to demand better from those in positions of power.
People’s Referendum to stop the privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals planned Friday & Saturday
Almost a thousand voting stations across Ontario will be staffed by thousands of volunteers in a massive effort to force the Ford government to respect democratic process and input on their hospital privatization plans.
On the website, you can zoom in for details, and a list by region is below the map. Media are invited to see the voting taking place at voting stations across Ontario.
Voting closes on Saturday, 27 May 2023 at midnight.
At time of writing, more than 160,000 votes have been received online and in advance polls.
Province-wide results will be announced outside Queen’s Park on Wednesday 31 May 2023 at 10:00am.
A massive pile of ballots from the people’s referendum will be brought in from across Ontario and piled in front of the Legislature to be delivered to the government.
Local health coalitions across the province will be counting ballots on Saturday evening 27 May 2023 or Sunday 28 May 2023, announcing results locally on Tuesday, 30 May 2023.
Waterloo Region:
Vote counting will take place at the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario-Waterloo Region Office 610 Wabanaki Drive, Kitchener, on Sunday 28 May 2023 from Noon to 5:00pm.
Vote results will be announced on Tuesday, 30 May 2023 at 8:30am outside the Main Entrance to Grand River Hospital, 835 King Street West, Kitchener.
Media contacts to view vote counting and receive local/province-wide results:
Natalie Mehra, Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition
Join us on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba as we rally in support of our people and our popular resistance. On 14 May 2023, we will meet at Waterloo Public Square in the center of Uptown Waterloo at 1:00 PM. This demonstration is suitable for all ages.
Nakba Day is a reminder and affirmation of the Palestinian people’s ongoing resistance, existence, and defiance of the 75-year-old zionist occupation that continues on our lands. As the zionist entity weakens and fragments from within, Palestinians are united and steadfast as ever in the pursuit of our ultimate goal. Generation after generation, the struggle continues, until full national liberation and return!
Wear your keffiyehs, bring your Palestinian flags, and be ready to raise your voices. We’ll see you 14 May 2023 at 1:00 PM at Waterloo Public Square!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will soon be free! 🇵🇸
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‼️كيتشنر- واترلو‼️
انضمو إلينا في الذكرى ال٧٥ للنكبة الفلسطينة والمقاومة الفلسطينة ضد الاحتلال الصهيوني. سنجتمع بتاريخ ١٤/٥ في ساحة واترلو العامة (Waterloo Public Square) وسط ابتاون واترلو في تمام الساعة الواحدة ظهراً. هذه المظاهرة مناسبة لجميع الأعمار.
المظاهرات السنوية ليوم النكبة هي تذكير وتأكيد على واقع الشعب الفلسطيني الذي يواجه تطهير عرقي مستمر واحتلال عسكري همجي.
جيلاً بعد جيل، الشعب الفلسطيني يقاوم العدو الصهيوني حتى النصر والتحرير.
البسوا كوفياتكم واجلبو أعلامكم الفلسطينية إلى مظاهرة يوم النكبة في ١٤/٥. ندعوكم لتضموا أصواتكم لأصوات الفلسطينين في الشتات ومقاومة الإمبريالية والاستعمار الإسرائيلي الصهيوني.
Highlighting plant-based foods, we’ll have foods to buy and sample to help everyone see how delicious going plant-based for our health and for the planet’s health can be, and we’ll provide lots of info! People can drop by for free samples of plant-based cheeses, milks and sausages, and purchase their dinner from foods from across our beautiful planet, including Africa, Asia, Canada, Eastern Europe, and India!
There will be baklava, gourmet donuts, tropical juices, curries, pierogi, Korean bao, and Canadian favourites like mac and cheese.
KW VegFest’s Earth Day Pop-up is brought to you by Waterloo Region Climate Initiatives, with assistance from VegFund and the City of Waterloo. Music generously provided by vegan artist VEFO / @vefovision. With such a small window of time left for us to turn things around for the planet, scientists tell us that turning our attention to the food we eat is essential, and VegFests across the planet celebrate and promote the benefits of plant-based living for everyone, and for our children’s future.
Please join Tamara Lorincz and Mary Groh on Sunday. Poster for Peace Rally
Peace Now! Stop the War, Stop NATO
What: Peace Rally, NATO Protest When: 1:00pm to 2:00pm on Sunday 26 February 2023 Where: Waterloo Public Square Location: 75 King Street South, Waterloo, Ontario Map
Please join one or both of these pickets if you can.
Two Pickets
The Waterloo Region Health Coalition has confirmed that Thursday’s pickets are on, regardless of weather.
Where: St Mary’s General Hospital Location: 911 Queen’s Boulevard, Kitchener Map 1 When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 11:00am until Noon Contact:
Jennifer Cepukus,
ONA Local 139 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President
Grand River Hospital local139@ona.org
Where: Grand River General Hospital Location: 835 King Street West, Kitchener Map 2 When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 12:30pm until 1:30pm Contact:
Deanna Dowsett,
ONA Local 55 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President local055@ona.org
or
Stephanie Hamill
ONA Local 55 Vice President
St. Mary’s General Hospital l55vpsmgh@ona.org
Please join us on the Picket Line to demonstrate to our Nurses just how much we value them
Lets all join in the Fight against the Privatization of our Public Health Care system
Can you spare an hour to stand up for our wetlands?
Our wetlands support us in many ways including:
• Filtering and cleaning our water,
• Preventing flooding, erosion and landslides,
• Offering trails and recreation opportunities that contribute to public well-being, and
• Supporting biodiversity by accommodating endangered and threatened species.
Now we need to stand up for them. 72% of wetlands in south-central Ontario – including swamps, marshes, bogs and fens — have already been lost. Bill 23 and other recent legislation threaten our wetlands further by:
• Treating each wetland in isolation without considering the system as a whole,
• Making protected status harder to achieve and subjecting existing protected wetlands to re-classification,
• Permitting previously prohibited development on wetlands,
• Barring Conservation Authorities from considering land conservation and pollution in their decisions, and
• Requiring Conservation Authorities to identify their lands that could be sold off for development.
This World Wetlands Day, let’s stand together in support of local wetlands and our Conservation Authorities. And against Bill 23, dismantling of the Greenbelt and Conservation Land sell-offs.
Bring a creative sign or wave one of ours.
Rally
1:00pm to 2:00pm, Saturday, 4 February 2023
Dumfries Conservation Area
South-west corner of Hespeler Rd and Dunbar Rd Map
Peace activists will be on the streets from January 6-8, demanding that the Trudeau say no to the F-35 fighter jet deal. The No Fighter Jets campaign encourages peace-loving people across Canada to join demonstrations and activities across Canada for the weekend of action from or to organize your own actions.
MARCH to “Save our Hospitals” & Million Medicare Defenders
Thank you very much to all who came to our Waterloo Region Town Hall. We discussed how to make the fight visible, to show real resistance to the Ford government’s refusal to take urgent action on the hospital crisis while at the same time privatizing our hospitals. We must come together to share our concern and make it very clear that privatization is not the solution to our hospital crisis.
Now it is time to make this clear to Ford and demand urgent action to fix the hospital crisis and stop privatization. Join our protests in Waterloo Region.
As outlined below, the first stage of our plan is to hold a major protest to show our support and solidarity with our hospital staff and leaders and also send a strong message to the Ford government. Please share it widely with everyone you know and help to make it a huge show of strength. Thank you! ❤ We will look forward to seeing you all there.
The call-out is below.
The Ford government has done almost nothing to fix the crisis in our hospitals.
Force Ford to act urgently to support our public hospitals now and stop privatizing their services!
Region of Waterloo
Where: Waterloo Public Square Location: 75 King Street South, Waterloo, Ontario Map When: Noon on Monday, 12 December, 2022.
We will March to the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener across from CTV News.
Ottawa Protest
You can also bring signs and messages to Doug Ford to finally take urgent action to restore and rebuild our public hospital services, STOP privatizing them.
Also, please consider becoming one of our million Medicare Defenders. This is not a membership list and you can click NO on the registration and we will not contact you or use your information for anything. This is to tell Doug Ford in no uncertain terms that he does not have a mandate from Ontarians to privatize our public health care. We need to get as many people as possible to scare the Ford Government away from their plans to privatize and do nothing to help the crisis in our hospitals.
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KWPeace is always looking for additional contributors. If you’re an organizer for a Peace, Nonviolence, Social Justice, or Human Rights group active in the Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) you can post announcements of your upcoming events here. They’ll show up on Twitter @KWPeace as well as on every Fediverse instance where someone has subscribed to @KWPeace@KWPeace.ca
The Waterloo Regional Labour Council and the Ontario Federation of Labour are organizing an Expo and Rally:
Waterloo Regional Labour Council has invited over 200 progressive community organizations, charities, social justice minded groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations, student groups, and unions from across the entire region to host a booth, with the intention of strengthening and building our community, sharing the terrific and important work that we do with each other and the general public, and to demand better from those in positions of power.
https://www.waterloohealthcoalition.org/
@vefovision
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
WILPF Canada
Ontario Nurses’ Association
Waterloo Region Health Coalition
KW Council of Canadians
CKMS Community Connections for 20 February 2023 with Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition
