Newsletters, articles and events for Kitchener-Waterloo's Peace and Social Justice activists
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Bring Your Signs
Wednesday 22 June 2022 | 5:30pm
Speakers Corner | King & Benton Map
Downtown Kitchener
What: Kitchener-Waterloo Rally
When: 3:00pm – 6:00pm on Sunday, 1 May 2022 iCal
Where: Waterloo Region Courthouse
Location: 85 Frederick Street, Kitchener, Ontario Map
More info: Workers First | The Ontario Federation of Labour
It’s time for a $20 minimum wage, decent work, affordable housing, paid sick days, well-funded public services, livable income support for all, climate justice, and an end to racism and oppression. Join us!
The Council of Canadians writes:
There will be an Ontario Provincial Election on 2 June 2022. The Council of Canadians, along with a wide range of other community groups, are joining with the Ontario Federation of Labour for a day of action calling for a $20 minimum wage, decent work, affordable housing, well-funded public services, livable income support for all, livable income supports, and climate justice! There will be speakers, food trucks, tables and information from our Chapter and others, and we expect that participants from London and Guelph may also join our event. If you live in Kitchener-Conestoga, Kitchener-Hespeler, or Cambridge, you might want to particularly encourage friends, family and neighbours to join you to hear about the programs and initiatives we need to expect our next government to provide, such as significantly improving funding to our public healthcare and education systems in Ontario, as well as a return to valuing and safeguarding our environmental greenspaces, waterways, groundwater and precious farmland.
You’ll find more information about the Kitchener Waterloo Rally at Kitchener-Waterloo Rally & Carnival of Resistance. If you have friends and family in other parts of Ontario, you may want to share the link with them, so that they could participate in rallies that will be held near them as this is a province-wide event.
I hope you’ll come out and say hi to us at our table, enjoy the spring weather, and get to know others in our community.
Marilyn
For information on current issues and actions of local and national interest, see Kitchener-Waterloo Council of Canadians on Facebook.
For the foreseeable future, KW CofC will meet online using Zoom, the third Wednesday of every other month from 7 to 9pm. A reminder with agenda will be sent several days ahead.
E-mail: kw.cofc@gmail.com (KW Council of Canadians)
What: Waterloo Peace Vigil: End War in Yemen
When: 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Saturday 26 March 2022
Where: Waterloo Town Square, 75 King Street South, Waterloo Map
WATERLOO PEACE VIGIL » #CanadaStopArmingSaudi Day of Action: End the War in Yemen
◉ 2-3pm this Saturday
⁰◉ At Waterloo Public Square, 75 King St.#DayOfAction4Yemen #YemenCantWait pic.twitter.com/oCD2FxvdAY— World BEYOND War Canada (@WBWCanada) March 23, 2022
What: Global Climate Strike: People not Profit
When: Friday, March 25th, 2022 , 12pm (~1hour)
Where: Waterloo Town Square, 75 King Street South, Waterloo Map
Rules: Please make sure that you follow local and regional COVID-19 safety protocol in your area. We recommend wearing a mask and remaining physically distanced throughout the event.
Tamara Lorincz writes:
Hello KW Peace,
In solidarity with actions planned across the US led by 
CODEPINK and across Europe (including outside the NATO headquarters), we are calling for another Canada-wide Day of Action #StandForPeace #NoWarWithRussia for this Saturday, February 5. the entrance of the Kitchener Farmers Market from 12-1pm. If anyone is free and wants to join us that would be great. Canada and NATO are fomenting a war with Russia over Ukraine. Canada is now spending $340 million to militarize the conflict instead of investing in social welfare at home and abroad.
Canada has just sent a warship, special forces, more soldiers and more financial assistance to Ukraine and the Trudeau government and mainstream media ramping up the war rhetoric.
In Kitchener, I will be standing at the entrance of the Farmers Market, 300 King St, from 12:00-1:00 pm, please join me if you can.
If you can’t make it, please take a photo of yourself holding a sign with #StandForPeace and share it on social media with the hashtag and we will circulate it.
List of action, graphic, statement etc: 
https://vowpeace.org/
Send your photo to: info@vowpeace.org
Read our statement: https://www.foreignpolicy.ca/ukraine
Sign and share the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ukraineconflict
In solidarity and have a good weekend,
Tamara
CANADA-WIDE DAY OF ACTION: #StandForPeace #NoWarWithRussia #NeutralityForUkraine #CanadaOutofNATO
Saturday, February 5
Join us for an emergency rally part of a Canada-wide day of action to #StandForPeace. If you are alarmed about the escalating danger of a US-NATO war with Russia over Ukraine and are opposed to Canada sending weapons, soldiers and special forces to Ukraine. Join us in calling on Canada to stop militarizing the conflict and to engage in diplomatic negotiations for a political solution and a lasting peace. On Saturday, bring a sign, help us distribute leaflets and urge our neighbours to stand for peace. Take a photo and share are our graphic #StandForPeace on social media.
See CODEPINK call out #PeaceWithRussia #NoWarWithRussia: https://www.codepink.org/02052022
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What can we do about climate change as a community, as leaders, and as individuals? Given the United Nations’ “Code Red for Humanity,” it’s difficult to not feel hopeless. But together we can build resilience and gain momentum to achieve our climate goals. Join us online with people from our region to discuss how climate, food, and community are interrelated.
Mark your calendar for either:
Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 7:00pm – 9:30pm; or
Saturday, 4 December 2021, 7:00pm – 9:30pm
We’ll begin by watching Eating Our Way to Extinction, a film featuring leading scientists, physicians, and academics that explores how our global food system contributes to some of the major issues of our day: climate breakdown, environmental racism, and food access inequality.
The voices from Brazil are particularly compelling in the film. One man making a living from clearing the rainforest says, “You can’t tell us what to do!” and an indigenous woman says, “We don’t consider ourselves as owning the forest, rather we are a part of nature, a part of it.”
We are pleased to have Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, one of the documentary’s scientists, available for Q&A. Wedderburn-Bisshop is a former Principal Scientist with Queensland Government Natural Resources in Australia, and a member of Climate CoLab at MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence. We have invited local political leaders from Waterloo Region and Wellington County to join us in the discussion.
These events are presented by Kitchener-Waterloo Climate Save, Guelph Climate Save, and Waterloo Region Citizens’ Climate Lobby
To sign up for this free evening, please complete this Google form:
If you have any difficulties with the form, just write us at markham_marion@yahoo.ca.
Looking forward to seeing you online!
Mo Markham for Kitchener-Waterloo Climate Save
At the corner of Charles St. E & Stirling Ave!
Donations will be given to a nonprofit, working with unhoused people.
On Friday November 26, Waterloo Regional Bylaw, together with police, bulldozed the shelters of unhoused people living at Charles & Stirling.
Please wear a mask and respect social distancing.
On Saturday, 27 November 2021 come to Waterloo Square at 11:00am to call on the Canadian government to send a Special Envoy to Palestine-Israel to investigate the treatment of Palestinian children subjected to Israeli military arrest and detention.
Palestinian children growing up in the Occupied Palestinian Territories live under Israeli military occupation. Their day-to-day reality includes home and school demolitions, water rationing, the loss of family land, checkpoints and military gates, night raids, detentions, and imprisonment. It’s time for Canada to stand up for Palestinian children’s rights.
In 2018 a group of Canadian Members of Parliament went to Palestine to see the situation of Palestinians living under Israeli military rule. One of the recommendations of the group upon their return was that the Government of Canada sends a Special Envoy to investigate the situation of Palestinians living under Israeli military rule. Today we are renewing that call.
As part of a network dedicated to pursuing human rights in the Middle East, we are inviting you to help us renew that call and ask the Special Envoy to specifically look into the treatment of Palestinian children being arrested, harassed, and often tortured.
Please join us at Waterloo Square in Uptown Waterloo for this Public Witness Event to learn more about the practice the Israeli soldiers arresting and putting Palestinian children in Israeli detention.
If you have any questions please contact:
Kathy Bergen
bergenkathy@gmail.com
For many years now Group Nine Amnesty International (Kitchener-Waterloo) has actively participated in Write for Rights on Human Rights Day December 10. We have joined with Amnesty International’s seven million supporters around the world in a letter-writing blitz calling on governments to respect the rights of selected individuals at risk. We have had many successes over the years including the release of political prisoners, the ending of torture in specific cases and in bringing human rights offenders to justice.
This year while human rights abuses continue worldwide, COVID-19 again makes an in-person event impossible.
In spite of that constraint, last year together we took over 300 actions in our “Ten Days for Human Rights” at-home campaign.
This year, we hope you join us again to produce a mountain of letters and sign online actions to let governments know that we are still watching, and send messages of support and encouragement to those who are in the front lines of the struggle for human rights.
Here is the Group Nine Write for Rights 2021 letter writing plan:
Ten Days for Human Rights!!!
There are two ways in which you can participate in the letter and card actions:
Each day from Dec 1 to 10, Group 9 will send you an email giving background information on one case, a sample letter, a link for an online action, and a suggestion for a supportive action (usually a card) that you can take. We will repeat this each day for 10 days to cover all the cases.
Each day, participants will complete and mail the letter and card – as well as getting their “bubbles” to do the same. Please keep a record of the number of cards, letters and online actions sent for each case (including cc’s).
On December 11th, we will send out an email to everyone asking each of you to send in the number and type of actions you and your bubble have completed for each case.
Collect your letters and cards during the ten days so that you can make one delivery. Please do not use an envelope for each letter or card. Rather, fold your letter once and write the name of the recipient and country on the outside. Do the same on the outside of the card. Put them all in one large envelope or wrap with a rubber band and include a slip with your name so that we can keep a record. Mary and David will provide a drop-off box at their front door in Waterloo from Dec 10 to Dec 15. They will quarantine the letters, organize them by recipient and then mail them in bulk.
Email groupnine9@gmail.com for the drop off address and directions.
If you would like to make a contribution towards postage costs for the bulk mailing, please send an e-transfer to groupnine9@gmail.com
We know that this is much more lonely work than coming out to Seven Shores Café to write letters together and socialize over coffee and delicious treats, but we hope that you will involve your “bubble” in creating a mountain of cards and letters for Ten Days for Human Rights!!!
We’ll keep you posted about our possible in-person events via separate emails.
Your first case letter will arrive on December 1.
Thank you for your support for human rights!
David and Margaret for Group 9
Group Nine is the local chapter of Amnesty International Canada in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. We normally meet at 7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of every month in *Room 4224 (The Fretz Seminar Room) at Conrad Grebel College*, University of Waterloo (140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo N2L 3G6). Please confirm by email or on our Facebook page..
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyInternationalGroup9/
Website: https://www.amnesty.ca
E-mail: groupnine9@gmail.com
