Category: Justice

Lawful and Just are not necessarily the same thing

Hands Off Venezuela! Rally at Waterloo Public Square, 2pm on Saturday 17 January 2026

Correction: The date is Saturday 17 January 2026

Join us to condemn the illegal U.S. airstrikes and abduction of the democratically elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil resources and at the press conference on Saturday, Trump said “We’re taking back the oil in Venezuela… We’re running the country… We’re going to be taking out a lot of wealth from Venezuela.” The attack against Venezuela is another aggressive U.S. war for oil.

Actions are taking place across Canada this week in solidarity with the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against U.S. aggression.

The CWPJN condemns the January 3, 2026 U.S. military attacks against Venezuela, and joins the international call for emergency actions demanding: No War on Venezuela! Repatriate Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores Now! We also denounce the Canadian government’s shameful support of the U.S.’s illegal ouster of President Maduro.

Read the statement: No War on Venezuela! from the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network

Not another U.S. war for oil. (See the CIA stats on Venezuela’s proven oil reserves)

Organized by:

Part of the Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network (CWPJN).

Amnesty International Write For Rights, 1pm-4pm on Saturday 10 January 2026 at First United Church

Hello Amnesty supporters,

You are invited to join human rights advocates in the Kitchener/Waterloo area as we take part in Amnesty International’s annual Write for Rights letter-writing campaign — the biggest human rights event in the world!

Your Words Are Powerful | Write For Rights | Amnesty International ( a woman holding a pen and Write For Rights letters, in front of a B&W photo of a woman giving a peace sign surrounded by scattered paperwork)

What to do: We will have printed copies of letters for you to sign as well as blank cards and art materials so you can prepare messages of support for the people and families whose rights are under threat.

(grey rectangle depicting a printed page) W4R-2025-letterspdffinal15pshare.pdf, 90 kBytes

Download the prepared letters with instructions so that if you have the time, you can sign the letters in advance and bring them with you to our event on January 10. That way, you can focus on preparing the cards of support when you arrive.

More about Write for Rights:

Write For Human Rights (a raised clenched fist holding a nibbed pen)Write for Rights involves hundreds of thousands of people across 200 countries and territories who write millions of letters and and send messages of support on behalf of eight individuals or groups whose rights are at risk.

Write for Rights has helped transform the lives of more than 100 people since 2001, freeing them from torture, harassment, or unjust imprisonment.

This year Amnesty International’s eight cases include: displaced people in Madagascar in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, Sámi reindeer herders in Norway whose lifestyle and land rights are under threat, deadly conditions in South African daycares, a lawyer and media commentator in Tunisia jailed for criticizing inhumane prison conditions, a photojournalist sentenced to 20 years hard labour in prison for reporting on the impact of a cyclone in northern Myanmar and the intimidation, imprisonment and murder of environmentalists in the Amazon, Cambodia, and Honduras.

Your words have the power to change lives! Please join us to sign letters and send messages of support to change lives for the better.

Hope to see you on January 10!!!

For more information about this event, email groupnine9@gmail.com

For more information about Canada-based Write for Rights events and on-line petitions go to https://amnesty.ca/write-for-rights/

Check out our social media at…

Event: Write For Rights – January 10th 2026 @1:00pm @ First United Church in Waterloo

Event: Group 9 Hosts Write for Rights

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DR3NMvjiUcJ/

Emergency Protest: Hands Off Venezuela! at Waterloo Public Square, 4:30pm on Monday 5 January 2026

  • What: Emergency Protest in Waterloo: Hands Off Venezuela! Stop the U.S. war against Venezuela! Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network (yellow letters on a green peace symbol on a red background; the inside of the green peace symbol is coloured like a watermelon)
  • When: 4:30pm-5:30pm on Monday 5 January 2026
  • Where: Waterloo Public Square
  • Location: 75 King Street South Map
  • Online: Peace and Justice Network: https://peaceandjusticenetwork.ca/
  • Contact: CWPJN canadapeaceandjustice@gmail.com to register actions.

Join us to condemn the illegal U.S. airstrikes and abduction of the democratically elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil resources and at the press conference on Saturday, Trump said “We’re taking back the oil in Venezuela… We’re running the country… We’re going to be taking out a lot of wealth from Venezuela.” The attack against Venezuela is another aggressive U.S. war for oil.

No War on Venezuela! Repatriate Venezuela's President Maduro & his wife Cilia Flores Now! Cross-Canada Emergency Actions Waterloo, Ontario MONDAY January 5 (2026) 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Waterloo Public Square, 75 King St. Organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace & WILPF-Canada #HandsOffVenezuela

Actions are taking place across Canada this week in solidarity with the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against U.S. aggression.

The CWPJN condemns the January 3, 2026 U.S. military attacks against Venezuela, and joins the international call for emergency actions demanding: No War on Venezuela! Repatriate Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores Now! We also denounce the Canadian government’s shameful support of the U.S.’s illegal ouster of President Maduro.

Read the statement: No War on Venezuela! from the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network

Not another U.S. war for oil. (See the CIA stats on Venezuela’s proven oil reserves)

Organized by:

Part of the Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network (CWPJN).

Lecture: Poetry, Pain, and the Promise of Palestine, UofW, 7-9pm on Wednesday 26 November 2025

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts is honoured to present guest speaker Dr. Sa’ed Atshan – scholar, Palestinian Quaker, and LGBTQ human rights advocate – on the role of poetry in capturing the realities of contemporary Palestinian life in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and beyond.

Please join us for this unique opportunity to explore how interdisciplinary scholarship can be applied to both understand and address a global crisis which has had such tragic human consequences.

About the speaker

A bald man wearing a suit jacket. He is staring past the camera to the left.
Sa’ed Atshan
Dr. Sa’ed Atshan is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He has previously served as an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Senior Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. He earned a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies and MA in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and BA from Swarthmore College. Atshan is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (Stanford University Press, 2020), coauthor (with Katharina Galor) of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (Duke University Press, 2020), and co-editor (with Galor) of Reel Gender: Palestinian and Israeli Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Details and proceedings

Registration is required for in-person and online attendance. For those attending in-person, proof of registration is required at the reception area.

  • Doors open: 6:30 p.m.
  • Lecture and moderated Q & A: 7:00 to 8:20 p.m.
  • Reception for the in-person audience: 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Paid visitor parking is available in Lot M across from Federation Hall. More parking information.

This lecture is made possible through the generosity of alumni and friends. UofW Faculty of Arts extends sincere appreciation to the donors who contributed to the Foundation for Palestinian Studies Fund.

Watch past recordings from the UofW Palestinian Lectures series on YouTube.

Movie: The Eternal Song, at the Civic Hub, 5:30pm on Tuesday 30 September 2025

You are invited to watch The Eternal Song on September 30.

If you are joining us virtually, the film will begin at 6:00pm. If you are attending in person at the Civic Hub in Kitchener, there will be a feast from 5:30pm to 6:00pm. Potluck style is encouraged, if you are able to contribute. Please bring your feast bundle to eat with. Let’s wear our Orange Shirts and put our heads, hearts and hands together as we engage in healing ourselves, our communities, our Nations and our planet from the harms of colonization.

In the spirit of reciprocity, this fundraiser will be sharing proceeds with the Kinema platform, A Womb With A View, and some of the Indigenous groups highlighted in the film.

Please join us on Truth and Reconciliation Day for a unique perspective on healing from colonization. We will have a brief circle afterwards to debrief and selected craft items & Orange Shirts will be on sale. If you are unable to join us, please share this information and/or consider sponsoring a ticket for someone else to participate.

Miigweech.

Lori and Two White Feather
A Womb With A View

The Eternal Song | Ancestral Wisdom for Collective Healing

Draw The Line, Waterloo Public Square, 2pm to 3pm on Saturday 20 September 2025

  • What: National Day of Action: Draw The Line – Waterloo Draw The Line (irregular black letters on an orange background)
  • When: 2:00pm to 3:00pm on Saturday 20 September 2025
  • Where: Waterloo Public Square
  • Location: 75 King Street South Map
  • Online: https://drawtheline.world

Draw The Line | For People, For Peace, For The Planet (photo illustration of two hands coloured like a world globe with white doves flying around them, on a background of clouds)

Cross-Canada Day of Action to call on the Carney government: Put people over profit. Build a green, sustainable future, not more pipelines. Fund our communities, not the war machine. Cut military spending. Uphold Indigenous sovereignty. Stop sending weapons to Ukraine, start negotiating. Stop sending weapons to Israel. End the genocide in Gaza. In recognition of Peace Week. The world needs peace, climate action, justice & cooperation.

Movie: The Encampments, Princess Twin Cinemas, 6:30pm Tuesday 30 September 2025

Join us for the premier screening in our community of The Encampments. This 2025 movie is a documentary on the anti-genocide movement and the challenge of protecting the call for free speech. It is a US movie that shows thew student encampment initiative that was ignited by Columbia State University and spread quickly to many universities including University of Waterloo. Following the movie there will be a discussion and opportunity for questions.

Admission : Regular prices for tickets, get yours early in September, they will be available on line at the Princess website.

Zatoun | Palestine in a bottle | Fair Trade Extra Virgin Olive Oil | experience ~ learn ~ share | www.zatoun.com info@zatoun.comZatoun Olive Oil will be available at this event supported by Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine.

Not since the Vietnam War students rocked the world to end the genocide in Gaza | The Encampments | Tuesday, Sept-30 ~ 6:45 pm | Doors open at 6:15 pm | Princess Twin Cinema, Waterloo | Introduction by Robert Massoud, founder of Zatoun & screening followed by conversation | Presented by Princess Cinema in partnership with Waterloo Region Friends for Palestine (WRFP) | Supporters: Canadian Voices for Palestinian Rights (CVPR), Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Waterloo, KW Neighbours for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Sporas and Zatoun | Available for purchase: Zatoun, olive oil from Palestine, T-shirts, kuffiyehs & books | Advance tickets online at www.princesscinemas.com - please purchase early

Not seen since the Vietnam War, a student movement which rocked the world.
The genocide in Gaza ignited the passion of a generation of students.

The Encampments is a 2025 American documentary film about the 2024 Palestine solidarity campus encampments at Columbia University and other university campuses during Israel-Gaza war.

The Encampments is lauded for “its sense of contemporary and historical detail, owed to both footage shot by the filmmakers, as well as by the protesters themselves.” The Columbia Daily Spectator called the film a “testament to the strength of the community born within the student-led pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, and how hope and belief can grow, even in the face of institutional backlash” and offers an “insightful and intimate look into what happened within the gates, well beyond mainstream coverage.” Also, from Hyperallergic, the online arts magazine, The Encampments “extricates the movement from the grips of mainstream and conservative media narratives and places it back in the hands of its organizers.”

The encampments and the students challenged the big money donors, politicians, administrators and police as had not been for two generations. Relying on false accusations, trumped up charges, student expulsions and intimidation and brutal police force, the establishment was left naked for all to see.

Film will be followed by conversation / Q&A with members from local universities.

USA | Workman and Pritsker | 85 minutes | English

an online comment:

The students always lead the way. Will we be brave enough to follow their example? We must, or any of us can be the next person to be disappeared by our government for voicing dissent.

The Encampments is one of the most vitally important docs I can remember. Citizens of America (and the world) must watch this to see what our universities, police and government are doing to suppress peaceful cries for justice. The footage that was captured is stunning. This is what actual journalism looks like.

Don’t be afraid to speak up. You’re not alone. We need everyone in this fight. Please watch this film.

Hope to see you at the film, please share with family and friends. Princess Cinema needs our support to encourage screening of more films on or about Palestine. Thank you.

In solidarity and peace,
Irene,
Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine

Protest Rally to Demand the CRA Stop Subsidizing Genocide, CRA Offices in Kitchener, Noon on Wednesday 3 September 2025

National Week of Action | Demand the CRA stop subsidizing genocide! | September 2 - 5 ,2025 (a hand holding a bullhorn over a Palestinian flag; various organizations logos along the bottom)

In 2024, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked charity status for the Jewish National Fund and Ne’eman Foundation for violating CRA policy, but that is not enough! Canadian charities are still sending hundreds of millions of dollars per year to Israel, to fund its genocide and expansion of its settler colonial project. These charities are used as front to finance an illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide—and the CRA allows this to continue.

Join us as part of a National Week of Action to Demand the CRA Stop Subsidizing Genocide. Actions are scheduled from coast to coast between September 2 and 5. You can join our action at lunchtime on Wednesday 3 September 2025 — we’ll be gathering outside the CRA office in downtown Kitchener to call for the CRA to ensure that not a cent of our Canadian tax dollars helps to fund a genocide.

What to bring: Signs and banners.

Parking is available nearby at Centre in the Square. All ages welcome.

Palestinian flag background with white text and graphic accents like a ripped piece of paper and a megaphone. Text reads: National Week of Action September 2-5 2025. CRA: Stop Subsidizing Genocide! Wednesday September 3 12pm 166 Frederick Street Kitchener ON

O’Canada Occasion – Amnesty International Fundraiser, KW Little Theatre, 6pm on Saturday 13 September 2025

Celebrate human rights for 2SLGBTQIA+

Skits, music, drag show, silent auction, snacks and beverages!

Tickets are $25. Send an e-transfer to groupnine9@gmail.com with the message “fundraiser ticket“. We’ll welcome you at the door!

Fundraiser Highlights:

A silent auction including:

  • Works of art by local artists Sandee Lovas, Jackie Bradshaw, Janet Main, and Sharon Woodley
  • Gift certificate for two to attend Mysterious Players at the Aberfoyle Mill: Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre
  • Two beautiful traditionally hand crafted Persian tablecloths / wall hangings
  • Music with a human rights theme provided by local band Ironhorse and members of the Old Chestnuts Song Circle “Channeling Pete Seeger”.
  • Drag Performances featuring Quinta Sensual and Uncle Rabbit (They/Them).
  • A live auction with some tongue-in-cheek poking fun at American calls for annexation of Canada.
  • Presentations including a sharing of personal experiences of human rights issues from two of our 2SLGBTQIA+ members and an interview with Dr. Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, UW Prof of Human Rights and former Amnesty International’s Americas Regional Researcher (International Secretariat, London, UK)

Celebrating Human Rights: O'Canada Occasion When: Sat, Sept 13 6-9pm Where: KW Little Theatre 9 Princess St E, Waterloo What: Music, Skits, Speakers, Silent/Live Auctions, Drag Show, FUN! For Tickets ($25) Email: GroupNine9@gmail.com

Group Nine is the local chapter of Amnesty International Canada in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

Group Nine meets at 7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of every month in The Fretz Seminar Room (Room 4224) at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo (140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo) Map 2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyInternationalGroup9/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amnestygroup9/

www.amnesty.ca
groupnine9@gmail.com

Urgent Meeting of WR for Palestine, 6pm on Tuesday 5 August 2025

🚨
For two years Canada has lied about their arms trade with Israel- and now we have the proof.

Join us on Tuesday, 5 August 2025 at 6:00pm for a critical community meeting to plan our next steps. Register now via link in bio.

This is your chance to get informed, get organized and take action. This is our chance to demand a two-ways arms embargo on Israel once and for all.

Arms Embargo Now Urgent Community Meeting The time to act is now. For two years Canada lied about sending weapons to Israel -- now we have the proof. Join us to get informed, get organized and to take action. Tues, Aug 5th @ 6:00 Register for Location Link in Bio Palestinian Youth Movement Neighbour