Nonviolence Festival’s 9th Annual
Martin Luther King Day Celebration Infinite Hope Discovering Inspiration In Ourselves & Others
Join us for a evening of reflection and planning as we highlight the positive forces in our world.
Music ⌇ Speakers ⌇ Discussion
Monday January 18, 2016 7:00 p.m. Kitchener City Hall Rotunda
Free Admission
Donations Welcome: Articles of clothing and non-perishable food donations towards Waterloo Region Welcome Refugees
Alliance Against Poverty Information Walk for CBC-KW “Sounds of the Season”
3 December 2015 Kitchener-Waterloo
The Alliance Against Poverty (the AAP), a local grassroots group pressing for economic justice for everyone, will hold an Information Walk outside of THE MUSEUM at 10 King Street West, Kitchener, from 6:00am to 8:30am., where the CBC “Sounds of the Season” broadcast will occur tomorrow, Friday, 4 December 2015.
The AAP believes that rather than treating the symptoms of poverty, such as lack of food, with food banks and a lot of expensively administered, overlapping social programs, a simpler and more effective approach is a cure for poverty that eliminates the need for perpetual treatments of poverty’s symptoms. That cure is a Guaranteed Livable Income, also known as a Basic Income.
The idea of a GLI is supported by a wide range of people and groups from conservative to progressive. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, stated “the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” Canada’s former Conservative Senator Hugh Segal also has been an advocate of a GLI for decades.
In August 2015 the Canadian Medical Association passed a resolution recommending a GLI for Canadians, because doctors know that poverty has a huge impact on health, which drives up the costs of health care. A GLI would cost all levels of government a lot less than the present system of meagre social assistance. In addition, the Green Party supports a GLI.
The AAP wants to see a GLI implemented in Canada to wipe out poverty and make food banks unnecessary. During the Information Walk, AAP members will distribute handouts on the GLI.
However, the AAP says: “Until there’s a GLI, keep supporting the Food Bank.”
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Peace and Justice: Part Three
Join us for Session Three presentations by Shakil Choudhury, Educator and Consultant, Anima Leadership, Nancy Kelly, retired Lutheran pastor, and Louisa D’Amato, a news reporter from the The Record and member of the local Jewish community.
PosterThis year a massive coalition of environmental, social justice, faith, labour, community, student and indigenous groups, as well as families and concerned citizens are building an unprecedented global mobilization in support of climate justice.
On Sunday, 29 November 2015 people from across Waterloo Region will join with voices from around the world to show our support for ambitious and real action against climate change at COP21, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, is our most important climate conference yet.
Come together with neighbours and friends to send a powerful message of encouragement and hope in support of decisive action at COP21. Sound your drums and raise your voices in solidarity with people from around the globe. Be part of an historic event at this most important juncture in the climate movement.
Join us on 21 and 22 November 2015 to make posters and art for the march (location to be determined).
WHAT: Peaceful family-friendly march in advance of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, 30 November to 11 December 2015.
WHEN: Sunday, 29 November 2015 2:00pm
WHERE: Start at Waterloo Public Square, 75 King St S, Waterloo Map
End at 22 Willow Street.
Amnesty International — Write For RightsHere is the poster for the December Write for Rights event of Amnesty International Group Nine. Please distribute it as widely as you can, either electronically or in printed form.
The seven cases upon which we will be focusing this year can be found at www.writeathon.ca. If you want to bring printed letters with you to Seven Shores on the 5th, we’ll be happy to mail them for you. If you send them yourself, either by post or electronically, please let us know so that we can get a count of the total sent from Group 9 (Amnesty Canada asks us for this).
Many thanks to all,
David Lubell and Margaret Jackson
What will you be doing to change a life?
I will be writing letters of solidarity to prisoners of conscience on International Human Rights Day
Join Amnesty International’s Write for Rights letter writing event and your words can change a life.
Time and Date: December 5th, Noon to 4:00pm
Location:
Seven Shores Cafe Map
10 Regina Street North, Waterloo
We are pushing the symposium back a half hour because of a book launch that Project Ploughshares is hosting. Project Ploughshares and the Centre for Peace Advancement are presenting the launch of Ernie Regehr’s book, “Disarming Conflict: Why peace cannot be won on the battlefield.” This event is on the 4th floor of the Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel in the gallery space. Feel free to stop by before our symposium event!
The symposium will be held from 5:30-7:30, also on the 4th floor of Conrad Grebel in the Centre for Peace Advancement, in the Fretz Seminar Room.
Who’s involved in the Kitchener-Waterloo Peace and Social Justice community? And do we all know each other? Emily Mininger from PeaceQuestKW wants to meet us all, and is hosting a Peace and Social Justice Symposium:
From: Emily Mininger <e.mininger@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 20:40:54 Subject: Kitchener Waterloo Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium
Hello!
You’re invited to a Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium. We’re inviting different groups active in the area of peace and social justice in the KW community to come together, share their work and experiences, and brainstorm about future possibilities for collaboration in an effort to obtain a “snapshot” of the KW Peace and Justice community as it is currently. We have many people in the KW community working for peace and justice, and there is a wealth of knowledge to be shared. Come participate in this community conversation and help us learn together.
This event is taking place at Conrad Grebel University College on October 29th. The program of the evening will run from 5-7pm 5:30pm – 7:30pm and include introductions, a brief roundtable about who people are and what work they do, discussions about challenges and strengths of working in the KW community, and brainstorming common goals and possible avenues for collaboration.
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 13:24:09 -0400 Subject: Film about Missing Mexican Students From: Group Nine <groupnine9@gmail.com>
Here’s an event not to miss: Cinema Politica is showing Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime in room 301 of the RCH Building at the University of Waterloo on Wednesday, 23 September 2015 at 7:00pm. This film is an exposé of the Mexican police and military authorities in the armed kidnapping and disappearance of 43 students. This is one of the cases that Group 9 featured at our table this summer.
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.
Project Ploughshares, in partnership with the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement, Conrad Grebel University College and St. Jerome’s University, presents
Canada and the Global Arms Trade
How weapons exports may fuel human rights violations and armed conflict
Chair: Cesar Jaramillo, Project Ploughshares
Panelists
Hilary Homes, Amnesty International Canada
Steven Chase, The Globe and Mail
Kenneth Epps, policy advisor to Project Ploughshares
This is the 5-minute presentation I made to Kitchener city council on the subject of the privatization of Hydro One, on 2015 June 29.
Mayor Vrbanovic, Councillors & Staff, fellow citizens:
Hydro power celebration, Berlin, OntarioWe’ve all seen the inspiring pictures of the night when Berlin, Ontario was electrified in 1910. The banners over King St proclaimed POWER FOR THE PEOPLE.
Adam Beck — a staunch Conservative by the way — fought for hydroelectric power to be a public asset — Why? Because he wanted businesses across Ontario to have equal access to affordable power. Later he worked hard to get homes and farms electrified as well. Since the days of Sir Adam Beck, we’ve all come to see Ontario Hydro and its successors as a sacred trust and a source of pride.
If we were to lose public ownership and control over Hydro One, the potential impact on Ontario’s cities and our local distribution companies could be enormous.
You may have seen our MPP Daiene Vernile’s column in the Kitchener Citizen, which outlines the government’s position for privatization. She states that by retaining a 40% share, Ontario could somehow prevent the outcomes we all fear: skyrocketing rates, shares becoming resold and consolidated in foreign hands, and loss of all regulatory influence. Ms Vernile’s arguments don’t add up, to my mind anyway.
Let’s look at the possible impacts on Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro. What if KWH had to start paying a lot more for transmitted power? If our Hydro bills soared, would we have any recourse? Suppose that this Council, or a future one, wished to bring in a local power generation policy, could we be sued under the WTO? How great would the pressure be to let private interests buy up KWH? How would the new “Hydro Ombudsman” that Ms Vernile speaks of, be able to protect us against such forces?
If we don’t know the answers to these questions and more, then we need time to do the necessary due diligence. We need to ask the Province not to go ahead with this privatization plan at this time.
I have received endorsements from the leadership of several local groups: the Waterloo Regional Labour Council, Grand River Environmental Network, and the Council of Canadians, who will be bringing the issue of Hydro One before Guelph Council soon. I’ve also received support from former Councillor Jean Haalboom, and from Councillor Zyg Janecki who happens to be in Sask tonight.
I urge you to look into the questions I raised above with some urgency. The first IPO of 15% of Hydro One is already being prepared. There’s no time to lose.
Please let the Ontario government know that the people of Kitchener still want “Power for the People” to be a continuing reality, and not a distant memory.
Since the clerk’s office had twice refused to register me as a delegation, I had 5 minutes to speak and no standing on the agenda.
After my presentation, Councillor Yvonne Fernandes tabled a motion, seconded by Councillor Frank Etherington, similar to the motion on Hydro One adopted by the city of Oshawa. But Council voted not to debate or vote on her motion.
I hope this isn’t the end of the story …
Readers, no matter what municipality you live in, please tell your Mayor and Councillors that you’d like them to pass a resolution asking the Ont gov to Keep Hydro Public! More than 40 municipalities already have.
City of Kitchener 
Nonviolence Festival 
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