Newsletters, articles and events for Kitchener-Waterloo's Peace and Social Justice activists
When: Tuesday, May 17, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Great Hall, Christ Church Cathedral, 414 Sparks Street, Ottawa
FREE EVENT
Join us for a dialogue on working for peace, featuring presentations by Ploughshares researchers, including: Cesar Jaramillo, Branka Marijan, Sonal Marwah and Jessica West.
This item was mirrored from Forty Years of Turning Swords into Ploughshares | Project Ploughshares.
To get into the hearings, arrive at Ritz Carleton by 8:00am… Protests and a people’s hearings (running as a parallel process) outside the Ritz Carleton beginning at 9am…
also check out Shiv Chopra and the Canadian Council for Food Sovereignty and Health’s tour and youtube videos….
Civil society protests outside the House of Commons trade committee hearings on the TPP in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
The House of Commons standing committee on international trade will be in Montreal, Quebec City, Windsor and Toronto this week to hear testimony on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
And civil society will be there to let them know that they want the TPP stopped and that the hearings themselves are not as inclusive or welcoming to the public as they should be. At the previous committee hearings in Vancouver (April 18), Calgary (April 19), Saskatoon (April 20), and Winnipeg (April 21), members of the public had to produce identification, have their bags searched, and be frisked. Only 12 organizations were allowed to present at the 1-day hearing in Vancouver, even though 175 people had registered to testify.
The hearings will take place this week in Montreal (May 10), Quebec City (May 11), Windsor (May 12) and Toronto (May 13).
In Montreal, the Council of Canadians, Citizens in Action, and the Raging Grannies will be outside the Queen Elizabeth Hotel (900 René-Lévesque West) this Tuesday at 8:30 am with placards, banners and images of what they hold dear that would be threatened by the TPP.
In Windsor, the Council of Canadians Windsor-Essex chapter will be outside the Best Western PLUS Waterfront Hotel (277 Riverside Drive West) this Thursday at 8:45 am. They will be setting up a speakers corner for anyone wishing to send a video message to the House of Commons committee.
And in Toronto, the Council of Canadians, OpenMedia, LeadNow, the Trade Justice Network, Common Frontiers, and others are organizing an action outside the Ritz-Carlton Toronto (181 Wellington Street West) on 9:00 a.m. this Friday.
Unifor has also just announced this morning that it will hold rallies in both Windsor and Toronto at 10 am outside the hearings, as well as help fill the hearing rooms in these two cities.
Presumably in response to criticisms that the committee has only heard from a small number of organizations and not concerned individuals in the cities it has visited already, the committee has now scheduled one-hour at the end of each of day for “Spontaneous Presentations”. NDP MP Tracey Ramsey, a member of the committee, says, “Members of the public who wish to speak at these sessions must register on-site. The list of speakers will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis. The Committee Chair will decide how much time each speaker will be given based on the number of speakers.”
The hearings have already been met with protests.
In Vancouver, the Council of Canadians Vancouver-Burnaby chapter joined with OpenMedia, LeadNow and other allies to unfurl a large banner outside the hotel where the hearing was taking place. The banner said, “170,000 Say No To TPP”. The groups also organized to have a 16 foot high Jumbotron outside the hotel with messages of concern from people across the country.
In Saskatoon, the Star-Phoenix newspaper reported, “Members of Climate Justice Saskatoon and the local chapter of the Council of Canadians set up placards and protested outside the Radisson Hotel during a public consultation on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.”
And in Winnipeg, Council of Canadians organizer Brigette DePape tells us, “Activists from Migrante Manitoba, No One Is Illegal, the University of Winnipeg Student Association, Solidarity Winnipeg, the Public Services Alliance of Canada, and the Council of Canadians chanted and distributed leaflets outside the Delta Winnipeg Hotel where the hearing was taking place.”
Beyond attending the hearings, you can also email your comments on the TPP to the committee via email at ciit-tpp-ptp@parl.gc.ca The committee is accepting written submissions (of no more than 1,500 words in length) until June 30. Media reports suggest that the House of Commons will vote on the ratification of the TPP in the fall of 2017, just before the November 2017 deadline set by the 12-signatory countries.
For our critique of the TPP, please see our campaign web-page.
This item was mirrored from An invitation to protest the TPP this week! | The Council of Canadians
Our next KW Peace meeting is on Thursday, 7 April 2016 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall, 57 Stirling Avenue North
Kitchener. Map
We are again doing a potluck, so bring a dish to share and let me know if there are any dietary needs we need to be aware of.
A reminder of what we’re about: We are meeting as participants in local peace groups and social justice groups to collaborate, share, learn, and brainstorm!
To prepare for this meeting, please brainstorm some ideas of what we want the goals and/or mission of this group to be, so we can agree on a common purpose and direction.
Please let me know if you are able to attend.
Cheers,
Emily
—
Emily Mininger
PeaceQuest KW Affiliate Facilitator
Email: e.mininger@gmail.com
Phone: +1-519-568-3879
Twitter: @PeaceQuestKW
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeaceQuest.ca
Website: http://peacequest.ca
Buckeyes, Candy, Christmas, Cookies from Pixabay is used under a 
CC0 – Public Domain license.
Greetings, here’s an update for the Thursday schedule …
there may be slight last minute variations
this is an open invitation to the entire community to participate and attend … FREE Public Event
spread the word! share with friends, community, network ..
with THREE entirely different but equally thrilling segments
9:00 am – 1:30 pm
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
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8:30 arrivals
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9:00 Opening Ceremonies:
· Elder Jean Becker leads indigenous opening prayer
· followed by O’Canada, in English and in French with Daniel Kelley
· Dignitaries bringing greetings
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9:30 Harold Albrecht MP on Politics and Faith
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9:40 Catherine Fife, MPP for Kitchener Waterloo
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10:00 Break:
students browse the displays
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10:15 Musical presentation of peace
(Grade 7 or 8 class) WCDSB :
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10:30 Carla Beharry
a proud Inter-Cultural Canadian, born and raised with a Guyanese Father, and a British Mother. Carla began mentoring women and girls in Guyana and Belize, 13 years ago. Her work abroad encompasses teaching sexual health & HIV education, leading women’s empowerment groups, and encouraging women to have a voice in standing up to end domestic violence. Most recently, Carla started her own mentorship group, Girls in the World, designed for teen girls in Canada to have a space to discuss gender, identity, race, self-confidence and self-worth. The groups are lead with the intention of supporting teens in rising up against discrimination, while cultivating courage, kindness, and compassion.
Carla’s talk will be an interactive forum for teens. All attendees will be given an opportunity to ask anonymous questions about culture, race, identity, and equality. We will work together, as a group to create clarity, and will work within the belief that educating children and teens, holding space for honest questions, and honouring our diverse, multicultural world is the only path to true freedom and liberation for all beings
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11:00 Student Senate will lead a panel discussion WCDSB
Politics vs Religion, The Challenges to promoting Peace and the need for Equity
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11:30 Lunch
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12:00 Lincoln Heights students WRDSB
Lincoln Heights is honoured to be joining the events for this years day to Eliminate Racial Discrimination. This is a topic that they are very passionate about and they have prepared short speeches of their opinions on this years theme Politics vs religion
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12:20 Presentation on Politics vs Religion:
a student from Resurrection will do a PowerPoint, and Blue scarf campaign
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1:00 Greetings from Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener
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1:10 Islamic School of Cambridge
six different presentation
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1:30 Wrap up activity
Game: Join the Dots, Resurrection to lead in this activity
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1:45 Students leave for buses
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2:00 Politics vs Religion panel
* Professor Norman Klassen
The Western Separation of Religion and Politics: A Paradox of Christian Humanism . . . building on his comments from last year’s discussion about the medieval Christian poet Geoffrey Chaucer: that his vision is for the togetherness of a pilgrimaging community. He gives a picture of what it means to recognize endless depths in one another: a responsibility to stay in dialogue with them. This year Professor Klassen builds on that with reference to another Christian writer, the influential novelist Marilynne Robinson. She likewise starts from the idea that “people are images of God” and ends with democracy as “the inevitable consequence of this kind of religious humanism”. Professor Klassen will ponder the effectiveness of these two writers as writers, precisely because they recognize the importance of freedom both for their characters and their readers. So freedom, including political freedom, is paradoxically bound up with a religious vision that has developed in the West as Christian humanism
* Doug Thomas
Doug Thomas is the president of Secular Connexion Séculière, a national organization that acts as a communication nexus for secular humanists, advocates for secular humanist rights in Canada, and speaks out for persecuted atheists around the world. Doug Thomas on the Subject of Politics vs Religion:
He sees the concept of “politics vs religion” as an unfortunate idea that implies that they cannot co-exist and that one must somehow supersede the other. Doug promotes the idea that democratic governments must avoid interference at the systemic level by religions, but that individuals should be able to bring their religious beliefs to the table as long as they do not insist on imposing their religion on other believers or on non-believers. At the same time, laws should avoid impeding the expression of personal belief or non-belief by individuals. The gold standard should be the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the case law developed from it by the Supreme Court of Canada
* BobJonkman
co chair, Fair Vote Canada, Waterloo Region Chapter
Bob has been advocating for electoral reform since the 2007 Ontario referendum on Proportional Representation. Bob would like to see a voting system based on Proportional Representation at all levels of government. In today’s panel discussion Bob will focus on how Proportional Representation isn’t only for political parties, but also for ethnic, religious and gender diversity
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3:00 WLU Diversity Team presentations
3:30 Brenda Halloran joins us and will be
speaking to a group of students about politics, their responsibilities, answer questions etc
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4:00 Hate Crimes Prevention Project
Coalition of Muslim Women
Sarah Shafiq
a unique grass roots project based in the Region of Waterloo, aiming to education Muslim women on how to recognize, respond and resolve a hate crime or incident. Some details on how the goal had to be modified from victim support after an incident, to educating the importance of reporting the incident to police and documenting it
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4:30 Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter
Bob Jonkman, will expand on proportional representation and will show slides
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5:00 Colleen Sargeant James
Colleen is the co-founder and CEO of Divonify, She works with businesses to provide holistic solutions that meet global diversity and inclusion benchmarks. Colleen is committed to helping empower businesses to establish diversity and inclusion best practices and creating a corporate culture of authenticity and inclusiveness. Colleen is a dedicated member of the community, she has over ten years experience working in public administration and the not-for-profit sector. She is an active member of Zonta International, a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. Colleen writes a regular blog that specializes in diversity and inclusion awareness and is a graduate of the University of Toronto
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6:00 Jane Richard
KW Right to Life is an educational prolife non profit charity, one of hundreds of like organizations across Canada that promote the value of human Life from conception to natural death.
Sketch of talk content … followed by discussion from the floor: Following the preamble of the Canadian Bill of Rights, the protection of moral and spiritual values based on the supremacy of God – the dignity and worth of the human person and the position of the family – time honoured – changing to a secular approach where people become their own moral agent – legally allowing abortion and assisted suicide on demand. – the implications on individuals and Canadian society
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6:00
PEACE CONCERT
. . . this annual general arts and culture extravaganza encompasses the broader sense of the word culture !
song, dance, instrument, drama, poetry, visual art & photography display, CD & DVD etc
including:
* Mark Evans and the band
CANOES EYE VIEW
* 2yLite Tha Titan is a Palestinian-Canadian rapper and producer who stands for social equality and freedom among all people. He has been making music for a total of 16 years and has 4 CDs released with performances in several cities in Canada. He will be performing some of his latest music from his soon to be released album “Evolve Or Dissolve”
p.s. if you are wondering, my name is pronounced Twilight The Titan
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for those who have not joined us over the years:
Cross Cultures has been organizing Waterloo Region’s full day FREE event to commemorate the
UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
for educators, students, organizations and the general public ..
PS
since March 21st this year falls on the Monday back from March Break and holy Easter week
the consensus has been that we go with March 31st instead
Please feel free to connect with me by phone or email:
looking forward to hearing from you
Gehan
—
Gehan D. Sabry
Editor / Publisher
Cross Cultures magazine (since 1991)
POB 20002 Kitchener ON N2P 2B4
Tel: (519) 748-9520
Fax: (519) 893-4259
email: crosscultures@bellnet.ca
www.crosscultures.ca
This item was mirrored from the Cross Cultures Facebook Event.
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
Supported by:
City of Kitchener 
Nonviolence Festival 
KW Peace
Facebook event: Infinite Hope: Discovering Inspiration in Ourselves and Others
Download the poster (.jpg format, 2550px × 3300px, 981 kBytes)
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.”
Contact:
Richard Walsh email: richard.walsh@greenparty.ca mobile: 519-897-3630
Found on the University of Waterloo events calendar:
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.
Free parking at Renison.
Host: Renison University College
Event website: SI Events
Cost: Free but registration required
Location:
REN – Renison University College Map
Room 1303
240 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G4
Canada
An initiative of the Kitchener Waterloo Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium, the new site gives more flexibility to add things like a comprehensive calendar of all Peace and Social Justice events in the Kitchener–Waterloo area, and mailing lists for the KW Peace groups to coordinate those events.
Thank you for joining us on our new site!
–Bob Jonkman,
KWPeace Blog System Administrator.
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.
Register at Avaaz: Peoples Climate March Waterloo Region to receive updates about the march and the art build, or to volunteer.
If you’re on Facebook, you can join the event at Global Climate March – Waterloo Region | Facebook.
–Bob.
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 DayTime and Date: December 5th, Noon to 4:00pm
Location:
Seven Shores Cafe Map
10 Regina Street North, Waterloo
Contact: groupnine@gmail.com
Facebook: Amnesty International Kitchener Waterloo Chapter, Group 9
Take Part: www.writeathon.ca
