What: Global Climate Strike: People not Profit When: Friday, March 25th, 2022 , 12pm (~1hour) Where: Waterloo Town Square, 75 King Street South, Waterloo Map
https://fossilfreeuw.ca/ Join us to stand up against those who are profiting off of climate chaos. On Friday, 25 March 2022, people worldwide will be striking from school and work to demand that the climate crisis be confronted as the emergency that it is.
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.
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.
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.
Maamawi is an Ojibway word meaning “bringing together” or just “together” as it applies to things that are alive water, plants, animals, birds and fish and humans.
Maamawi Revisited has created opportunities for local emerging Indigenous artists to connect with the land, local knowledge keepers, musicians and mentors, and with each other to grow and create together.
December 8th will be an evening of “bringing together” of storytelling and music that will feature Rene Meshake and musical performances by the artists who participated in this project.
Rene Meshake is an Anishinaabe elder, residential school survivor, visual and performing artist, award-winning author, storyteller, flute player, and a Recipient of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He shares his love of the Ojibwe language through his stories, poetry and spoken word performances.
Tickets are free (and required); please register here as space is limited to comply with COVID protocols. Donations will be accepted at the door to support Pins and Needles Fabric Company – an Intersectional Inter-Arts Collective in Waterloo Region – to provide programming for Indigenous youth.
Thank you for your ongoing support for Divest Waterloo and for your part in our collective action to raise awareness and engage our community on issues related to climate change, our pursuit of a low carbon economy, and our movement towards a just and sustainable future. We hope that you and your loved ones are well, and look forward to a time when we can gather again.
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.
“Stop criminalizing homelessness” “Reallocate the police budget into life-giving services” “Shelters are full: over 400 sleep rough” “We want a compassionate community” “Does this solve homelessness?”
Bring a donation (only tents, sleeping bags, or cash).
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.
November 29 Is United Nations Day Of Solidarity With The Palestinian People
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.
Amnesty International — Write For RightsDear Group Nine Human Rights Supporters,
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:
by sending individual actions yourself (by post and/or online) at your cost,
by collecting all your letters and cards for us to send by bulk mail at our cost. We will also have some in-person outdoor photo opportunities for sharing messages of support on social media and a small group indoor socially distanced card- making gathering (more on that separately).
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.
Option 1 – If you are sending individual actions:
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.
Option 2 – If you would prefer to have your letters and cards included in a Group Nine bulk mailing:
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.
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..
WE the citizens have an obligation … and A RIGHT to be informed of what OUR representative ‘politicians’ are up to, and are first CONSULTING with the VOTER not toeing the party line
. . in a healthy democracy (where having elections is only the means not the end) voter participation means taking back ownership of the decisions being made
Issues will always be present . . . elections are about sending the right people to parliament
At this event, politics is not a bad word we encourage you to engage and talk and ask questions in order to get to know your candidates
You may be surprised that the party you normally vote for might not have a candidate you would want as an MP.
The right person will properly represent your issues .. because they will listen, respect the community concerns, and try to find ways to get things done
We need MP’s who will stand up for their community’s best interests
Join in the future for yourself and your family!
that is why our virtual town halls may not follow the generic or traditional format
stay tuned…
definition of democracy is:
government by the people, rule of the majority … a government in which
the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly
or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving
periodically held free elections
This is a web conference using Free Software called BigBlueButton. Click on the meeting link and enter your name for the meeting (how others in the room will see you)
In the next window select that you want to use a microphone.
In the meeting:
You can make the welcome banner go away by clicking the — in its top right corner
You can turn the chat room (the left parts of your screen) on / off by clicking the < in the top left
You can share your video by clicking the camera icon in the bottom centre
For other tips and tricks Bob Jonkman will be there to help us all 😊
In the past KW Peace would hold occasional pot luck meetings – just a time for folks to share what their group’s been up to, to chat about projects, successes, difficulties, share resources etc.
The format of our online meeting will be to (re)introduce ourselves, talk about the group(s) you work with, and whatever else we want to chat about.
If you have thoughts or questions please let us know.
CODEPINK
https://vowpeace.org/
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.
WE the citizens have an obligation … and A RIGHT to be informed of what OUR representative ‘politicians’ are up to, and are first CONSULTING with the VOTER not toeing the party line
Hello KW Peace friends