“If we want peace, we need to prepare for peace.” Peace Train Panel Discussion, Nov. 22

"If we want peace, we need to prepare for peace.” 

That was the message shared by Lyn Adamson, co-chair of Voices of Women for Peace during her presentation at “Peace and Justice for the War Weary,” a panel discussion at Parkdale United Church in Ottawa on Nov. 22.

The event, sponsored by the Peace Train, also heard from panelists Walter Dorn, professor of defence studies at Royal Military College in Kingston and Alex Neve, a human rights lawyer and professor at the University of Ottawa.

One of the earliest memories for Adamson, who was born in 1951, was the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s. “I didn’t think I would live to be 65,” she said.

But she did, and that experience helped convince her to dedicate her life to promoting peace. During her career one thing she learned was “we have agency. We can have failures, and he can get discouraged. But we have no option but to keep going.”

For Adamson, peace isn’t just what happens internationally. “We need places to nurture our hearts,” she said. “We need to grow personally and as a community.”

Hearing the stories about the Peace Train, she said “that’s what the Train did” as participants grew closer while sharing stories.

“We need big, bold ideas like the Peace Train today,” she said, adding that along with addressing international issues, peacemakers today need to keep in mind the issues on the minds of their neighbours, such as affordability.

 Of the money being spent by the Canadian government on the military, she said: “Think of what we could do with that?” to address local issues.

Dorn began his comments by saying “I feel a bond in my heart with you” to the Peace Trainers. 

He added that although the group was small, they “represent a portion of the populace that longs for peace.” 

In Dorn’s work at the Royal Military College, he teaches people who have put “country above self.” While that is praiseworthy, now we need more people who “put humanity over country,” he said. 

Noting that Canada is being pressured to provide two per cent of GDP for NATO and other military spending, Dorn said there isn’t a similar pressure for the country to meet its target of providing 0.7 per cent of GDP for development—a goal set by former Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson through the World Bank’s Pearson Commission in 1969 and agreed to by the rich countries of the world. 

That goal, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1970, sets the minimum level of funding rich countries like Canada should provide to the developing world through Official Development Assistance. 

Unfortunately, Dorn said, Canada’s foreign aid spending has been well below that target. In 2023 it only provided 0.38 percent, or half of the target—unlike countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark the United Kingdom and The Netherlands which meet or exceed that goal each year. 

Dorn went on to say that Canada has also fallen behind in peacekeeping, a program it used to be a leader in. 

Where the country once had as many as 3,000 peacekeepers in hotspots around the world, today is has only 31, he said—military, police and civilians. 

Neve made the connection between human rights and peace, saying they “could not be more interconnected and interdependent.” 

The rules-based international order that helped to protect human rights “is frayed and imploding” he said, something that will only become more challenging after the recent U.S. presidential election. 

There are a “staggering number” of human rights crises around the world today, Neve said, mentioning countries like Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen and Gaza/Palestine. 

Above it all is the climate crisis, which threatens all humanity, he said, the greatest human rights crises the world “has ever faced.” 

“There is no more important time for Canada to step up,” Neve stated, noting that while Canada once was leader in protecting human rights it has been lagging in recent years. 

“Peace begins with human rights,” he concluded. “That is all on our shoulders.”