Peace Train Canada

By Bernadette Wyton on behalf of Peace Train Canada. It is with deepest love for my country and all my relations around the globe that I contemplate Remembrance Day.   A legion of reveries flash across my mind. I can see my raven-haired, teenage mother driving her weapons carrier and so many other awesomely capable women working on the home front.   I see my beautiful, young uncle-in-law strapped into his leather helmet and his Sterling bomber and a photo of the beautiful German look-alike who struck him from the sky.   I see the great anguish of fighters and their families perpetually haunted by their own unbearable remembrance, day after day, of the disgusting indignities of humans violating each other in war.   The dissonant sound of sabres rattling around the world is a test of our memory. Have we forgotten our commitment to the first principles of universal peace and human rights as agreed to only 80 years ago in the United Nations Charter? Are we read...

Last November, 40 people rode VIA Rail from Vancouver to Ottawa on what they called The Peace Train to meet with Parliamentarians to  ask for the creation  of a Canadian centre for peace and a revival of Canada’s peacekeeping heritage.   In March of this year, about a dozen Peace Trainers, as they call themselves, rode Amtrak from Montreal to New York with Green Party MP Elizabeth May to  call on the Canadian government  to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.   This October, from Oct. 21 to 25, they were in Ottawa again to remind Parliamentarians of their request for an independent Canadian Centre for Peace.   Read the story in Canadian Affairs. Photo above: Peace Trainers listen as Senator Marilou McPhedran speaks at the Oct. 22 Parliamentary breakfast.  

  From Oct. 21-25, a dozen people were on the Peace Train—they had to fly there this time—to meet with Parliamentarians, attend the award ceremony for disarmament advocate Douglas Roche, attend the annual conference of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW), and have personal meetings with MPs. Here are a few reflections about that experience.   Diane Mayba, Port Alberni, B.C.   My main reasons for coming were to engage with more politicians, foster relationships with more people and groups working for the same or similar goals, increase the visibility   and capacity of the Peace Train to achieve our goals and learn from the amazing line-up of speakers at the conference.   Looking ahead, we should plan earlier for a parliamentary event next year. There is a lot of support and good will for the idea of a Peace Centre, but MPs are incredibly overworked and over taxed with so many pressing needs that they have limited time, energy and abili...

What are some next steps for Peace Train Canada? That’s the question that was posed to Michael Byers, a panelist at the Centre for International Policy Studies conference at the University of Ottawa on Oct. 24.   Theme of the conference was Canadian Security Interests and Trump 2.0.   Byers, a Professor of Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia who spoke on the topic “Arctic Security, NORAD modernization and Golden Dome,” told Peace Trainers he applauded their goal of establishing a peace centre.   "It's a fantastic idea," he said. For Byers, who is also Co-Director of the Outer Space Institute, developing a story or narrative is key to mobilizing the Canadian public against increasing militarism, including the weaponization of space. “You need to find the right hook,” he said, noting other campaigns he was worked on found ways to frame an issue that was easily understood by the Canadian public. “You need to come up with an a...

By Dave Epp No one knows the cost of peace, more than those who are asked t o risk their lives in its pursuit.   Isn’t that an odd thing to say from an MP whose heritage is from  the Anabaptist tradition? Whose faith background is rooted in non-violence?   Yet, as we move into the Remembrance Day season, I often cite these  words as I honour those who chose a different path to pursue peace, than  I have personally chosen.   I recall the words spoken at last year’s Peace Train event with Parliamentarians, by my colleague and friend, Colonel Alex Ruff, who retired from 25 years of active military service, including two peacekeeping missions to Bosnia. Now serving in the House as an MP, his service also included the pursuit of peace. In the last Parliament, I served on the Foreign Affairs and International  Development Committee, and, through testimony with respect to the  situation in Haiti, we learned that Canada could not participate ...

Every year since 2011, the Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament and the Centre for International Policy Studies has given an award for Distinguished Achievement in Nuclear Disarmament. This year’s recipient was special, said presenter Alex Neve, since he was “not only in a world all his own, but a universe all his own.”   That recipient was Douglas Roche, for his “many decades to the vital cause of nuclear disarmament and, ultimately, the global abolition of nuclear weapons.”   Roche, a former Senator, Member of Parliament, Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament, visiting professor at the University of Alberta and author of 25 books, received the recognition on Oct. 23 in Ottawa.   According to Neve, chair of the Canadian Leadership for Nuclear Disarmament, Roche is Roche is a most fitting recipient because of his “passionate and irresistible in his mission to eradicate nuclear weapons in our world.”   Roche has, Neve said, showed generations diplomats,...

By Bernadette Wyton A presentation given to the Oct. 22 breakfast with Parliamentarians in Ottawa. Since Peace Train Canada’s visit to Ottawa last year, the political climate has completely changed. President Trump’s rise to power in an aura of dissonance and disrespect helped distill our minds and usher in our current Canadian government. The ongoing erosion of democratic values across the border is a warning call for us to re-examine our own. We stand at the crossroads of our Canadian identity. Will we trade democratic values for militarized security? Will we uphold truth or submit to power? Will we cash in our inheritance of the Golden Rule for the glitter of a Golden Dome? Will we choose to live in the rubble of discontent, distrust, and disinformation or celebrate and uphold the institutions of truth and  freedom that support our own individual freedom and agency? As we teeter on the fulcrum of multiple tipping points, it becomes increasingly clear that peace is a fundam...

  “It’s good to see you here, building on the momentum from last year.” With those words, Gord Johns, NDP Member of Parliament for Courtenay—Alberni, B.C., welcomed a dozen members of Peace Train Canada to a breakfast with parliamentarians at the Senate of Canada building in Ottawa on Oct. 22.   The meeting, which found 10 Members of Parliament and one Senator, or their representatives, at the event, was a follow up to the 2024 Peace Train Canada reception with Parliamentarians, also in Ottawa.   “We are honoured to join you in building peace and understanding,” Johns said, adding the efforts of the Peace Train “is inspiring."   The need for peacekeeping around the world is more necessary than ever, Johns said, noting that over 120 million people have been forced from their homes by conflict.   “These are not just stats, these are people and families,” he said.   “Peace begins with action,” he went on to say, adding he supported the Peace Train’...