Peace Train Canada meets with Parliamentarians in Ottawa: building on momentum from 2024

 

“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’s call to establish a Canadian centre of excellence for peace and justice. “Canada must be stronger when it comes to peace.” 

For Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal MP for Vancouver-Granville, B.C., train trips can experience delays and other challenges, but the train has to keep going. 

“Peace is not an option, but an expectation,” he said, adding that the goal is not to just stop wars, “but to make sure they don’t happen . . . that’s going to take all of us.” 

“Canada has to step up,” he said. “Otherwise, the world will be a pretty dark place.”

When it comes to limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Elizabeth May, a Green Party MP from Saanich—Gulf Islands, B.C., said the train is not going backwards “but it is stalled.” 

Canada, she noted, is not part of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which bans the use, development or acquisition of nuclear weapons. 

Canada does not support the TPNW, May noted, and has opted out of sending observers to its meetings. 

“Thanks to Peace Train Canada for keeping alive the idea that Canada has a role to play in limiting nuclear arms,” she said, adding “the Greens will do whatever we can to support it.” 

Zoe Royer, Liberal MP from Port Moody-Coquitlam, B.C., said she appreciated the work of the Peace Train. 

Noting that her spouse served for 22 years with the Canadian Armed Forces, including as a peacekeeper, she said that “Canada is a true peacekeeping nation.” 

Dave Epp is the Conservative MP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington in Ontario. He noted the oddity of how a new commitment by Canada to spend more money on defence, together with how the Trump administration has upended international trade, rules and norms, might lead to the creation of a peace centre dedicated to the promotion of diplomacy and peacekeeping. 

Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative MP for Hastings-Lennox-Addington in Ontario, thanked the Peace Train members for “being here and keeping a peace dialogue alive.” Ernie Klassen, who represents South Surrey, B.C. as a Liberal, thanked the group for bringing the issue of peace to Parliament. 

In response, Peace Train co-organizer Keith Wyton shared the history of the Peace Train and its goal of encouraging the government to establish a Centre of Excellence for Peace and Justice.

“Peace Train Canada unites people across the country in renewed commitment to Canada’s first principles for enduring peace, justice, and common security as agreed to in the United Nations charter,” he said. 

Wyton commended the Canadian government for their support of those principles, saying a tangible way to show that support would be through the creation of a Canadian centre for peace and a revival of Canada’s peacekeeping heritage.

“The abdication of our role and reputation as a peacekeeper has come at great cost,” he said, adding by “exercising our full potential as a mediating middle power could have saved many lives and alleviated much suffering in places such as Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti.”

Also presenting at the breakfast was co-organizer Bernadette Wyton, who asked if Canada is in danger of exchanging the Golden Rule for a Golden Dome. 

Also at the breakfast were Marilou McPhedran, an independent senator from Manitoba; Rhonda Kirkland, a Conservative MP for Oshawa; Turcotte, chair of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW); Alex Neve, a Canadian-based international human rights lawyer with over 30 years experience as a leader, researcher, advocate and educator; Cesar Jaramillo, chair of Canadian Pugwash group, which is dedicated to applying scientific and reasoned approaches to global security and conflict resolution; and Donald MacPherson, national president of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association (CPVA).