"Time once again for Canadians to raise our voices for peace." Kathleen Wallace-Deering on why she supports the Peace Train

Kathleen Wallace-Deering of Coquitlam, B.C. is on the Peace Train for the second time. From 1980-85 she was a staff person with Project Ploughshares (a project of the Canadian Council of Churches), and from 1997 to 2000 she was the first Diocesan staff person for peace, social justice and environmental concerns. In 2024 she wrote the following for her Anglican diocesan newsletter. 

“Now is the time, this is the place, and we are the people”. This stirring call to social action by Herbert O’Driscoll, in a sermon he gave around 1980 when he was Dean of Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral, has shaped my spirituality and life-long ministry as an Anglican layperson working for peace, social justice and environmental stewardship. 

Forty years ago, at the height of the Cold War when the threat of nuclear seemed imminent, many Anglicans and other Christians were visible and vocal, carrying banners and singing among the multitude of 115,000 people walking over the Burrard Street bridge in Vancouver’s Walk for Peace, reported to be the largest peace demonstration in Canadian history. 

The church in Canada, and internationally, played a significant role in the peace movement of the 1980s. This movement, comprised of citizens, politicians retired high-ranking military officers, security and arms control experts and diplomats, succeeded in making the world safer by pressuring government leaders to engage in diplomacy and sign arms control treaties. Canada, as a respected middle power, played an important role in these international negotiations. 

It is time once again for us, as Christians and as Canadians, to raise our voices for peace, as wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East cause horrendous civilian suffering and bring us closer that we’ve been in decades to the catastrophic use of nuclear weapons, either intentionally or by accident. 

The Peace Train is calling upon our Canadian government to once again give international leadership in lessening the risk of nuclear Armageddon and increasing security through peace building and peacemaking initiatives. 

Travelling as a group on the Canadian railway which is symbol of our unity and potential as a country, the Peace Train will show that there are a lot of people in Canada who recall with pride Canada’s historic role as a peacemaker and honest broker, and who regret that in recent years we have failed to vigorously engage in diplomacy and peace building initiatives.  

The main “ask” of the Peace Train delegation meeting with government officials in Ottawa on November 21st is the re-establishment of an independent institute, similar to the Pearson Peace Centre which was closed 15 years ago. 

In this dangerous era of increased confrontation and tit-for-tat retaliation, and of new forms of warfare employing drones and AI, we need security experts and analysts working with diplomats and peace researchers to chart a path away from escalating conflicts which are putting us on the brink of nuclear war. And we need our Canadian government to commit to robust diplomacy and peace building initiatives as an integral part of Canada’s foreign and defence policy. 

Now is the time, this is the place and we are the people to amplify the message of the Peace Train by letting our Members of Parliament know that we want Canada to once again take up our mantle as a middle power working for peace with justice and security for all. 

The Peace Train is calling upon our Canadian government to once again give international leadership in lessening the risk of nuclear Armageddon and increasing security through peace building and peacemaking initiatives. 

Travelling as a group on the Canadian railway which is symbol of our unity and potential as a country, the Peace Train will show that there are a lot of people in Canada who recall with pride Canada’s historic role as a peacemaker and honest broker, and who regret that in recent years we have failed to vigorously engage in diplomacy and peace building initiatives.  

The main “ask” of the Peace Train delegation meeting with government officials in Ottawa on November 21st is the re-establishment of an independent institute, similar to the Pearson Peace Centre which was closed 15 years ago.  

In this dangerous era of increased confrontation and tit-for-tat retaliation, and of new forms of warfare employing drones and AI, we need security experts and analysts working with diplomats and peace researchers to chart a path away from escalating conflicts which are putting us on the brink of nuclear war. And we need our Canadian government to commit to robust diplomacy and peace building initiatives as an integral part of Canada’s foreign and defence policy. 

Now is the time, this is the place and we are the people to amplify the message of the Peace Train by letting our Members of Parliament know that we want Canada to once again take up our mantle as a middle power working for peace with justice and security for all.