Peace Train Canada

A new all-party peace caucus will be created for members of Parliament and start meeting before the end of the year.   That announcement was made Oct. 29 by Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada and member of Parliament for Saanich—Gulf Islands in B.C.   “We need to find ways to raise peace issues in Parliament,” said May, speaking at an event in Ottawa organized by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada and the Canadian Friends Service Committee. Read the full story in Canadian Affairs.

Before walking to Parliament Hill from the peacekeeping monument on Oct. 31, Peace Trainers hear Walter Dorn speak about the monument and the history of Canadian peacekeeping.  Dorn, who is a  professor of defence studies at Royal Military College and Canadian Forces College, said the monument as created in 1988 to honour Canadian  peacekeepers and peacekeeping in general—men and women who out humanity before national interest  The three figures on the monument include a soldier with binoculars, which represents monitoring a cease-fire. Another soldier has a gun; that figure is protecting civilians in a fire zone.  The last soldier has a radio to be in communication between parties in conflict who are not in communication with each other, to keep them from shooting at each other.  Leading up to the figures on top of the monument is a path filled with broken concrete that represents the destruction of war. “It looks like a war zone,” Dorn said, addin...

  By Arnold Neufeldt-Fast This is the second part of Arnold’s reflection on the new national security strategy, In part one he reflected on how it prepares Canada for conflict, but not for preventing it. The week Canada’s new security strategy was released, 29 Canadian churches and organizations released an open letter for the Prime Minister  about what constitutes security from aChristian perspective. Signed by Mennonite, Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Quaker, and United Church bodies, the letter acknowledges legitimate security concerns but challenges the assumption that security can be achieved primarily through military means. It argues that conflict prevention, diplomacy, development, climate resilience, and peacebuilding are not luxuries but essential components of genuine security. What strikes me most about this letter is that it does not begin with military strategy but with Christian anthropology. The signatories begin with the claim that war diminishes t...

  By Arnold Neufeldt-Fast   Yesterday, October 29, Prime Minister Mark Carney's government released "The Plan for a Stronger Canada: National Security for Canadians," Canada's first comprehensive national security strategy in more than two decades.   The document is ambitious, wide-ranging, and in many respects persuasive.   It starts from a simple premise: the assumptions that governed the post-Cold War era no longer hold. Canada's sovereignty faces new pressures, strategic competition is intensifying, technological change is accelerating, and economic resilience can no longer be taken for granted.   In response, the government proposes a significant expansion of Canada's defence, industrial, technological, and diplomatic capacities.   Indeed, the world has become a more dangerous place. Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on and Gaza remains devastated; new conflicts and proxy wars stretch from the Middle East to Africa; artificial intelligenc...

An important part of Peace Train Canada’s annual trip to Ottawa is visiting Members of Parliament. This is done through a reception , and also through personal visits by Peace Trainers with their local MPs. During those visits, they have conversations about various peace-related topics, including the request for a national peace and justice centre and about how the idea of national security can be broadened beyond preparing for conflict to include conflict prevention and resolution through activities like peacekeeping.

By Keith and Bernadette Wyton Address given to the Oct. 28 Parliamentary reception Peace Train Canada (PTC) 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 UN Charter. Peace is the domain of physical, social, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is a  fundamental condition for our survival and the only condition that allows relational harmony and non-violent coexistence for this and future generations. The prosperity of peace can be cultivated in Canada by cultivating a robust centre for peace and justice. This is our one ask of government. A peace centre is necessary for shaping what is called Positive Peace: the attitudes, institutions, and structures that sustain peaceful societies. As the Global Peace Index shows, peaceful societies are marked by wellbeing, happiness, higher GDP growth, lower interest rates, greater political stability, and more resilience to shock...