Notes

By Seth Klein, Donald Craig, Deborah Ferens, Ellen Gould | 1989-04-01 12:00:00

Youth

Peace Child

The first Canadian chapter of the international Peace Child Foundation has been established in Toronto and was awarded a grant of $10,000 by Toronto City Council in March. Peace Child is a musical play set in the future and marks the celebration of Peace Day in the year 2025. The play recounts the story of how the young people around the world achieved peace, although each cast of Peace Child changes the script to meet the interests of the students involved. In the Canadian version, Canadian children introduce their American and Soviet peers. The Toronto chapter will bring a Soviet cast of Peace Child from Volgograd to Canada this summer.

Four Canadian students have been involved in international casts of Peace Child. Ann Cummings, a 16-year-old from Toronto and a member of the Oakwood Collegiate peace group, spent six weeks this past summer travelling around New England with a cast of young people from 16 countries. The play is a successful example of citizen diplomacy. To find out more or to donate, contact Ilene Cummings, 202 Wychwood Avenue, Toronto M6C 2T3.

Festival in North Korea

The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students will be held this summer in Pyongyang, North Korea. Young people will gather for discussions, rallies and concerts in support of worldwide peace, solidarity, and cultural exchange. For facts about the Canadian delegation, contact the Ontario Federation of Students, 643 Yonge Street, Toronto.

SANE Calgary

SANE (Students Against Nuclear Execution) at Alternative High School in Calgary is organizing a national campaign for young people to march on their local city halls on May 31st to protest Canada's involvement in the nuclear arms race. Contact Thom Childrey, 1603 21st Avenue, N.W., Calgary.

Plans are underway for this year's Youth for Global Awareness conference in Vancouver, May 5-7. Contact: Peace Education Centre, 19 West 63rd Avenue, Vancouver, B.C.For more on the youth peace movement , subscribe to The Paper Crane, 555 Bloor St. W., Toronto.

Seth Klein

Atlantic

Peace Educating for Educators

"Educating for a Peaceful World" is the theme of a national conference May 4-6 at Dalhousie University in Halifax. It will bring together more than 200 school, college, and community educators and students to examine practical ways of implementing peace education in the classroom and community. They will be joined by an impressive range of resource people who are active in developing curriculum and carrying out peace education programs.

Plenaries, workshops and informal discussions will focus on such areas as curriculum, conflict resolution programs, uses of media, community education and parenting for peace. Special features will be a youth forum, and a peace fair offering a wide range of resource materials.

The conference is sponsored by Hensen College of Public Affairs and Continuing Education of Dalhousie University and the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security, with Educators for Social Responsibility and other groups. It will start Thursday evening and end Saturday noon. Registration is open to all. For further information contact Educating for a Peaceful World, Hensen College, Dalhousie U., Halifax B3H 3J5. Phone: (902) 424-2375.

Conferring on Defence

Dalhousie University's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies has been hosting two major defence conferences and is scheduling a third for late June. All three are military establishment oriented. The conference's coordinator is Rear-Admiral (ret.) Fred Crickard of the Centre.

The first, on St. Patrick's Day, was co-sponsored by the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia. Among speakers were Henry Hicks, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Defence, and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Charles Belzile of Ottawa. Theme: "The Canadian Army in the 21st Century."

An April 6 seminar-conference dealt with "NATO: A Maritime Alliance," and was scheduled to coincide with the visit to Halifax Harbor of NATO's standing naval force. A third conference on June 21-24 will deal with "The Undersea Dimensions of Maritime Strategy," and is expected to draw more than 30 speakers from Canada and abroad.

Inside News-Gathering

More than 200 people crowded the small theatre of the National Film Board in Halifax Feb. 1 to watch the Atlantic Provinces premier of "The World is Watching," Peter Raymont's documentary about TV news-gathering in Nicaragua. The film covers the intense, hectic activity of an ABC-network crew getting a story for the night's broadcast during a few hours of one day--as one participant says, "taking an hour of film and talk, shrinking it to one-and-a-half minutes, and getting it on the air in competition with other news."

"The World is Watching" has won three international awards, and is available from the National Film Board. Rentals: $6.00 in 16 mm., $2.00 in video. Sale: $69.95. The NFB is producing a half-hour condensed version, "Only The News That Fits," which will be for sale on video for $39.95.

The Women and the Vets

The day is actually being celebrated in Halifax over four days this year--March 8-11--by the Voice of Women. The theme: "Speak out against violence in all nations, particularly that perpetrated against women."The first night includes an international potluck supper, with a display of multicultural art and readings by authors. On the next night, a spirituality gathering; and on the eleventh, a panel discussion, workshops, a march, an art and literature fair, and dance.

By February, only a dozen people had signed up for VANA's third annual tour to the Soviet Union (April 28-May 14) compared to 26 who went last year. This year's trip includes visits to five Soviet cities: Moscow, Yalta, Odessa, Kiev, Leningrad. It's too late to register, but for future trips, write to VANA, 1223 Barrington St., Halifax H3J 1Y2.

Donald W. Craig

B.C.

Nanaimo Meeting on Militarism, Development_ The subject matter was sobering and disturbing, but the atmosphere was compassionate as over 300 registrants attended the Third Annual Dube Symposium at Malaspina College in Nanaimo, January 27-28, 1989. Co-sponsored by the College and Global Village (Nanaimo), the Symposium, "Militarism and Development," examined the consequences of militarism in economically-deprived countries. It opened with an address by U.S. author and scholar Noam Chomsky, who spoke on the "Legacy of the Reagan Era" before an overflow audience of 550 at Nanaimo's Coast Bastian Hotel. Keynote speakers were Dr. Roman Habtu of Tigre (Ethiopia) and Bishop Liuz Pradu of Brazil. Registrants spent the day at a wide variety of workshops (from "Militarism and Women" to "Popular Theatre"), enjoyed a multi-cultural lunch, viewed a film series, and participated in letter-writing.
Bishop Pradu of Brazil reminded us that his people know what the problems are and need support, not intervention. Upcoming Events
A major upcoming event in the mid-Vancouver Island region is the week-long (April 23-29) Parksville Peace Festival, which will include family conflict resolution workshops, video production workshops for teens and lots of entertainment. The theme is "Celebrate This Planet."
It's Peace Walk time again! Both the Victoria and Vancouver Walks take place on Saturday, April 22, and both are focusing on the themes of peace and the environment.
Between March 12-19, Chief Ashini from Labrador visited various B.C. locations -- Nanaimo, Vancouver, Kelowna, Vernon and Prince George -- to discuss NATO low-level flights over Innu land.
Also in March the Federation of Russian Canadians held their Seventh Annual Peace Concert with proceeds going to End the Arms Race.
The Canadian Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Support Network meeting will take place on April 14-16 at Camp Alexandra, Crescent Beach, B.C. The focus will be on actions and strategies to support the Pacific agenda.

Deborah Ferens

Prairies

Ploughshares Activities:

Peace groups across the prairies are involoved in Project Ploughshares's "On Track for Disarmament" campaign against the modernization of nuclear weapons. Ploughshares-Saskatoon held its annual general meeting on Feb. 17, with guest Simon Rosenblum speaking about the campaign.

On March 8, Ploughshares-Calgary held a panel discussion with representatives from Amnesty International, the Red Cross, Tools for Peace, Peace Brigades International, and the U.N.'s International Peacekeeping Forces, on "International Peacebuilding." An annual conference for clergy and other church leaders took place in Calgary, March 10 - 11.

Workshops and Meetings

In Calgary a workshop on "Media for a Peaceful Planet" March 10-11 was held by Educators for Peace and the NFB.
"The Arctic" was the topic for this year's True North Strong and Free Conference, held in Edmonton March 18-19.
From Feb. 7 to Apr. 4, the Peace and Conflict Resolution Group and the Faculty of Continuing Education at the University of Calgary, together with CIIPS, hosted a film and discussion series on Conflict and Peace in the Middle East.
Peace and environmental groups in Saskatchewan have been meeting to organize a joint strategy to deal with the Devine government's latest "bombshell,"the proposed construction of a nuclear reactor in northern Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan's Interchurch Uranium Committee iscampaigning to have provincial municipal councils oppose the U.S. military's proposed plans to place MX missiles on rail cars in neighboring North Dakota. These missiles can be launched from their rail cars, potentially from Canadian territory during times of crisis. Project Ploughshares in Winnepeg is also working on this issue.

Ellen Gould