L'ANNÉE 1986 A ETE CHOISIE PAR L'O.N.U. POUR être l'année internationale de la paix (AIP). A l'occasion de cette mobilisation internationale, beaucoup de gens au Québec se sont activées, de nouveaux groupes ont vu le jour, et une première coalition de groupes a pris forme (la Coalition montréalaise pour le désarmement) pour organiser et coordonner la participation québécoise a cette grande manifestation a l'O.N.U. en New York, et pour donner des suites e celle-ci. En l982, tout comme aujourd'hui, le mouvement pour la paix est caractérise par l'étonnante diversité de sa composition sociale. C'est donc dire que les opinions et les approches en ce qui concerne le désarmement et la paix sont elles aussi variées et diversifiées. Que 1'on songe aux apports de la part des écologistes, des féministes, des tiers-mondistes, des jeunes, des groupes religieux progressistes, des syndicalistes, des professionnels conscientisés, des groupes politiques de gauche, etc... Il n'est pas étonnant alors que le mouvement se soit développé sans plan d'ensemble unifié car aucune des constituants de ce mouvement ne possède la recette miracle pour aboutir au désarmement et à la paix. A bien des égards, tous les participants ont quelque chose a apprendre des autres et à apporter aux autres. Ce simple constat aide à mieux situer l'actuel mouvement pour le désarmement des annees `80s. Au-delà de la seule dimension anti-guerre et pro-paix, il constitue de fait un vaste processus d'apprentissage social, politique et culturel, par lequel de nombreuses personnes cherchent à trouver une voie de sortie de l'engrenage militariste, qui dans la réalité comporte d'importantes restrictions en terme de développement sociétal, et qui menace même l'avenir de l'humanité.
AU QUEBEC ET AILEURS, UN TEL PROCESSUS d'apprentissage implique deux grandes étapes interdépendantes et complémentaires. La première consiste d'un effort de sensibilisation de la population, selon les modalités les plus appropriées pour chacune des composantes sociales et pour chacune des régions visées. Ainsi, dans cette perspective, il revient aux écologistes de provoquer une mobilisation du mouvement vert, aux femmes d'impliquer le mouvement féministe, aux syndicalistes d'intéresser le mouvement ouvrier et aux groupes locaux comme ceux du Saguenay Lac St-Jean de stimuler une participation de leur région. Cette activité de conscientisation et de mobilisation est ensuite complétée par des efforts soutenus entrepris en vue de favoriser une convergence et une synthèse des différentes approches pour qu'une réponse originale et représentative de l'ensemble des groupements puisse être élaborée et expérimentée dans le but d'amener les changements désirés au système militariste et de construire la paix. La Coalition québécoise pour le désarmement et la paix (CQDP), le principal regroupement actif sur la scène québécoise, a crée a travers le Québec un réseau souple de groupes partageant cette vision.
Depuis quelques années au Québec, nous avons pu observer que la majorité des groupes dans le mouvement pour le désarmement cheminent en gros selon se schéma général. En effet, la plupart des groupes se montrent jaloux de leur autonomie, d'une part, mais d'autre part, ils n'hésitent pas e s'engager dans des actions communes de nature Ad hoc, surtout lorsque leur forme et leur contenu sont l'objet de discussions et de décisions collectives. C'est ainsi qu'au Québec depuis 1983, il y a eu une quinzaine de manifestations différentes et d"envergure variable en faveur du désarmement, tant au niveau 1 national que régional
En 1986, cette double dynamique se poursuit toujours, et elle semble même vouloir s'approfondir. Les Artistes pour la paix ont organise le 6 décembre 1985, un grand spectacle bénéfice intitulé "Cesser le feu" au théâtre Arlequin de Montréal Ce concert sera diffuse sur les ondes de Radio-Québec en février 1986. La CQDP (Région Montréal) tiendra aussi un kiosque d'information pendant six jours au Salon annuel de la Jeunesse (Montréal, du 13 au 19 mai). Le pont se fait donc entre l'année de la jeunesse de 1985 et l'AIP de 1986. De plus, les clubs 4H ont choisi la paix pour leur thème de discussion et de jeux pour l'année 1986.
LES NOMBREUX GROUPES POUR LE désarmement a travers le Québec poursuivent actuellement leurs activités en espérant qu'une plus grande attention du public aidera a assurer une implication croissante de la population autour de ces questions. De telles démarchés en faveur de la paix, conduits principalement par des benevoles, pourraient être amplifies si elles devaient bénéficier d'une assistance financière gouvernementale comparable a celle de l'année internationale de la jeunesse. Mais rien ne semble bouger de ce cote. Un très sérieux programme de projets préparé pendant des mois par un Comité interministériel a Québec risque de ne pas voir le jour vue la timidité affichée par le gouvernement québécois face a l'AIP. La recommandation a l'effet qu'une somme de 5.8 millions devrait être consacrée a la paix risque de rester lettre morte et, de ce fait, une quarantaine de projets intéressants risquent de ne pas se réaliser importants colloques sont aussi prévus pour 1986, entre autres le colloque annuel de l'association d'économie politique du Québec intitule "Écologie et paix" qui se penchera sur les aspects économiques et socio-politiques des l'ecologisme et du neo-pacifisme (les 17-18 octobre).
IL Y A AUSSI UN BON NOMBRE DE PUBLICATIONS qui ont été préparées pour l'AIP. Le numéro 12/52 de la Revue internationale d'action communautaire (RIAC) intitule "Le mouvement pour le désarmement et la paix" constitue toujours un actif précieux pour cerner et comprendre les différentes dimensions de la lutte pour le désarmement La maison d'editions Novalis a récemment publie un livre à grand tirage intitule Artisans de paix et qui traite de la paix dans le monde et des moyens pour l'atteindre. Fruit de la collaboration d'une vingtaine de personnes actives dans le mouvement pour le désarmement et la paix, ce livre non seulement informe, mais il incite aussi les gens a l'action en proposant des choises concrètes et réalisables a entreprendre pour construire la paix. S. Monnet-Chartrand rédige actuellement un nouveau volume de ses mémoires, a la lumière de ses activités en faveur du désarmement depuis les années `50. Ce livre paraitre en juin 1986 sous le titre (provisoire): Construire la paix: espoirs et défis. De plus, le Groupe de recherche en écologie sociale de l'Université de Montréal prépare une bibliographie d'environ 1,500 titres portant sur "Les Verts et la paix" et a aussi contribué à la co-réalisation d'un livre collectif en anglais comportant vingt chapitres qui analysent un ensemble de questions d'intérêt pour le mouvement de paix canadien. Ces deux ouvrages sortiront en cours d'année. Un groupe interconfessionnel de chrétiens actifs dans le mouvement de paix a Montréal a aussi publié un document en français et en anglais sous le titre Notre Défense Et Nous portant sur la politique de défense du Canada. Ce document a été préparé pour alimenter la réflexion sur la collusion du Canada avec le militarisme des E.U. et aussi pour encourager la population à ne pas se tier aux armes pour sa sécurité.
PLUSIEURS ASSOCIATIONS PLUS ANCIENNES s'intéressent de plus en plus au thème du désarmement. C'est notamment le cas de la Fédération des Femmes du Québec oü il existe un Comité paix depuis trois ans. On y mettra l'accent sur le thème "Femmes et paix" en 1986, en soulignant particulièrement le rapport qui existe entre les coupures sociales et les dépenses militaires. De plus, Serge Losique a annoncé que le Festival des films de Montréal mettra l'accent sur le désarmement par la projection d'une série de film sur la paix. "Par ailleurs," les trois grandes centrales syndicales projettent d'organiser un grand spectacle artistique, à l'image de "Cesser le feu" du 6 décembre dernier, pour souligner le 100e anniversaire du ler mai comme fête des travailleurs. De plus, la CSN poursuit ur1 travail de réflexion sur la reconversion industrielle aver des chercheurs de trois universités montréalaises et pense produire un genre d'atlas du "Québec armé" afin de mieux situer le problème de dépendance économique lié a la production militaire québécoise (50% de la production canadienne, le plus souvent en sous-traitance). L'assemblée des évêques du Québec vise a augmenter 1'implication des catholiques, notamment en engageant en ce sens, son réseau des pastorales dans les milieux éducatifs et possiblement aussi par une lettre pastorale. L'Église-Unie projette un effort semblable en ce sens en vue de sensibiliser les gens dans et hors des Églises, notamment par une journée entière d'activités a Montréal en mai, journée qui se terminera par une grande vigile pour la paix. L'assemblée des évêques du Québec, en lien avec la CSN et la CEQ et en collaboration avec les groupes pour la paix, cherche à poursuivre durant l'année 1986 la campagne "Un F-18 pour la paix," mais cette fois en présentant de façon différente la revendication de base. Rappelons qu'en 1985 celle-ci était davantage d'orientation syndicale (un F-18 contre des emplois pour la paix) et plutôt étroite en plus, puisqu'elle ne demandait que les 62 millions associés au cout d'achat et d'entretien pour un an d'un seul F-18, sans trop se préoccuper du reste des activités de militarisation. Néanmoins, une entente a pu être conclue avec la majorité des groupes de paix, de telle sorte que durant la semaine pour la désarmement en octobre 1985, environ une dizaine de manifestations régionales ont eu lieu à travers le Québec. D'après les discussions en cours, il semble que le thème de la manifestation d'octobre 1986, se situera dans la foulée de celui de l'an dernier, mais qu'il sera un peu plus englobant. Les groupes alignés sur le Conseil mondial de la paix veulent privilégier le thème de la guerre des étoiles, mais les non-alignés semblent préférer élargir le thème du F-18 pour la paix en un thème du genre "Gel et retraité. De cette maniéré, le discours et la démarche pourraient se dérouler en deux temps.
CETTE NOUVELLE APPROCHE A DEIA ETE PROPOSEE a un ensemble de groupes intéressés a travailler pour le désarmement. Son acceptation en ferait la campagne commune et le discours prédominant pour l'année 1986. Tout en favorisant l'émergence d'une vision plus synthétique, il encourage la création d'initiatives originales dans les différents milieux et contextes québécois.
Ce bref tour d'horizon a tenté de montrer que non seulement l'O.N.U. a fourni l'occasion qui a fait démarrer l'actuel mouvement pour le désarmement et la paix au Québec mais que maintenant, par l'impact attendu de son Année internationale de la paix, il se pourrait fort bien qu'elle contribue aussi à la maturation de ce mouvement et h son enracinement dans différents secteurs de la société québécoise. S'il développe ainsi une pensée plus englobante et plus stratégique, le mouvement sera d'avantage porté à adresser une critique de fond au diverses manifestations du processus de militarisation de nos sociétés. De plus, il sera plus encliné à adopter et à varier ses modes d'actions et dinterventions selon la conjoncture et selon les particularités locales et régionales.
In Quebec the peace movement has proceeded without any real plan, comprising such varied elements as feminists, ecologists, workers, progressive religious organizations, the left, youth groups, and conscientious professionals. The declaration of 1986 by the U.N. as the International Year of Peace is a perfect opportunity for these various elements to work together,learn from one another and grow in solidarity.
Traditionally, the peace movement in Quebec has tried to reach its goal of disarmament through a two-fold, complementary operation: (1) the education of society as a whole to the dangers and implications of militarization, which is generally achieved through the education of any specific area by those most involved in it, e.g. women by the feminist movement, workers by the labor movement, etc. and (2) changes within the system itself through a synthesis of approaches taken by each group, which belie their differences. Thus, although the Quebec Coalition for Disarmament and Peace (CQDP) speaks for many groups in terms of disarmament plans, each group jealously guards its autonomy.
In spite of this independence on the part of member groups, they willingly engage in collective ad hoc actions, such as the December 6, 1985 Artists for Peace benefit, entitled "Ceasefire" which broadcast nationally on Radio-Canada in February 1986. Coupled with the effort against the F-18, as well as the dedication of the 100th anniversary of the May Day uprisings, these events have gone a long way toward unifying the peace movement in Quebec. The U.N. Year of Peace will help the movement mature even further by bnning it together to extend the range of such concepts as "Think globally, act locally" and to entrench the ideals of peace and disarmament through Quebec society.
Are you satisfied with your Member of Parliament's commitment to peace and disarmament? Do you think it's time we had more pro-disarmament federal politicans? Do you want to do something about it? The "Peace Voter Pledge Campaign," co-sponsored by End the Arms Race and the Coalition of Riding Committees in Vancouver, is preparing now to make disarmament a key issue in the next federal election campaign.
The campaign is asking voters to sign a pledge card which states: "When deciding my vote in the next federal election, I the undersigned voter in the federal riding of ____ pledge to consider only those candidates who, with words and actions, strongly support nuclear disarmament and an end to Canadian involvement in the arms race."
Completed pledge cards from each riding will be compiled, and copies will be presented to all candidates in that riding at the beginning of the next federal election campaign. As well, everyone who signs a pledge card will be mailed a report during the election campaign summarizing where each candidate in his or her riding stands on peace issues.
The current Member of Parliament and the various political party constituency associations in each riding are being sent letters informing them of the campaign. The letters will also ask for any information on peace actions, motions, or statements undertaken by the sitting M.P. or party riding associations between now and the next federal election. This information will be included in the report to be sent everyone who has signed a pledge card.
The "Peace Voter Pledge Campaign" has been received with great enthusiasm in B.C. Many people seem to feel a need for a campaign that specifically focuses on electing more pro-peace politicans, and directly pressures current Members of Parliament to give more attention to peace and disarmament. The campaign organizers have set a target of 3000 completed pledge cards from each B.C. federal riding. This goal represents about 10 percent of the electorate in each riding; and if reached, would certainly help to make peace and disarmament a much higher priority in B.C. politics. The organizers are hopeful that similar campaigns will be undertaken in other regions of Canada.
The Peace Voter pledge cards are being distributed in various ways. Peace and Disarmament Riding Committees, which have formed in many ridings, are taking responsibility for distributing the cards to businesses, public events, and supporting groups in their riding. The nonpartisan Riding Committees were formed during the 1984 Election Priorities Project, or in some cases more recently. These committees attempt to meet regularly with their M.P. to discuss peace and disarmament issues, and also try to raise public awareness of the urgency of disarmament in their riding. In smaller towns and cities, the existing local peace group also performs the function of a riding committee.
A second way the Peace Voter pledge cards will be distributed is by a door-to-door canvass in Greater Vancouver planned for September 15-30. As well as distributing the Peace Voter pledge cards, canvassers will also be handing householders an educational leaflet on how Canada can play a more active role in supporting disarmament.
Almost 100 Canadian peace groups have now endorsed the "Canadian Campaign to Stop Star Wars." The Campaign was conceived at the founding convention of the Canadian Peace Alliance last November, and has been developed by peace groups participating on the CPA steering committee. The campaign includes a petition that calls for no Canadian participation or support for Star Wars. Over 7000 signatures were collected at the Vancouver Walk for Peace in April. A leaflet will soon be available to accompany the petition.
The Second Annual B.C. Provincial Conference of Peace and Peace-Supporting Organizations will be held on September 13-14 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Last year, over 170 delegates from 105 organizations in 40 B.C. communities participated in the Conference, and an even larger attendance is expected this year. Some of the major focuses of the B.C. Conference will be the Canadian Campaign to Stop Star Wars, the Peace Voter Pledge Campaign Nuclear Weapon Free Zones, and the Nanoose Conversion Campaign.
For further information on any of the above items, please contact End the Arms Race, 1708 W.16th Ave., Vancouver B.C. V6J 2M1 (604)736-2366.
A new summer school is being held in Nelson July 21-August 1."Changing Our Ways of Thinking: Peace, Environment and Global Justice in the 80's," to be held at the former David Thompson University Centre campus, features ten days of workshops on a wide variety of topics. Murray Thomson, former head of CUSO, co-founder of Project Ploughshares and a recognized expert on the arms race and Third World development issues, will be the keynote speaker. A total of twelve workshops are scheduled. If there's time, contact Sandra Hartline, 1511 Cedar Street, Nelson, B.C. V1L 2G2 604-352-9871.
A WEST GERMAN FIRM, THYSSEN, IS PROPOSING TO build a manufacturing plant in Cape Breton, and the provincial government of Nova Scotia is promoting the project. To date the federal cabinet seems split on the issue.
Thyssen would build armored vehicle carriers and tanks for export to countries in the Middle East. The company cannot export from West Germany to regions of tension because that country's laws forbid it. Canadian policy opposes the granting of export permits to enemies of Canada, to countries condemned by the United Nations, to countries with human rights abuses where the arms might be used for domestic repression, and to countries engaged in hostilities or in imminent danger of being so engaged. The list of countries Thyssen is considering as its market include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Bahrain, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates. Thyssen wants the government to alter Canadian policy and grant a 5 year export permit.
For a time, according to the Globe and Mail (June 19) the proposal looked "clinically dead" because of the opposition of External Affairs Minister Joe Clark. He argued against the former minster for regional expansion, Sinclair Stevens, and Deputy Prime Minister Erik Nielsen, claiming that the weapons are offensive in character. More recently, however, he has evidently been prepared to support the proposal if its export license does not cover battle tanks. Thyssen's representative says that "we would want to keep open the possibility of exporting tanks in the future, perhaps to the United States or other markets."
Moreover, officials in External Affairs admit that the personnel carriers are not necessarily just defensive weapons, since they are driven on tank-like tracks, not rubber tires. This makes the vehicle more flexible in desert warfare, and thus more suitable for offensive fighting.
The people of Cape Breton are being caught in a classic situation of job blackmail. Arms plants like Thyssen will not bring genuine development and economic security to Cape Breton. If the government is really concerned about the unemployed people, it should be looking at ways to use Cape Breton's resources to produce socially useful products.
Letters of protest are requested. They are being sent to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Bundestag, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, as well as to Prime Minister Mulroney, The Hon. Joe Clark, Hon. Pauline Jewett, and to the Premier of Nova Scotia, John Buchanan and to Roland Thornhill, Minister of Development of Nova Scotia. Participants in the National Letter-writing Coalition, please take note. Contact Joan Bishop, 195 St. Peter's Road, Sydney, N.S. B1P 4P9. (902) 538-6861.
The Atlantic Peace Coalition, consisting of 44 organizations throughout the Atlantic Provinces, held a rally and candlelight procession on May 29 and a vigil May 29-30 in Halifax. Speakers included an Innu family and their interpreters from Labrador, en route home from a month-long tour of Western Europe where they had been talking to peace groups and government officials, Peter Armitage, David Nuke and Ronald Babin.
In April Halifax harbor was visited by USS Von Steuben armed with 16 Trident I missiles, each with eight independently-targetable warheads. A vigil with 40 people was held near the Shearwater base. During the NATO conference we had an unusual visitor, HMS Turbulen, a nuclear-powered submarine, the first known British arrival since the sub-watch began in 1983.
Unclassified official US and Canadian listings show a marked increase of nuclear-capable surface ship visits in the past few years, but the number of submarines has decreased. Halifax Ploughshares has received a letter from Erik Nielsen's office stating that visit requests of submarines continue to be accepted, "as a manifestation of our responsibilities to the NATO alliance." It adds "A Nuclear Emergency Response Team has been established ... to provide prompt and effective response to any military nuclear emergency or incident." After Chernobyl, these plans offer cold comfort.
The coalition demanded that Canada live up to its pledge not to allow any nuclear weapons on its territory, that disclosure of armaments on all vessels entering Canadian ports be required and that ships and submarines carrying nuclear weapons be barred. It also opposed the economic exploitation of our region by weapons-related multinationals.
DON'T FORGET THE ANNUAL ONTARIO PEACE CONFERence Sept. 5-7, at a camp outside Sundridge. For details, contact North Eastern Ontario Network for Peace (NEON), Box 264, North Bay P1B 8H2. Phone 705/476-7060.
The fight against the export of tritium is heating up, and everyone will have a chance to participate on the afternoon of August 9, as your personal way of remembering the victims of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The Durham Region Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility invites everyone to a Peace Festival--the theme being "STOP TRITIUM EXPORTS!" This celebration/demonstration will go on all afternoon, and will feature 4 or 5 local bands, plus speakers representing Operation Dismantle, Project Ploughshares, and Energy Probe. The Chairman of Ontario Hydro has been invited too. Bring your banners, signs, and friends. Take the 401 to Oshawa Exit. Go south on Simcoe to Lakeview Park, which is right across the bay from the Darlington nuclear plant.
TORONTO DISARMAMENT NETWORK is coordinating plans to demonstrate when the U.S.S. Glover comes into the Great Lakes during August. Call them at 535-8005.
The main Toronto event for August is on Hiroshima Day. Maj. Gen. Leonard V. Johnson will speak after a 5 pm vigil at City Hall. Then picnic:Metro United Church. 535-8005.
By Shirley Farlinger
The City of Toronto has established an International Year of Peace Committee with a $50,000 budget. With $15,000 of that money, grants will be given to peace groups of not more than $500 each for I.Y.P. events in the city. The remainder of the budget will "promote the ideals of peace and give evidence of Toronto's commitment to peace m all viable ways." The first grant of $400 went to A Peal for Peace, which hopes to organize the entire city in a minute of silence, a moment of sound at 12:00 noon on September 16. LLN. Ambassador Stephen Lewis will speak on radio before the bells start pealing. For more information call the Rev. Donald Evans at 978-3866 or 924-0731. (See Newsworthy.)
Although Toronto is already a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone, ways of strengthening that commitment will be suggested to City Council by the committee. Grant application forms for your Toronto IYP event are available from Chris Dodds, City Hall, Toronto.
Michael Mitchell, the executive producer of the Live Aid Concert for Africa, will produce a global television and radio event on 24 October, 1986, United Nations Day.
The program is a celebration of United Nations Day and of the International Year of Peace and an opportunity to express the common aspirations of all peoples for peace. The 24-hour program will consist of a series of live music concerts and other special events, coupled with pre-recorded television and radio programming. The event will be co-produced in cooperation with over sixty countries around the world. The producer intends to highlight issues of peace and human coexistence, to stimulate global creative efforts devoted to these concerns. Toronto has been invited to send videotapes to be used in the program, which will also feature a 5-continent satellite hook-up with live concerts in Tokyo, Japan, Senegal, and Argentina.
The International Year of Peace is aimed at generating a fresh and renewed commitment lasting well beyond the confines of a single year.
By David Delaunay
SATURDAY NIGHT AND THE JOINT IS JUMPING. Participants at the 1986 Project Ploughshares Consultation are in a whirlwind of folk dancing, capping off an evening of poetry skits, songs, readings, and piano playing, performed by the participants themselves. The sense of community is intense in the four-day May event. The growth of the annual Consultation, both in participation and in substance, indicates how much Ploughshares has grown in its work--its education, outreach, and advocacy.
Launched in 1976, Project Ploughshares has developed an excellent reputation for monitoring arms sellers and for documenting the social and economic effects of military spending and arms production. Its research centre in Waterloo keeps extensive files on current economic, disarmament, military, and political issues and on the Canadian military industry. These complement a computerized database that documents the activities of over 2000 arms contractors. This database is used by researchers for the peace movement, universities, governments, and political parties.
Ploughshares produces educational materials based on its independent research. The quarterly Ploughshares Monitor (sent to all who become Associates for a fee of $20 per year) covers the entire span of the Project's interests with informative articles on development, defence news, arms contracts, and disarmament campaigns. The Working Paper series approaches these topics in greater depth. Pamphlets are produced, the most recent entitled "Connections"--a map showing nuclear weapons-related installations in Canada. Plough-shares also sells or rents video interviews on alternate security policies for Canada, plus cassettes, tapes, and films.
The Project's Research Coordinator, Ernie Regehr, has written or edited a number of books, including Canada and the Nuclear Arms Race, co-authored with Simon Rosenblum, Ploughshares' Ottawa liaison staff person. Rosenblum has also contributed a recent book, Misguided Missiles.
While research is fundamental, militarism will not change without outreach to the uninformed and the uncommitted, so that they will pressure governments for needed solutions. This is the work of the local Ploughshares groups in almost 50 Canadian towns. These groups organize local educational events, disseminate information. and through delegated National Board members help direct the overall program. Four regional staff workers coordinate these activities and link with the national program through the Education Coordinator, David Pollock.
In Ottawa, Ploughshares keeps in touch with officials, providing them with useful digests of the Project's research and keeping up on the latest political developments. Plough-shares representatives regularly testify at Parliamentary hearings and present briefs to government. High profile campaigns are also organized, often in Disarmament Week; some call into action a rapid response network of local groups for phone and mail campaigns to influence public policy.
The National Board meets four times a year, while in between an Executive and Standing Committee carry on the work that includes overseeing the budget of $450,000 and the staff complement of 7 full time and 3 contract workers.
The mandate was established by the Canadian Council of Churches, which stated that "the pursuit of peace calls all people, institutions, and governments to do justice and to be merciful, to cherish the earth, and to care for its resources, to love their neighbors and to protect life."
Clarke MacDonald, the ex-moderator of the United Church in Canada. and the Chairman of Project Ploughshares, says, "I sincerely believe that without the peace movement in Canada and the rest of the world, we might already have been embroiled in a situation bordering on nuclear holocaust. I think the impeccable character of Ploughshares research, and the passion for peace and justice that I have observed in local groups augurs well for the future."
Peace Magazine Aug-Sep 1986, page 27. Some rights reserved.
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