OCTOBER 2014 NEWSLETTER

The Council of Canadians is the VOICE of progressive Canadians in 52 cities all over Canada. It is grassroots and bottom-up in its organization, with a small paid staff of researchers in Ottawa who provide the data we need to campaign on issues. 95% of all operating money comes from individual donations. The average individual donation is $50. We are non-profit but are not a charity because we educate and lobby for social and environmental justice. Each chapter determines which issues are important to its local supporters and is as active in campaigns as time and energy allow. Our London Chapter has eight committees: 

The Solidarity Film Coalition manages the Cinema Politica film series, which shows documentary films at the Central Library on the second Monday of each month. The motto of Cinema Politica is “Screening Truth to Power”.

The Trade Justice Committee campaigns against corporate-driven international trade agreements that would take away Canadian democracy and basic rights of self- determination. It has been active in educating London City Council about the perils of the Investor-State clause of CETA, and has been instrumental in getting London City Council to vote unanimously to have the option to vote for an ‘opt-out’ of CETA. 

The Health Care Committee works with the London Health Coalition to keep health care public and is currently engaged in planning a campaign and rally for Nov. 21 in Queens Park, to resist the austerity budget and the adoption of two-tier health care in Ontario. 

The Peace and Human Rights Committee has been active in bringing back John Greyson and Tarek Loubani from an Egyptian prison, supports the boat from Gaza, and opposes war as a solution to problems, social, religious, political or otherwise. 

The Energy and Climate Committee opposes expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands and the movement of bitumen by pipeline and rail. Because we have probably gone past the threshold where our climate can right itself, our position is that any further use of fossil fuels is suicidal for humans and life on this planet. It is also our position that pipelines and rail transport of dangerous substances threaten cities, First Nations, and wildlife, and poison watersheds and rivers they pass through. We actively oppose the reversal of flow of Enbridge’s 38- year-old Line 9 pipeline, just north of London, which crosses the Thames River north of Fanshawe Lake.

The Water Committee will be approaching our new City Council next spring to ask that London become a Blue Community. This means enforcing the bottled water ban in municipal venues and committing to keeping London Hydro public. We have been supporting OPAL (Oxford People Against the Landfill) by protesting with them in Ingersoll, Woodstock, Beachville, and other nearby towns most Fridays at 3:00 pm. In 2015 we will be working with First Nations to organize a water walk along the Thames River from Tavistock to Lake St. Clair.

The Democracy Committee works with Leadnow to fight for fair elections and proportional representation, so that our election process is a more just and accurate reflection of the wishes of all Canadians.

The Food Security Committee is working with City Council to make London a pollinator sanctuary for bees and butterflies. It opposes GM foods, and supports urban agriculture and the distribution and marketing of local food.

 

We strongly urge citizens to go beyond emotional or intellectual sympathy with the campaigns of the Council of Canadians and to contact us and get involved. We will put you in touch with whichever committee chair is working on your favourite issue. Help make Canada THE CANADA WE WANT. 

Trade with the New Generations in Mind

I am fascinated by new generation trade pacts, described as the transfer of power from people to transnational corporations.* I find the topic both compelling and repelling. Despite the discomfort, the study of trade offers essential understanding for those interested in preserving natural life and community infrastructure from nation to nation. 

Years ago, my undergraduate professors startled me with the news that “new generation” trade deals give large corporations the opportunity to manage the public’s assets, and also to sue countries when public laws decrease corporate profits. Should we not ask for more in our global policy? Because if profit of the largest entities is the prime intention, than that is simply what we will get, and all the environmental and geo-political instabilities associated with that. When setting regulations between countries can we ensure resource security, vital public services, and the greater political security that comes with that? 

Trade deals are written in private. What if the best in us was put forward for their composition. What if the wisest elder, with a great sense of humour, soft heart, and economic knowledge sat at the table to negotiate? Why not seek robust economy based in real jobs and environmental security? 

Such global-impact regulations should be approached with loving-kindness. For no child in the so-called Global North will be secure in an insecure world and no child in the Global South, with all its restriction of access to clean water and basic human rights, will be fully nourished. We could take less in the North in exchange for greater security. 

We can do better than an international trade law that allows corporations to sue nations if corporate profits decrease over the use of public laws. 

People are awakening to what is truly valuable. When I think of the people in my city I see so many whose primary desire is security for families, friends and community. This is a reason to learn about trade pacts. 

As a North American, the place of birth of the “New Generation” deal, I feel a responsibility to be part of general dialogue to create fairer trade. I am curious about global law after the new generation pact and what else is possible! 

This blog is a creative space for exploring New Generation trade from a different perspective, one that is truly generational and focussed on what we are offering children and their children to come. In peace and faith! 

Jennifer Chesnut
Trade Justice Chair

*trade pact description from Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians

Published originally on  August 30, 2014 in http://newgenerationtrade.com/2014/08/30/trade-with-the-new-generations-in-mind/

Monthly Meeting of the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians

JOHN GREYSON

When: Tuesday March 18, 2014
Where: Tolpuddle Co-op general room
380 Adelaide between Dundas and King 

Finger food, coffee, tea 

Presentation: THE BOAT FROM GAZA - David Heap 

John Greyson will show his film “Green Laser” and speak about the Palestinian/Isreali issue of Gaza and share his experiences. 
http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/green-laser http://www.cinemapolitica.org/artists/john-greyson 

Products made in Gaza can be ordered. 
http://www.gazaark.org 
http://www.bdsmovement.net 

Refreshments will be courtesy of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) club at Western University. 

Networking and Action Plans 

This is a FRAGRANCE FREE event. 

Bus goes down Dundas - questions - need a ride - 519 - 601 - 2053 

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS, LONDON CHAPTER 

MARCH 18, 2014 AGENDA 

"THE BOAT FROM GAZA" DAVID HEAP 

6:30 SOCIAL: MIDDLE EASTERN SNACKS PROVIDED 

7:00 FILM: THE AWARD WINNING "GREEN LASER" 
FILM MAKER JOHN GREYSON FOR TALK AND Q AND A 

7:45 ABOUT GAZA'S ARK: WENDY GOLDSMITH; DUNIA HAMOU 

8:00 BUSINESS 

ACTIONS AND CAMPAIGNS: 
HEALTH COALITION REFERENDUM 
WATER RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL 
POLLINATOR SANCTUARY LONDON 
STOP CETA 
LINE 9 "NOT WORTH THE RISK” 
ECO BOOK CLUB 

NEW BUSINESS 

8:30 MINGLE - JOIN A CAMPAIGN - GET INVOLVED 

APPEARANCE OF THE LINE 9 SNAKE!

Minutes of last meeting, Feb. 10, 2014: http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/LondonCoCMeetingMinutes.pdf

Attracting Peace: Educating for Peace, with Lee McKenna

7:00-9:00 p.m.
Wolf Performance Hall
London Central Library
251 Dundas St.
London, Ontario

Lee McKenna will be talking about her work with war-affected people in places like Sudan, Colombia and the Philippines. Come and learn about the economic, social and cultural roots of violence, the role of consciousness in combatting violence and oppression and how to organize for social and political change.

FREE!

LEE MCKENNA
(B.A., MDiv, PhD cand), activist, practitioner of active non-violence and principal of Partera International (partera. ca), has been working alongside peace-makers from more than a dozen countries for more than 20
years.
http://www.partera.ca/bio/

The evening will end with a guided meditation for peace.

Jennifer Chesnut's Radio Interview re CETA

Jennifer Chesnut, Trade Justice Chair 
London, Ontario Chapter, Council of Canadians

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5

Peace Rally!

On Saturday October 8, 2011 at 1:00 pm a rally will be held to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Invasion of Afghanistan in Victoria Park on the corner of Richmond and Central.

Please distribute to your friends and contacts.

Endorsing Groups include The Council of Canadians, People for Peace, The Indignants, Citizens Inquest (London), Common Cause London, We are Change (London), Zeigeigist (London), and Iconoclast Media.

Invited speakers include representatives from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. Other invited speakers include Wendy Goldsmith representing People for Peace, lawyer Ed Corrigan, Patty Dalton President of the London and District Labour Council, Tim Carrie Pres. of CAW Local 27 and Tim Richards US War Resister. There will be musical entertainment, short speeches from invited guests followed by an open mike for addition comments from the community. At 2:00 pm there will be a march around the City core to return to Central Ave and Richmond where the rally started.

Ed Corrigan can be contacted at his office (519) 439-4015 or on his cell 519-878-6740 and Anthony Verberckmoes can be contacted by texting a message to 519-615-5186.

On behalf of the Committee

Book Review: "Captivity" by James Loney

Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War. by James Loney. Knopf Canada. ISBN: 978-0-307-39927-4 (0-307-39927-3)

When the invasion of Iraq began in 2003, hardly anyone had heard of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an organization that believes that Christians should apply the same discipline and self sacrifice to peacemaking that armies devote to war. The group hit the front pages when James Loney and three other members of CPT were abducted in November 2005, and held in captivity for 118 days. This book is James' story of that time.

James had been to Iraq with CPT twice before, and this time he was leading a delegation. A CPT delegation consists of people who want first-hand knowledge of the situation on the ground and how CPT's work is done. With James on the day of the kidnapping were Harmeet Singh Sooden, 33, a Canadian Sikh currently living in New Zealand, Norman Kember, 75, a retired British biophysisist, and Tom Fox, a 52 year old American Quaker, retired from the Marine Corps band. They were abducted after a meeting with a local organization, and were taken to a house where they were kept under guard by four Iraqi freedom fighters. For most of the 118 days that followed, they were handcuffed to each other, loosely blindfolded, hungry and filthy, and sometimes ill.

As soon as they learned of the captivity, CPT went into full non-violent response mode. The last thing they wanted was an armed rescue. There were prayer vigils around the world, appeals through the press and government. With several members of CPT living around London, there were vigils at Valleyview Mennonite Church, and in public.

While the main feature of the captivity for James was excruciating boredom, this book is anything but, as he describes the chronology of happenings and feelings over those 118 days. He felt a constant conflict between wanting to feel compassion and love for his captors, and needing to resist them in any way possible. Communication was very difficult, with only a few words of Arabic on the one hand, and a few of English on the other. One day a captor the CPTers referred to as Junior explained that he wanted to be a suicide bomber. James was appalled, and asked himself,

How do I tell him life is sacred, his body a wondrous chariot, that he must not do this, foreclose every possibility of good in an irrevocable act of hate? . . . Human touch. That's how to do it. My heart starts pounding. It's ridiculous, crazy, insane. I immediately sweep the idea out of my mind. One does not massage one's captor.

But Junior was in constant pain from tight muscles, and he did massage him, almost daily from then on.

Adding to the effect of the boredom, were the regular promises from the captors that release was imminent; that the governments of Canada and Great Britain were negotiating and promising large sums of money for the captives. The threat to Tom Fox was that the United States would not negotiate at all, and all were aware that he was in great danger, and that the Canadians were the most likely to be freed. In fact, Tom was taken away on Feb. 12 and eventually the men realized that he must be dead.

In the new year the captives finally established a daily routine. They were unshackled in the morning to use the filthy bathroom, and then to do an exercise routine. After that they were shackled and forced to sit in plastic chairs all day, They practiced a daily check-in with each other, sharing feelings and physical problems. Bible study had to be done by memory. Eventually they were given writing materials,a real blessing for James. He realized that the Psalms are for times of anguish and terror, and wrote a psalm for himself.

My God, my God,
where have you gone, where can you be?
I speak but you do not hear me,
I call but you do not see.

My heart breaks open with crying,
weeping and gnashing of teeth are its son.
My spirit rolls in ash,
anguish has broken my soul. .


Throughout James agonized over the conflict among the four men, very little of which was articulated between them; it's really hard to deal with conflict when you are chained together. He described the rages he felt, sometimes at the smallest personal habits of another and then the various ways he dealt with that rage.

Eventually, after 118 days, James and Norman and Harmeet were freed by a unit of crack soldiers with no shots fired. It is the method they, as peacemakers, did not want, but paradoxically, James is immensely grateful to the soldiers and to everyone else who worked so long and hard to find them and to free them.

Read this book. It will give you the opportunity to spend time with a wise man with a generous heart and a lovely way with words.

James Loney will read from his book on Wednesday September 21, 7 PM at the London Public Library, Wolf Performance Hall for the International Peace Day. Admission is free, signed copies of Captivity will be available for purchase.

Elizabeth (Beth) Guthrie is a member of People for Peace in London. Before moving to Toronto on retirement, she was a frequent contributor to the letter pages of the London Free Press.

International Day of Peace

Wed. Sept. 21, 2011, 7-9 p.m. Wolf Performance Hall, London Public Library, 251 Dundas St., London, Ontario

Come and meet James Loney, who will read from his recent book, Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World without War. This is a powerful account of the remarkable peace activist kidnapped while leading a peace delegation and held for ransom by Iraqi insurgents until his paradoxical release by a crack unit of special forces commandos.

http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/JamesLoneyposter.pdf

Party platforms on peace issues

"With the notable and limited exception of the proposed F-35 purchase, the issues of war and peace have been almost entirely absent from the current federal election campaign, even though the country is now involved in two on-going wars.

The major parties have all published election platform documents, however, and these policy statements do occasionally touch on various peace-related issues.

Here is a brief guide to the party platforms on peace-related issues."

(From ceasefire.ca)

Rally against Harpocracy!

Sunday, April 3 · 3:30pm - 5:30pm

Four Points Sheraton on Wellington Rd.

Show that we stand Canadian values against the CONtempt of the CONservative CONmen!

The London Chapter of the CoC will be there! Join us! Bring an anti-Conservative and/or pro-CoC sign! Tout CoC values; trash Conservative ones! Signs should be as large as possible, the messages short and to the point, and the lettering should be large enough to be readable from a distance. Simple recognizable graphics are always effective (e.g. Harpo's mug inside a red circle with a diagonal red line across it).

(Remember, as a non-partisan organization, we can't campaign for a particular party, so don't bring any campaign signs if you are going to be with us, but we can criticize Harper and the Conservatives relentlessly! You can, of course, campaign for one of the other parties there if you wish, but not with our group.)

NOTE: This is not a CoC event exclusively. It is open to any and all groups or individuals who oppose the Conservatives.

Lantern Ceremony

Friday, August 6th 7:30 pm
Hiroshima-Nagasaki remembered:

The annual lantern ceremony, marking the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan
Craigflower Park / Kosapsom
at Admiral’s Road and Gorge Road West, Saanich

Lantern making starts at 7:30 pm, with words and songs of peace at 8:00 pm, followed by floating the lanterns in the Gorge.

All welcome.
Free – (Bring a blanket &/or chair to sit on.)

Sponsored by the Victoria Raging Grannies, Victoria Peace Coalition, Physicians for Global Survival, Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society. Council of Canadians Victoria chapter

Call Rosa 250-665-7788