Dwyer Sullivan, Director of Camp Micah http://www.campmicah.ca/, will be the featured speaker at this year’s Conscience Canada AGM

Dwyer, a retired science teacher and teacher of world religions and social justice, is a non-stop peace activist. He continues in coaching youth in his archdiocesan ministry and organizing social justice experiences for youth including an annual trip to The School of the Americas in Georgia. Following the Conscience Canada AGM on March 29 2:00pm he will speak and lead an interactive discussion on Training the Next Generation of Peace Activists.

Saturday, March 29, 3:30 pm

Friends House
60 Lowther Ave.
Toronto, ON
(St. George subway station, exit Bedford Rd.)

All are welcome, including to the CC business meeting preceding at 2:00 pm.

View the newsletter for more information. The Peace Tax Return for this year’s tax season is also ready at http://consciencecanada.ca/eptr/

You can help Conscience Canada by:

1) informing your elected representatives of the need for “alternate service” for the military portion of taxes of conscientious objectors to military taxation (COMT)

2) renewing your membership at http://www.consciencecanada.ca/membership/ (and thank you if you have already done so!)

3) sending in your proxy if you won’t be able to attend this year’s AGM to info@consciencecanada.ca (See below.)

*******************************************************************

I, (please print) ________________________________________, a

member in good standing of Conscience Canada, do hereby grant my proxy vote

for the March 29, 2014, Annual General Meeting of Conscience Canada to:

______________________________________ or in their absence to

any Board Member of Conscience Canada.

Signature: __________________________________________

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Doubleday, 2009. 242 pages
review by Mary Groh

The Prayer of St. Francis, “Make me a channel of your peace”, I have sung often, but I never knew that St. Francis of Assisi took his peacemaking efforts right up to a political and international level until I read this book. Paul Moses, a New York journalist, editor and professor, did a thorough piece of research to find out as much as possible about an intriguing event of the 13th century.

During the Fifth Crusade in 1219 the Crusaders aimed at capturing the city of Damietta in the Nile Delta as a start to the capture of Egypt. Francis felt called to try to avert the impending violence by meeting personally with the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamid, a nephew of Saladdin. Accompanied only by another brother, he travelled on foot and unarmed from the Crusader encampment on one side of the Nile right to the Sultan’s camp across the river and 8 miles south. The men’s peaceful demeanour disarmed the guards and they were taken to the Sultan, whom he greeted with “May the Lord give you peace.” He denied being an emissary of the Crusade leaders, and claimed he had come as a messenger of the Lord God, and asked for a hearing.

The Sultan granted Francis his request and listened respectfully as Frances preached his message.

He treated the two brothers as honoured guests for several days, and even permitted them to preach to the Muslim soldiers. Clearly, these two friars, Christian “sufis”, did not speak disrespectfully of the Muslim religious beliefs or the Koran. But if their objective was to convert the Sultan to the Christian faith they did not achieve their aim. Nor did they bring an end to hostilities. The bloody war went on, and the author places the blame squarely on the political and commercial as well as the religious motivations of the European powers. Francis distanced himself from these aims and remained a faithful disciple of Jesus, who had taught him to love his enemies, not kill them.

In his youth Francis had pursued a military career. He was involved as a Cavalry soldier in a losing battle with a neighbouring city state, saw war at its worst, and was taken prisoner. That experience started a spiritual awakening which led him eventually to embrace a life of poverty and service to others. Besides learning how Francis became a “CO”, the reader will learn much about the sorry state of Christendom in the Middle Ages, the deplorable aggression of the Crusaders against the Muslims, who certainly responded in kind. For a monk to find a way past his vow of obedience to the Pope and into the household of the enemy and proclaim there the message of God’s love for all people, is an achievement that would-be peacemakers today can be inspired by.

Indeed, peacemakers have been inspired over the centuries. The author refers to several persons who, inspired by St. Francis, have had a positive influence on Christian/Muslim relations, leading up to the Second Vatican Council statement to that effect in 1965. And in 1986 Pope John Paul II called for a World Day of Prayer for Peace to be held in Assisi. At the event he said, “St. Francis is known and revered by so many throughout the world as a symbol of peace, reconciliation and brotherhood.” And we all sing, “Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.”

Mary Groh, the president of Conscience Canada, continues to be inspired by St. Francis.

by Esther Epp-Tiessen, Public Engagement Coordinator for MCC Canada’s Ottawa Office.
Read article

by Don Woodside

On October 18, 2013, board member Don Woodside presented on Conscience Canada at a workshop at the Canadian Peace and Justice Studies Association at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo ON. The workshop was organized by Jack Payden-Travers, director of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund in Washington DC, and the third presenter was Maria Santelli, director of the Centre for Conscience and War, also in Washington. The panel was advertised as: “Conscientious Objection to War, Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds”.

Maria did a very interesting PowerPoint presentation about conscience in general, and conscience as it relates to soldiers; how they have to be specially trained to shoot to kill, for example, and how they are routinely traumatized by the experience of war and killing. My reaction to her talk was that we speak too little about conscience, what it is, how it guides us (or not), and the impact of ignoring it.

Jack talked about the national campaign in the US, its goals and recent history. He talked about the development of resistance to war as a human right. He also talked about a variety of funds into which resisted taxes can be deposited, some of which are spent, like the People’s Life Funds.

I reviewed Conscience Canada’s history and goals, and the recent shift to promotion of nonviolent conflict resolution.

Jack Payden-Travers and Don Woodside at a meeting Oct. 20 at the home of Mary Groh, president of Conscience Canada

View the 2013 Report on Conscience Canada Annual General Meeting

by Matthew Behrens

This past week has provided Canadians with a series of warm and fuzzies that, like most of this nation’s mythology, were built on self-congratulatory lies. From the breathless and ankle-deep CBC and CTV interviews with former prime minister Jean Chretien to the Globe and Mail’s front-page shout out to that most disingenuous of foreign ministers, Bill Graham, the occasion was the 10th anniversary of the 2003 escalation of the 23-year war against the people of Iraq.

read more at rabble.ca

Conscience Canada hopes some members and supporters will take the time to share their stories of conscience and nonviolence. We hope to be able to use some of them in our next newsletter, coming out in September. For more details, contact <janslakov@shaw.ca> or see our most recent newsletter, posted on this site.

One great source for such stories is a new book, Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace .

You can learn more below.->

‘Crossing the Line‘ tells stories of dedication to nonviolence, civil disobedience
John Dear S.J. http://ncronline.org/authors/john-dear-sj | Feb. 26, 2013 On the Road to Peace
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Going to prison for nonviolent civil disobedience against American war-making does wonders to clarify one’s relationship with the U.S. government. I highly recommend it. When I reflect back on my life, it seems I have been preparing for civil disobedience, facing jail or trial, or undergoing probation regularly for 30 years. I’m mainly engaged in writing, speaking and teaching peace to build up the anti-war/global peace movement, but periodic civil disobedience and nonviolent protest have become for me a way of life. Along the way, one meets the best people.
Volume two of Rosalie Riegle’s massive oral history project, Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace (Cascade Books, 2013), makes me realize I’m not alone. This massive collection of interviews with U.S. anti-war resisters (along with Doing Time for Peace, which I reviewed last month) provides an unprecedented historical record of nonviolent resistance over the last five decades and shows how many of us have quietly given our lives to resisting American war-making and practicing nonviolence.

READ MORE at this link: http://ncronline.org/node/46131/

If you send an online Peace Tax Return through this website, you will have the option of sending a letter to cabinet Ministers and others who are responsible for tax policy, including recognition of conscientious objection to military taxation.

Your letter will automatically be sent to the Ministers of Finance and Revenue, and to the Prime Minister and Opposition leaders, as well as Alex Atamanenko, the MP who is supporting conscientious objection to military taxation through his private members bill.

You can always find out who the ministers and critics are through the Parliamentary website.  We encourage you to send letters by mail if possible, as these generally carry more weight than letters sent by email.

Due to computer problems, we may have lost some messages sent to Conscience Canada in recent months.  If you have not gotten a reply, please try again to: info@consciencecanada.ca.

THANK YOU!