This just in from the Basel Peace Office!

You are invited to participate in an exciting action: Count the Nuclear Weapons Money.

One trillion dollars is being allocated over the next ten years to modernize the nuclear arsenals of nine countries.The corporations making these weapons lobby for increased spending on nuclear weapons, stimulating the nuclear arms race and increasing the risk of a nuclear war.

Count the Nuclear Weapons Money will demonstrate the scale of this investment, and how it could instead be devoted to peace and humanitarian needs. While governments meet at the United Nations in New York for the first ever United Nations High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, we will be outside the UN counting one million specially designed notes each of $1 million value, adding up to $1 trillion.

Between May 10-16 we will count money ($100 million per minute, $6 billion per hour, $146 billion per day for seven days). While counting we will highlight economic, social and environmental areas in which this money could instead be invested.

We have parliamentarians, civil society leaders, artists, sports stars, musicians, activists, religious leaders, youth, war veterans and others signed up to count the money for 20-30 minutes each. Click here to sign-up as a money counter.

This action is part of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons budgets, divest from nuclear weapons corporations and move the money to meet areas of human need, such as ending poverty, protecting the climate, supporting renewable energy, creating jobs, and providing adequate healthcare, housing and education for all.

The campaign was launched in October 2016 by the International Peace Bureau, World Future Council and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Conscious Canada supports this campaign along with many other organisations and networks working in cooperation with the Global Campaign on Military Spending.

Conscience Canada has recently become a member of the International Peace Bureau.

The IPB is dedicated to a vision of the world without war. For more than 125 years the IPB has worked on a wide range of peace promotion topics, including nuclear weapons, the arms trade and other aspects of disarmament; peace education and creating a culture of peace; women and peacemaking; peace history; as well as related themes such as international law and human rights.

Conscience Canada shares IBP’s vision and its belief that by reducing funding for the military, significant amounts of money can be released for social projects, domestically or abroad, which can lead to the fulfillment of real human needs and the protection of the environment.

More information about the International Peace Bureau can be found on the IBP website. The IPB newsletters are there along with info on other publications, activities, and their Youth Network.

The Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS) is an international campaign promoted by the International Peace Bureau. The Global Days of Action (GDAMS) it organizes is an annual occurrence. The aim is to reduce the global military spending thanks to cooperative work with civil society groups.

The GCOMS 2018 campaign has started. This year, the IPB Global Day(s) of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) includes the period from April 14 to May 3rd, 2018, under this slogan:

Reducing 10% of military assets will help save our planet. Take action!

Take part in the GDAMS Selfie Campaign 2018

The 2017 Peace Tax Return is now online, as well as the Spring, 2018 newsletter.

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CONSCIENCE CANADA 2018 Annual General Meeting
(AGM Official Notice)
Date and Time: Saturday, April 7, 2018, 2:00 p.m.
Place: Rm. 2202, Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, ON

2:00 BUSINESS MEETING
Agenda
1. Approval of the minutes of the 2017 AGM (available upon request)
2. Review of the work done by CC during 2017 and a look ahead (members’ participation invited)
3. Confirmation of board members standing for re-election: David Bechtel, Charlie Diamond, Doug Hewitt-White, Mary Groh, Murray Lumley, Jan Slakov, Dwyer Sullivan, Eric Unger
4. Election of new board member(s)
5. Presentation and Approval of the 2017 financial statements (available upon request)
6. Appointment of auditors for 2018

BREAK

3:30 pm – Tamara Lorincz on “The Climate Costs of Canada’s New Defence Policy” – Tamara is a peace researcher & activist extraordinaire, currently doing a PhD in Global Governance

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Tamara Lorincz marking Conscientious Objector Day, May 15, 2015

Thanks to Ernie & Charlotte Wiens for sharing their peace tax letter with us, below. May it inspire many others to act on the leadings of their conscience.

Dear Prime Minister,

There are many Canadians who simply believe it is wrong to kill another human being for any reason. During World War ll some 10,000 Canadians chose to be conscientious objectors and refused to take up arms in order to kill. Some would say one should be willing to defend one’s country. This may sound noble but in reality if you go to war you aim to kill before you are killed.The problem, as you know, is that if everyone operates from this premise you end up with what we have today- militaries in almost every country on the planet, including our own, spending precious human,environmental and financial resources preparing to kill. Particularly abhorrent is the fact that even our own country produces military vehicles and equipment which are sold around the world to help other nations kill in the name of their country. It is not unlikely that these weapons could be used to wreak havoc on the country from which they originate.

No one said it better than former President Dwight D. Eisenhower:

“Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in a final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children…This is not the way of life at all in any true sense…”

We long for a leader to speak and to act like this while in office. Mr. Trudeau, you yourself reportedly said that if you were not an MP you would consider participating in Non-Violent Peace Force. This is noble indeed. We write to request another option in keeping with your desire for peace. Maybe you are an MP and Prime Minister precisely for this option.

Use your conviction and influence and government to establish a Legal Peace Tax Fund so that Canadians like us can legally divert the military portion of our taxes to work for peace rather than preparing for war. If you would do so Canadians could choose this option and Canada would begin to show the rest of the world that we are serious about peace. Our children, our grandchildren and the children of the world will be in a better place.

Motivated by a vision for a peaceful Canada, motivated by our conscience and faith, and desiring a better world for all children we have diverted the military portion of our taxes to Conscience Canada’s Peace Tax Fund for the past ten years. We have annually informed your office, the CRA, our MP and other government leaders of our actions and our reasons for doing so. All to no avail. We continue to be pursued by the CRA for tax dollars we have already paid. Do you support this action in light of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Our country has allowed for conscientious objection for over 200 years. Is this no longer an option at a time where technological warfare requires dollars more than bodies to fill boots and carry guns?

We anticipate a reply. Please consider our request seriously. And please, not just another form letter.

As we continue to pray for our leaders and the healing of all nations,

Sincerely,

Ernie and Charlotte Wiens
R0G 0A1

Please read the Fall 2017 Newsletter to learn about how you can help global efforts towards nuclear abolition and to meet our new president, Doug Hewitt-White.

Peace groups across the country and around the world are rallying to support the recent UN Nuclear Prohibition Treaty. If you can participate in a “citizen signing” of the Treaty (events listed on the http://www.ceasefire.ca website) or write letters that would be wonderful!

Conscience Canada supports the campaign to prevent Canada from increasing its military spending. President Trump wants Canada to double its expenditures to 2% of GDP, which would mean doubling our spending from about $19 billion per year to about $40 billion per year!

Please sign the petition here: https://www.no2percent.ca

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with President Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 13, 2017. Kevin Lamarque—Reuters