Dear Prime Minister Mr. Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Ms. Freeland, Dear Revenue Minister Ms. Lebouthillier, Dear Party Leaders, Dear TSP MP Ms. Bennett,

As with every taxation year for a very long time now, along with my Government Tax Return I file my Peace Tax Return. In the absence of a governmental possibility to redirect to life sustaining initiatives the taxes that go to the military and to the destruction of human and other-than-human life on earth, I have arranged my financial matters in a way that I do not contribute to these destructive expenditures. I have actually redirected all my taxable income to organizations that provide reparation for the results of the distorted government spending priorities.

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This statement is valuable in that required a lengthy debate process among board members who were in deep disagreement over the origins of the war and its resolution.
The debate can continue 🙂 For instance, it begins, “Science for Peace condemned the invasion of Ukraine last year as we have denounced all resort to force to settle political disputes around the world.” It can be convincingly argued that there are legitimate forms of “force”, as Leonard Desroches did in this powerful excerpt from his book, “Love of Enemy” https://www.consciencecanada.ca/?p=34 .

Find the Science for Peace statement here: https://www.scienceforpeace.org/post/ending-the-war-in-ukraine .

The MOVEMENT and the “MADMAN” will premiere on PBS as a special presentation of the American Experience series on Tuesday, March 28 at 9 pm / 8 pm (CT). View the film on your local PBS station (check your local listings) or streaming on PBS.org during and after the broadcast.
Check out the teaser here: https://www.movementandthemadman.com/

World Beyond War (WBW) is offering an online, self-paced course on the realationship between 2 existential threats: war and environmental catastrophe, culminating in an emphasis on “what can be done”. You can register for the course here: https://worldbeyondwar.org/war-and-the-environment-april-10-may-22-2023-online-course-registration/ .

Check the https://worldbeyondwar.org/ site to see other education & action opportunities.

Starting March 6, 2023, Science for Peace and Voice of Women for Peace will be co-hosting a three-part webinar series: ‘Nonviolence: The Tactics and Strategies of Winning Campaigns’. Each session will feature a brief, documentary film on a significant and effective nonviolent campaign. In the discussion following the film, a Facilitator, supported by a Guest Expert, will assist members of the audience in thinking through the strategic and tactical lessons for effective nonviolent action that the successful campaign suggests.

Register via scienceforpeace.org or at this link: https://tinyurl.com/2s3smewb .

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Recent McGill graduate Carley Dove-McFalls writes:”Trudeau’s government is using our tax dollars to exacerbate violence in the world and we will do everything in our power to stop this unacceptable behaviour. People are suffering; the Canadian government must stop using empty words and PR campaigns to absolve themselves from the harm they are inflicting on the entirety of the population (and particularly on Indigenous peoples) and the environment.”

Read her article in full here: https://www.scienceforpeace.org/post/min-guilbeault-there-is-no-canadian-climate-leadership-without-canceling-the-f-35-fighter-jet

Our Peace Tax Return offers a way to challenge this hypocrisy. https://www.consciencecanada.ca/?page_id=132

Conscience Canada has signed the DefendtheAtlantaForest solidarity statement & we encourage others to do likewise. (Sign here: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/solidarity/ )

On Jan. 18, forest defender Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was killed (shot 13 times by police).

As the statement explains, “The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. As the catastrophic effects of climate change hammer our communities with hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires, the stakes of this contest are clearer than ever. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare. It is up to us to create a peaceful society that does not treat human life as expendable.”

Nonviolence International https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ has very useful information on what it’s like for those resisting occupation and war in Ukraine & Russia, and what we can do to help people there build peace and justice.

This includes a report from Dec. ’22 on attitudes towards the war in Russia. It struck me that, although the situation in Russia is, in many ways, more harsh than what we face here, a key recommendation from the report applies to our situation as well as theirs:

This Valentine’s Day, make love not war

Who was Saint Valentine? Stories vary but according to one account he was a third century Roman priest. Rome at this time was ruled by the bloodthirsty Emperor Claudius II. Single men were thought to make better soldiers & only they were subject to the draft. Worrying that men would marry to avoid military service Claudius outlawed marriage. Valentine disobeyed the law & performed marriages in secret. Not only did he unite lovers but he provided war resisters with an alternative to the draft. Valentine was eventually executed for his act of defiance.

Long time CC secretary (using his “retirement” to keep working for a better world 🙂 Murray Lumley shared this statement with his MP: https://nofighterjets.ca/2022/12/30/dropthef35dealstatement/ , saying, “I agree with the statement and urge you as my MP to speak to the Liberal caucus and cancel this procurement…” Murray offered many reasons; including this: “This purchase goes completely counter to Canada’s commitments to the Paris Agreement, to keep average Earth temperature increases to 1.5C. I have read that one F-35 burns $40,000 worth of fossil fuel per hour and on afterburner uses more fuel per hour than an aircraft carrier. I know that militaries get a free pass but they shouldn’t, given that militaries are among the worst fossil fuel burners in the world, more than many nations… If we keep going in a direction counter to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, my grandchildren and your children will have no future. There are some experts who claim that if we do not change our ways in the next few years, there will be no human civilization worth the name by the end of the 21st century.”