The MCC (Canadian Mennonite Central Committee) has a new issue of its journal, Intersections, available on the theme of conscientious objection. It’s a great resource, with information on the situation in various countries and stories of various COs, including one from our president, Mary Groh, on The Making of a COMT (conscientious objector to military taxation).
Check it out HERE
Quebec Conscience Canada members Maryse Azzaria and Dominique Boisvert drafted letters to all MPs who voted against the combat mission against ISIS. Below is a sample letter. So far two Quebec NDP MPs, Raymond Côté and Djaouida Sellah, have replied expressing interest.
October 8, 2014
Dear Elizabeth May,
Your vote against Canada going to war is comforting. We are grateful that you have seen through the military policies of Prime Minister Harper. The planned bombing will result in civilian deaths and environmental devastation. Moreover, bombing does not stop terrorism, it makes it flourish.
November 11 is near. You will soon be invited to wear a Red Poppy to honour soldiers who died at war. This tradition began after World War I. However, another tradition was launched in England in 1933, and since 1998 is growing in Canada: to wear a White Poppy to honour ALL victims of war, civilian and military. In modern wars, military deaths are estimated at 5%, while 95% of casualties are civilian, mostly women and children. The White Poppy also challenges the drive to war, and calls for peaceful conflict resolution. This is in line with Canadian values and traditions.
Your vote is an important gesture. As a concrete and visible way of continuing to say NO to this war, may we suggest, that you either refrain from wearing a Red Poppy this year, or that you wear a White Poppy, beside the Red Poppy. This would emphasize your protest against the CF18 bombing and other military actions. By wearing a White Poppy, you will also be mourning all the victims of this unjustified war.
Maryse Azzaria, Ste-Julienne, QC
Dominique Boivert, Scotstown, QC
Mary Groh, Scarborough, ON
Murray Lumley, Toronto, ON
Jan Slakov, Salt Spring Island, BC
Dr Dwyer Sullivan, Kitchener, ON
Eric Unger, Winnipeg, MB
Donald Woodside, M.D., Dundas. ON
Nos impôts pour la paix / Conscience Canada
135 Deer Park Rd. Salt Spring Is. BC V8K 1P5
To order a WHite Poppy:
Tel.: (250) 537-5251
e-mail janslakov@shaw.ca
Have you been wondering what our response should be to the rise of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)?
Through the Project Ploughshares “peace list” and a discussion among current and former Conscience Canada board members and friends, Jan Slakov collected some articles and insights, below:
This letter to Barak Obama proposes constructive, nonviolent alternatives to a militarized response:
http://fr.scribd.com/doc/238003591/Letter-to-President-Barack-Obama-on-alternatives-to-U-S-military-action-in-Iraq. (Links to other articles, including party leaders’ statements on the Oct. 3 debate in the House, are below.)
Here is what peace activist, WILPF member Jillian Skeet, wrote:
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I realize that this letter may come across as a little harsh. If it does, please consider its message and recognize that the tone reflects an anger and disappointment with the American judicial system that is extremely difficult to put into words. It is sent respectfully, in the hope that you, at least, will exercise whatever authority and integrity you possess to get American justice back on the rails.
I recently learned that Mary Anne Grady Flores was sentenced to a year in prison. If you’re unfamiliar with the reason(s), it would be very appropriate for you to find out.
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Dear Minister Oliver:
Thank you for your reply (on paper) to my letter to you of April 30, 2014 in which I asked your government to support a bill similar to Private Member’s Bill C-363 (2011), an Act respecting Conscientious Objection to the use of taxes for military purposes, which would allow me to direct that all my taxes be spent only for peaceful purposes.
In your letter you said, in part, “Allowing taxpayers to direct their tax dollars to only certain programs and services would be neither democratic nor practical. It would effectively mean, for instance, that wealthier Canadians who pay higher taxes would have a greater say in the functioning of the country, through their decisions about which programs and services to fund (or not to fund) … Allowing each taxpayer to allocate his or her taxes among the many government programs and services would be tremendously complicated, and would make funding for ongoing government services less reliable, making it more difficult to plan and deliver those services effectively.”
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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.
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by Esther Epp-Tiessen, Public Engagement Coordinator for MCC Canada’s Ottawa Office.
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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.
I was born and raised in a Swiss community in the United States that was settled in the early 1800s by mainly European Ana-baptists and my parents were members of the local Mennonite Church. Living in the United States at that time meant that as an 18 year old boy I had to register with the American military so that I could be conscripted into service whenever needed. As I look back now, that is a young age to make such a life-changing decision. But, that is the way it was in the 1960s. I talked about it with my parents, of course, and they helped me understand my options.
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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.
