How should Canada deal with the new Islamic State (ISIS)?
- Send the military to the Middle East to engage in more war?
- Negotiate a non-killing peace?
Our government is about to make a decision. Here's what my co-peacemakers are doing now.
Yesterday, 6 October 2014, while our government was holding hearings about going to war again, about 40 anti-war protestors were summoned to Parliament Hill. The
Raging Grannies notified me by e-mail, so I went to participate.
See 20 photos posted online.
The protestors were from both peace and environment groups —
Project Plowshares,
Nowar Paix,
Hands off Syria & Iraq, Rojava
YPG-
YPJ (Kurds), a housing co-op, etc. I recognized about half of the people, but many faces were new to me. One fellow did not know about the
Ottawa Peace Festival which just finished.
When I got home, I found that others sent e-mails of protest. Most are reacting spontaneously as independent individuals and clusters of peacemakers.
Two days ago
Peggy Mason, President of
Rideau Institute and former Canadian Disarmament Ambassador, wrote:
Yesterday I got an article from
Paul Maillet, retired Canadian Air Force Colonel, founder of the
Center for Ethics, an
Accredited Peace Professional, and Co-Chair of the Ottawa Chapter of the
Canadian Peace Initiative. Early this morning he posted 2 articles on his blog, Awakening the Peacemaker Within:
Today
Tomas Mulcair, leader of the official Opposition in Canada's Parliament, sent this:
Tonight, Parliament will vote on Stephen Harper's desire to send Canadian soldiers to war in Iraq. However, there is no reason to believe that six months of bombing will succeed where more than ten years of occupation by the US military failed.
Watch my speech on Youtube.com to hear more about why the NDP cannot financially support this combat mission. And, help to spread my message by:
- Sharing this email with your friends and family
- Posting a link to my speech on social media
Mr. Harper has failed to answer the most basic questions on why Canada is signing-on to this war, such as:
- What are this mission's objectives and how do we define success?
- What rules of engagement are in place to avoid civilian causalities?
- How much will this mission cost?
- How many years are we willing to be embroiled in Iraq?
- How can we effectively contain ISIS without deploying substantial ground forces or expanding into Syria?
- What is our exit strategy?
- Do we have a plan to take care of our veterans after we leave Iraq?
Canada needs effective leadership. New Democrats think that we should be using every diplomatic, humanitarian and financial resource to respond to the human tragedy unfolding on the ground, and helping to strengthen the political institutions and security capabilities that Iraq and Syria need to achieve lasting peace.
Canada rushing to war is not the answer.
Today I got an update from
Paul Maillet:
I have been blitzing MPs and the PM with emails yesterday and today. I visited 4 of them including Dewar. I have been on Global TV, CTV Powerplay, and featured in CBC.
Feel free to link to your blog sites if you wish, or use whatever you wish.
In peace, Paul Maillet
Email:
pmaillet@magma.ca
Tel: 613.841.9216 Cell: 613.866.2503
More …
October 12, 2014
October 13, 2014