Pierre Allard contributed to peace by building capacity for victims and offenders heal through restorative justice.#Canada150

Pierre Allard has had a long career in chaplaincy with Correctional Services of Canada. For over a quarter of a century, Rev. Allard has been engaged in the spiritual sustenance of prisoners. His work has placed him at the forefront of the new restorative justice movement, which brings together communities, offenders, and victims of crime to discuss the effects of criminal acts on the community.

A favourite Allard story flows from the birth of their first daughter, Sophia. Shortly after she was born, he and Judith took her to the prison one Sunday for a chapel service. At the service, 50 inmates gathered in a circle, where Judith handed off Sophia to the inmate standing beside her. Then, slowly, the baby was passed from hand to hand, around the dewy-eyed circle. When she was returned to her parents, the chaplain talked to the men about new life and a new start, suggesting that it was available to everyone, even those who are incarcerated.

That event, and the 1980 murder of his brother, Andre, helped to shape his strong belief in restorative justice — the concept that stresses restoration of relationships between offender and victim. He is also a strong supporter of “circles of support and accountability.” This is a program especially applicable to sexual offenders who have completed their sentences. Circles of volunteers, often church-based, figuratively surround the offender, providing social and physical blockages to re-offending. Dr. Allard says the program, about a decade old, is over 90 per cent successful so far.

Pierre is the president of Just Equipping. Just Equipping is a Canadian Registered Charity committed to equipping people in the area of restorative justice. Since 2006, a number of training missions have taken place in Africa: Rwanda, Burundi, RD Congo and Cameroon. Just Equipping can play a crucial role in the reintegration of offenders, the rebuilding of communities, the comfort of victims and the future of corrections and chaplaincy in these countries.

Pierre is also an ambassador for Centre de Services de Justice Réparatrice, or Centre for Services in Restorative Justice. You can learn more about their work on their website.

Bonus Video: Here is Pierre, in his own words, telling the story of his path towards restorative justice.

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Buffy Sainte-Marie contributes to peace through her artistic and educational activities, advocating for human rights and against war.#Canada150

In 1997 she founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.

Sainte-Marie has claimed that at one time she had been blacklisted by American radio stations and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s.

In a 1999 interview, Sainte-Marie said, “I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music. … In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked.”  In 2015, Sainte-Marie released the album Power in the Blood on True North Records. She had a television appearance on May 22, 2015 with Democracy Now! to discuss the record and her musical and activist career. On September 21, 2015, Power in the Blood was named the winner of the 2015 Polaris Music Prize

Most recently, Buffy Sainte-Marie took to the studio with Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq for a Polaris Collaboration Session. A studio performance video of “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” is available for viewing on the Polaris Music Prize YouTube channel. An interview with Buffy and Tanya discussing the collaboration on the latest episode of the Polaris Podcast.

Innocence Canada contributes to peace by working to exonerate those convicted of crimes they did not commit. #Canada150

The Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, now known as Innocence Canada, was founded in 1993 as a successor organization of the Justice for Guy Paul Morin Committee.  The group has secured the exoneration of twenty wrongfully convicted persons.

The organization works to identify and advocate for the wrongfully convicted and to prevent wrongful convictions through legal education and reform. The majority of  legal work is done by lawyers for free. The organization estimates that, annually, lawyers across the country donate $3.5 million in pro-bono work.

2016 was a challenging year and, for the first time, they were temporarily unable to accept new cases for a few months. We are happy to hear they are now back on track accepting new applicants! You can view a full list of those who have been exonerated as a result of Innocence Canada’s work on their website.

“Without Innocence Canada, I would not have had my name cleared.  Innocence Canada is an essential organization that not only provided hope, freedom and emotional support to me and my family but to countless other people convicted of crimes they did not commit.   As long as Innocence Canada exists, there is reassurance that the Charter Rights of Canadian people will not be overlooked.”

Maria Shepherd, who was acquitted on February 29, 2016

Deborah Ellis contributed to peace as an author, peace activist, advocate and supporter of the disenfranchised. #Canada150

Deborah Ellis is an award-winning author, a feminist and a peace activist. Deborah penned the international bestseller The Breadwinner, as well as many challenging and beautiful works of fiction and non-fiction about children all over the world. Her most recent book is The Cat At The Wall, the story of a little cat who sneaks into a small Palestinian house on the West Bank. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.

Deb has more than twenty books to her credit. She has won the Governor General’s Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the University of California’s Middle East Book Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. She has received the Ontario Library Association’s President’s Award for Exceptional Achievement, and she has been named to the Order of Ontario. Deborah is a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised. She donates much of her royalty income to worthy causes — Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Street Kids International, the Children in Crisis Fund of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) and UNICEF. She has donated more than one million dollars in royalties from her Breadwinner books alone.

You can take a look at all of Deb’s published titles on her website.

“We create the world we want to see.”

The CBC/Radio Canada and NFB contribute to peace through the fostering of national unity through informative programming.#Canada150

According to the 1991 Broadcasting Act, the mandate of the CBC is to:

• be predominantly and distinctively Canadian,
• reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,
• actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression,
• be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities,
• strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,
• contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,
• be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and
• reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada.

The National Film Board of Canada (or simply National Film Board or NFB) (French: Office national du film du Canada, or ONF) is Canada’s twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has English-language and French-language production branches.

Tommy Douglas contributed to peace by establishing universal health care in the Province of Saskatchewan. #Canada150

Thomas Clement (“Tommy”) Douglas, premier of Saskatchewan, first leader of the New Democratic Party, Baptist minister, politician (born 20 October 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland; died 24 February 1986 in Ottawa, ON). Douglas led the first socialist government elected in Canada and is recognized as the father of socialized medicine. He also helped establish democratic socialism in the mainstream of Canadian politics.

His family immigrated to Canada and settled in 1919 in Winnipeg. Douglas witnessed the Winnipeg General Strike of that year. Leaving school at the age of 14, Douglas began a printer’s apprenticeship. He became involved in church work and in 1924 decided to enter the ministry. He was at Brandon College for six years, and it was here that he was exposed to and embraced the Social Gospel a belief that Christianity was above all a social religion, concerned as much with improving this world as with the life hereafter.

His government established the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, not only protecting persons’ fundamental freedoms and equality rights from government actors but from private institutions and persons.

Though Douglas did not realize his dream of a socialist Canada, he and his colleagues had considerable influence on government. Programs such as Medicare, a Canada-wide pension plan, and bargaining rights for civil servants were first advocated by Douglas and his party, and are now widely accepted in Canada.

“We are all in this world together, and the only test of our character

that matters is how we look after the least fortunate among us.”

Mobeenuddin Hassan Khaja contributed to peace by fostering understanding between faiths through inter-religious dialogue. #Canada150

Mobeenuddin Hassan Khaja of Gatineau, Quebec, was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2011 for his contributions to promoting peace and cross-cultural understanding between Muslims and other religious and ethnic groups.  He founded the Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada (APMC) and the New Canada Movement.

APMC was founded in May 1998 by Mobeen Khaja, his vision was to have an organization with the objective of projecting a positive image about Muslims and promoting core Islamic values of peace, justice, respect, understanding and equality. The organization’s work has appealed to people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The Association’s mandate is to build bridges of understanding among communities and faith groups, and to serve the social, cultural and educational needs of the Muslim Community of Canada.   It does so by organizing various events and undertaking projects to raise awareness and encourage dialogue and interaction.

Want to learn more about Mobeenuddin and his work? Visit the websites for New Canada Movement and The Association of Progressive Muslims.

Cindy Blackstock contributes to peace by fighting discrimination against First Nations children in the Child Welfare System. #Canada150

Cindy Blackstock is a member of the Gitksan Nation who has worked in the field of child and family services for over twenty years. She began on the front lines as a social worker for provincial and First Nations family service agencies in British Columbia.

Ms. Blackstock filed a human rights complaint against the federal government in 2007.  On January 28, 2016 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government’s longstanding underfunding of child and family services on First Nations reserves is a form of racial discrimination.  This occurred despite the opposition of the government to the claim all along the process.  She had been under surveillance by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs since the launching of the claim. During this time under the spotlight, she became known for her passionate speeches on the subject of equality for First Nations. In this video, she makes the case against a strategy known as “incremental equality“.

Cindy is currently serving as executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. This national organization supports First Nations child and family service agencies and regional organizations by providing research, professional development, and networking services.

Want to do your part to help make a difference for First Nations Children and Youth? Cindy offers seven free ways you can help.

Christian Peacemaker Teams contribute to peace by challenging violence in the world through personal witness in conflict zones.#Canada150

CPT has roots among Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren and the Quakers. They place teams at the invitation of local peacemaking communities that are confronting situations of lethal conflict. They have been involved with about 20 countries, cities and other communities around the world.

Teams believe that they can lower the levels of violence through nonviolent direct action, human rights documentation, and nonviolence training. CPT sums their work up as “…committed to reducing violence by getting in the way “. CPT has a full-time corps of over 30 activists who currently work in Colombia, Iraq, the West Bank, Chiapas, Mexico, and Kenora, Ontario, Canada. These teams are supported by over 150 reservists who spend two weeks to two months a year on location.

“Unless we . . . are ready to start to die by the thousands in dramatic vigorous new exploits for peace and justice, we should sadly confess that we never really meant what we said, and we dare never whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands filled with injustice. Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, we should confess that we never really meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword . . .”                             – Ron Sider