Mary Gordon contributed to peace by creating Roots of Empathy, which teaches empathy through regular classroom visits from a baby and parent. #Canada150

“Caring for a baby helps children find the humanity in themselves and others.”

Mary Gordon is an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created programs informed by the power of empathy.

In 1996 she created the Roots of Empathy program in Ontario. Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program that reduces levels of aggression among schoolchildren by raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. Her not for profit organization of the same name now offers programs in every province of Canada, New Zealand, the USA, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, Germany and Switzerland.

In 2006, the Dalai Lama expressed the opinion that programs like Roots of Empathy will build world peace. In 2008, Roots of Empathy was one of three winners in an international competition from Changemakers for programs that help youth at risk. Also in 2008, National Chief Phil Fontaine and the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution to support and endorse Roots of Empathy and Seeds of Empathy in First Nations schools across Canada.

Roots of Empathy is now also in classrooms in New Zealand, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Wales, England, Ireland and Scotland. Mary has received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador (2012) and an Honourary Doctor of Laws from Memorial University (2015). Her brother is journalist, Gwynne Dyer.

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Dan Heap contributed to peace by tirelessly campaigning for social justice, against war, poverty and homelessness.#Canada150

Mr. Heap began his career as an Anglican minister but chose to forgo church ministry and align himself with the Worker-Priest movement. He first ran for Toronto City Council in 1972, winning several elections, and then ran federally for the NDP. He represented his Toronto riding for 12 years. After his retirement, he continued his work as an activist.

A co-founder of Homes Not Hostels and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, Heap was arrested in 2000 with two others attempting an act of conscience: removing the sword from the cross outside St. Paul’s Anglican Church, to push the Church to oppose unjust wars.

“I knew Dan for 30 years and was always impressed with his ability to slice through BS. Whether as an MP advocating for refugee rights, a fellow arrestee blockading Bay Street or pouring blood on the steps of the legislature to protest Jim Flaherty’s killer cuts under the Harris regime, he was always searching for new ways to transform our social institutions. Both he and his wife, Alice, never failed to listen to those far younger and less experienced than they. It only came up accidentally in conversation once that Dan had joined marchers responding to Dr. King’s call to go to Selma in 1965. In our last conversation, he said Canada would never be a worthy nation if it did not deal honestly with its ongoing colonial crimes against First Nations. He was a real truth-seeker.”        -Matthew Behrens, Homes Not Bombs

When he died in 2014 his son posted a message describing him as a “Pacifist, socialist, worker-priest, marxist Anglican, trade-unionist, city councillor, member of parliament, civilly disobedient marcher for human rights. Wearer of red shirts, cyclist, paddler of canoes, singer of songs.”

Editor’s Bonus Material: This personal tribute to Dan Heap, as shared by Ellie Kirzner for NOW Toronto, really captures the feel and greater context of what it was like to work with him over many of those years.

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Mary Two Axe Early contributed to peace by campaigning for equal rights for Indigenous women.  #Canada150

“Indian women and men should enjoy the same rights and privileges in matters of marriage and property as Canadians.”

Mary Two Axe Early, a Mohawk from Kahnawake, worked tirelessly to overturn terms in the Indian Act that discriminated on the basis of sex.

When she married a non-status man, Mary lost her own status under the Indian Act.  She could no longer live on the reserve, own land there, take part in political life, vote or be buried on the land where she was born. In contrast, men who married non-status women were permitted to keep their full status and pass it on to their children.

Early insisted that “Indian women and men should enjoy the same rights and privileges in matters of marriage and property as Canadians” and established the Equal Rights for Native Women association in 1967 to work for gender equality. In 1971, it contributed to forming a national organization, The Indian Rights for Indian Women association. (Later, 13 of these and similar groups would aggregate to form the Native Women’s Association of Canada, which is going strong and campaigning on similar issues today.)

The changes she demanded were put into place 20 years later in 1985 when parliament passed Bill C-31. This bill brought the Indian Act into accord with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Thousands of First Nations women who had married non-status or non-Native persons had their status and membership rights restored. Mary was the first to have her status reinstated.

In recognition of this achievement, Early was awarded a Governor General’s Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Law from York University, and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.

Mary is, of course, just one of many Indigenous women who have done incredible work for equality in recent history. For further reading, we suggest this timeline of Indigenous Women’s Rights in Canada on the RiseUp Feminist Archive.

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Sheila Watt-Cloutier contributed to peace as an advocate for the environmental and human rights of Inuit around the globe.#Canada150

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an environmental and human rights activist and author. She speaks with passion and urgency on the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability—not as separate concerns, but as a deeply interconnected whole.

In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in showing the impact global climate change has on human rights. She is a recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award, the UN Champion of the Earth Award, and the Norwegian Sophie Prize. She is also an Officer of the Order of Canada.

She has been a political representative for Inuit at the regional, national and international levels including as International Chair for Inuit Circumpolar Council. She wrote The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet, published in 2015 about the effects of global warming on Inuit communities. The book was nominated for the 2016 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

“For the first time in history, my community has had to use air conditioners. Imagine that, air conditioners in the Arctic.”

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Peter Gzowski contributed to peace as a journalist, connecting Canadians to each other with his characteristic curiosity and warmth in his interviews.#Canada150

Peter John Gzowski (d. January 24, 2002) was a Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter, most famous for his work on the CBC radio shows This Country in the Morning and then Morningside. His first regular radio show was Radio Free Friday, 1969–1970. Known to some as “Canada’s best listener”, his contributions to Canadian media were considered by many to deeply understand and express Canada’s cultural identity.  Gzowski wrote books, hosted television shows, and worked at a number of newspapers and at Maclean’s magazine. He was known for a friendly and warm interviewing style.

In 1971 he became host of radio the CBC’s This Country in the Morning and from 1976 to 1978 host of television show 90 Minutes Live . In 1982 he returned to his former morning radio program, which had by now been renamed Morningside, where he remained until 1997. In 1986, Gzowski held the first fundraising golf tournament for literacy, a cause that was very important to him. That tournament has evolved and is now held in every province and territory of Canada and has raised more than $13-million for volunteer-based literacy programs.

His contributions to peace, in way, may best be expressed by the many CBC listeners who shared their feelings about his work after his passing:

“It has been said that there is no one in this world who is irreplaceable. Perhaps. But, I know the genuineness, warmth, and empathy of Peter Gzowski as a broadcaster and interviewer, will not come our way again.” – Lorraine Cantile, Ottawa

“He allowed people to bring the heart and soul of their community to other Canadians. He made me doubt the apathy of Canadians.He cajoled us into learning and caring about each other. He is the thread that bound the pieces of this crazy quilt we call Canada together.His curiosity about us was infectious. A true example of how all of us could be better Canadians. It starts with just listening..warm-hearted honest listening. Thanks Peter …for making me a better Canadian.” – Heather Morrison, Halifax

“It takes a special, incredible man to teach his listeners so much, to unite his listeners, and to inspire his listeners. I always thought that he had the best job in the country, to have the opportunity to meet and get to know some many people, so many Canadians. He was clearly a very intelligent individual, able to converse with a wide variety of people and on a wide variety of topics, and yet make every topic accessible to the listener. He was so gentle and comforting. I will never forget his voice.” – Catherine Nicol

Bonus content: Listen to this archived CBC interview with Vicki Gaboreau in which Peter recollects what he calls his “most uncomfortable interviews”.

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“The best defence of peace is not power, but the removal of the causes of war, and international agreements which will put peace on a stronger foundation, than the terror of destruction.”

Lester B. Pearson contributed to peace by laying the conceptual framework for UN Peacekeeping during the Suez Crisis. #Canada150

The 1956 Suez Crisis was a military and political confrontation in Egypt that threatened to divide the United States and Great Britain, potentially harming the Western military alliance that had won the Second World War. Lester B. Pearson, who later became prime minister of Canada, won a Nobel Peace Prize for using the world’s first, large-scale United Nations peacekeeping force to de-escalate the situation. – Canadian Encyclopedia

Pearson was Canada’s foremost diplomat of the 1950s and 1960s, and formulated its basic post-WW-11 foreign policy. A skilled politician, he rebuilt the Liberal Party, and as prime minister strove to maintain Canada’s national unity. Under his leadership, the government implemented the Canada Pension Plan, a universal Medicare system, and a new flag.

As a solution to the Suez Crisis he proposed the establishment of The United Nations Emergency Force. He is considered to be the father of the concept of international peacekeeping.  He was awarded the the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his role in resolving this crisis.

“The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.”

Some in Canada and Britain objected to his perceived lack of support for Britain. In the 1957 Canadian election, he and the Liberal party of the day faced accusations that they had betrayed Britain — still regarded by many Canadians as the Mother Country. Pearson defended his position as the best way to stop the fighting before it spread. The veracity of the criticism they received is thought to have played a part in the Liberal government’s defeat in the following national election.

His work became the basis of U.N. peacekeeping around the world.

“It would be especially tragic if the people who most cherish ideals of peace, who are most anxious for political cooperation on a wider than national scale, make the mistake of underestimating the pace of economic change in our modern world.”

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Dedicated to the many who contributed to peace by resisting slavery and arguing for anti-slavery legislation.

Abolitionism soon made its way to British North America in the late 18th century, where a number of legal challenges were made against the institution of slavery. By the early 1800s, Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had attempted to abolish slavery but failed. Bills were introduced in Lower Canada in 1793 and in 1801, but neither bill was passed. During those same years, bills to legalize enslavement were presented in New Brunswick (1801) and Nova Scotia (1808), but they were met with opposition and were not passed. Many were involved in these legal battles and while we cannot mention them all here, here are a few notables:

Chloe Cooley, regularly struggled against her “owner,” Sergeant Adam Vrooman. She protested her enslavement by behaving in “an unruly manner,” stealing property entrusted to her on Sergeant Vrooman’s behalf, refusing to work and leaving the property without permission. As rumours of coming abolition reached Vrooman, he and many other slave owners tried to sell their slaves in New York state. On March 14, 1793 Chloe was bound and thrown in a boat to be taken across the river and sold in the United States. She resisted fiercely; Peter Martin, a free Black man, noticed her screams and struggles and brought a witness, William Grisley, to report the incident to Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. The legal battles surrounding incidents like these precipitated the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada in 1793.

Those who have been enslaved may henceforth look forward with certainty to the emancipation of their offspring.” – John Graves Simcoe

Simcoe is seen by many in Southern Ontario—as a founding figure in Canadian history for his role in the building of Upper Canada and in opposing slavery. In 1793, Simcoe and Attorney General John White introduced a bill to end slavery in that colony. However, it met strong opposition, since many of the members of both houses of the legislature enslaved Black people or were from slaveholding families. The amended compromise was the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada, the first piece of legislation passed in the British colonies to limit slavery which did not abolish the practice nor emancipate a single enslaved person. Instead, importing enslaved people became illegal, and a time frame was set in place to gradually phase out slaveholding.

Between 1791 and 1808, enslavement was challenged by Nova Scotia’s Chief Justice Thomas Strange and his successor Sampson Blowers. When slave owners came before them seeking to reclaim enslaved people who had fled their bond, the judges put the burden of proof on the slave owners, asking them to prove ownership of the enslaved person and to prove that they had the legal right to purchase that person. Owners who appeared before these judges were usually unable to satisfy the court in that regard. Among other factors, the strong opposition of the courts, along with the slave owners’ inability to defend existing slavery laws, contributed to slavery gradually dying out.

Proper anti-slavery legislation, the Slavery Abolition Act, was passed by the British Parliament and received Royal Assent on Aug. 28, 1833, and came into effect throughout the British Empire on August 1st, 1834. The Act made enslavement officially illegal in every province and freed the last remaining enslaved people in Canada. August 1st is celebrated across many former British Colonies, and in Ontario, as Emancipation Day.

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Ernie Regehr contributed to peace by studying war and peace since the 1960s, and, in 1976, founding, with Murray Thompson, Project Ploughshares, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario. Regehr served as its Executive Director for thirty years.

Project Ploughshares is an operating division of the Canadian Council of Churches that works with churches, government and civil society to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence. Regehr has been a Canadian NGO representative and expert advisor at numerous international disarmament forums including UN Conferences on Small Arms.

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Waterloo in 1968, Regehr worked in journalism and for a Member of Parliament, during which time he wrote his first book Making a Killing: Canada’s Arms Industry.

Regehr and his wife Nancy then served with the Mennonite Central Committee in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana from 1974-1976 before returning to Canada.

He has served as an NGO representative and expert advisor on a number of Government of Canada delegations to multilateral disarmament forums. He is a former Commissioner of the World Council of Churches Commission on International Affairs

Errnie’s peace and disarmament work, both written and spoken as well as action, has been honoured with many awards: He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003, and in January 2011 he became the 26th laureate of the Pearson Peace Medal.   Regehr was also a recipient of the University of Waterloo 50th Anniversary Alumni Award and the Arthur Kroeger College Award for Ethics in Public Affairs in 2008.

On receiving a honourary Doctor of Laws degree from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in 1990, Regehr said:

“One initiative that particularly pleases me is the work on international arms trade controls. When I began writing on the arms trade and trying to engage federal officials on the issue back in 1975, one kindly, senior gentleman in the Department of Foreign Affairs, suggested that I should stop bothering him and go and find something useful to do with my life. Canada has now signed the newly-minted Arms Trade Treaty – it took a long time and involved many people and organizations, and it was a privilege to be a part of it,”

Regehr is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ontario) and The Simons Foundation (Vancouver, BC).   He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Africa Peace Forum in Kenya.

When asked to endorse the UN Secretary General’s call for a nuclear weapons convention, Ernie stated, “The world’s primary strategy for avoiding nuclear war has to date been to rely on luck.  These accomplished supporters (800 Order of Canada recipients) of nuclear abolition know that we desperately need a change in strategy.”

“Peace cannot be won on the battlefield.”

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Father Bob Ogle (1929 – 1998) contributed to peace by seeking to uncover the injustices of our world and doing something about them.

Father Bob Ogle was a prominent figure in Saskatchewan. He was born and raised in a devout Catholic family on a poor farm in Rosetown, SK during the Great Depression.  Bob was educated at St. Peter’s Seminary in Ontario, and ordained in 1953.

He served as an energetic parish priest in Saskatoon, SK until 1964, when he went on a mission to Brazil. There, Bob engaged in pastoral work, organized literary activities, farming cooperatives and health centres.  He wanted to make a difference.  In 1969 he coordinated a relief operation and housing building program following the disastrous floods in the area.

When he returned to Canada he was restless so he traveled the world investigating international development programs.  He wrote a book about it called When the Snake Bites the Sun.

Although he had never belonged to a political party in 1970 and in 1977 he was asked to run for Parliament for the New Democratic Party in Saskatoon East. He campaigned on his bicycle and was elected in 1979, and served until 1984 when he received notice from the Vatican that he could not run again.

In the ensuing  years in spite of ill health he wrote three books, initiated a project called Broadcasting for International Understanding, and hosted a retreat series on television. He always had at least one Project Roberto to keep him (and his friends) going, and he never completely lost his sense of humour. He held a doctorate in canon law and was awarded the Saskatchewan Award of merit. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for “his tireless efforts to foster Canada’s understanding of her role in global progress”.

Ogle had wrestled with many issues and situations, from the decision to run for the party to the daily wrestling with suffering and inequality in the world. Like Jacob, of the Jewish Scriptures, Ogle carried the injury from the struggle for the rest of his life.

Former MP. Rev. Bill Blaikie told of his experiences with Ogle — both funny and poignant — to illustrate a larger point about morality and the need to connect the conflicts and inequalities they saw in the world to their Christian duty to do something about it. One particularly striking story was how, on Christmas Eve 1973, Rev. Ben Smillie, a United Church minister, entreated Ogle to speak in his Christmas Day homily about the bombing of Hanoi, which was ongoing. Ogle did so.  Imagine, on Christmas!  No day is too sacred for the truth.

Ogle passed away in 1998 after a long battle with cancer.

At his funeral, Saskatchewan Premier, Roy Romanow, said, “He was truly a citizen of the world.  He was a man who lived the word of God – a man of peace and caring and compassion.  I’ve tried to emulate him as much as I could.”

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Stephen Lewis contributes to peace by being an early climate change activist and with his advocacy for those affected by HIV/Aids. #Canada150

A politician, broadcaster and diplomat, he is best known for having served as Canada’s United Nations Ambassador and as the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He established The Stephen Lewis Foundation to help people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and Aids-Free World, a non-profit organization the advocates for more effective global responses to HIV and AIDS.

He has consistently spoken out about the promises of western countries to address AIDS, poverty, and education in Africa which have not been kept. In 1988, Stephen Lewis chaired the first international conference on Climate Change, which drafted the first comprehensive policy on global warming.  Almost three decades have passed since the political leaders, ambassadors, scientists, and environmental activists joined Mr. Lewis in declaring what remains one of the best, though starkest, pronouncements about global warming:

“Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences could be second only to a global nuclear war.”

Since 2003, the foundation has funded over 1,400 initiatives, with the support of over 300 community-based organizations in the 15 African countries hardest hit by the global AIDS epidemic.

“These grassroots groups are the lifeline for their communities: they provide counselling and education about HIV prevention, care and treatment; distribute food, medication and other necessities; reach the sick and vulnerable through home-based health care; help orphans and vulnerable children access education and work through their grief; and support grandmothers caring for their orphaned grandchildren.”

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