Dwyer Sullivan contributes to peace as an educator and advocate for an end to military spending on war. #Canada150

Dwyer Sullivan spent most of his career working in Ontario’s Catholic school system, teaching high school science, world religions, world issues, and social justice. He created and coordinated many out-of-the-classroom social justice experiences for teenagers, including The Dominican Republic Experience, The School of Americas Trip, visits to Catholic Worker houses, the Walk Against Male Violence, involvement with the One World Global Education Projects, and a weeklong summer camp: Leadership for Peace and Justice.

He is also an active member of Conscience Canada which wants Canadians to have the right to divert their federal tax payments away from military purposes. Conscience Canada says that to promote peace we must stop paying for war.

Want to learn more? Here is a 11 minutes video introducing Conscience Canada and the Peace Tax Return:

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Madeleine Parent contributed to peace as a union organizer and pacifist who fought for social justice in Quebec and Canada. #Canada150

Madeleine Parent (1918 – 2012) was active in the student movement while at university in the 1930s. She joined the labour movement on graduation and helped to organize a union to fight the exploitation of women workers, some as young as 14, in the textile industry. She continued to seek social justice throughout her life, and contributed to the founding of the Confederation of Canadian Unions and the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

Her activism focused on labour rights and the rights of women, the poor, and indigenous peoples. She opposed all forms of violence and spoke out against the Gulf Wars, 1991 and 2002, and against military intervention in Afghanistan.

She led the way as a woman in the labour movement and as an advocate for women’s rights.

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Hazar Mahayni contributes to peace by providing schooling to refugee children in Turkey. #Canada150

Hazar Mahayni is a Canadian-trained pharmacist working in Montreal. She runs the Al Salam School for children of refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey, located in sight of the border with Syria. The school has taught over 1900 students and has a staff of 90. After spending a few years getting the school running well, Ms. Mahayni now supervises the school from Montreal, relying on technology to keep in touch.

Students pay no tuition and Ms. Mahayni does not receive a salary. The school offers classes, transportation, a nutritious meal, dental care, and a secure learning environment. Supported by the Syrian Kids Foundation, the school aims to rebuild trust, self-worth, compassion, and open-mindedness in Syrian refugee children.

The Syrian Kids Foundation is a registered charity and the school operates on donations and annual fundraising revenues.

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Dr. Gordon Edwards contributes to peace through his lifelong efforts to expose the risks of nuclear weaponry and radioactive waste. #Canada150

Dr. Gordon Edwards was a co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, in 1975, and has been its president since 1978. The not-for profit organization supports research and education on nuclear energy, whether for civilian or military purposes, and on nuclear alternatives.

Dr. Edwards has written articles and reports on radiation standards, radioactive waste, uranium mining, nuclear proliferation, the economics of nuclear power, and non-nuclear energy strategies. He has been recognized by courts as an expert on nuclear science.

“World peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons can never be brought about by means of a hypocritical double standard. If nuclear weapons are indeed the greatest existential threat to the continued survival of humanity and other life-forms on this planet, then no one should have them.”

Here’s Gordon’s take on why nuclear power can’t be the solution to climate chamge. (VIDEO)

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Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East contributes to peace by helping people harmed by conditions in the Middle East. #Canada150

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is a non-profit organization based in Montreal whose mission is “to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada.”

CJPME believes that all parties to a conflict should be held to the same standard, that all positions should respect international law, and that violence is not a solution.

It opposed the Canadian government allowing the export of war-related equipment to Saudi Arabia. It promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement which aims to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.

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Craig & Marc Kielburger contribute to peace through their organizations which empower young people to get involved to change the world. #Canada150

Craig Keilburger was 12 years old when he learned about a Pakistani boy who had started work in a carpet factory at age 4 and was murdered at 12 after turning the world’s attention to the exploitation of children in the Pakistan work force. Craig started talking about the problems of child labour and with his older brother, Marc Kielburger founded the Free the Children organization in 1995. Free the Children is an international charity active in 45 countries building schools and providing education opportunities for children.

Craig and Marc also founded “Me to We”, an enterprise providing products and services, such as Travel with a Purpose and Take Action camps, and We Day, a one-day event for young people to get together and be inspired to take positive actions in their communities.

Both Craig and Marc have won numerous awards and distinctions.

“Collectively, we have all it takes to create a just and peaceful world, but we must work together and share our talents. We all need one another to find happiness within our-selves and within the world.” – Craig Kielburger

“We wanted to make caring cool and changing the world possible for young people.” – Marc Kielburger

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Jean Vanier contributes to peace by creating inclusive communities for people with disabilities. #Canada150

Jean Vanier founded L’Arche in 1964 when he invited two men with intellectual disabilities to live with him in his home in France. There are now L’Arche communities in 35 countries where people with intellectual disabilities live with friends who assist them. A governing philosophy of the communities is Vanier’s belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather than burdens.

Vanier is internationally recognized for his compelling vision of what it means to live a fully human life and for his social and spiritual leadership in building a compassionate society. He is a respected author with over 20 books to his name. He has received many awards in many countries for promoting peace, faith, and loving communities.

“We must do what we can to diminish walls, to meet each other. Why do we put people with disabilities behind walls?”

Jean Vanier, Massey Lectures, 1998

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Steve Paikin contributes to peace as a journalist with a concern for justice and a life-long commitment to informing the public. #Canada150

Steve Paikin’s work informing people about events and politics began in university where he was the sports editor for the University of Toronto’s weekly independent sports newspaper. He was also a play-by-play announcer covering hockey and football. With experience in radio and print journalism, he joined TVO, Ontario’s public broadcaster, in 1992.  Since then, he has co-hosted or hosted a variety of public affairs programs. For more than a decade, the hour-long daily “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” has been TVO’s flagship current affairs program.

His April 12th, 2017 National Post article on the anniversary on the Battle of Vimy Ridge asked, “A century ago, how many of my sons would I have lost in the trenches of the First World War?”

Paikin was the moderator of six election debates: the 2006, 2008, and 2011 federal leaders’ debates, and the 2007, 2011, and 2014 Ontario provincial leaders’ debates.

Paikin has published several books and produced several documentaries on politicians and political life, including the award-winning “Return to the Warsaw Ghetto”.

For further “reading” we recommend:

• The Agenda from 2015 with Karen Armstrong on Religion & Peace
• The Agenda from 2014 on the Isreali-Palestinian peace process
• The Agenda from 2016 with Christie Blatchford on Canadian justice
• The Agenda from 2016 on how sexual assault is dealt with in the Canadian courts.

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Justice Rosalie Abella contributed to peace by doing groundbreaking work for equality in the Supreme Court of Canada. #Canada150

On July 1, 1946, Madame Justice Rosalie Abella of the Canadian Supreme Court was born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, to parents who were Holocaust survivors.  Her father was a lawyer, appointed to be the defense counsel for displaced persons in the Allied Zone in southwestern Germany.   Rosalie grew up in Toronto after her family moved to Canada in 1950. She obtained her BA and LLB at the University of Toronto, and was called to the Bar in 1970 and practiced both civil and criminal litigation until she wasappointed to the Ontario Family Court at age 29, the youngest and first pregnant person appointed to Canada’s judiciary; appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992;and the first Jewish woman to be on Canada’s Supreme Court.

Her interest and skills in fighting for human rights resulted in her appointment as the sole Commissioner of the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, which developed the concept and term “employment equity”.

Her theories of “equality “ and “discrimination” were adopted first by the Supreme Court of Canada in its decision dealing with equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1989, and were later implemented by New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and South Africa and by the Canadian government.  She also served as Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (1984-89), Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission (1989 – 1992), and Boulton Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law of McGill University (1988-92). As well, she was a commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission, a member of the Ontario Public Service Labour Relations Tribunal, Co-Chair of the University of Toronto Academic Discipline Tribunal; a member of the Premier’s Advisory Committee on Confederation; and as Chair of the Study on Access to Legal Service by the Disabled.

Justice Abella is a prolific author, having written more than 90 articles and written or co-edited four books. She has been honoured as a Senior Fellow of Massey College (1989), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1997), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences  in 2007. She has been lectured and served on various boards at universities in North America and abroad.  She was also a member of the Canadian Judicial Council’s Inquiry on Donald Marshall, Jr.   Justice Abella has been active in Canadian judicial education, organizing the first judicial seminar in which all levels of the judiciary participated, the first judicial seminar at which persons outside the legal profession were invited to take part,  organized the fist national education program for administrative tribunals, and the first national conference for Canada’s female judges. She has been awarded 37 honorary degrees  and other notable honours such as The Distinguished Service award of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario), The International Justice Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation; The Human Relations Award of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews; the Honourable Walter Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award and the Bora Laskin Award for Distinguished Service in Labour Law.

She is a compelling speaker and was reported by Michael Enright on the Sunday Edition of CBC in 2016 as having made Yale Law School graduates cry on the happiest day of their lives after commenting:

“In these frenetically fluid, intellectually sclerotic, economically narcissistic, ideologically polarized, and rhetorically tempestuous times—a world that too often feels like it’s spinning out of control—we need a legal profession that worries about what the world looks and feels like to those who are vulnerable”

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Maude Barlow contributes to peace through her advocacy work on the right to clean water.  #Canada150

Maude Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, a group working internationally for the right to clean water.

She was Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly in 2008-2009 and a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the United Nations.

She has received many honourary doctorates and written or co-written over a dozen books, including Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever, and Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse and Canada’s Water Crisis.

 “The life of an activist is a good life because you get up in the morning caring about more than just yourself or how to make money. A life of activism gives hope, which is a moral imperative in this work and in this world. It gives us energy and it gives us direction. You meet the nicest people, you help transform ideas and systems and you commit to leaving the earth in at least as whole a condition as you inherited it.”

Maude Barlow, addressing Trent University after receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2009.

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