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

The Special Olympics contributes to peace by its celebration of the value, worth and intrinsic dignity of all peoples.#Canada150

Special Olympics Canada is a national organization founded in 1969 to help people with intellectual disabilities develop self-confidence and social skills through sports training and competition. Renowned for his research on intellectual disabilities, Dr. Hayden is hugely involved in Special Olympics Canada. He studied the motivation behind individuals with intellectual disabilities to succeed in sports. Contrary to common belief that these individuals could not participate in sport because of their disabilities, Dr. Hayden proved that it was actually the lack of opportunity that caused their fitness levels to differ from other individuals without intellectual disabilities. With this knowledge, Dr. Hayden proposed the idea of a national sport competition for individuals with intellectual disabilities to participate in.

At this time, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was working on creating an organization with the same purpose as Dr. Hayden’s proposal, due to her experience with her sister’s intellectual disability. Shriver reached out to Dr. Hayden and the two (amongst others) collaborated to host an event in Chicago, Illinois, which would be known as the first international Special Olympics Summer Games in 1968. In these games, Canada and the US were the only participating countries. Currently, 170 countries compete in the Special Olympic games across the globe. Dr. Hayden is still involved with Special Olympics Canada.

“Let me win, but if I do not win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

Official Special Olympics Athletes’ Oath

Dr. Norman Bethune (d.1939), contributed to peace by his humanitarian medical work, particularly in conflict zones. #Canada150

He was a Canadian physician, medical innovator, and noted anti-fascist. Bethune came to international prominence first for his service as a frontline surgeon supporting the democratically elected Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. But it was his service with the Communist Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War that would earn him enduring acclaim. Dr. Bethune effectively brought modern medicine to rural China and often treated sick villagers as much as wounded soldiers. His selfless commitment made a profound impression on the Chinese people, especially CPC’s leader, Mao Zedong. Ironically, while Bethune was the man responsible for developing a mobile blood-transfusion service for frontline operations in the Spanish Civil War, he himself died of blood poisoning. A prominent Communist and veteran of the First World War, he wrote that wars were motivated by profits, not principles. Statues in his honor can be found in cities throughout China.

Bethune was concerned with the socioeconomic aspects of disease. As a concerned doctor in Montreal during the economic depression years of the 1930s, he frequently sought out the poor and gave them free medical care. He challenged his professional colleagues and agitated, without success, for the government to make radical reforms of medical care and health services in Canada. Bethune was an early proponent of socialized medicine and formed the Montreal Group for the Security of People’s Health.

Cairine Reay Mackay Wilson contributed to peace by her advocacy for women and refugees. #Canada150

She was Canada’s first female senator. Born in 1885, Cairine Reay Mackay in Montreal, she was the daughter of Jane Mackay and Robert Mackay, a Liberal Senator and personal friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.  In 1909, she married Norman Wilson, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Russell and they moved to Cumberland, Ontario to begin a family.  In 1918, the Wilsons moved to Ottawa, where Cairine performed extensive volunteer work. She helped found the Twentieth Century Liberal Association and the National Federation of Liberal Women of Canada, of which she was President from 1938 to 1948.

Wilson was appointed the first female senator of the country at the age of 45 in February 1930 by the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, just four months after the Persons Case judgment was handed down by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Previously, women had not been allowed to serve in the Senate as lower courts had ruled they were not full “persons” under the law. As president of the League of Nations Society of Canada in 1938, Senator Wilson spoke out against the Munich Agreement‘s appeasement of Hitler. During the Second World War, the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King was resistant to permitting Jewish refugees from Germany to settle in Canada, but she was able to arrange the acceptance of 100 orphans.

In 1949, at the request of King’s successor Louis St. Laurent, Wilson became Canada’s first female delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. She was the chairman of the Canadian National Committee on Refugees and the first woman to chair a Senate Standing Committee (Immigration and Labour).  She was awarded the Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honour by France in 1950 for her work with child refugees. Wilson again made parliamentary history in 1955 when she became the first woman Deputy Speaker of the Canadian Senate.

Wilbert Loewen contributed to peace by playing a vital role in the establishment of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). #Canada150

Loewen traveled across Canada growing support from Canadian farmers, negotiating an agreement with the Canadian Wheat Board, which helped expand the program.

Building on the vision of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the Canadian Foodgrains Bank was established as a separate organization in 1983 to facilitate the participation of other churches and church agencies in the program.

As the CFGB’s first executive director (1983-1990), he helped it become one of the world’s largest private food-aid providers dedicated to famine relief and ending world hunger. This involved his successful negotiations with the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), to allow farmers to deliver and donate grain outside of the quota system to CWB handling facilities, and with the Canadian International Development Agency, to agree to match every CFGB donation on a four-to-one basis. A mark of the solid foundation he developed, by 2005 the CFGB had provided more than 944,000 tons of food to more than 68 countries.

Loewen’s vision and hard work played a vital role in building a solid foundation for the development of the Foodgrains Bank into one of Canada’s leading agencies dealing with global hunger.  In 2010, Loewen was the recipient of the Order of Manitoba, the province’s highest honor, largely because of the vital role he played in the establishment of the Foodgrains Bank.  Today, the Foodgrains Bank is providing over $40 million in annual assistance around the world, providing food where it is needed, and supporting the efforts of households and communities to improve their farming, livelihoods and nutrition. In 2015, over one million people were assisted in 39 countries.