9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Plenary Session:
Sex, Death, and Violence in the Disarmer’s World
Presenter:
Dr.Erika Simpson, Associate Professor Political Science, University of Western Ontario, and Vice-Chair, Canadian Pugwash
Erika Simpson's 30 years of disarmament activism has included campaigning against cruise missile testing in Saskatchewan, working with End the Arms Race, and extensive research with senior level diplomats and defence policy makers.
Plenary description:
Presentation will explore how women are treated differently…Why male policy-makers avoid talking about death and destruction…Whether men are inherently more violent than women…Whether nuclear weapons are here to stay because women will never rule the world!
10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Concurrent Workshops:
A) Youth Action for Peace
Presenters:
Bridget Brownlow, Conflict Resolution Advisor, Saint Mary’s University
Chris Walker, Emily Anderson, Sandy English - Saint Mary’s University students
Julia Feltham, Kyle Van Der Mey - Mavericks for Social Change
Workshop description:
This interactive youth-led session will bring youth from Saint Mary’s University and Mavericks for Social Change together to share their experiences of working for a more peaceful world. Saint Mary’s students have worked in partnership with Peaceful Schools International teaching conflict resolution, attitudes and skills to primary and secondary students in Nova Scotia and in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Youth working with Mavericks for Social Change will share initiatives to advance local and global peace through action, reflection and education.
B) Integrating Movements: Women, Peace, Development and Environment
Presenter:
Pat Kipping, longtime peace, international development and women's advocate in Canada, California and New Zealand, 30-year Member of Voice of Women, Employed with Nova Scotia Arts Council (1997 - 2002) and Oxfam Canada (2003 - 2010)
Workshop description:
Workshop is inspired by Ursula Franklin's definition of “Peace, not as the absence of war, but as the presence of justice and the absence of fear”. Focusing on fears of sub-Saharan Africa women struggling to feed their families in the face of climate change, participants will map connections between struggles for “competing” forms of justice. Informed by the integrated visions of Peace Pioneers like Ursula Frankin, Muriel Duckworth and Kay MacPherson, participants will imagine ways to keep the connections dynamic.
C) Can the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapon-Free ZONES get us to Nuclear ZERO?
Presenter:
Adele Buckley, MSc, PhD, DSc, Physicist, aerospace engineer and environmental scientist, Immediate Past Chair, Canadian Pugwash, current member, International Pugwash Council, Former VP, Technology and Research, Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement, Former VP, Solarchem Environmental Systems, Founding partner of MDS-SciEx, which became a division of MDS, Inc.
Adele has worked extensively on Green House Gas emission reduction credits, hazardous and radioactive waste, vehicle technologies, and through CIDA, on verification of technology performance for arsenic removal in Bangladeshi village wells.
In 1959, the Antarctic (South Pole) became a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ). Today 56% of the earth's land area is part of a NWFZ. 116 nations have declared themselves NWFZ. Canada is one of only two countries in North, Central, and South America – the other is the USA – who have yet to declare themselves a NWFZ. Canada is also one of only two nations in the 56 member francophony that have, along with France, declined to take any initiatives to become NWFZ.
In 2007, under Adele’s Presidency, Canadian Pugwash called for an Arctic Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. Since that time, she has written and presented a series of research papers advancing an Arctic NWFZ, including at a Parliamentarians for Non Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament conference in 2008 hosted by the Pugwash Peace Exchange; an Arctic NWFZ Conference in Copenhagen in 2009; and most recently, the United Nations Civil Society Forum on Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones in the Arctic in May 2010.
Workshop description:
Adele Buckley will share her vast knowledge of NWFZ’s and explore how citizens can contribute to the movement for Canada to join the 144 Zones already declared Nuclear Weapon-Free.
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Lunch
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Concurrent Workshops:
A) Civil Society Engagement: From Awareness to Mobilization
Presenters:
Nancy Covington, as Canadian President of Physicians for Global Survival, led Canada’s International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), dedicated to adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention, an international treaty banning the development, possession, and use of Nuclear Weapons, based on prescribing that Nuclear Weapons are Bad for your Health.
Joan Hicks, Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace Steering Committee member with 35 years experience on Community Boards and innovative projects including Word on the Street, Chebucto Community Net, African Heritage Month, Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women, and Metro Council on Continuing Education.
Bill Siksay, Member of Parliament, Burnaby-Douglas since 2004, Chair, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) Canadian Chapter, Member of PNND Global Council, and Department of Peace Initiative Champion
Alyn Ware, Coordinator, New Zealand Peace Education, Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Non Proliferation and Disarmament, Director of AOTEAROA Lawyers for Peace, 2009 Recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the “alternative“ Nobel Prize.
Workshop description:
These effective peace activists will share successes and frustrations in their struggle to advance Peace, and encourage lively conversation among participants about worthwhile initiatives and innovative strategies.
B) Women’s Activism for Peace- Creative Strategies
Presenters:
Donna Smyth
Gillian Thomas
Dr. Karen Ewing
Workshop description:
In this workshop, peace and environmental activists, Karen Ewing, Donna Smyth, and Gillian Thomas will stimulate discussion on how women can play an integral role in Peace making. Donna Smyth and Gillian Thomas will present an overview on their campaign in opposition to uranium mining in Nova Scotia. Karen Ewing will talk about her role in the creation of a peaceful place/space in Bass River, Nova Scotia.
C) Effective Communication Strategies for Disarmament and Peace
Presenter:
Bruce Wark, Inglis Professor of Journalism, University of King's College
Prior to teaching, Bruce was a CBC Radio Journalist responsible for network programs such as The World at Six and World Report, and was the first producer of The House (the Saturday morning program on national politics). Bruce served as Legislative Reporter in Ontario and as National Reporter for the Maritime Provinces. He produced CBC Radio’s The Media File, a weekly network program reporting on issues relating to journalism and the media. Currently, Bruce writes a regular column for the alternative Halifax weekly, The Coast.
Chris Campbell, is a media creator with a keen interest in combining storytelling with new technologies. Faculty member in the Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College.
Workshop description:
The workshop debate will be stimulated by the Marshall McLuhan declaration “that newspapers started running headlines as Napoleon began waging war. The headline is a primitive shout of rage, triumph, fear, or warning, and newspapers have thrived on wars ever since."
McLuhan may have been exaggerating slightly, but mainstream news media clearly prize controversy and conflict over compromise and consensus. This persistent storytelling bias makes it hard for peace activists to be heard over the shouts of sabre-rattling politicians and the voices of pundits who justify war.
2:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Closing Plenary:
Peace to Go! Strategies for Action
Facilitators:
Clare Levin
Alexa McDonough
Alyn Ware
Crafting and coordinating action strategies from the nine Peace Conference Workshop recommendations.