8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Registration - Lobby, Seton Academic Centre
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks - Alexa McDonough, Conference Chair
Opening Plenary:
Building a Culture of Peace...in our Classrooms, in our Communities and in our World
Moderator: Setting the conference agenda
Alyn Ware, Coordinator, New Zealand Peace Education, Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Non Proliferation and Disarmament, Director of AOTEAROA Lawyers for Peace
Speakers:
Hetty van Gurp, Peaceful Schools International
Hetty holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the Mount where she is also a part time faculty member. Hetty received a Doctorate of Civil Law Degree from Saint Mary’s University in recognition of her work as an educator, author and Peace Builder.
Founder of Peaceful Schools International, Hetty has worked with hundreds of schools in Canada and internationally. Teaching Peace in a Time of War is an NFB Documentary Film featuring her work with schools in Serbia.
She received the YMCA Peace Medal, Nova Scotia Principal of Distinction Award, Canadian Teachers Federation Special Recognition Award, Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission Award, and has been named a Canadian Hero by both Time Magazine and Readers Digest.
Donna Smyth, Voice of Women for Peace
Donna Smyth is a former Acadia University English and Creative Writing Professor. She was the Founding Editor of Atlantis Women Studies Journal and well known feminist author, novelist and playwright.
Sandra Ionno Butcher, BA History (focusing on Peace Studies), Colgate University, Masters in Strategic Studies, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Sandra Ionno Butcher is Senior Program Coordinator for the International Secretariat of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international network addressing arms control and disarmament issues. As director of the Pugwash History Project, she has conducted oral histories and research on the Pugwash Movement including the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the first meeting hosted by Cyrus Eaton at Thinkers’ Lodge in 1957 through to the awarding of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly, to Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Movement.
Having served for seven years as Director of Young Pugwash in the USA, Sandra is passionate about engaging youth around nuclear weapons abolition. In 2009, she led an International Young Pugwash Conference sponsored by the Pugwash Peace Exchange.
10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Concurrent Workshops:
A) Sharing Ideas for Peace Education
Facilitators:
Hetty van Gurp, President, Peaceful Schools International
Clare Levin, Executive Director, Peaceful Schools International
Dr. Felicia Eghan, Associate Professor, Department of Family Studies & Gerontology, and Coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Studies program, Mount Saint Vincent University
Workshop description:
Do you have a great idea for making your school or classroom a more peaceful place? Interested in learning more about effective peace education? Workshop will explore educational tools and techniques for teaching peace. Participants will then organize into elementary, junior high and high school groups, and share at least one good idea for advancing peace education.
B) Women Building Peace – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325
Presenters:
Shelly Whitman, Deputy Director and faculty member, Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University
Alexa McDonough
Co-President (2007-09) and current Global Council Member
Parliamentarians for Non Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament (PNND)
Past Chair PNND (Canadian Chapter)
Federal NDP Peace Advocate, Foreign Affairs and International Development Critic (2003-08)
Workshop description:
In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, reaffirming the critical role of women in building, maintaining and restoring peace, and emphasizing the need for equal participation of women in all peace processes. Resolution 1325 calls on all parties in situations of armed conflict, to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender based violence. Workshop will examine how and why Resolution 1325 was developed; the differential ways in which women and girls are affected by conflict; and assess progress towards Resolution 1325 implementation.
C) Pugwash Movement Retrospect - No Strange Dream
Presenters:
Sandra Ionno Butcher, Senior Program Coordinator, International Secretariat of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs Director, Pugwash History Project
Ru Ling Susie Chou, Physicist, Professor of Cardiology (retired), Columbia University Medical
School; daughter of Pei-Yuan Chou, Physicist, former Vice-Rector, Peking University;
1957 Pugwash Founding Conference participant.
Ru Ling Susie Chou's father, Dr. Pei-Yuan Chou,was a visionary Chinese Scientist, who crossed the Iron Curtain in 1957 at the invitation of Nova Scotia industrialist Cyrus Eaton to travel to Pugwash to meet other esteemed philosophers and scientists including Bertrand Russell, Joseph Rotblat, Albert Einstein and Linus Pauling, founding the Pugwash Movement to ensure the peaceful use of scientific discoveries and inventions.
Eric Bednarski is a documentary film director/producer who has studied history and filmmaking in North America and Europe. His work has screened on Canadian, Danish and Polish television, at international festivals, at the United Nations, the European Parliament and the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Like The Strangest Dream, his National Film Board of Canada feature length debut, Bednarski’s earlier films display a passion for history.
Workshop description:
Workshop will provide an historical overview and current role of Pugwash, locally, nationally and internationally, and invite participants to learn from the traditions and achievements of Pugwash in advancing a Nuclear Weapon-Free World.
*In preparation, we suggest you previewing the documentary: The Strangest Dream.
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Lunch (provided)
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Concurrent Workshops:
A) Building Peace through the Arts
Presenters:
Asha Croggon, Co-facilitator for Peaceful Schools International’s Art of Peace camp. Involved in expressive arts workshops for a variety of people including elementary children, at-risk youth and cancer survivors.
Sandy Greenberg, Nova Scotia Activist and National Board Member, Voice of Women for Peace, and performer with Razzmatazz for Kids and Clearing by Noon.
Workshop description:
Workshop will provide participants with an overview of ways to integrate expressive arts into peace programming. There will be interactive components on music, puppetry, and visual art, including the creation of talking sticks to introduce children to the use of circle-time in conflict exploration and respectful dialogue. Co-facilitators and participants will share learnings from their experiences in developing arts-based peace education for children and adults.
B) Power Wrinkles: Older Women as Peace Activists
Presenters:
Rita Deverell, Nancy’s Chair in Women Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University, performer, broadcaster, playwright, Member of the Order of Canada
Maureen Vine, Grassroots Activist, Raging Grannies
Marilyn Coolen, HIV/ Aids Activist, Grandmothers Supporting Grandmothers (Stephen Lewis Foundation)
Workshop description:
Dr. Deverell will share her work on the effectiveness and strategies of experienced women working for peace.
Marilyn Coolen will explain the role of women activists in Canadian Grandmothers Campaign (Stephen Lewis Foundation) in support of Grandmothers in Sub-Saharan Africa raising 13 million HIV-AIDS Orphans.
Maureen Vine will demonstrate how the Raging Grannies combine music, humour, and passion
to advance peace.
C) Making Progress Towards a World without Nukes
Presenters:
Dr. Erika Simpson, Associate Professor of International Politics, University of Western Ontario, London
Vice Chair, Canadian Pugwash
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:
Dr. Erika Simpson and Alyn Ware have been extensively involved in the international movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and have participated in several of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Reviews at the United Nations.
They will share their assessment of the May 2010 NPT review which, thanks to President Obama’s early initiatives and civil society’s exhaustive efforts, resulted in 189 countries agreeing for the first time in a decade to strengthen, however modestly, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the 1968 pact that is the cornerstone of nuclear arms control. The participants will engage with Alyn and Erika in a discussion of where we go from here to achieve a world without nukes.
2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Break
3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Plenary:
Dialogue Across Divides: Pugwash and the Nobel Peace Prize
Sandra Ionno Butcher, International Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Director of Pugwash History Project, and Former Coordinator of Young Pugwash USA
Plenary description:
Sandra Ionno Butcher will share insights into and explore strategies for breaking down political, international, interdisciplinary and intergenerational barriers from her extensive experience advancing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Reception
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Peace Celebration Dinner
*Note: Ticket purchase in advance required. See
registration form.
Entertainment:The Elastic Millennium Choir
Lorri Neilsen GlenDream for Real