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Washington Report, January/February 2006, page 69 Waging Peace Canadian Peace Alliance Conference Draws More Than Two Hundred
THE Canadian Peace Alliance, the country’s largest umbrella group of peace and justice organizations, held its 20th Anniversary Conference Nov. 11 to 13 on Parliament Hill in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. The conference was co-sponsored by Muslim Presence Ottawa. The conference, titled “Challenging Canada’s Role in Empire,” featured a number of workshops and seminars covering Canada’s complicity in the U.S. occupation of Haiti and Afghanistan; Resisting Bush’s war crimes: the case for asylum for U.S. war resisters (see article p. 46); GI Resistance: Vietnam to today; The Movement and the Media: Forgotten Crises, Biases, and Alternatives; and The Role of Faith Groups in Peace and Justice. Among the speakers addressing the 200 attendees were Virginia Rodino, Washington organizer of United For Peace and Justice, Jose Vasquez of Iraq Veterans Against War, Ali Mallah of the Canadian Arab Federation, and Professor Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress. Canada’s peace and justice movement has evolved over the past two decades, and the CPA has grown with it. This year’s conference was rescheduled to accommodate the growing number of Canadian Muslim activists joining the movement. Many Muslims could not attend last year’s event because it was held in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan. This year’s conference was also the first to have dedicated prayer space. —Faisal Kutty |
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