Peace activists hope Canada will create peace department

Initiative seeks similar agenda for as peace as there’s for defense ministry

by GEORGE KAGAME


With several parts of the world bubbling with conflict currently, Rob Acheson a resident of Pickering and his colleagues in the campaign to establish the Canadian Department of Peace, are hopeful that governments across the universe will reserve the same commitment to peace efforts as they do for war.


The Canadian department of peace initiative (CDPI) is part of a worldwide peace campaign that activists propose to be part central government cabinets around the world. It currently has a 24 country membership. Members join the movement as countries-where the initiative has been adopted like in Nepal with a full Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction-while in other countries like Canada, enlistment is according to chapters based on provinces and cities. There are now more than 8 chapters across Canada, 19 organizations representing 120,000 Canadians. Rob Acheson leads the Toronto Chapter, he is a busy man Acheson.

On top of his day job as operations officer of a logistics company in Scarborough, Acheson has to coordinate meetings of the Toronto Chapter once or twice a month downtown Toronto. “Our group is comprised of regular folks with interest in adding their voices to global peace activities, they are drawn from a wide range of social demographics and we meet at a downtown Toronto bar on a monthly basis.”

He is now busier because the CDPI is in advanced stages of organizing their annual general meeting set to take place on the 17 through to the 19th of April at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Among participants at the AGM are high profile public speakers and opinion leaders, they include a bi-partisan cast of members of parliament while renown journalist and writer Linda Mcquaig will deliver the keynote address titled: “After Afghanistan: Reinvigorating Canada’s role as a global peace builder”.

According to CDPI official documents, among its major aims is to create a Department of Peace just as there’s one for Defense. A Minister of Peace would be charged with keeping Canada’s peace-building capacity current, flexible, proactive, and responsive to ever-evolving conflict. Peacekeeping—and conflict transformation and peacemaking, all of which are distinct aspects of the larger field of peace building—is not a one-size-fits- all approach.

“We have a very highly elaborated architecture of war,” says Saul Arbess, a one of the key figures in CDPI.
“It consumes over a trillion dollars and can be mobilized at a moment’s notice. We have no corresponding architecture of peace.”
Furthermore, the CDPI draws upon the inspiration of the climate change activism that was deemed unreasonable fifty years ago but have taken centre stage in key policy circles all over the universe today.