Peace Train arrives in Ottawa



For Winnipegger Gordon Matties, being part of the November 15-23 Peace Train from Vancouver to Ottawa was about imagining “a hopeful future, a future without war, a future of peace with justice for all of creation.”

Gordon was one of four people from River East Church, which is affiliated with Mennonite Church Manitoba, who went on the Train. Also on the trip from the church was his spouse, Lori, as well as Val Falk and Agnes Hubert.

The goal of the Peace Train was to ask the federal government to spend a fraction of the money it devotes to the military to establish and fund a Centre of Excellence for Peace and Justice focused on research, education and training in conflict resolution, diplomacy and peace operations around the world, and to renew Canada’s historical commitment to peacekeeping around the world.

The Train, made up of 40 people from B.C. and Manitoba, began with an interfaith launch in Vancouver at Canadian Memorial United Church. Over 100 people attended the event that featured blessings from the Indigenous, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Tibetan and Christian traditions. Along the way, supporters met the train at station stops in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Brockville and Ottawa.

In Ottawa, the Peace Train held a reception with Members of Parliament from all four parties. Individual Peace Trainers also met with their MPs, and a rally was held on Parliament Hill. 

For Gordon, being on the train was a way to show how all the talk about the money Canada spends on NATO “avoids conversations about how we might prepare for peace, rather than war. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend a portion of that money on training and providing resources for diplomatic solutions to conflict?”

For Lori, going on the Train was a way to contribute to the “recovery of Canada’s voice for peace … history has shown that war never results in lasting peace. More than ever, I believe we are all called to love our neighbours, and the only way to get rid of our enemies is to make them our friends.”

Val wanted to see Canada reclaim the peacekeeping tradition she remembers growing up as a child in the 1960s. “Our world is in desperate need of more peacemaking,” she said, adding she grew up Mennonite and peace was always a strong value in her home.

Agnes was inspired by her Anabaptist background to “highlight peacemaking and diplomacy as a role that Canada can make its own in a more substantive way…. I think it is a faithful interpretation of Jesus’ teachings.”

The Peace Train was the brainchild of Keith and Bernadette Wyton of Port Alberni, B.C. The retired couple want to see Canada recover its much-lauded and highly-respected tradition of peacekeeping—something it no longer is known for.

Bernadette noted that Canada once had as many as 3,000 peacekeepers in hotspots around the world, but today it has only 31.

Her goal is to see Canada “once again play a leading role in promoting peace in the world today.” For Keith, it was about Canada recovering its “honorable history of peace efforts going back to 1957 and Lester Pearson’s Nobel Prize for helping create the first UN peacekeeping force.”

Through the Train, the two hoped the message of the importance of peace was communicated to politicians.

“It wasn’t a protest, but an effort to lift up all those who will rise to the current global challenges of resisting polarization, rampant self-interest and an industrial war machine that is out of control,” Bernadette said.

Their message was amplified on November 16 in Edmonton, where Douglas Roche, a former Canadian Senator, parliamentarian and diplomat met Peace Train participants at the station.

Canada needs “to find a new way to stop militarism. We need new diplomatic initiatives for peace,” Roche said.

Noting that the election of Donald Trump may mean Canada can expect pressure to spend more on the military, Roche said money would be better spent on housing, education and healthcare at home. “That’s where Canadians want their tax dollars to go, not more militarism,” he said.

Read more about the Peace Train and its journey here.

John Longhurst is a freelancer writer from Winnipeg. He rode the Peace Train from Vancouver to Ottawa.



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