Peace train rolls into Edmonton

Article content

The Peace Train is coming to Edmonton, and with it a trainload of passengers hoping for a new era of peacekeeping in Canada and around the world.

Some 40 participants will make their way via Jasper to Edmonton on Saturday around 7 p.m. for a peace vigil, said Keith Wyton, a resident of Port Alberni, B.C., and project organizer.

Via Rail’s The Canadian leaves Vancouver on Friday and arrives in Ottawa next Wednesday. In Ottawa, participants expect to plead for a small fraction of the amount of money the federal government spends on the military to establish and fund a centre for research, education, and training in conflict resolution, diplomacy, and peace operations.

Article content

At issue is the decline of Canada’s role as a peacekeeper, Wyton said.

“What we’re asking the government to do is to establish a National Center of Excellence for Peace and Justice,” he said, noting that the former Pearson Peace Centre was designed to support Canada’s role in peacekeeping and international diplomacy, and that centre has closed.

“A place where policy and diplomatic efforts can be housed within the government and to advise government,” Wyton said, citing international problems caused by “a failure to come to find ways of resolving disagreements in a diplomatic fashion, not in a ‘going to war’ fashion.”

“We’re focusing on military responses and trying to deal with some of the underlying causes of conflict and disagreement,” he said, citing ongoing issues in Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia.

“Once a war starts, it’s really difficult to bring them to an end, so we’re more focused on prevention, trying not to get into those places,” he said.

Wyton cited a report produced in 2019 by the Canadian defence standing committee currently chaired by John McKay.

Article content

Article content

The report on Canada’s role in international peacekeeping and international conflict was a substantial report, complete with professional witnesses — and dissenting opinions about what should have been done in the escalating conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

“There was this disagreement between the parties where they couldn’t decide on a demarcation line, and it looked like at that point, the UN just said, ‘Well, you guys can’t figure it out, so we’re just going to back away.’ And Canada declined to get further involved. So that was a lost opportunity,” Wyton said.

“I don’t think it was really understood in the wider public, that there might have been an opportunity if nations would have come to the table and said, ‘Well, look, Ukraine and Russia, we really should be trying to figure this out, because it’s going in a bad direction.’

“There’s a history there in that particular situation where there could have been a much different outcome,” he said.

“In all these situations, we can see places where opportunities present themselves, and then it’s really a question of whether we have the commitment to the principles. We seem to be led now by a world of leaders who have not experienced the horrors of war,” Wyton said.

Article content

Walter Dorn is a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College and is involved with the project.

Dorn stresses that being anti-war and pro-military aren’t mutually exclusive.

“We can try and find as many means to prevent wars and to make sure wars are fought in as humane and legal fashion as possible, in accordance with international law,” Dorn said.

Dorn will meet up with the group on Parliament Hill, where he will address an evening reception.

“At a time when there’s so much conflict in the world, we need to have a push for peace, because otherwise conflict could just escalate and may even threaten our survival on the planet. Nuclear war is possible now in a way that I haven’t seen it since the end of the Cold War, with the possibility the Russians using nuclear weapons, and also with very dangerous situations potentially coming out of a new president in the United States. I think we have to really make a big push for peace to say that peace matters,” he said.

Dorn sees the recent U.S. election results as not particularly auspicious for world peace.

“It bodes for a very selfish nationalism in America, and it will cause other nations to be able to be more introverted and isolationist. With that will come damage to international rules-based order,” he said.

Article content

Looking at four years of a past Trump presidency suggests the president-elect is no internationalist, Dorn said.

“He doesn’t think globally. He is all about America first. He’s transactional. He has very few principles, and he’s willing to tear up treaties,” he said.

People who want to support the Peace Train’s goal of asking the Canadian government to establish and fund a Centre of Excellence for Peace and Justice can do so by signing a petition. People can also sign a paper petition at the vigils and rally.

[email protected]

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun

Article content