07/10/2024
A Nonviolent March through Nova Scotia, Canada
By Jill Carr-Harris
Walking Together for Peace was a historic event. It was a 200-kilometer, two-week walk by a core group of 25 people led by local Mi’ kmaq women water walkers –known as the Grassroots Grandmothers Marian Nicholas and Amy Maloney. The walk traversed from Pugwash southward through Truro to Halifax on secondary roads, ironically, through a province that has many veterans and a distinct naval presence. The open vistas of the roadways gave the walkers a sense of the immense possibilities in Canada of making a reset in policies towards creating a more peaceful world. One of the ways the peace walkers suggested throughout, was to sign the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The leadership, that rolled out this two-week event, was shared by eight women, each who had unique skills to add to the mix of this successful march. Collective leadership is often a tricky business to enact decisions yet these women had a powerful vision of “the feminine” in peacemaking in stark contrast to the might is right politics of today. They were: Lyn Adamson, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and Jill Carr-Harris, international peace educator and trainer in nonviolence; kathrin winkler from the Nova Scotia Voice of Women; Ellen Woodsworth, from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Joy Masuhara a peace activist; Dorene Bernard, Marian Nicholas and Amy Mahoney, the indigenous grandmothers who guided the walkers across Mi’kmaq territory. These strong women leaders ‘braided together the larger peace issues of demilitarize, decolonize and decarbonize”.
Young people in their twenties and thirties from diverse backgrounds namely, Lia Holla, Masa Kateb, Rooj Ali, Luke Wedgwood, Alley MacDonald and Nitin Sonawane led daily communication, school programs, and events linking peace walkers to virtual and physical communities. There were also walkers from India: Rajagopal, P.V. and Yogesh Mathuria, who brought their experience of long marches (padyatras) in the tradition of Gandhi to attract the many Canadian South Asian community members. In addition, there were two Buddhist monks, Akeida Kanshim and Samten Chodron, who chanted throughout the march for peace. This effort at inclusive leadership was a daily challenge, and only in retrospect, I can say it worked out well because it brought the walk to a positive end and everyone went away feeling a sense of ‘being transformed’ and happy with the outcome.
One of the learnings of this march for the leadership was the delicate balance of bringing forward the grassroot agendas (of diverse communities along the route) and maintaining the consistent message of: take up nuclear disarmament and reduce military spending. As women leaders we were focused on the safety of family, and community; and where Canada can be a place of peace, which frankly, is crucial in global peacemaking. Although the link of the micro-issues with a macro-narrative is constantly being challenged by the mainstream messages, we had to continually keep this in check. The prevailing message that dominates the media and which we found often recited to us was that it is necessary to build up a national military security apparatus to keep us safe, and support nuclear deterrence to limit counter attack and maintain the absence of war. Our counter claim was: to achieve peace is to build human security and this can only be done when people are able to act out collective security when their basic needs are met.
The route from Pugwash to Halifax was a series of interactions with people and place. Starting at the community of Pugwash, both at the Thinker’s Lodge and at the Peace Hall, gave us a moment to recall how 22 scientists who got together 67 years ago to regulate nuclear weapons; and how this remarkable history gives Canada a place at the nuclear disarmament table. Today there is interest to see Canada as a peacemaker so recalling this history is important. When the group was greeted by the Pugwash High School, a group of students that have attributed themselves to be part of a nuclear-weapons free high school, there was a sense that the disarmament education taking place in British Columbia and Ontario, could aspire to have students themselves stand for peace. Later we found a high school in Halifax that wanted to follow suit and make a similar declaration. In addition, the disarmament education was carried in six classrooms along the route.
There were many human stories in the twelve days on the road before reaching the provincial capital of Halifax. We greeted many people on the roadside or outside their houses. Friends from the community centres and churches greeted us at different places and gave us places to stay. The Maritime Sikh Society and Hindu Temple in Halifax sent packed Indian food for three dinner events along the way. The India Hut in Truro also gave their curry and rice meals to some of the walkers. The Family Resource Centre, Maggie’s place in Truro hosted an evening of pizza-making featuring delicious locally-sourced foods. One of the long-time residents of Alton who was turning 80 years celebrated his birthday with us along with cake and refreshments. Friends from Carrolls Corner welcomed us with a scintillating vegetarian dinner and breakfast. We were invited by a family to stay on the Indian Brook reserve for three nights. Our colleagues Jane Watson, Chris Mills and Paul Swartzentruber organized the ‘traveling kitchen’ enroute. There were also so many women of the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace supporting the driving and organizing local events along the way. Ann Verrall and Jase Tanner were always running ahead to get daily film footage. Our Antigonish friends took special care of us before and during the walk. All the walk was supported by public donations. I have so many memories of warmth and hospitality of people everywhere we went.
We participated in the celebration of Dr. Lynn Jones’ Land Trust initiative Down the Marsh. Over one hundred people shared in celebration and blessing the land which will provide affordable housing on collectively-owned property, and available for African Nova Scotian families. Down the Marsh consolidated a community land trust in an area that was otherwise being regentrified, and instead planned for forty housing units that were to be built in response to the housing crisis and at the same time in maintaining African Nova Scotian identity.
While the land was being blessed, I was reminded by how the Canadian exchequer is spending far too much on military armaments (the most expensive of which are nuclear arms) instead of taking up unique housing projects, like Down the Marsh, and this gave added value to our presence at the function.
At another moment in the journey, we arrived at Sipekne’katik First Nations Community to join in the ‘Justice for Iggy-Walk for Awareness’ at the request of the Grassroots Grandmothers and we found deep turmoil in the community over the multiple deaths of indigenous youth at the hands of the RCMP in wellness checks. This became a national issue and we later learned that MPs met the following day in the House of Commons in an emergency debate. NDP MP Lori Idlout characterized this string of seven deaths since August 29th as a “disturbing pattern” (City News Halifax). This had me puzzling over whether this incident was part of a rising pattern of “command and control” tactics that our institutions were deploying to protect citizens and bring safety back to the community. Using the gun to resolve mental health issues is an enterprise of maiming, killing and creating terror and this is the very antithesis of creating a peace-loving society.
Along with the group were Gandhian peace activists from India. Gradually it dawned on the group that the daily walking was more than just a one-time nonviolent social action. It was a way of building nonviolence in the society, building stronger movements of change, so even when the government responded with violence, the people could see that there were other ways of handling disputes and conflicts. Marching with a faith in nonviolence is another avenue to make our political representatives more accountable. The Indian participants came to Canada to walk believing that the Canadian Government has had a history of peacemaking, and countries like India and Canada need to combine Gandhi’s nonviolence with peacemaking.
During our walk, we heard that there were multiple walks going on simultaneously in India. According to the sources we received, fifty-five marches took place between the 11th and the 21st of September mostly on the issues of land and livelihood in seven states with a call to establish a Peace Ministry and to reduce military budget for people’s security. To verify the extent of these activities, Ekta Parishad, a member of the Jai Jagat, (one of the sponsors of the Nova Scotia march), sent copies of some of the 268 articles and electronic news stories that had been published in the newspapers and on TV across the country. This was the beginning of building greater solidarity between nonviolent actors of these two countries. In addition, after the NS march, four global Gandhian/Buddhist peace walkers traveled to the western coast of the US to walk for one-and-a-half months from Seattle to Los Angeles to bring an atmosphere of peace to residents in advance of the bitterly divided country’s national elections.
The walk from the Dartmouth peace pavilion across the Halifax harbour bridge towards Dalhousie University was an unforgettable finale. A long string of peace activists with their banners and flags on one side of the bridge, led by the Mi’kmaq Grandmothers was a sight to behold, especially as it traversed past two large warships in the docks below. Then in a sizeable group at Dalhousie’s Student Union building we had speeches by Senator Marilou McPhedran Canadian Pugwash representative, Robin Collins, peace activist El Jones, and many others all hosted by Lia Holla, Director of the IPPNW and Joy Masuhara, peace walker and activist. The audience and students were constantly reminded of the importance of signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Finally, you never know how information flows from these kinds of actions. In this case, at the same time as the Halifax event, there was a meeting occurring by the Sant' Egidio in Paris (which is a Catholic lay organizations of people working as volunteers on peace worldwide) and it had an assembly of 10,000 persons inaugurated by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. The Jai Jagat representative, Anuradha Shankar attended the meeting and gave her speech mentioning the Nova Scotia Walking Together for Peace and she was met with a standing ovation. Later she wrote to say that because of her speech
“she was asked to attend the dinner hosted by him [President Macron] at the Élysées, and she joined it with a group of padres and others and had more occasion to talk with President Macron about his role in peacemaking”.
In conclusion, there seems to be many people keen to see peace, and have not figured out how to drive the political will. One of the signature songs of the march Jai Jagat (which means “victory to all” or “no one left behind”), continues to rhyme in my ears, the gist of the meaning is: the good acts make the impossible possible and we need to let people come together and act for peace.
See the 15-minute film of Walking Together for Peace by Jase Tanner at https://youtu.be/0yEySIVK52Q
