Report from the weekend of Peace, Environment, and Violence against Women events in early December. 

Tim Bousquet at The Coast gave us a paragraph in his column and posted Janet's letter on his blog. (Under December 4th).  Please take a look, Janet ties all three issues together extremely well.

http://www.thecoast.ca/SiteBlog-3828.113118_Reality_Bites.html

1) December 5th, Ceremony to honour victims of the Montreal Massacre: a Day of Action to end violence against women.  Province House, 10:30 a.m.  

We had good NSVOW representation at Province House ; excellent panel including Pamela, only 4 MLA's visible unfortunately. Linda and Jeanne were especially busy doing excellent outreach.

2) December 6th, Annual ceremony to remember the Halifax Explosion of 1917.

At the monument on Fort Needham, 8:45 a.m. White poppies available onsite.

Janet Maybee reported from the Annual ceremony to remember the Halifax Explosion of 1917 at the monument on Fort Needham.

The Explosion memorial this morning was productive. Peter Kelly approached us, shook hands and agreed that next year he should consider bringing women into the program. 

Lt. Gov. Mayann Francis was really friendly and made us aware of a ceremony at St Patrick's at 12:30 honouring the women of the parish killed in the explosion; Linda C-R and I attended and made some excellent contacts for future working-together.

Half a dozen of us laid white poppies on the wreaths presented at the Fort Needham monument after the military folks were winding down.

CTV crew noticed and interviewed Ruth so we got a few seconds on the evening news ---well done!!!  They showed Linda C-R laying a white poppy on the wreaths at the Fort Needham monument and Ruth speaking about the vital role women played in rescuing people after the Halifax Explosion.  Later on, they included Ruth mentioning that VOW had been excluded from the ceremony.

This coverage is a terrific start, however we wanted to present the Mayors for Peace petition as a plea from all those women and children destroyed by war in our own city not to let it happen again.  The details about the women whose names are engraved on the bell at St Patrick's illuminated them as real human beings with hopes and plans and responsibilities. With the help of Ann Smith who did that research I hope we can publicize their stories more next time.

Interestingly, all wreath layers were military, police, firemen, mayor, male cabinet minister. No families. No MP Megan Leslie. Even our local MLA Maureen was not included on the official program and had to go fetch her wreath herself. (She had told me it took quite a few years to get her on the list, and now she was forgotten again.)

I'm guessing there might be a shift next time...but meanwhile if any of you have a chance to respond or send letters, we need to expand the PEACE part of the message. This horrible explosion happened because Canada (and Halifax harbour in particular) was involved in a faraway war. We are even more vulnerable today.

3) December 6th, "Not so Silent" Vigil.  Grande Parade, 4:30 p.m.

Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson reported from the Vigil at Parade Square and the one at Sexton Hall organized by the Engineering Department. Linda and Jeanne distributed white poppies - people took all but three white poppies ...(there were no little pins left).

"There were at least 100 people at Parade Square (women, men and small children)...with a little bit of psycho drama...drumming...lovely voices singing inspiring songs...rap....comedy...very loud screams... and ...words vowing for activism.

I saw Elinor, Ruth, Sharon, Sarah and Linda C-R...there may have been more VOW members there but I didn't see them. All there seemed to agree that one large gathering was a more effective and powerful way to recognize Dec 6 then smaller groups scattered all over the city.

I brought a placard, hoping to get media attention.  And I did!  The photo accompanying the story in the Chronicle Herald featured me with my candle and placard.  I think we need to improve our use of placards and banners in the future – they are effective tools to get our message out.

Jeanne and I went to the mike to voice our commitment for action for the year asking everyone there to sign our petition noting that the Criminal Code is discriminatory towards Canadian women who have been tortured. Some people signed and others took blank ones to have them signed at their work places, school or to put them on their fridge for visitors to sign...a law student, a University teaching assistant, stay at home moms, and one man working with prisoners were all willing to take blank petitions.

Then we walked to Dal for the vigil..more signatures for the petition. 14 women each lit a candle in memory of the 14 women from the Montreal Massacre, and then walked out into the night each laying a beautiful white rose under a tree on the campus. The students had soft music, tea and cookies and a gentle atmosphere to end the day.  

Jeanne and I have a goal of  1000 signatures and plan to present the petition to Bill Casey then. We hope to have the press coverage and will mention the "torture free zone" circle and NS VOW support---think this would make a nice press conference. That is our goal ...maybe in the spring if we have the 1000 signatures by then. One has to dream ---and have goals over the long NS winters … :)".