PUGWASH TO TRURO PEACE WALK ENDS WITH JOINT STATEMENT FROM PEACE QUEST AND VOICE OF WOMEN FOR PEACE
WAKING THE SLEEPWALKERS: A CALL TO NON-VIOLENT ACTION
Today, UN International Day of Peace, a 7-day peace walk from Pugwash to Truro will end with the delivery of a joint statement – Waking the Sleepwalkers – by the principal organizers, Voice of Women for Peace Nova Scotia (VOW NS), and Peace Quest Cape Breton (PQCB). Pledging to fight non-violently for “a truly free world, no longer scourged by war or menaced with Mushroom Clouds,” the statement declared:
For the last week, we have walked in peace, for peace, 80 kilometers to mark 80 intolerably dangerous years on the atomic brink. We walked in protest against the host of war crimes and crimes against humanity we are witnessing in the Gaza genocide, in Sudan, Ukraine, and so many other, often invisible, places. We walked in wide-awake contrast to the lockstep ‘pre-war’ sleepwalkers leading us to new slaughters. But we walked, as well, in hope, in determination not despair, and in celebration of the life-affirming values, principles and practices of the peace movement in all its proud diversity.
Led by Mi’kmaq land and water protectors, the theme of the walk was Remembering Hiroshima, honouring the survivors of the atomic bombings (the hibakusha) in the most important way possible: working to building support for a nuclear-weapon-free world. Participants set off from Pugwash, birthplace of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, after hearing a message of support from Setsuko Thurlow, a 93-year-old hibakusha and co-recipient in 2917 of the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
A Canadian citizen since the 1950s, Thurlow had two specific demands for her adopted country’s government: join the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW); and don’t join President Trump’s so-called ‘Golden Dome’ ballistic missile ‘defence’ programme, an exorbitantly expensive, technological fantasy certain to accelerate the new arms race and bring nuclear war – in space and on Earth – closer. “The only defence against” nuclear weapons, Thurlow argued, “is nuclear disarmament: the only freedom from the threat is to abolish it.” And she concluded:
I commend the efforts of all those organizations and individuals, from across and far beyond Nova Scotia, involved in this bold and important initiative. I will be with you in spirit every step of the way: let us all keep moving, in all our different ways, away from the brink of nuclear annihilation and toward the light of peace...
Note
The peace walk is concluding one day after a global wave of ‘Draw the Line’ protests, featuring over 60 events across Canada (including Sydney), urging citizens across our war-torn, overheating world to ‘Draw the Line: For People, for Peace, for the Planet.’ Bringing together Indigenous, climate justice, anti-war, pro-Palestine, migrant rights, labour rights, anti-austerity, 2SLGBTQQIA+, and other activists, the Canadian events were endorsed by over 300 organizations, including VOW NS and PQCB.
