Nonviolence International Canada

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Canada’s ranking in the 2019 Global Peace Index remains unchanged from 2018. Canada is ranked highest on the peace index for all of the Americas.

Canada ranked number six globally and has been in the top ten since the launch of the index in 2007.

In 2019, global peace, as measured by the index, improved, very slightly, but for the fist times in several years.

The Global Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), ranks 163 countries (99.7% of the world’s population) according to 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators of peace. The Global Peace Index ranks countries by the following criteria.

External Conflicts Fought, Perceptions of Criminality, Internal Conflicts Fought, Incarceration Rate, Intensity of Internal Conflict, Violent Demonstrations, Terrorism Impact, Nuclear and Heavy Weapons, Deaths from External Conflict, Weapons Imports, Violent Crime, Political Instability, Neighbouring Countries Relations, Access to Small Arms, Police Rate, Armed Services Personnel Rate, Weapons Exports, Homicide Rate, Military Expenditure (% GDP), Refugees and IDPs, Political Terror Scale, Deaths from Internal Conflict, UN Peacekeeping Funding.

As for North America, only Canada and the US are comparable and, well, they are in totally different leagues, with Canada ranking No. 6 on the global index and the US at No. 128.

For more see the 2019 Global Peace Index. The same group compiles the Global Terrorism Index as well.

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Former researcher for the International Peace Bureau in Geneva Tamara Lorincz has compiled the following data from the government budget. For a nation for whom war is unlikely in its known form, the Federal government has committed to spending $533 billion on the Canadian military over the next 20 years. The money was proposed under Canada’s 2017 defence policy, Strong Secure Engaged.  According to Ms. Lorincz, “The Canadian military will be recruiting more soldiers and buying more weapons to maintain high-end warfighting.”

Her search of the records reveals that last year, the Canadian military received $32 billion according to the Public Accounts of Canada. Canada, perhaps surprisingly for most Canadians, was ranked 14th highest in the world for military spending according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Canada’s military consumes the largest part of Canada’s budget, by far, and when ranked economically against our provinces would constitute Canada’s 4th largest province.

While this may consume funding necessary to mobilize a Green New Deal, Ms. Lorincz notes that the military is the federal agency that consumes the most fossil fuels, and is one of the biggest producers of hazardous waste in Canada, and is also the agency with the most contaminated sites across the country. Lorincz flags that the carbon emissions from military vehicles and operations are exempted from national greenhouse gas reporting and reduction targets in Canada.

The following chart, compiled by T. Lorincz, provides a view over time of how spending in Canada on the military has been climbing while spending on the environment is basically flat lining. [Chart copyright T. Lorincz 2019, used with permission]

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Canada’s Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and an Architecture of Peace

The new Ambassador has welcomed public input on her mandate.

We have framed the following questions to help guide discussion.

• Canada’s action plan for WPS 2017-2022 calls for increasing the recruitment of women into the armed forces for deployment abroad. Should the Special Ambassador on Women, Peace and Security encourage further inclusion of women in the armed forces?
• UNSC 1325 calls for ‘increased representation of women at all decision-making levels…in the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.’  How should the Special Ambassador on Women, Peace and Security  pursue this element of Women, Peace and Security?
• Much of Canada’s action plan focuses on women as victims in armed conflict, and programmes to deal with sexualized violence. What proportion of the Special Ambassador on Women, Peace and Security should be devoted to this, and how should it be approached?

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Nonviolence International Canada maintains a training fund today for civil society groups in Canada, and in the rest of the world, for the purpose of training of trainers for nonviolent direct action campaigns, and for leadership and strategy workshops for civil society movements.

Nonviolence International Canada partners with the AJ Muste Institutes International Nonviolent Trainers Fund for assessing and distributing nonviolent direct action training funds outside North America.

Nonviolence International Canada works directly with social movements in Canada to provide training in, or funding for, training in nonviolent direct action and nonviolent leadership and strategy.

Information on how to donate to this fund, or apply to it, is available on the Nonviolence International Canada website under Support Nonviolence.