Ploughshares community groups. (Network News).

On November 17 Ploughshares Niagara joined with other groups in the St. Catharines area in a Peace Rally and Walk, one of the cross-Canada peace events held that day in response to the September 11 tragedy and the war in Afghanistan. Ploughshares Calgary reports that requests for information and speakers have increased since the events of September 11. Along with other local agencies, Ploughshares Calgary has been meeting with the Canadian G-8 Summit Management Office to consider ways of facilitating civil society input to the 2002 G-8 meetings to be held in Kananaskis, Alberta. A parallel civil society summit is being discussed.

Ploughshares Edmonton recently presented its 2001 Salvos Prelorentzos Peace Award, given annually to honour significant contributions to peace education, to joint recipients Professor Toh Swee-Hin and the project "Painting Peace." Professor Toh Swee-Hin, who last year received the prestigious UNESCO Prize for Peace, is a professor of educational policy at the University of Alberta and is recognised for his pioneering work in peace education in many countries, including the southern Philippines. The initiators of the "Painting Peace" project were the Edmonton-based Change for Children and their partners, Talleres de Muralismo, an organization in Nicaragua, who together brought young people from Canada, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to produce murals on themes of peace, human rights, social justice, diversity, and the care of the earth.

Earlier this year, Ploughshares Edmonton also sponsored a number of presentations by Professor Denis Halliday, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and former UN Assistant Secretary-General. Professor Halliday was the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq for the "Oil for Food" program, but resigned when he saw first-hand the impact of the economic sanctions on the Iraqi people. While in Edmonton he spoke to over 500 people on the catastrophic effects of the sanctions on child mortality, nutrition, social well-being, and the political stability of Iraq and the region.