The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The following statement was read in the Manitoba Legislature on December 1: Mr. Speaker, in Flin Flon Tuesday at noon about 25 concerned citizens ranging from teenage students to senior citizens in their mid-eighties braved the bitter cold to march for peace and against some of the harmful policies of the Bush administration. The organizer of the march, a local activist and my friend, Greg East, was earlier quoted as saying, "If the Americans are our friends, which they are, and our neighbours, which they are, I think it's our responsibility as friends to tell them if we think they're doing something wrong." Speakers and participants included a United Church minister, a city councillor, two ex-American citizens who have been long time residents of Flin Flon, and others. Mr. East told me that his main objective was to join with numerous other Canadians to give a message not only to President Bush, but a message to our Prime Minister Paul Martin. The message: "Do not sign on to the missile defense system!" Those sentiments, Mr. Speaker, are shared not only by the majority of Canadians, but by virtually the entire world. We do not need the militarization of space! We do not need another Cold War! We do not need another arms race! We do not need to spend trillions of dollars on weapons of mass destruction! We need common sense, we need to alleviate poverty, we need to fight the HIV AIDS epidemic, we need international cooperation, not Superpower unilateralism. One speaker at the peace march, a committed Mennonite Christian, speaking in the proud and laudable Anabaptist pacifist tradition, told me later, "As a Christian, I'm reluctant to judge, but I really believe that the way George Bush presents himself is not Christian. Christians should be pacifists." One young man said, "I don't know how Bush can say he's pro-life when he's the cause of thousands of deaths." Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the activists in Flin Flon. Let's wage peace, not war!3/12/04
