Kingston Peace Council

"It joins with people from around the world demanding an end to imperialism and its progeny: genocide, endless wars, the plundering of the global south, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, and genocide."

Can you talk a bit about your group's objective?

We are a local chapter of the Canadian Peace Congress. For 75 years the Canadian Peace Congress, that's kind of our higher level, has been committed to anti-imperialist and anti-colonial principles and to our vision of a world founded on peaceful cooperation, and international solidarity. The Congress and the World Peace Council were founded as a response to the worldwide call to ban the bomb, a movement that garnered over 500 million signatures on the first Stockholm appeal for nuclear disarmament. Our Congress is composed of local organizations and peace councils like this one in cities and towns across Canada and as a member of the World Peace Council. It joins with people from around the world demanding an end to imperialism and its progeny: genocide, endless wars, the plundering of the global south, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, and genocide. 

Can you talk about what you guys do in Kingston specifically? 

We've been around since 2018 or 2019. We have done a lot of educational things. I will get a journalist or a professor or somebody who's been involved in politics for X amount of time, you know, an activist, anything like that. And we'll put on an event where they're maybe presenting something or we'll do movie screenings. So I've done Doctor Strangelove, an old Stanley Kubrick movie about the Cold War and stuff, funny but still pretty relevant. As well, we'll do demonstrations outside of our MP, Mr. Mark Gerritson's office. But, you know, it's not really limited to that.

One thing that we've done recently that I'm particularly proud of is working with the Katarokwi Union of Tenants and helping them fundraise money for their Feed the People program. So I handled the GoFundMe with the help of some of the other people who are in that union and also in Kingston Peace Council.

The ultimate goal is to have a bit more of a relationship with Kingston's unhoused community.

Have you ever worked with SPHR or other Palestine solidarity groups?

Yes, absolutely. I have had Yara Hussein for an event we did where I had her on a panel with the head of the Canadian Peace Congress and a Queen's Prof. It was over Zoom, but you know, still pretty good. And then I've been, you know, personally but also through the Peace Council supporting the Palestine protests here logistically for the last little while. So they've approached us a few times and said can you please sponsor our event or anything? So that's why you're going to see our logo on a lot of the posters they've done since October 7th.

Have you popped by the Queens encampment?

A little bit here and there to see how they're doing but they didn’t really need our help. They got it figured out pretty well. I lent them sound equipment a few times and stuff like that. They're great. Really impressive kids. And they're going to go far too.

What is the biggest challenge for your group right now?

Interest in joining and staying. We're a smaller group and it would be nice to have a more consistent membership. I'm trying to learn how to build up the organizational capacity to do so because once you have people in, you need to keep their attention. You need to give them things to do and have them be sort of involved and feel like they're worth a damn when they're doing this kind of thing. And, you know, if not, you're going to lose people.

What are you most proud of?

Well, that we've come this far. There were times when I thought about dissolving this completely. I was just like, what's the point of this? But we've made lots of friends and lots of connections. And I've done things here that I don't think I ever would have been able to do otherwise, including, you know, meeting people from the Cuban government and getting these pretty big authors in on the Canadian left to come to Kingston and sit with us and talk.

What do you need from the community?

I mean, we're always looking for donations and stuff. I fund the organization personally most of the time. But support generally is great. I'm also interested in building connections with other organizations in Kingston. 

How would you like to organize with other groups? 

I think that a United Front is important. It makes a lot of sense for us and other Palestine solidarity groups to collaborate with climate action groups in Kingston. Prior to the Palestine conflict, the biggest emission of greenhouse gases was the detonation of the gas pipeline in Russia. This was done by the US Navy SEALs.

This was broken by a reporter named Seymour Hirsch, one of the big, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters out there. The fact is there is a component to the stuff we're seeing on the news and everything that is permanently damaging the environment. The bombs that are being dropped on Palestine at the moment and well before October 7th have done irreparable damage to the environment. The Canadian military, and the Canadian forces emissions are not included in climate targets at all.

The president of the Canadian Peace Congress is going to do a cross-country tour. And I want him to come to Kingston and I want him to sit with me and 350 Kingston or another climate group to talk about this.

How does the structure of your group work? 

At the end of the day, it is a council. As we scale up members, I'm interested in adopting a formal Robert's Rules of Order. 

How do you handle conflict in your group? 

Well, there hasn’t been a whole lot of friction. We just try to deal with things in a mature, comradely way. However, it should go without saying that under no circumstances will discrimination, assault, harassment, etc. be tolerated. The peace council is for everybody. We won’t try to teach you socialism or anything, although anti-colonialism, and not being in NATO and stuff is fundamentally a characteristic of a socialist society. 

So this morning I saw something that said peace is a white man's word and you can't have peace without liberation. What we need is liberation, which is not always happy and peaceful. You can still have slavery with peace for example. What are your thoughts on that?

Absolutely. Well, you'll see I'm wearing a Malcolm X shirt. The fact of the matter is non-violence is a tactic and peace is the end goal ultimately. I heard this interview with Kwame Ture when he was in university and part of the university’s non-violent coordinating committee. He would go on talks in the south in I want to say the seventies, talking about peace. And the whole time he carried a revolver. It doesn’t matter if you believe in peace if they don’t. I don’t want to scare away the liberals, but we do need to be prepared to fight. This has been a problem with the Israel-Palestine stuff. We've had people approach us who are like, "Oh, we want to do a peace event. It's not an Israel, not a Palestine thing. We’re not taking sides” Fuck off. I emailed back and said no we’re not doing that. To be on the side of peace is to support Palestine. 

What motivates you to keep fighting the fight?

I actually stopped for the last month or two because I was burnt out. But I’m learning to balance my mental health with giving to the cause. But I don't know, just, to try to be a better person, I guess. I have so much privilege as a straight white guy. I don't put down other people's decisions not to participate in this stuff though. My partner has chosen not to. And then frankly, it's great because we don't have disagreements in the home or anything like that.