Let’s get serious about a Department of Peace
One of the noblest things retired Burnaby–Douglas NDP MP Bill Siksay did while in Ottawa was move a bill to create a Department of Peace within the government of Canada.
Bill C-447 was introduced on the grounds that the world is slowly coming to the realization that violent means and armed conflict cannot create a safer and happy world, just more and more bloodshed and strife.
So with the help of the Victoria-based Canadian Department of Peace Initiative, Siksay moved C-447 through one reading. However, it died, as many other bills did, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s second proroguing of Parliament.
Siksay reintroduced the bill, but the federal election call got in the way and now the bill must be reintroduced.
The economy took the limelight in the election, but peace must blossom for economies to flourish, period. So somebody has got to take this one on, now that Siksay is gone.
Local NDP MPs Don Davies and Libby Davies, and Green party leader Elizabeth May are obvious candidates for a reprised C-447, which has been endorsed by Shambhala International spiritual leader Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche as well as the Dalai Lama.
Here is initiative cofounder Bill Bhaneja speaking in Winnipeg.
Comments
3 Comments
R U Kiddingme
May 5, 2011 at 10:12pm
This seems like a really good idea. The Cabinet is already huge, what is one more minister. Initially it feels quite woo woo, but, as with Environment, if you don't specifically devote resources to it, peace can easily get lost amid other priorities. I think it might be the top priority because humans are now quite capable of glassing this rock, and until we find other rocks to live on we'd better get some peace. Good article.
Not left or right but forward
May 6, 2011 at 10:09pm
This could be done in a minority setting, and those are all good MP candidates to move it forward, but majority Tories would not have it. Sadly, they are not serious about peace -- or compromise.
Stephen Liss
May 15, 2011 at 4:29pm
Gee - why didn't I think of that - not! We already have peace officers - they're called police. We have an entire diplomatic corps to deal with peace policy. We have the Department of National Defence to deal with peacekeeping/peace enforcement. If we changed the names of these organizations to make their peace missions painfully obvious to all the profoundly uninformed, would this over talking and under thinking ex-MP promise to stay in retirement?