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Canadian Section Report -- May 2007
PRESIDENT:………………Ellen Woodsworth VICE-PRESIDENT…………Joan Remple Bishop CORRESPONDENCE-……. Joanne Whitney RECORDING-SEC..……….Dyane Brown, TREASURER……………… Colleen Burke, IEC REPRESENTATIVE…..Judith Gallant Alternate IEC Reps………….Ellen Woodsworth (see PRESIDENT) PEACE LINES Editor/………Mary Rawson, Toronto Branch Rep…………Bruna Nota, Nanaimo Branch Rep………..Dyane Brown (see RECORDING SECRETARY)
WILPF Canadian Section Report 2006-2007 The Canadian Section was well represented on WILPF’s Delegation to Cuba in November; four of the 16 delegates were from Canada. Two of the delegates, Joan Bishop of Ottawa and Judith Gallant of Kingston, I had never met before. Judith, who is a travel agent, did a splendid job of moving us along and making sure every one was comfortable. Regina Birchem and Susan Smith quickly discovered each delegate’s area of interest and kept us on task and the end result was an excellent report; the credit for which goes to them as much as to us. There were exciting moments as when Hanna Hadikin, originally from Nelson, B.C., but then living in Venezuela, walked in at breakfast one morning. Each day was an adventure and our notebooks were brim-full as we tried to absorb it all. I was so impressed by the large number of highly professional Cuban women, who addressed us, sometimes with the help of excellent translators. At our last Section Meeting in November 2004, Susi Snyder surprised us by attending. She gave us what proved to be a wonderful idea, namely, having Members-at-Large. Now some of our Members-at-Large are making significant contributions. Joan is the new Vice-President of the Canadian Section and Judith is our new IEC Rep. and, because of the nature of Judith’s work, that could make it difficult for her to attend all the IEC meetings; both Marlene LeGates and Ellen Woodsworth of the Vancouver Branch have offered to be alternate IEC Reps. and are prepared to fill in when necessary. We continue to struggle with declining membership; at present we have only 32 members across Canada. We plan on setting up a Canadian Section Website in the next year, and hopefully that will attract more members. We have also struck an “Outreach to Youth Committee” and, have identified places and events where we could get our message out. We may have to even consider going elsewhere in B.C. There has been a strong interest in peace in Nelson, B.C., where Selkirk College has the “Mir” Peace Studies Program. The city of Nelson had extended a welcoming hand to the American Draft Dodgers in the seventies, and many of them still live there. Now a new wave of “War Resisters”, consisting mainly of American soldiers who conscientiously object to the War in Iraq, On May 10th, we held our triennial Canadian Section Meeting and were able to fill the many vacant executive positions. We now have a healthy balance between new and experienced executive members and all three Branches are represented and, also for the first time, we have two Members-at-Large on board. Eighteen members attended the business meeting and five guests joined us for lunch and to later hear the guest speaker, Gail Davison, from Lawyers Against War, who took “the Impeachment of George Bush” into the B.C. Courts. She lost of course; nevertheless, Gail made heroic gains in creating public awareness of the deception surrounding this presidency. Barbara Cullen, our ex-IEC Rep., who was tragically afflicted with blindness while returning from a conference in Lebanon, arrived in the afternoon. All those attending conferred with Ellen Woodsworth’s motion to award Barbara with an Honorary Membership in the The Canadian Section of WILPF. The Lebanese Section has done likewise and have honored Barbara for her continued commitment to the Middle-East. Some areas for new initiatives were identified; e.g., launching a membership drive (with the emphasis on founding a youth group); setting up our own Canadian Section Website; and collecting donations from the Section, Branches and Individuals to be used to fund or subsidize a delegate from the south to the 29th CONGRESS in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. What follows are the Resolutions the Canadian Section passed for the upcoming CONGRESS. Joanne Whitney, Correspondence Secretary of the Canadian Section of WILPF
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