Campaign strategy update

Dear Ceasefire.ca supporter,

I wanted to provide you with this strategy update to give you some inside information on our campaigns.

First, let me thank you for your ongoing support. In a few months Ceasefire.ca will be marking its tenth year of campaigning for peace. Together, we have created a network of more than 20,000 people who want Canada to be a peace leader, and are prepared to take action to make it happen.

Do You Remember for Peace?

Last week we launched our annual Remembrance Day campaign. Since then, more than 1000 people have told us “Yes, I remember for peace” and added their name on Ceasefire.ca.

The comments left by Ceasefire.ca supporters, and many new people who have joined us through Facebook, are very moving. Consider leaving your own reply to the question, “Is Remembrance Day too much about war, and not enough about peace?”

Please help us to reach our goal of 3000 names before November 11. Sign your name and Like the post on Facebook.

Facebook

Later this week we will be releasing new polling numbers on the views of young people about Remembrance Day. You might be surprised by the results! Watch Ceasefire.ca.

Fall fundraising campaign

In my last email to you, I outlined how the Harper Conservatives are worried about our movement for peace. They have been launching media attacks against us over our criticism of the F-35s and massive military spending, and now we have learned through declassified DND documents that the military is monitoring me and Ceasefire.ca. We have posted those documents on Ceasefire.ca.

I also asked for your financial support. We need to raise $15,000 before the end of November, and we are less than halfway there now. Donations have been coming in, and I want to thank you if you have already replied, or have joined our Peacekeepers monthly donor club!

If you haven’t responded yet, please consider making a special contribution, or even joining our Peacekeepers monthly donor club by making a small but vital monthly donation to Ceasefire.ca. New members will receive a free copy of Linda McQuaig’s latest book, with Neil Brooks, The Trouble with Billionaires.

We will use your contribution to continue to oppose wasteful military spending like the F-35 stealth fighters, oppose the pro-war lobby, and work to make Canada a peace leader, once again.

Award

Earlier this year constituents of Ottawa Centre, the riding where I live, were asked by our MP Paul Dewar (and the NDP’s very effective Foreign Affairs critic), for nominations of people to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for outstanding service. Dozens of nominations were sent in, and an independent committee of community leaders choose thirty recipients.

Unbeknownst to me, I was nominated, and selected to receive the honour for my “commitment to peace and international security through disarmament.” What a wonderful surprise.

The award was reported in a few newspapers, including the Ottawa Citizen, which could not resist trying to stir up controversy, reporting:

On Saturday Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar gave out two politically charged medals, one to outspoken defence analyst Steven Staples of the left-leaning Rideau Institute and another to former Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer Richard Warman, who has been vilified by some conservatives for his advocacy of hate-speech prosecutions.

The influential Hill Times also reported that

NDP MP Paul Dewar awarded Rideau Institute president Steven Staples a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in a ceremony on Oct. 20. “I am delighted to have been awarded this distinction, but also want it known that the achievement it honours is the result of the work of many, many people whom I count as colleagues and friends,” Mr. Staples said in a press release. “Therefore I would like to accept it on behalf of our organization’s supporters who all contribute significantly to making Canada a leader for peace and social justice.”

Thanks for everything you do for peace.
Steven Staples
Ceasefire.ca