Buzz #3

THE WFM-C BUZZ JANUARY 2006
A ROUND-UP OF ACTIVITIES

TRACKING UN REFORM

WFM-C was one of the few organizations to track the entire reform process at the Millennium + 5 Summit in September 2005. We participated in preparatory meetings with the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and other Civil Society Organizations, distributed extensive background information to the media, and prepared post-summit outcome analysis. For the latest Post-Summit UN Reform developments, see http://www.reformtheun.org/, sponsored by WFM.

PLANNING FOR THE WORLD PEACE FORUM, June 23 - 28, 2006

Our next General Members Meeting will be held in Vancouver on June 24-25, 2006 in conjunction with the World Peace Forum. In addition to our banquet and the awarding of our Peace Prize, we will also be sponsoring seminars on UN Reform, Responsibility to Protect, and Environmental Treaties. For those who wish to book overnight accommodation at UBC, please do so at your earliest convenience since space is available on a first come, first serve basis. Contact info available shortly.

ADVISING GOVERNMENT

President Warren Allmand and Executive Director Fergus Watt made a presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in respect to the Committee’s Study of Canada’s International Policy Statement.

SUPPORTING WFM INTERNATIONALLY

The World Federalist Movement held a joint meeting with the Union of European Federalists in Brussels on Nov. 4. Canadians Lois Wilson (WFM Acting President), Jim Christie (WFM Council Chair), Karen Hamilton and Fergus Watt attended. WFM and UEF issued a joint statement in which they call for the European Union to agree on a single seat in the UN Security Council which would pave the way for the entry of all regional groupings of states, and transform it into a Council of the large regions of the world.

WADING INTO CANADIAN POLITICS

WFM-C National President Warren Allmand has been elected to the office of Montreal city councillor. He also served as a legal advisor in drafting the initial version of the new Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities.

Member Ian Waddell, former MP and British Columbia MLA, is a running in the coming federal election as a candidate in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway.

Member Edward McWhinney has written a new book 'The Governor General and the Prime Ministers.'

COLLABORATING WITH NGOs

WFM-C has taken a lead role in reorganizing the Peace Operations Working Group (POWG), which addresses preventive deployments, ceasefire monitoring, post-conflict stabilization, reconstruction and democratic transition. We also participated in a meeting in Ottawa of the Canadian Forum on Global Security, along with 20 civil society leaders, former diplomats, journalists and defence and foreign policy researchers. WFM-C is an active partner in six civil society networks.

CHALLENGING THE MEDIA

On United Nations Day Oct 24 and Human Rights Day December 10,
WFM-C forwarded media advisories to encourage coverage of our issues. Fergus Watt was interviewed by C-FAX Radio in Victoria.
Individual members continue the flood of Letters to the Editor, archived in the Letters Project.

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC

Donna Lindenberg and Elizabeth Snell of National office communications have prepared a new flyer for prospective members. Vancouver has adapted the flyer originally prepared for the Manitoba Branch by Syd Baumel.

WORLD FEDERALIST FOUNDATION (WFF) ANNIVERSARY

Starting its 19th year, our sister organization WFF offers charitable receipts, and funds WFM-C educational activities, but it also carries on its own programs. The first project was "Our Planet in Every Classroom" which aimed to place a photograph of the earth in Canadian classrooms in order to convey to children the concept of global citizenship." The current President is Peter Bailey.

WRITERS & SPEAKERS & TEACHERS

Robin Collins in the Ploughshares Monitor on "A step in the right direction: The Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction".

Andrew A. D. (Andy) Clarke, former Executive Director, edits Proceedings, the journal of the Canadian Association For the Club of Rome.

Ross Smyth continues his memoirs "An Airman's Case For Global Democracy".

Larry Kazdan spoke with slide accompaniment to a community college in Vancouver on "Steps to Planethood: The Politics of Global Citizenship".

Dr. James Christie, WFM Council Chair, has been named Dean of the University of Winnipeg's Global College. A college without borders, the Global College is an action-oriented multi-disciplinary option for Canadian and International students, bringing them face to face with visiting scholars from around the world and engaging them to discover our role within the global community, our responsibility to protect, and our responsibility to act.

WEBSITES OF NOTE

Want to join a lively community of people from all nations interested in exchanging information and ideas related to world governance? Check out Doron Dekel's World Governance Forum at http://worldgov.info/.

Also, check out the Vancouver branch's newly designed website at http://www.vcn.bc.ca/wfcvb/.