Elizabeth Snell

I think it was the early 1980's when I joined World Federalists of Canada; I don't remember the occasion. Hanna Newcombe must have had something to do with it.

I had been interested in the ideal of the UN since a small child. When I was about 7 I saw a film about UNICEF in Sunday School. We didn't have a TV so any film was a big hit. This one had the additional attraction of Danny Kaye as a UNICEF ambassador. As a teen I looked up material about the UN in the public library. Not really in depth study, I'm afraid - just to get a sense what it was about.

An almost chance visit to USSR in the '70's was an epiphany of how people were equally human everywhere - something that should have been obvious, but I had fallen into the "us and them" trap, picturing them as gray robots. They weren't.

My work involved environmental issues. When If You Love This Planet came along I figured nuclear war was the ultimate environmental disaster and pointless human tragedy and I should do something. I was one of a group of women in a rural area outside of Hamilton who formed the Flamborough Peace Group. We spoke at schools, went on marches, had displays at the local fair. And somewhere along the line I ran into Hanna - possibly at Hamilton peace marshes or Hamilton UNA.

I don't remember anything about the occasion of deciding to join WFC but it did eventually dawn on me that it would be much harder to convince countries to disarm if there were no alternative dispute settling mechanism, some sort of democratic global structure and international law, some way to meet and talk and to see others as fellow global citizens. World Federalists of Canada was and is working to make that dream come true.

Elizabeth Snell