Peace activism is 'meek' in Winnipeg, but needed now more than ever

So anemic was the turnout at last month's Walk for Peace that casual visitors to the Osborne Village area at the time could be forgiven for missing the event erupting in their midst, even if they'd known about it in advance.

The annual tradition, which once mobilized people by the tens of thousands — rivaling today's Pride parades — has struggled in recent years to attract just a few dozen participants. This decline in numbers is a disturbing omen coming at a time when humankind once again stands at the precipice of a war between major nuclear powers.

Back in the early 1980s, following the election of Ronald Reagan to the US Presidency, the fear of a nuclear holocaust gripped much of the population both across the United States and Canada.

Reagan's pledge to modernize and increase nuclear arsenals to stave off the threat posed by the "evil empire" of the USSR had many of the people who lived through those times very much on edge.

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Scientists in the public eye like astronomer Carl Sagan, and especially Australian pediatrician Helen Caldicott, articulated scenarios in which even a limited nuclear exchange could doom all life on Earth 10 times over. Depictions of world-ending scenarios began to dominate popular literature, movies, and even the pop-music charts.

Many millions around the world were impacted. The awareness-raising led to information sessions, community meetings and eventually major demonstrations.

Perhaps the most notable was an international march and rally for peace on June 12 1982, calling for a freeze and reduction of nuclear arms and a transfer of funds from military to human needs. The largest events were in New York City and in San Francisco.

Winnipeggers too, rose to the challenge at that dynamic moment. According to one estimate reported at the time by the Winnipeg Free Press, as many as 20,000 people, the largest such demonstration since the 1919 General Strike, hit the city's streets calling for ending the nuclear madness and embracing peace.

The participation was diverse, according to the Free Press report: young and old, rich and poor, people of faith, communists, professors, physicians, and elected politicians, including then Premier Howard Pawley. 

Lesley Hughes, veteran broadcaster and columnist, was an emcee at that inaugural event. "That, I would have to say, was certainly one of the happiest times of my life … solidarity was wonderful," she said recently.

Most dangerous time for planet since 1950s

Flash forward to 2017. Another newly minted president is in the White House, resurrecting Reagan-era talking points about the need to build up America's nuclear weapons arsenals.

Factoring in President Trump's plan to "Make America Great Again" through the ruthless pursuit and transport of fossil fuels, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of its infamous Doomsday Clock to two and a half minutes before midnight.

By that measure, this would mark the most dangerous time for humanity since the early 1950s, never mind the 1980s. 

In Canada, the Trudeau government has recently announced a plan to increase Canada's military spending by 70 per cent over the next 10 years, including expenditures on 15 new warships and 88 new fighter jets, effectively fulfilling Trump's demand for NATO allies to spend more on defence. 

There seems to be a consensus among the media and political class, including the opposition NDP, that more Canadian military spending is needed.

Billions that could otherwise be devoted to resolving the opioid crisis, building social housing, providing clean water for First Nations, educating our youth, healing our sick, caring for our infirm and transitioning away from greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels are apparently more responsibly used to fund the instruments of modern warfare.

Acclaimed civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

A dormant peace movement

A lot of legitimate and important movements have sprung up over the last 30 years — campaigns for climate justice, campaigns against GMOs, campaigns against corporate-led globalization, for LGBTQ rights, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and more. 

Given the stakes, however, there is a need at this juncture for the world community to revive the peace activism left dormant for at least a decade, and to do so quickly. 

The outlook in Winnipeg of late has not been promising. The local peace group known as Project Peacemakers, which had been quite active throughout the 1980s and '90s, ceased operation in 2016.

Add to that the meek presence of peace activism in the city these days. The 36th annual Walk for Peace on June 17, organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg, attracted barely 60 people.

A fellow programmer at the University of Winnipeg's CKUW who I bumped into during the post-walk speeches on the west lawn of the Manitoba Legislature said she remembered that original walk. She had worked a table selling T-shirts at that time. She glumly commented, "The Walk for Peace has come a long way — down."

As grim as present prospects for a revived movement may look, demonstrations for peace at a time when nuclear-armed bullies run the planet are an endeavour worth pursuing.

Such action may not be enough to save our world, but inaction will most assuredly doom it. 

Or to quote Lesley Hughes: "It all comes down again to an individual choice.  Am I going to do something, or am I going to do nothing? It's a safer bet to try and do something."

This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.