elcome to the official web site of the Windsor Peace Coalition - a proud affiliate member of the Canadian Peace Alliance.

Please visit often to remain abreast of upcoming events and actions.

ecently a letter of concern from the Peace Coalition over the persecution of Colombian human rights defender Liliany Obando Villota was circulated (see below). The letter called for her release from prison and for the Canadian government to use its influence with the government of Colombia to guarantee her rights and ensure that her life and the lives of her children are protected.

We are now passing on an announcement of an upcoming film-showing and press conference to inform the public about Liliany's work and attempts of the Colombian government to enlist the cooperation of governments in countries she visited with its witch hunt against those who show solidarity with Colombians fighting for their rights.

Place: ACAPULCO DELIGHT Restaurant
                  656 Pitt St. West, Windsor

Date: Sunday 23 November

Time:

Organized by the Windsor Committee in Support of Liliany Obando and all political prisoners (wcsclo@hotmail.com)

It is with great concern that we have learned of the detention in Colombia of Liliany Obando Villota on "terrorism"-related charges. We know Liliany as a tireless worker for social justice and human rights.

Windsor was one of the cities Liliany Obando visited on behalf of FENSUAGRO, the National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions of Colombia. She spoke to university students and at community meetings. On her visit in 2006 she was accompanied by the President of FENSUAGRO, Eberto Diaz Montes, who spoke about the history of the Federation’s struggles on behalf of Colombian agricultural workers. Sponsors of Liliany's visits to Windsor included the University of Windsor Centre for Studies in Social Justice, Windsor Peace Coalition and the Human Rights Committee of CAW Local 195.

In Colombia, to be accused of “collaborating with the insurgency” is tantamount to a death threat. In the case of many trade unionists and human rights defenders such accusations are all too often followed by the person’s disappearance or murder either by state security forces or paramilitary death squads that still operate with impunity in Colombia.

Liliany Obando did not come to Canada to buy arms or explosives or to traffic in cocaine, things we understand members of the Colombian state and armed forces have engaged in. Her mission was one of peace and human rights. For this she won the sympathy of many in our community.

Liliany spoke in Windsor of the grave problems the Colombian peasantry and agricultural workers have faced for decades at the hands of big landowners, the state and paramilitary forces. Trade unionists, members of faith groups, students and other concerned community members were very interested in what she had to say and the projects she was associated with, like the creation of centres for women and men in the Colombian countryside to give testimony about the violation of their rights.

We call on the Canadian government to take whatever diplomatic measures it can to ensure that Liliany’s rights are guaranteed in Colombia, and that her life and the lives of her family are protected, just as protection was offered in Canada to Colombian Senator and Liberal Party member Piedad Cordoba and others a number of years ago when their lives were in danger.

The government of Canada which claims to have human rights as a cornerstone of its foreign policy should demand that the Colombian government stop the reprehensible practice of criminalizing and accusing its opponents of having links to “terrorism” in an attempt to silence them and/or set them up for assassination, the fate of far too many trade unionists and human rights defenders in that country.

Liliany Obando must be released from prison and allowed to continue with her work on behalf of the Colombian peasantry and agricultural workers whose cause she so courageously champions at home and abroad.

Windsor Peace Coalition
October 2008

We declare the following to be necessary measures if Canada is to make a contribution to a just world peace.

1. Withdraw from military alliances or coalitions led by the US, which are the biggest threat to peace and harmony among nations today. This includes NATO, NORAD and arrangements being put into place under US NORTHCOM.



2. End our involvement in the occupation of foreign lands and bring all occupying troops home.



3. Respect and uphold the United Nations' Charter - founded on a rejection of the principle of "Might makes Right" - which prohibits both waging, and threatening to wage, wars of aggression, including so-called "preventive" wars and other forms of arbitrary interference in the affairs of sovereign states.



4. Renounce the use of force and violence for settling disagreements and conflicts among nations, including so-called humanitarian military interventions and aggression committed in the name of "The Responsibility to Protect" civilians. Aggression cloaked in the language of human rights or peacemaking is hypocrisy of the highest order.



5. Engage in trade and other international affairs on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. Oppose unfair and unequal trade regimes such as those enforced by NAFTA and the WTO that create conditions for trade wars that in turn lead to shooting wars.



6. Get Canada out of the international arms trade and advocate the revival of an effective Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to ensure the non-lethal use of nuclear power.



7. Reject all measures which result in the de-facto annexation of Canada by the US empire, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), investors' rights treaties like NAFTA masquerading as "free trade" agreements, along with other arrangements of an economic, political and military nature designed to put Canada's natural and human resources at the service of the U.S. project for world domination.



8. Recognize our duty to hold our leaders to critical account when war and aggression are waged in our name, all the more so when this is done hypocritically in the name of "peacemaking," "Canadian values" or "ridding the world of terrorism."



9. Recognize the central role of Justice in any quest for Peace. Peace without Justice is a cruel charade.



10. Recognize that peace is not only Possible; it is Necessary. Its attainment, however, requires a tenacious struggle to defeat any pro-war agenda promoted by the government.

Windsor Peace Coalition