Update – More the 1000 Canadians have now signed on. Please join us and speak out against War.

On Sept 25, 2002, a group of over 100 prominent Canadians issued a joint statement at a Toronto press conference opposing the impending US war on Iraq. Speaking at the press conference were Anton Kuerti (pianist), Linda McQuaig (author), Dale Hildebrand (representing KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative) and Michael Mandel (law professor).

Signatories include artists, writers, entertainers, medical professionals, academics and religious and labour leaders, among them Canada's cultural icons like Margaret Atwood, Robert Bateman, Pierre Berton, David Suzuki, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Senator Douglas Roche, a former Canadian Ambassador to the UN.

"The world will not become a safer place because a country with a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction uses its military might to bomb others that it alleges are developing the same weaponry", says pianist Anton Kuerti, "As we are beginning to realize, sanctions too can become a weapon of mass destruction, when even something like chlorine, which is crucial to maintaining a safe water supply, is banned."

THE STATEMENT IS NOW BEING CIRCULATED WIDELY ACROSS CANADA by broad-based church, labour, academic, peace, and development organizations, including the Physicians for Global Survival and the Canadian Network to End Sanctions on Iraq (CANESI).

TO ADD YOUR NAME to the petition please visit http://www.bethechange.ca/iraq Please include your affiliation in the comments section, particularly if you are representing a specific organization, religious, labour, or local community.

For more information please contact: jill...@peacewire.org.btc, mike...@dal.ca.btc or CANESI at szur...@dal.ca.btc. (please remove the .btc to send an email)

Time to Move Beyond War Petition

Sign on http://www.bethechange.ca/iraq

We, the undersigned, are deeply alarmed that the most powerful nations in the world continue to rely on military force to achieve their global political and economic goals - while eroding the standard of living, the environment, and the security of people throughout the world.

We are united in the belief that a military attack on Iraq at this juncture would be profoundly immoral, and would almost certainly result in destabilizing repercussions that would endanger the whole world.

Since the 1991 Gulf War, an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis have died as a result of shortages of food and medicine under sanctions. Iraq's water and sewage treatment facilities, destroyed during the Gulf War, have not yet been restored due to sanctions - resulting in an epidemic of water-borne diseases throughout the country.

In August 1999, UNICEF confirmed that 500,000 Iraqi children, mainly under the age of 5 years, had died under sanctions, and that a further 25% of all Iraqi children suffer from chronic and acute malnutrition.

Military action would first and foremost affect the long-suffering civilian population of Iraq. It would constitute an unprovoked act of aggression and would present the very real danger of igniting a larger conflict far beyond the borders of Iraq.

No connection has been confirmed between Iraq and the September 11th terrorist attacks. Furthermore, no convincing evidence has been produced that Iraq is in possession of weapons of mass destruction, or that it has plans to threaten to use, or to use, such weapons in the near future.

The world cannot be made safe from weapons of mass destruction by countries that possess vast arsenals of such weaponry, bombing other nations for allegedly pursuing the same weaponry.

Global peace and security can only be achieved by entering into negotiated and verifiable agreements to rid the world of all weapons of mass destruction.

Bombing sites that could contain nuclear, chemical or biological weapons should be unthinkable, as it would hold the potential for a global human and environmental catastrophe.

We urge the Canadian government and the people of Canada to do everything in their power to oppose military action against Iraq and to seek peaceful means to resolve outstanding issues.

Peace can only be built upon a foundation of diplomacy and justice. We must work to uphold international law and to safeguard human rights, the environment, and global human security. Then, and only then, can the world move beyond terrorism and war.

sign on - http://www.bethechange.ca/iraq