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This fact sheet was researched and written by Sheri Gibbings, and edited by Marika Morris.

Women, Peace and Security
Who and what is a real security threat? This fact sheet presents a different view. It takes into account women’s perspectives on security, and the impact of security issues on Canadian women.

Did you know?

• Physical and sexual violence occur in times of peace and war, but are even more widespread in times of armed conflict. Many women experience rape and forced pregnancy, forced sex work, sexual slavery, sometimes resulting in HIV/AIDS infection. Although men are often the main perpetrators of violence towards women, men too experience violence, including sexualized violence. An example is the torture, including sexual torture, of male Iraqi civilians detained without charge in 2004.1  
• In June 2004, despite international commitments to stop the sexual assault of women and children as a weapon of war, a United Nations (UN) Emergency Relief Coordinator said “rape continues to be used as a brutal weapon of war” against women and children in conflict zones in Africa, without much international attention or intervention. He stated that women and children suffer physical, psychological, emotional and social trauma, and that attacks on women and children also undermine cultural values, community relationships and destroy local communities.  Serbian rape camps of the early 1990s, for example, were designed to be a weapon of genocide to demoralize and break apart civilian populations and impregnate women with the genetic material of the enemy.2  Some refugee women in Canada are survivors of these atrocities.
• After September 11th, 2001, there was a large increase in vandalism and assault on Muslims and people who appeared of Arab origin, as well as bombings and vandalism of Muslim, Jewish and Hindu places of worship in Canada.3   Many Muslim women wearing the hijab (head scarf) became targets of harassment. The “war on terror” has actually increased the experience of terror, insecurity and persecution for some Canadians, as well as led to the deaths, injuries and economic disruption of thousands of children, women and men in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

The insecurity of military security

• We are all interconnected. The safety and well-being of Canadians is connected to the safety and well-being of people around the world.
• When politicians buy weapons, thinking they will make us safe, they often spend less on basic needs, such as food, shelter, education, health and political rights; things that actually can provide security.
• Addressing the causes of hatred, violence and conflict is important. Killing innocent women, men and children does not stop terrorism; it creates more acts of terrorism by feeding the cycle of hatred and vengeance.
• War and conflict are not one-time events with a clear start and finish. Instead, they are massive projects focusing on the building and training of armies and the production of weapons and infrastructure to be used in conflict, all of which takes a lot of money and energy. Long term physical, psychological, economic and environmental effects of war are present for a long time afterwards.4  Military force is not a long-term and sustainable form of security.
• Decisions to engage in military conflict usually have more to do with defending economic or geographic interests than with understanding the moral reasons used to justify war as ‘humanitarian intervention’. Powerful countries and the media are only interested in a few of the many armed conflicts and human rights abuses going on in the world right now.

Peacekeeping: Preventing some violence, causing other violence

• Canada is proud of its peacekeeping role. Peacekeepers ideally go to a conflict zone in order to prevent massacres and needless violence. However, better and more suitable screening and training is needed to make sure that peacekeepers can do what they are supposed to do.
• Soldiers are not born to fight in war but are taught through training and psychological conditioning.5  When soldiers who are taught to fight an “inhuman” enemy are then sent to keep the peace, their training may not be geared toward the respectful treatment of citizens of other countries.
• By July 12, 2004, there were already 68 allegations of child rape against UN peacekeepers from various countries in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including a child prostitution ring being run by certain peacekeepers.6  
• Peacekeepers who are exposed to horrors during peacekeeping missions abroad often have nightmares, high anxiety and distress as a result. Up to 20% of Canadian peacekeepers may suffer from these symptoms.7  
• Peackeepers sometimes threaten the lives of the people they are sent to “help”. In March 1993 two Canadian soldiers beat a Somali teenager to death and several weeks later Canadian soldiers shot two Somali men. In the Inquiry after the killings it was found that the two men were drawn into the Canadian compound with food and water only to be shot.8  The racism present in this case was evident when a video showed Airborne soldiers describing the mission as ‘Operation Snatch Niggers’. Although the acts of certain individuals were condemned, there were few calls to rebuild the culture of the Canadian military that trains individuals to act in these ways.9  
• Members of the Airborne also held an unofficial dinner to “honour Marc Lepine, the man who massacred fourteen women at the Université de Montreal in 1989”.10   It is clear that it is not just a couple of ‘bad people’, but that the root causes of these acts (racism, rape, torture, murder and cover-up) are a part of a larger mentality that needs to be changed, for the sake of the security of those in the military and those outside it.11 
• Canada, with the United Kingdom, has developed a Gender Training Initiative course intended for peacekeepers to learn about gender issues in order to better fulfill mission mandates.12  It is three days of video-based training (largely self-training), which most peacekeepers never get.
• There are many factors involved in how peacekeepers can exploit local populations. Often there is a racial difference between peacekeepers and the local community. Peacekeepers are paid, and they enter communities that are economically and ecologically devastated by war, leaving local populations desperate for money to survive. Then without gender training, male peacekeepers can come into vulnerable communities with little or no respect for women. This is a recipe for abuse.

Here, there, everywhere: The presence of militarism

• Militarism is a mindset that upholds military force in the promotion of national interests, and requires military build-up of armed forces and weaponry.
• Our society is militarized by violence in films, video games, TV programs and war toys. Men and boys are often encouraged to participate in violence – both in the schoolyard and through violent video games and toys. War games promote the view that the world is divided into “good guys” and “bad guys”, and that killing “bad guys” is good and fun.13  Later in life, men continue to be expected to be ‘tough’ and suppress any expression of weakness.
• Physicians for Global Survival (PGS) distributes a “Peaceful Childhoods” kit.14   It contains sections on guns and children, peaceful story-telling, fostering peace in the home, encouraging peaceful play, and comes with a poster and family covenant. For more info, see the resource section of this fact sheet.
• Sweden and Norway have a successful voluntary restriction of the sale of war toys.15  

Balance and choices: Where your tax money goes

• The 2003 federal budget provided the Department of National Defence with $1.6 billion in new funding over the next two years.16  At the same time in Canada, 41 % of single women, 49 % of unattached older women, 43 % of Aboriginal women, and 37 % of women of colour live in poverty.
• Every dollar spent on defense means less money spent on other programs. For example, for the cost of six c-17 military transport planes ($2 billion dollars), the government could build 20,000 new social housing units.17  Men and women in the Canadian military should not be risking their lives and health with outdated equipment. Neither should women, men and children living on the streets or in temporary shelters be risking their lives and health because of lack of affordable housing in one of the richest countries in the world.
• Many companies located in Canada are producing weapons that are exported elsewhere and used to kill people. The US Department of Defense bought $1.83 billion (US) of Canadian military products between 1987 and 2002.18  This includes $117 million in ammunition alone.19  
• At least $2.55 billion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) funds are invested in domestic and foreign military corporations.20  Through it Canadians support the production of major weapon systems that are then used in various wars and conflicts around the world.

Security for First Nations, Inuit and Metis

• The Canadian government continues to allow the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)21  to use an air base at Goose Bay, Labrador, for low-level flight training, air-defence exercises and bombing practices.22  The flights cause sonic booms which disrupt Aboriginal community life, scare away animals used for food, and have a negative impact on physical and mental health. The aircraft fuel emissions destroy the environment. Innu women have been leaders in the resistance to this use of their traditional lands. Despite Innu opposition, Canada renewed its agreement with NATO in 1996 to continue the low-level flights for another ten years, allowing up to 18,000 military flights and maneuvers over Innu lands. The Department of National Defence continued to test laser-guided bombs in southern Labrador in 2001, to later be used in Afghanistan.23  The flights and bombings continue in contravention of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantees the right of Aboriginal peoples to peace, security and the control of their own lands. Why isn’t the security of Aboriginal peoples important in Canada?
• Between 1990 and 1994 nearly 500 Aboriginal women were reported missing in Western Canada and are unaccounted for to date.24  Additionally, more than 60 women went missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.25  At least four women involved in drugs or prostitution in Edmonton have been dumped outside the city in the past 10 years and another six bodies have turned up within city limits.26  Why doesn’t Canada provide security for Aboriginal children and young people who are recruited into prostitution? Why doesn’t Canada provide security for Aboriginal women?

Domestic and state violence

• Over a quarter of Canadian women have been assaulted at least once by an intimate partner.27  In Canada, four out of five people murdered by their spouses are women murdered by men.28  Girl children are targets of abuse within the family more so than boys. Four out of five victims of family-related sexual assaults (79%) are girls.29 
• Some women and girls are more vulnerable to physical and sexual attacks. Forty percent of women with disabilities have been raped, abused or assaulted.30  Over half of Aboriginal women have been assaulted.31  Aboriginal and other racialized women are also subject to racially-motivated physical and sexual assaults in addition to domestic violence.
• Women in Canadian prisons have also been subject to human rights abuses. The stripping and shackling of women by the male Institutional Emergency Response Team from the Kingston Penitentiary and the later nine-month illegal segregation of women are two examples.32  
• In the early 1990s, a House of Commons committee declared violence against women to be a “war on women”. Federal and provincial governments have still not acted on most of the recommendations of the 1993 Report of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women.
• Why isn’t the safety of all Canadian women a national security priority? More women have been killed or injured in domestic violence than in terrorist attacks.

Weapons of war within our borders

• Many gun owners in Canada are hunters or target shooters who view guns as tools or recreational objects, and who would never dream of turning one against another human being. However:
• On average, 40% of women killed by their husbands in Canada are shot; most of them (80%) with legally owned rifles and shotguns.33  
• Many abusive men have no criminal record and seem to be “law-abiding” gun owners. Not knowing about guns in the home during a domestic violence call puts police officers’ lives at risk.34 
• Many women’s shelters and women’s organizations in Canada argue that gun registration is a necessary basic step so police can remove firearms from abusive situations before an assault turns into a homicide.35 
• Guns are often part of the cycle of fear and violence that many victims face in their homes. For each woman that dies from a spouse with a firearm, there are many more that are constantly living in fear and under threat.36  
• The accessibility of weapons is directly linked to fatal violence in both conflict and non-conflict zones. When the fighting outside the home stops, guns are carried back to the home where they can be used.
• Canada’s official international position is to stop the proliferation of small arms and light weapons because they promote conflicts and human suffering.37  Yet this often clashes with domestic policy threats to dismantle Canada’s gun registry.

HIV/AIDS: The biggest threat to security in many parts of the world 

• HIV/AIDS was recognized as an international security issue by the United Nations Security Council in January 2000.38 
• In situations of war, it is more difficult for women to survive due to their unequal social and economic status. Sometimes they have to start selling sex for food and shelter. Often they are raped. The presence of the military or peacekeeping force is known to increase sexual exploitation because it brings in a higher concentration of men who have both power and money. If peacekeepers or combatants engage in sexual relationships with, or assaults on local women while on mission, they can spread the virus to the local population or contract it. They then can infect their sexual partners when they return home.

Haven in a heartless world? Migrants, refugees and immigrants entering Canada

• Women and children make up 75-80 per cent of refugee populations.39  Yet two-thirds of all refugee applicants in Canada are men. Claims are often harder for women to make because of unequal access to education and paid work, the demands of child care and the economic costs of entering a country.40  
• Some refugee women are faced with racism, gender discrimination and harassment in Canada.41  
• The “war against terrorism” is played out within Canada through racial profiling at borders, airports and intelligence operations.42  
• At a conference in the 1990s many immigrant women reported that they would not report abuse to police officers because they feared that the police would be racist.43  Many women might also face increased suspicion by neighbours, co-workers, and schoolmates, simply because of their background.44 
• Refugee women who have experienced sexual and physical violence in refugee camps come to Canada, often to be met with little sympathy or understanding, and with the assumption that they fraudulently entered the country. Many of these women face Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of their experiences of war, persecution and sexual and physical abuse.45  
• In 1999 illegal Chinese migrants arrived in British Columbia.46  Large proportions were sent to ‘camps’ for many months only to be sent back to China. In one report, three women tried to commit suicide before deportation because they were so worried about what would happen when they returned to China.47  In 2000, Amnesty International criticized Canada as being too quick in sending refugees home despite the threat of torture.48 
• Currently Canada claims the right to detain people without charge if they are thought to be potentially dangerous to society.49  In one case, a woman was locked in solitary confinement after she told a television station about the human rights abuses she faced at the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women, where some migrant women were being detained.50  Airport staff told the Toronto Star that some refugee claimants, particularly from the Middle East, are being treated like “war criminals” – intimidated and interrogated by immigration officers at the Toronto airport.51 
• In 1993 the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) released Guidelines on Women Refugee Claimants Fearing Gender-Related Persecution,52  which recognizes that women are persecuted because of their gender, as well as race, religion, and other grounds.53  Additionally, the evidence brought by refugee women may be different and more difficult to substantiate.54  Even as the doors have opened to more women through the guidelines, other measures, such as detention, limit refugee entry.55   
• Bill C-31 (the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act) lets overseas border guards (who are often not trained in gender sensitivity) make decisions on asylum claims.56   This means that women do not get the customary procedure for asylum, which requires experts to look at their file.57  
• Over 50,000 Filipina women have entered Canada through the Foreign Domestic Movement and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).58  The regular immigration point system does not adequately recognize these womens’ skills or the demand for their occupation, so they are relegated to the LCP, made up of nearly all women. Unlike programs dominated by men, it requires participants to work for 24 months within three years as live-in domestic workers before they can pursue other occupations or apply for Canadian citizenship.59  They are the only potential immigrants to be forced to live with their employers. This requirement makes them vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, as well as economic exploitation.60  After decades of telling the Canadian government about the abuses, calling the program “a form of slavery”, the requirement continues. Why isn’t the security of these women important to Canada?

The military wants you…

• Questioning the role of the military and level of military spending is sometimes seen as an insult to the men and women who serve and are willing to risk their lives in peacekeeping missions. However, in a democracy, it is important to be able to debate these important issues openly and freely, without interpreting other views as personal attacks. These are questions about how the Canadian military operates, which will hopefully lead to improvements for women and men in the Forces as well as for Canada and the world.
• In some countries young boys and girls are recruited to become soldiers.61  The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children under the age of 15 should not be recruited into the armed forces. This is a contradiction to the rest of the document, which understands a child to be a person under 18 years of age.62 
• As of March 2001 there were 421 people aged 16 to 19 serving in the Canadian military.63  The Sea, Air and Army Cadets comprise the largest youth program in Canada, with approximately 55,000 members. One can join the Cadets at the age of 12.64  
• The military starts to convince young men and women to join the army at an age when they are impressionable and still forming opinions about war and conflict. The Canadian government spent $155 million in 2002-03 on the Cadets programs,65  yet no comparable program exists in Canada to train youth to be peace builders or negotiators.

Just another job?

• Does the military offer just one more job opportunity, no different from working in a hair salon or a law firm? The Canadian Forces promises jobs, training and a university education in exchange for years of service, which is very appealing. The Canadian Forces website says, “Looking for more than an ordinary 9 to 5 routine? Consider the unique Profession of Arms. Challenging but richly rewarding.”66  
• The recruiting advertising fails to mention the adventure of living on poverty-level wages for lower-ranking members, the likelihood of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from having to kill people, and the sexual and racial harassment that some soldiers are subject to by their “superiors” and fellow recruits.
• The Canadian Forces states it is an equal opportunity employer. Women now represent approximately 16% of the Canadian Forces.67  Visible minorities represent about 2% of the Forces and Aboriginal peoples roughly 1.5%.68  By contrast, women are over 50% of the Canadian population, visible minorities represent 11% and Aboriginal peoples 3%.69 
• The Canadian Forces states it provides “cultural awareness, harassment and racism prevention training” to all new recruits.70  A 2003 media report linked members from six Forces to white supremacist groups. In 1995, “[a] videotape of a hazing ritual showed a black soldier with the letters KKK (Ku Klux Klan) painted on his back being doused with white powder and forced to crawl around on all fours with a dog leash on his neck.”71 
• A Canadian Forces study of its members found that 20% had experienced discrimination. Thirty percent of female members and 39% of visible minority members experienced discrimination.72 
• In 1998, a story in Maclean’s magazine documented Canadian Forces personnel’s perpetration and tolerance of rapes and other sexual harassment of Canadian women soldiers. Twenty-seven women reported being raped.73  Canada’s first female infantry officer, Captain Sandra Perron, was tied to a tree, subjected to a mock execution and left barefoot in the snow during a 1992 exercise.74 
• Not surprisingly, women were twice as likely as men to quit the Forces.75  
• Being in the military also has an impact on families. Because military training teaches you to affirm control and power, some people end up repeating this behaviour in their homes.76  A study found that wives of military personnel who are abused face greater obstacles in seeking help than civilian women do. In addition, the report found that these women are under great pressure to keep the abuse a secret since there is fear that their husband may be denied a promotion.77  This report claims that supervisors often overlooked the abuse. Some supervisors even used their power to support the abuser.78  
• Why isn’t the security of women in the military and military families a priority? Why isn’t the security of racial and ethnic minority personnel within the Canadian Forces a priority?

Refugee camps: Just when you thought you were safe

• Some refugees who come to Canada have lived in a refugee camp at some point. Many Canadians have also worked in refugee camps, providing humanitarian aid.
• Women in refugee camps are highly vulnerable to sexual abuse and attacks by other refugees and humanitarian workers. A report released in 2003 suggests that sexual abuse is pervasive in refugee camps, sometimes by relief workers who are given little training or appropriate supervision.79  In 2002 questions were raised about local staff employed by the United Nations and international relief organizations sexually abusing children in refugee camps in West Africa.  It was found in a study of refugees in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that almost 70 aid workers from 40 agencies had been pushing refugee children into sex in exchange for food, medicine and other supplies sent to save their lives.80 
• Why isn’t the security of women and children refugees a priority?

When the conflict never ends

• Many men and women who have gone to war also experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For example, some people are numbed and sickened by the killing they were forced to undertake while others are revolted that they were not able to stop the massacre. It is estimated that one in five Canadian soldiers suffers from PTSD.81  This not only has consequences for the individuals involved, but for their families and others around them.
• At Fort Bragg in the United States four soldiers returning from combat in Afghanistan in 2002 killed their wives in a six-week span.82 
• In 2003 the Festivities at the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry included a parade float that made fun of traumatized soldiers.83 
• In 2002 the Ombudsman for the Canadian Forces investigated the military’s treatment of soldiers suffering from PTSD and found that the system discriminated against these soldiers. The soldiers were viewed as “exploiting the system” or as “fakers”.84  
• Deborah Harrison, author of The First Casualty, says the Canadian Forces are structurally not well equipped to deal with problems such as the spectrum of stress related disorders.85  Soldiers are often told to “take it like men” rather than recognizing that men and women are human beings who find it wrong to kill other human beings.

Militarism and the media

• In times of war, the so called “enemy” often does not appear as “real” humans on TV. We do not see the blood and horror of people dying in bomb blasts – instead we are shown the clean picture of the computerized imagery that makes war look like a video game we could play from our living rooms. These bombs are depicted as “smart” and “accurate” while the reality is that they often kill both soldiers and civilians. In the Gulf War, 70% of the bombs used by the United States military missed their targets.86  
• The media “glorifies war, and portrays violence as necessary, combat as exhilarating and aggression as natural”.87  The voices of the “enemy” (which includes women and children) are rarely heard on the six o’clock news.
• Inquiries were held into the “friendly fire incidents”, where United States soldiers shot and killed Canadian soldiers, but no equivalent inquiries were made into the thousands of deaths of civilians in the war zone.88  
• War movies are often seen as harmless but they indicate that our society overlooks and normalizes the consequences of military activities and that the military has become central to the functioning of our society. The acceptance of violence and physical force as a means for problem solving can be repeated in the home and in day-to-day relationships.89 
• This doesn’t mean that everyone who watches a war movie or plays violent video games goes out to assault or kill others. But these types of media do serve to desensitize viewers and players to the human consequences of war and violence.90  

Decision-making: Where are the women?

• United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 recognizes the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women. Among other things, it calls on UN member states (such as Canada) to train all peacekeepers in gender issues, and make sure women are represented equally at all decision-making levels.91 
• In 2004, 65 women were elected to the Canadian House of Commons, representing 21% of Members of Parliament.92  Four-fifths of those deciding on matters of national peace and security are men.
• Canada ranks 37th in the world when it comes to the representation of women in federal politics.93 
• In 1995 Christine Silverberg became the first woman police chief in a major city in Canada, with the Calgary Police Services.94  Like the military, men remain over-represented in most police forces, especially at decision-making levels.
• Women are concerned about security too, yet their perspectives are rarely represented in decision-making. No matter what the country, polls consistently show a gender gap in women and men’s response to war and terrorism, with fewer women supporting armed conflict.95  
• Just being female does not guarantee that a person will have a less violent approach to conflict resolution. When women are represented in senior decision-making roles in token numbers, these women must often conform to male models rather than being able to change the system. We need women and men who can represent the views of the majority of women in decision-making positions.

Women Organizing for Change

• Women have been at the forefront of organizing at both the grassroots and international levels on peace and security. Many organizations led by women recognize that the world desperately needs new ways of ending vicious cycles of violence and bringing about people-centered security and social and economic justice. Here are some examples of women’s organizing.
• The Canadian Voice of Women (VOW), founded in 1960, has been at the forefront of opposing military build-up. In the 1960s, to demonstrate that the testing of nuclear weapons was a health hazard, the organization collected over 5,500 baby teeth from across Canada and had them tested at the University of Toronto for the effects of radioactive fallout. The group continues to work toward total global disarmament.
• In 2004 the Native Women’s Association of Canada launched a campaign called ‘Sisters in Spirit’ to raise awareness of the 500 missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.96  
• The Women in Black (WIB) campaign began in Israel and Palestine and became a worldwide movement. Women from opposite sides of a conflict stand together on street corners, in silence, dressed in black. What they share – the terrible loss of family, friends and personal security – is greater than what separates them.97  
• The Organization of Spouses of Military Members advocated for changes in pension plans since the women, many of whom were not allowed to work while their husbands were posted overseas, were left in poverty when their marriages broke up or when their husbands died.98  In 1992, the organization also testified before a panel describing that while military men are trained for violence and this is reflected in their family lives there are few support services for abused women and children.99 
• “CODEPINK is a women initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement that seeks positive social change through proactive, creative protest and non-violent direct action.”100  It arose in response to the American government’s violent response to terrorism, and gets its name by proposing an alternative to the American government’s codes red, orange and yellow. It takes peaceful action within the United States to oppose the war in Iraq.
• The World March of Women 2000 challenged both domestic and foreign policy by demanding that ending violence and poverty be given priority.101  
• The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has created a website (www.peacewomen.org) which provides news stories about women, peace and security, updates about women’s peace-building initiatives, and a database of women’s grassroots and national organizations.

From knowledge to action
Each of us participates in producing myths about peace and security by accepting politicians’ and the national media’s accounts. It is important to ask questions and explore a variety of different information sources. When you see or hear one-sided information about security – challenge it. Write letters to the editor and to politicians and demand the full information.

• Contact your political representatives and ask how they will end discrimination against women immigrating to Canada. Spread awareness of immigration and refugee issues by engaging friends, family and colleagues.
• Bring together diverse women from your community to discuss security issues.  Hold events at your workplace, book club, place of worship, daycare (for parents and children), in your neighbourhood or even at your kitchen table. Your meetings or events could focus on local security issues (urban safety), national or international issues.
• Pressure your city council to take a stance on an issue important to you. Some cities have declared themselves nuclear weapons-free zones. In 1992 the British Columbia Legislature voted to make BC a nuclear weapons free zone.102  
• Do not buy your son or daughter, niece or nephew, a war toy or video. It is important that children live within a culture of peace from an early age and be exposed to the idea that weapons are not fun and not the solution to conflict.
• Contact one of the organizations listed below and see how you can join in. They are always looking for new members, money and ideas for action. 

Canadian Organizations

• A good place to start: www.peacewomen.org
• Association for Women’s Equity in the Canadian Forces, 1030 - 1250 Royal Maple Drive, Cumberland, Ontario, K4C 1B5 Canada. Tel: (613) 563-3670
• Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security, The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A4 Canada. Tel: (613) 992-0189 Fax: (613) 992-0673 Email: mcgraj@sen.parl.gc.ca
• Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, 761 Queen St. West, Suite 203, Toronto, Ontario M6J 1G1 Canada. Tel: (416) 603-7915 Fax: (416) 603-7916 Email: vow@interlog.com Web: http://home.ca.inter.net/~vow/
• Canadian Women Voters Congress, PO Box 4722 – VMPO, Vancouver, BC, V6B 4A4 Canada. Tel: (604) 878-8228 Fax: (604) 681-4545 Email: congress@telus.net Web: www.canadianwomenvoterscongress.org
• Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Bankview PO Box 32014 Calgary, Alberta T2T 5X6 Canada. Tel: (403) 244-5625 Email: w4wafghan@praxis.ca Web: www.w4wafghan.ca
• Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group (GPWG) of the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee, 1 Nicholas St., Suite 1216, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7 Canada. Tel: (613) 241-3446 Email: suzanne@peacebuild.ca  Web: www.peacebuild.ca
• Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), 1292 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1W8 Canada. Tel: (613) 238-3977 Fax: (613) 567-9644 Email: twhitehead@nwac-hq.org  Web: www.nwac-hq.org/vision
• Physicians for Global Survival (Peaceful Childhoods kit), 208-145 Spruce St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6P1, Canada. Tel: (613) 233-1982 Fax: (613) 233-9028  Email: pgsadmin@web.ca Web: www.pgs.ca/index.php/Health/284
• South Asia Partnership, 1 Nicholas St., #200, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7 Canada. Tel: (613) 241-1333 Fax: (613) 241-1129 Web: www.sapcanada.org/index.html
• Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Canada, Box 265 Errington, B.C.V0R 1V0 Canada. Tel: 250-592-1116 Email: wilpfcanada@yahoo.ca

International Organizations:

• African Women’s Development & Communication Network FEMNET, Off Westlands Road  P. O. Box 54562, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254 2 741301/20  Fax: +254 2 742927 Email: info@femnet.or.ke Web: www.femnet.or.ke
• Amnesty International Stop Violence Against Women Campaign, Web: http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/index-eng
• Hague Appeal for Peace, 777 UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 USA. Tel: (212) 687 -2623 Fax: (212) 661-2704 Email: hap@haguepeace.org Web: www.haguepeace.org
• International Alert, Gender & Peacebuilding Programme, 346 Clapham Road, London SW9 9AP, UK. Tel: +44 (0)207 627 6800 Fax: +44 (0)207 627 6900. Email: njohnston@international-alert.org Web: www.international-alert.org/women
• International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), PO Box 422 8-17 Tottenham Court Road London W1T 1JY, UK. Tel: 00 44 207 953 7664 Email: contact@iansa.org Web: www.iansa.org
• Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), 777 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017 USA. Tel: (212) 682 1265 Fax: (212) 286 8211 Email: wilpfun@igc.org Web: www.peacewomen.org and www.reachingcriticalwill.org
• Women Living Under Muslim Law, PO Box 28445, London, N19 5NZ, UK. Email: run@gn.apc.org Web: www.wluml.org/english/index.shtml
• UNIFEM Women War Peace Portal, Governance, Peace and Security Section, 304 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017 USA. Tel: 1 (212) 906–6400 Fax :1 (212) 906-6265 Email: contact@womenwarpeace.org

Notes
1 Majendi, Paul. « Iraqi Prison Photos Mar U.S. Image » April 30, 2004. Reuters online : www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0430-01.htm
2 Coalition for Gun Control. “The Cost of Gun Violence” December 4, 2002. Online: www.guncontrol.ca/Content/back11-22-02.costs.final2.pdf  
3 “Vandalism feeds fears: Muslims suspect hate was motive for damage” Don Thomas. Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alta.: Nov 16, 2003. pg. A.10.Fr
4 Carol Cohn and Sarah Ruddick, “A Feminist Ethical Position on Wapons of Mass Destruction”. www.ksg.harvard.edu/wappp/research/working/cohn_ruddick.pdf (Accessed March 10th, 2004)
5 Sandra Whitworth, “Militarized Masculinities and the Politics of Peacekeeping: The Canadian Case.” In Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Sjolander, Smith and Stienstra, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
6 United Nations, “Abuse By U.N. Troops In D.R.C. May Go Unpunished, Report Says” (UN News wire. July 12, 2004) www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040712/449_25748.asp
7 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), “The Unseen Scars: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/ptsd/wounds.html (Accessed March 17th, 2004)
8 Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia, Information Legacy: A Compendium of Source Material from the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia. (Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing, 1995) Vol. 146: 29777; Vol. 124: 24994; Vol. 32: 6120.
9 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (Berkeley: University of California Press, Ltd., 2000) p.282.
10 Sandra Whitworth, “Militarized Masculinities and the Politics of Peacekeeping: The Canadian Case.” In Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Sjolander, Smith and Stienstra, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 85. It was also confirmed by a member of the Airborne in the Ottawa Citizen, ‘Solider Confirms Airborne Held Massacre Party” (9 November, 1995). Friendly Fire: Embattled credibility; David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen. Calgary Herald. November 25, 1995, A11).
11 Sandra Whitworth, “The Ugly Unasked Questions about Somalia”. The globe and Mail. February 14, 1997.
12 The training manual can be found online at www.genderandpeacekeeping.org
13 Physicians for Global Survival. “Children and War Toys: Encouraging Peaceful Play.” Fact sheet. www.pgs.ca/updir/(Accessed July 14, 2004.)
14 Peaceful Childhoods, Physicians for Global Survival (Canada), 2003. www.pgs.ca/index.php/Health/284 (Accessed July 14, 2004.)
15 Barbara Santa and Darlene Hammell, “War Toys/PGS Briefing Paper” www.pgs.ca/pgs.php/prevention/11  (Accessed February 18th, 2004).
16 Assistant Deputy Minister. “Budget 2003 and the Department of National Defence”. Electronic document.  www.forces.gc.ca/site/reports/budget03/index_e.htm  (Accessed Feb 18, 2004).
17 Monica Townson,  A Report Card on Women and Poverty. (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2000) and  Statistics Canada, Women in Canada. (Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing, 2000) p259 and 232. The National Council on Welfare also has statistics on the poverty of women which can be found on its website at: www.ncwcnbes.net/htmdocument/principales/onlinepub.htm
18 Staples, Steven, “Breaking Rank: A citizen’s review of Canada’s military spending”. (Polaris Institute, 2002) www.polarisinstitute.org/polaris_project/corp_security_state/publications_articles/breaking_rank.pdf   (Accessed March 17, 2004).
19 Steven Theobald, Chris Sorensen and Jim Rankin, “Canada didn’t go to war, but our businesses did” (Toronto Star. October 11, 2003) p. A01.
20 Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, “Operation of Embedded Complicity: Canada, Playing out Part in the Business of War”.  Issue #52, October 2003. www.coat.ncf.ca (Accessed February 22nd, 2004).
21 “The North Atlantic Treaty is a collective security agreement meant to deter Soviet aggression. It was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949. The treaty created an alliance of 10 European and two North American independent nations committed to each other’s defence. Today NATO has 19 members. The member countries have committed to maintaining and developing their defence capabilities, to consulting on issues of mutual security concern, and to the principle of collective self-defence.” www.nti.org/e_research/e6_glossary.html
22 Colin Samson, James Wilson, and Jonathan Mazower, “Canada’s Tibet: The Killing of Innu”, Survival, 1999, p 31. www.survival-international.org/pdf/Innu%20report.pdf  (Accessed February 10th, 2004).
23 Michael Macdonald, “Royal Air Force pushing to test new generation of smart bombs in Labrador” (Canadian Press, December 13, 2001)
24 Warren Goulding, Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada’s Indifference (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2001)
25 Tiffany Crawford, “Sombre Valentine’s Day for families of missing women” (Canadian Press, February 14, 2004.)
26 The Canadian Press, “Edmonton’s prostitute death numbers not unusual, say police in other cities”, July 25, 2003.
27 Statistics Canada, Family Violence in Canada (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 1999) p. 18. The data are from Statistics Canada’s 1993 Violence Against Women Survey of 12,300 Canadian women aged 18 or over. The survey underestimates the amount of violence against women as it did not cover Canada’s northern territories, where violence is prevalent. According to 1997 police reports cited on p. 15 of the same study, “spousal violence” accounts for one in five of all violent offences in the Yukon and Northwest Territories (now the Yukon, NWT and Nunavut).
28 Statistics Canada, “Homicide statistics 1998,” The Daily, October 7, 1999.
29 Statistics Canada, Family Violence in Canada, 1999, p. 6.
30 Jillian Ridington, Beating the Odds: Violence and Women with Disabilities (DisAbled Women’s Network, 1989) pp. 1, 6.
31 Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence - Achieving Equality (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1993). See chapters prepared by the Aboriginal Circle, pp. 101-190.
32 Kim Pate, “50 Years of Canada’s International Commitment to Human Rights Millstones in Correcting Corrections for Federally Sentenced Women”. In Eradicating Poverty and Violence in the 21st Century, Canadian Women Studies Volume 20, Number 3, 2000, p. 44.
33 Hung Kwing, “Firearms Statistics” (Department of Justice, 2000.) www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/en/research/publications/stats/pdf/updated-en.pdf. (Accessed March 2, 2004)
34 Id.
35 Canada News Wire, “Coalition for Gun Control – Public Safety Experts Reaffirm Support for New Gun Law” (March 21, 2001)
36 Wendy Cukier, Women and Firearms in the International Context (Toronto: Coalition for Gun Control, 2000)
37 Department of Foreign and International Trade, “Conventional Weapons” (2003)  www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/arms/convweap-en.asp (Accessed March 18th, 2004)
38 Kristiana Powell, “HIV/AIDS and Security.” Ploughshares Monitor. 2003.  www.ploughshares.ca/content/MONITOR/monj03b.html (Accessed Feb 26, 2004.)
39 J. Connors, “Legal Aspects of Women as a Particular Social Group”, International Journal of Refugee Law, Special Issue, 9 (Autumn 1997) pp. 114-28.
40 Erin K. Baines, ”The Contradictions of Canadian Commitments to Refugee Women”. In Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Claire Turenne Sjolander, Heather Smith, and Deborah Steinstra. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
41 Id.
42 Roach, Ken (2003), September 11: consequences for Canada, McGill-Queen’s Press.
43 Louise Brown, “Violence traps immigrant women, group told” Toronto Star, (March 27, 1990) p. A3.
44 Paola Bacchetta, Tina Campt, Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan, Minoo Moallem, and Jennifer Terry, “Transnational Feminist Practices Against War” (2001) www.signifiance.com/war_statement.htm  (Accessed February 23rd, 2004).
45 Immigrant and Refugee & Visible Minority Women of Saskatchewan Post traumatic Stress Disorder. The Lived Experience of Immigrant, Refugee and Visible Minority Women (Regina, SK: Priairie Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health. c/2001) Online: www.pwhce.ca/ptsd-immigrant.htm
46 Heather Smith, “Disrupting Internationalism and Finding Others”, in Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Sjolander, Smith and Stienstra, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 33.
47 Id. p. 32.
48 Canadian Press, “UN torture panel gives Canada ‘gentle ride’”, Toronto Star Nov 18, 2000, p A26. 
49 CBC News, “Chinese Boat People: Human Cargo: The System”, 1999.
50 Canadian Press, “Chinese migrant woman alleges abuse in detention”, Guelph Mercury May 17, 2000, p. A8.
51 Canadian Press, “Some refugee claimants treated like war criminals, officers tell Toronto Sun”, Feb 15, 2002.
52 Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa, Canada. www.cisr.gc.ca/en/about/guidelines/women_e.htm  (Accessed February 15th, 2004)
53 Canadian Council for Refugees, “Refugee Women Fleeing Gender-Based Persecution” www.web.net/~ccr/gendpers.html (Accessed February 16, 2004).
54 Id.
55 Erin K. Baines, ”The Contradictions of Canadian Commitments to Refugee Women”. In Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Claire Turenne Sjolander, Heather Smith, and Deborah Steinstra. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
56 Bill C-31 can be found at: www.parl.gc.ca/commons/Bills_Is.asp?Parl=36&Ses=2&Is=C31    
57 Erin K. Baines, ”The Contradictions of Canadian Commitments to Refugee Women”. In Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy. Claire Turenne Sjolander, Heather Smith, and Deborah Steinstra. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
58 The LCP is a government program. Individuals must apply to the Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) for the job. Inormation can be found on the government website: www.hrsdc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=/en/on/epb/fwp/liv_care_prog.shtml&hs=on0#lcpPbasics_e
59 Philippine Women Centre of BC.  “Filipino Women’s Identity: A social, cultural and economic segregation in Canada” (Vancouver: 2001) http://pwc.bc.tripod.com (Accessed March 16th, 2004).
60 West Coast Domestic Workers Association. www.vcn.bc.ca/wcdwa/eng_1.htm
61 Dyan Mazurana and Susan McKay, “Where are the girls?”.Executive Summary online: www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/women/Girls/execsummary.html
62 Becker, Jo. “Children as Weapons of War”, Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/wr2k4/11.htm. Convention on the Rights of the Child. www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm  (Accessed February 16, 2004). 
63 Canadian Friends Service Committee, Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers. www.child-soldiers.org/cs/childsoldiers.nsf (Accessed February 17th, 2004)
64 Id.
65 Steven Staples, “Breaking Rank: A citizen’s review of Canada’s military spending”. (Polaris Institute, 2002) www.polarisinstitute.org/polaris_project/corp_security_state/publications_articles/breaking_rank.pdf   (Accessed March 17th, 2004).
66 National Defence website. http://www.recruiting.forces.gc.ca. (Accessed on February 16th, 2004). 
67 Vance White, “Canadian Armed Forces – Opportunities for Women”, Business Woman Canada May 29, 2003, Vol 4, No 1.  www.recruiting.forces.gc.ca/html/news_events/news_room/opportunities_women.html  (Accessed February 18th, 2004).
68 Valerie Lawton,  “Canada’s military is ‘biased’; Report cites abuse of women, racial intolerance, insensitivity” Hamilton Spectator, March 16, 2001, p. A01.
69 Statistics Canada, Women in Canada: A gender-based statistical report. (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2000) pp. 23, 234, 261.
70 National Defence. 2004. “Canadian Forces Recruiting.” www.recruiting.forces.gc.ca/engraph/aboutus/index_e.aspx  (Accessed July 16, 2004.)
71 Alermedia.info, “Canadian Forces: 6 members allegedly linked to white supremacists.”  2003. http://ca.altermedia.info/index.php?p=513 (Accessed July 16, 2004)
72 Canadian Human Rights Commission, Annual Report 1997. (Ottawa: CHRC, 1998)
73 Jane O’Hara, “Rape in the Military: Speaking Out,” Maclean’s, June 1 1998, 14-20; John Geddes and Stephanie Nolen, “Answering the Call,” Maclean’s, June 8 1998, 28-31.
74 Canadian Press, “Women joining Forces in record numbers”, The Record (Waterloo Region) April 26, 2002, p. E11.
75 Canadian Press, “Women joining Forces in record numbers”, The Record (Waterloo Region) April 26, 2002, p. E11.
76 2000 Report on the Canadian Forces’ Response to Woman Abuse in Military Families. Prepared by the Family of Violence and Military Community research teams of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research at the University of New Brunswick and the RESOLVE Violence and Abuse Centre at the University of Manitoba. www.unbf.ca/arts/CRVR/military.html, P8.
77 Marilla Stephenson, “A military code of silence worth breaking”, The Chronicle Herald, May 11, 2000, p. D1.
78 2000 Report on the Canadian Forces’ Response to Woman Abuse in Military Families. Prepared by the Family of Violence and Military Community research teams of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research at the University of New Brunswick and the RESOLVE Violence and Abuse Centre at the University of Manitoba. www.unbf.ca/arts/CRVR/military.html, P18.
79 United States General Accounting Office (GAO), “Humanitarian Assistance, Protecting Refugee Women and Girls Remains a Significant Challenge” (2003) www.gao.gov/new.items/d03663.pdf (Accessed on February 24th, 2004).
80 Irwin Arieff (Reuters News Agency), “U.N. vows to tackle sex abuse by aid workers”, Toronto Star, Feb 28, 2004 p. A12.
81 CTV, “Broken Soldiers: Combating military stress”, Jun. 25 2003. www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1047060032429_37/?hub=Specials (Accessed February 9th, 2004) Copies of the Special Report on Systemic Treatment of Canadian Forces Members with PTSD may be obtained on the Ombudsman web site at www.ombudsman.forces.gc.ca
82 Matt Donnelly, “Internal Wounds Exposure to Combat Can Cause Stress Disorders Long After the Fighting Ends” 2001. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/soldiers_ptsd020729.html (Accessed March 17th, 2004).
83 Scott Edmonds, “Army ‘frat party’ decried; Stressed-out troops mocked Canada & world” Hamilton Spectator: March 7, 2003, p. B05.
84 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), “Stigma prevent treatment of military stress: ombudsman”, Feb 5, 2002. www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/05/military_020205 (Accessed March 5th, 2004).
85Murray Brewster, “Forces can’t fix ‘broken spirits,’ book says”, Chronicle-Herald, June 14, p. A12.
86 Douglas Kellner, “Reading the Gulf War: Production/text/reception”, in Media Culture: Cultural Studies, identity and politics between the modern and the postmodern. (London: Routledge, 1995)
87 Colleen Burke, “Women and Militarism”, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). www.wilpf.int.ch/publications/womenmilitarism.htm (Accessed March 9th, 2004).
88 CBC, “Afghanistan: Friendly Fire”, CBC. www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/cdn_casualties/media.html and Kim, Sengupta 2003, “US air raid kills nine <children in south Afghanistan”, The Independent. http://rawafancymarketing.net/9kids.htm
89 Colleen Burke, “Women and Militarism.” Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). www.wilpf.int.ch/publications/womenmilitarism.htm (Accessed March 9th, 2004). 
90 Hammell, Darlen, B.Sc., Family Physician & Joanna Santa Barbara, MB., BS., Child Psychiatrist, “War Toys/PGS Briefing Paper. http://www.pgs.ca/index.php/Prevention/11
91 For the full text of the resolution: www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html
92 Calculated from the Parliament of Canada web site: www.parl.gc.ca
93 Peggy Nash, “Women’s voices needed in Ottawa”, Toronto Star, Jan 23, 2004, p. A23.
94 Status of Women Canada, “Women’s History Month 2000: Key dates in the history of Canadian Women throughout the 20th Century.” (Ottawa: 2003) www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/whm/2000/dates_e.html (Accessed March 14, 2004).
95 Karlyn Bowman, “Women and war: What the polls show - Poll-Pourri - Polling Data - Brief Article”
Women’s Quarterly, Winter, 2002. www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IUK/is_2002_Wntr/ai_82802446 (Accessed July 23, 2004.); MORI, “War with Iraq” (March 5, 2003)  www.mori.com/polls/2003/iraq2.shtml  (Accessed July 24, 2004).
96 Canadian Press, “Valentine’s Day march to commemorate Vancouver’s missing women” Feb 12, 2004; Canada NewsWire , “‘Sisters in Spirit’: NWAC calling on Feds for $10 Million to deal with violence against Aboriginal Women”, Feb 5, 2004.
97 Women in Black website: www.womeninblack.net
98 Eoin Kenny, “Widows, ex-spouses ask better deal on pensions”, The Record (Waterloo Region), September 19, 1992, p. G2.
99 Dennis Bueckert, “Abused military wives rap lack of support services”, The Record (Waterloo Region), March 31, 1992, p. D2.
100 CODEPINK website: www.codepink4peace.org/working_for_peace.shtml (Accessed July 23, 2004.)
101 Canadian Women’s March Committee, Sept 28, 2001. www.nac-cca.ca/march/march_e.htm (Accessed February 20th, 2004).
102 Society for Promoting Environmental Conservation. “Poll shows British Columbians oppose nukes at Nanoose SPEC.” (2002)  www.spec.bc.ca/news/news.php?newsID=182 (Accessed March 15, 2004).