Photo: Peace Brigades International meets with Member of Parliament Elizabeth May in Ottawa, September 2025.
Canadian Affairs reports: “A new all-party peace caucus will be created for members of Parliament and start meeting before the end of the year.”
“[Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party of Canada] is organizing the new caucus, which would be a first for Canada, together with Heather McPherson, an NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona.”
The article continues: “Its goal will be to discuss issues related to peacekeeping, conflict prevention, nuclear disarmament and alternative ways to promote national security. It will also bring a peace lens to Canada’s foreign policy.”
McPherson has also posted on social media: “I’m proud to help launch a multi-party Peace Caucus to put peacebuilding back on Parliament’s agenda.”
The article suggests that Members of Parliament who could be interested in the all-party peace caucus along with May and McPherson might include Ernie Klassen, Bruce Fanjoy and Tim Louis (Liberal), David Epp (Conservative), Andréanne Larouche (Bloc Québécois), Gord Johns and Leah Gazan (NDP).
Petra Kelly
When Peace Brigades International was formed in September 1981, Ronald Reagan had just become the President of the United States, the killing of indigenous Maya by the Guatemalan armed forces was entering its most violent period, the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in the United Kingdom had just been established, and within weeks 400,000 people would march in Bonn, West Germany in opposition to the NATO decision to deploy 572 nuclear missiles in Western Europe.
33-year-old Petra Kelly, who had helped form the German Green Party in January 1980, was at that massive protest in Bonn on October 10, 1981.
In her essay titled Nonviolent Social Defense, Kelly lamented: “We spend billions on weapons research and millions training our young people at military academies. Why not invest in peace studies and peace actions? We need training centers, public campaigns, and educational materials. We need to support groups like Peace Brigades International that intervene nonviolently in situations of conflict. We need to work concretely to realize peace and nonviolence in our time.”
Photo: Petra Kelly in 1983.
All-party peace caucus
Peace Brigades International-Canada works with the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC-Quakers) and appreciates their efforts toward the creation of this all-party peace caucus and looks forward to engaging in this space.
Additional information:
–Video: Elizabeth May Speaks on Bill C-40, Strengthening Canada’s Defence Sector Act (Green Party of Canada)
–Disarmament Week letter calls for funding for conflict prevention, an economy not dependent on weapons exports (PBI-Canada, October 27, 2026)
–The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is implicated in attacks against human rights defenders; how is the AFP being armed? (PBI-Canada, October 24, 2026)
–Canada accelerates “defence and security” exports to Guatemala; US lifts 47-year embargo on arms sales (PBI-Canada, October 14, 2026)
–Investment summit pitch book includes Sisson tungsten mine that Indigenous land defenders link to weapons production (PBI-Canada, September 16, 2026)
–Arms transfers and State violence against human rights defenders: A PBI-Research Unit methodology overview (PBI-Canada, September 1, 2026).
