Biographies (as they wrote 'em)
Lyn Adamson
Lyn Adamson has been involved with Peace Brigades' Indonesia Project for several years, and has been in the field of community conflict resolution for fifteen years. She brings this experience to her training work for the Nonviolent Peaceforce.
Janis Alton
Janis Alton is a long-time activist in the domestic and international peace movement focused on disarmament and the inclusion of women directly and at all levels in the decision-making processes of peacebuilding - from prevention to post-conflict. Through Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) she has also conducted 16 study/consultation/lobbying tours for select peace women to United Nations sites, initiated and coordinated many national women and peace conferences and international workshops, the last among them a legal literacy training for 50 Canadian women on the linkages of women, peace and human rights. Janis is a Board member with Group of 78, Science for Peace and VOW and holds an MBA (pol. science) refreshed with study at the European Peace University, Austria.
Connie Fogal-Rankin
Connie Fogal-Rankin is a lawyer and former teacher. She has two adult children and 1 3/4 grandchildren. Born in Saskatchewan, she is the widow of Harry Rankin. She is formerly: Commissioner Vancouver Parks Board; Director Vancouver Library Board, Pearson and G.F.Strong Hospital, Kitsilano and Vancouver Community Resource boards; Chairperson St.Paul's Healthy Hospital Project; Spokesperson against gambling expansion; federal candidate, The Canadian Action Party. She is currently: President The Canadian Action Party; Candidate Vancouver Green Party. She presented speakers on: Quebec; genetically modified foods; gambling; Money and Debt; globalization of poverty; the IMF and the World Bank; globalization's effects on Canada. She spearheaded three lawsuits to protect Canadian constitutional sovereignty by challenging government decisions which committed Canadians to international agreements that destroy citizen rights and civil liberties. She conducted an internet campaign against globalization and critiqued Canada's "antiterrorism" legislation.
Freda Knott
Freda Knott has been a peace activist most of her life, learning from her parents who were in the peace movement. She joined VOW in 1967 and became an active member immediately. She was a founding member of the Greater Victoria Disarmament Group in early 80's. This became a very large, well known and active peace organization in the area. She became the V.I. representative to the CPA steering committee in its early years. In 1993 Freda became a Raging Granny, deciding that it was time to have fun while doing her protesting. She is also on the Board of the Victoria Chapter of the Council of Canadians.
Henry McCandless
Henry McCandless is a writer and consultant in accountability, living in Victoria, BC. A commerce graduate from the University of British Columbia, he became a chartered accountant in 1962 and earned an MBA in organizational behaviour from York University in Toronto in 1971. Following several years with the national secretariat of chartered accountants (1965-71), he taught at the University of Toronto and at York University. In 1978 he joined the Office of the federal Auditor General of Canada in Ottawa as a Principal. … He took early retirement at the end of 1996 to work full time on accountability. Mr. McCandless has been writing on accountability since the late 1980s, and has advised on public accountability in internet activist networks and in parliamentary and professional journals. He has also lectured on accountability in universities in the Netherlands and the US. In 1996 he founded the Citizens' Circle for Accountability, whose web site serves as a citizens' primer on accountability and as a means for people to exchange thinking on accountability issues, at www.accountabilitycircle.org. In January 2002 Mr. McCandless published A Citizen's Guide to Public Accountability: Changing the Relationship Between Citizens and Authorities. For the Guide, he spent several years working on the concept of accountability and assembling case examples of harm that happens when people in power are not made to publicly and validly explain their intentions and the performance standards they intend for themselves. … The effect of accountability hinges on the fact that authorities' obligation to answer publicly constitutes a self-regulating influence on their conduct and on the fact that, in a democracy, authorities cannot refuse to answer. They simply haven't been asked to do so by citizens, who thus far have been unduly deferential. Henry McCandless's book can be obtained from Trafford Publishing, 2333 Government St. Victoria, BC, Canada, V8T 4P4 (1-888-232-4444 or online at www.trafford.com).
Silvia McFadyen-Jones
Silvia McFadyen-Jones joined the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in 1988 after retiring from a career as a community college professor. She was attracted to the organization's commitment to social justice, feminism and internationalism. She has participated in many of WILPF's international events, including several of its International Congresses and fact-finding tours (to Australia, Costa Rica and China). Her most important event in her WILPFexperience was participation in election monitoring in the historic 1994 elections in South Africa. She represented WILPF at the NGO preparatory meeting in Vienna, for the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1994 and attended WILPF's International Human Rights Internship Program in 1996. She is currently represents the Canadian Section of WILPF on WILPF's International Executive Committee.
Bruna Nota
Bruna Nota, BA Ed, MBA, has been involved with national and international organisations towards creating a culture of peace, emphasising principled, non-violent conflict resolution, economic and social justice, fair-trade and fair-employment practices. A multilingual senior manager and consultant, Bruna has worked in Canada, Italy, Belgium, Mexico, Pakistan, and various parts of Africa, developing co-operative relationships among different groups. She is the past International President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Carl Rising-Moore
Carl Rising-Moore has been an activist in BC and California (opposing unsound energy schemes including nuclear) and is now active with Voices in the Wilderness [VitW] in Indianapolis. He writes: "It was the empowerment of nonviolence and the training skills that I learned at the NV Resource Center that prepared me for my life's work. … I have been jailed many times for my protests against injustice to include the development and deployment of the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor, development of the Cheekye-DunsmuirTransmission system, shiping of Uranium by ship from Australia to trains accross Canada for processing in Ontario, defense of the Lillwat Nation, (Mt. Currie, B.C.) in the desecration of their burial grounds, among other acts of non-violent direct action. … I joined a group in Vancouver, BC, called the Mayan Support Group that told me of at least 200,000 Mayan Indians in Guatamala that were murdered by those trained at Ft. McPherson Ga. I traveled to Guatamala to offer support to the Mayan Human Rights Groups in that country. … I believe that nonviolent civil disobedience is our best tool to question the authority to those in positions of power to run rough shod over the interests of people the world over. Since forming in 1996 Witw has sent more than 30 delegations to Iraq in deliberate violation of US law to draw attention to the needless suffering and death caused by economic sactions. … My plan, God willing, is to travel to Iraq and join with these brave souls [on VitW] and to encourage others in Canada, Europe and Asiato join us in what could be the worlds first truly international Peace Brigade, (Ghandi's concept). … I believe that Iraq is an opportunity to fundamentally halt the concept of a one Super Power World. The Voices in the Wilderness is a social justice group located at 1460 West Carmen Ave., Chicago, Ill, 60640 - (773) 784-8065 kkelly@igc.apc.org www.nonviolence-org/vitw.
Jillian Skeet
Jillian Skeet is a long-time activist who has worked with peace organizations at the local, national and international levels. She spent four years working with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland and New York. She currently works as the National Programmer for End the Arms Race.
Steven Staples
Described by Global TV as a "tireless, anti-corporate warrior," Steven Staples has been a writer, researcher and campaigner in the peace movement and anti-corporate globalization movement for nearly twenty years. He has organized community broadcasters and media activists, has campaigned against Canadian and global militarism, and has been a part of the new anti-corporate globalization movement since its birth in Seattle in 1999. He has worked as the Coordinator for the Vancouver-based peace group, End the Arms Race, and as the Issue Campaigns Coordinator for the Council of Canadians in Ottawa. He also holds a BEd (Honours History) from the University of New Brunswick. Today, Steven is the Director of the Polaris Institute's Project on the Corporate-Security State. This new project researches the relationship between corporate globalization, militarism and security, and works with citizen organizations in Canada, the US and internationally to develop new tools for democratic social change.
Alfred Webre
Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS) Director and Secretary-Treasurer Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd is a Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Yale University, Yale Law School (Yale Law School National Scholar), and the University of Texas Counseling Program. Webre was General Counsel to the NYC Environmental Protection Administration and environmental consultant to the Ford Foundation, futurist at Stanford Research Institute, and author. Mr. Webre taught at Yale University and the University of Texas. Webre has been a delegate to the UNISPACE Outer Space Conference, and NGO representative at the United Nations. "On the same date – July 26, 2001 - that Congressperson Kucinich announced his bill to ban space-based weapons, the Foreign Minister of Canada, John Manley, announced in Hanoi that 'Canada would be very happy to launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space.' Congressman Dennis Kucinich reciprocated by saying 'I am pleased with the recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an international effort to prohibit weapons in space so that we can use technology to enhance communication on earth.'"
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