SPEAKING AND DOING PEACE AT HOME IN CALGARY , ALBERTA , by Larry Fisk, PhD.: (article originally prepared August 21st, 2004; updated to September 2005)

This is a slightly polished version of comments I delivered at Shaw Millennium Park (site of the old Mewata Stadium in Calgary , Alberta ) at a Peace Fest organized by young Calgarian peace and compassion proponents Gunther Ha and his stalwart friend James, Saturday August 21, 2004. It began as I looked out for my first time on this grassed area centred by an artificial concrete waterfall and stream, and in the distance what has been described as the largest outdoor skateboard structure in the world.

So, this is Shaw Millennium Park ? I guess for me it will always be Mewata Stadium. I can’t believe I’m actually standing at the 55 yard line marker, as it is still preserved here, that is, centre field of the old football field. I watch you lying there comfortably on the grass and I have to tell you that 56 years ago I too was lying on the grass right about where I am now standing, except that as young boys we were allowed to lay on the grass bordering the field while watching a Calgary Stampeders football game.

We would have entered this area through the old wooden fence gates or climbed over them, settled down at centre field and watched with great delight Paul Rowe snap the ball to Keith Spaith, number 48 in 1948, and then cheered as Spaith passed the ball to Woody Strode or Sugarfoot Anderson, number 00. It is hard to believe that the season started out so quietly and ended in a record never to be matched again, an undefeated football season, including the exhibition games, the regular season, the playoffs, and the Grey Cup final.

Just over there a few blocks from here on 9th avenue where the Calgary Tower now stands was the old CPR railway station and it was by rail that all the players and fans travelled to and from Toronto , even bringing horses with them on the train. There in Toronto we won the Grey Cup, establishing forever after the pattern of passion and excitement around this national event and symbol of national football supremacy. When the fans and players returned on the train after a 12-7 victory over the Ottawa Roughriders, I and my friends went down to welcome the returning champions back from their victory. We saw the wooden goal-posts brought back from Toronto . They were lying on a railway siding. We got out our jack-knives from our knee-high boots, that all of us used to wear in those days, and cut slivers off the goal-posts for souvenirs. I think my 96 year old mom still has them packed away somewhere.

I used to deliver papers in downtown Calgary and I remember watching Sugarfoot Anderson and Woody Strode tossing a football back and forth in the middle of the street in East Calgary outside a quite dilapidated home. Lower income housing was all they could afford or where as black residents would be accepted in 1948.

I also recall as a very young boy walking down over what we called "the brow" of the hill, looking over Centre Street Bridge and the skyscape marked most significantly by the Palliser Hotel, the city’s highest building—12 stories high. I remember, even as a young lad thinking: "this is a pretty wonderful city of 88,000 people!"

Today ... Calgary is a much larger city, but also much more cosmopolitan, full of opportunities for all, and not just prospects around getting ahead economically, but possibilities for leadership in creative cross-cultural living. Today in Calgary we relish the diversity around us as we do in all these wonderful festivals in August: folk music, roots and blues, reggae, Korean Festival day, Afrikadey, Expo Latino and now, as we speak, the Globalfest–that fabulous "one world celebration" taking place in community halls all across this city. Later today, I don’t know about you, but I’ll be heading off to see the international fireworks competition and over the next week to see some of the ethnic celebrations in these wide-spread community halls.

May I provide you with a bit of sobering, and hopefully uplifting, new information around the "new Calgary " and do it laced with the excitement or passion I feel? On your part you might offer me some critical and heartfelt feedback. For all of the developments I’m about to describe I can provide you with a contact, an e-mail. But to get those contacts all you need remember at this point in time is this one simple (message): My wish then is that perhaps we can be together in spirit on this beautiful Saturday August 21st afternoon.

I came back to Alberta and Calgary just about two years ago now, having been largely absent for almost 40 years, and I came back a very broken man. I had taught politics and peace and conflict studies in Halifax for over thirty years and I had become active in national and international peace research organizations. I even became a "distinguished visiting professor" of peace studies in Winnipeg for a year. But the broken-ness was complete—an end to a 38 year old marriage, mandatory retirement, moving away from my established home and friends in Nova Scotia, the suicide death of one of my sons, a near death experience in what was supposed to be minor surgery. When things like this happen and particularly when they seem to happen all at once, and then a well-meaning counselor tells you-"Larry, in no time at all you'll meet new friends and colleagues in peace education and be meaningfully engaged with them once again", the reaction is something like: "Are you nuts?" "Very kind optimism, but totally out to lunch", I thought. What I secretly held to be true was that there was no doubt that my life was over! I had no energy to get out of bed and face the washroom mirror let alone embark on the direction of "peace work" ever again. I had zero self-confidence. In fact, this so-called "self" I scarcely even knew, and what little I did know, I loathed. Besides, I now found myself Rip Van Winkle-like in right-wing Alberta and wasn't Calgary "the red-neck capital of Canada "? I was absolutely convinced that there wasn't going to be much in the way of peace education in this "red neck of the woods".

But hey, dreams can come true and, more than that, new realities may exceed what we could ever imagine, dream, or envision. Not only is it possible that a literal tidal wave of peace activity might happen, but, as I discovered, "its happening right here in river city", right here in Calgary , and in Alberta .  

In short, its all about at least ten exciting things that are happening in Calgary and Alberta that a year or two ago I could not have imagined. Allow me to introduce you to these "happenings", in case you haven't heard before.

(1) Canada and Alberta 's success in winning the bid to have the Bi-annual conference of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) meet in Calgary in the summer of 2006. Most of us likely don't have much grasp of the significance of this. I was personally successful in convincing this prestigious body of some of the best peace researchers on the planet that Calgary, and southern Alberta generally, would be a great place for them to gather and share their insights into resolving violent conflict, and in settling disputes in families and on playgrounds or between warring nations and quarrelling cultures and faiths. Literally hundreds of the world's finest peace educators and researchers will be coming from scores of different countries to stay with us in southern Alberta in the summer of 2006. It is my hope that many of them will be hosted by neighbouring communities throughout Alberta so that before or after the five days of the conference, Canadians, and Albertans in particular, will take full advantage of the presence of these highly articulate representatives of peace organizations and research institutions from every continent.   

Contact Deanna Giesbrecht: or http://ipra2006.com/ ; Dates and location: June 29 to July 3, 2006 at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

(2) The work towards a Peace institute or centre at the University of Calgary . The springboard for the IPRA conference I just referred to came through "the Campus Committee to Establish the Consortium for Peace Studies ("CPS") at the University of Calgary ." I had sent the word out to other parts of Canada that IPRA might be prepared to come to Canada in 2006 (the only other time the organization has ever met in North America was in Orillia, Ontario in 1981). But it was Calgarians who responded, not just with the excitement that other parts of Canada had done, but with the valuable additional quality: "we can do that, we can make it happen right here in southern Alberta ".

But wasn't it the University of Calgary that watched over the death of a peace studies program about ten years ago and doesn't the University still pride itself on its strategic studies program? Is there room for peace and human security studies as well? I could not have believed two years ago that I would be working with a stunningly competent group of academic and community persons confident of the realization of this centre for peace research and education in Calgary.  

Contact George Melnyk : gmelnyk@ucalgary.ca (announcement http://www.ucalgary.ca/md/PARHAD/newsandevents.htm )

(3) The education program of the "Team: Peace Leaders" and other teams through the Calgary Chamber of Commerce concerned with peace building and "peace and business" and which will include a Calgary peace Conference (including peace leadership and youth components) October 21 – 23, 2005, and their support of the IPRA/2006 conference. I remember speaking to myself in a board room of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on 6th avenue and centre street in downtown Calgary , "Larry, do you know where you are and do you hear what these people are saying?" Here in the bowels of corporate Calgary I was listening to some of the most insightful, caring, astute proponents of peace education I had ever seen gathered in a single room. And I've been in many of these rooms and situations, let me tell you. But the Team Peace Leaders and Calgary Chamber of Commerce are in "full sail" in the promotion of peace education in the Calgary community, and given the eagerness to assist the IPRA2006 conference, these Calgarians are in it for the long-haul.

Contact: Richard Schultz— richard@wisdomways.net ; web site www.peaceleaders.ca

(4) Initiatives for a "Peace and Conflict Studies" graduate program at the University of Alberta in Edmonton . I have talked with Ron Grantham, a 78 year old wheel chair-confined retired engineer who has scoured the Internet for peace studies programs and has convinced the Premier of this province and the President of the UofA that a graduate program of peace and conflict studies is essential and doable in Edmonton . Wednesday of this week (just yesterday, August 25, 2004 as I revise this) Ron met with the chairpersons of the departments of education, political science and sociology in the President’s office.

  Contact: W. Andy Knight [ andy.knight@ualberta.ca ] (announcement http://www.gateway.ualberta.ca/view.php?aid=4411 )

(5) The second annual Alberta Peace Education conference at Athabasca , Alberta October 22-24, 2004, will examine peace education initiatives throughout Alberta . The conference in Athabasca features Alberta's "ambassador of disarmament" the recently retired Senator, Douglas Roche ; Dr. David Swann, the fine Calgary doctor who sees health as the peace issue of the millennium, and Carolyn Pogue, Calgary storyteller. The Edmonton Interfaith Centre will be sponsoring an interfaith dialogue representing Muslim, Jewish, Christian, perhaps Sikh and Hindu traditions, examining the role of religion in a culture of peace. The dedicated folk of the Athabasca Peace Initiative have organized a conference alive with peace education workshops for all areas of concern and features as well, a special vegetarian lunch, pancake breakfast, and plenty of entertainment including the Raging Grannies. Conference goers have the choice of being billeted in Athabasca homes and thus reduce, significantly, the costs of an already moderately priced conference. I just got word that CBC Radio’s Don Hill and Wild Rose Forum have "pencilled in October 22nd" for a production where perhaps my friend and colleague Bob Stewart and I will be guests.

(6) This Alberta provincial conference is a forerunner to the Third Annual National Peace Education Conference in November 2004 in Hamilton, ON---McMaster University, to be preceded by a peace leadership workshop and followed by a post-conference symposium on a culture of peace (led by Albertans retired Senator the Honourable Douglas Roche of Edmonton, and Bob Stewart of Okotoks, AB. My friend and colleague Bob Stewart in his Clark Kent role for half the year is a chartered accountant in the Northwest Territories, but he then sheds his glasses and accountant's garb (not always in the nearest phone booth) and becomes "super(peace)man". By the end of this fall Bob will have fathered three national peace education conferences, two Alberta conferences, and firsts in BC, Ontario and the Maritimes. In addition the United Nations originator of the UNESCO-initiated plan to encourage nations to commit themselves to moving from a culture of violence to a culture of peace, Dr. David Adams , will be there once again in Hamilton, November 18 to 25, 2004.

Contact: Bob Stewart — stewartr [at] peace.ca ; (2004 Outcome documents online at http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2004.htm ; the Fourth Annual Peace Education Conference in Canada will be held at McMaster University November 24 - 28, 2005 - see http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2005.htm )

(7) The profound impact and success of "Storefront101" a University entrance program for homeless and economically disadvantaged Calgarians and its format of "peace-full learning". You might ask what such a program has to do with peace education. But when you have had the privilege, as I have had, of working with students whose lives have been changed by an opportunity to recognize and experience how the humanities can empower and transform them, there is little doubt that this is the essence of peace education.

Questioning the learning of the type that goes on at Mustard Seed and Storefront101 as to whether it might be considered "peace education" reminds me somewhat of an event which took place at a Murray MacLachlan concert in connection with that famous conference in Guelph , Ontario in 1984 which launched Prime-Minister Trudeau’s "peace initiative". The "peace concert" featuring Murray MacLachlan saw him singing songs of pathos, tragedy and renewed hope, sometimes of the reformed street alcoholic. I sat immediately behind an elderly and long-time peace activist who shouted out with a voice of disgust: "Sing some PEACE songs". I have seldom felt as angry and disappointed as I realized that this ardent peace activist "didn’t get it". Murray MacLachlan knew more about the breadths and depths of our struggle for peace with justice than did this so-called life expert. Storefront101 and the learning it facilitates embodies this enlarged understanding of shalom, salaam, peace with justice. By the way, a report of this new program will be given at the Athabasca conference that I hope some of you lying and sitting here might be able to attend.

Contact: Marsha Mah Poy —

(8) A new introductory course being designed via Athabasca University for Global Studies which has an integral peace and conflict studies format and content I know this new course will contain all the valuable ingredients of peace education and peace research at its best, most provocative and constructive. I know this because I am the one contracted to develop the course of studies. :>)

Contact: David Gregory — davidg@athabascau.ca

(9) The second annual Alberta Social Forum, to be held in Calgary February 25-27, 2005 which provides an opportunity for all agencies interested in peace and justice issues to raise and dialogue about their concerns. I’m on the planning committee of this Forum. It is considering very creative extensions into the community, linking up with personnel and leadership with the IPRA 2006 conference and with healthy community outreach through the media and including Athabasca University and its effective distance education programs.

Contact: Grant Neufeld — http://www.albertasocialforum.ca/

(10) The organization of Calgary youth around the IPRA/summer 2006 event and their plans for additional or related activities. The Peacefest in Calgary today, features a score of young musicians, DJs and dedicated organizers. Here in Calgary, and in Centres all across our province as in Athabasca, Edmonton and elsewhere, the energy of youth embraces the new understanding that A.J. Muste once articulated: "there is no way to peace, peace is the way" I cannot tell you in a few words how immensely satisfying it is to all of us, youth and elders alike, to receive inquiries from a country like South Africa, for example, with the wish to link up with Alberta youth for the promotion of peace research, peace education and peace action. And, I’m happy to say that people like Gunther and James, who so energetically and creatively put together this Peace Fest, using their own precious few dollars to make it happen, have agreed to work on the IPRA 2006 conference. They will be joining with other somewhat younger adults like Dave, John, Mayumi and Samantha in Calgary who have volunteered to help us make this international gathering of peace researchers and educators a conference festival in its own right.

Contacts: Peacefest: Gunther Ha — students4peace@hotmail.com

There are so many other agencies of this peace tidal wave. I might have spoken of the ongoing work of Project Ploughshares in both Edmonton and Calgary :

Edmonton contacts: Bill and Rhyl Stollery — phone: 780-432-4052,

Calgary contact: Tracey Pickup: — office@ploughsharescalgary.ca

..Or just three recent Alberta books which address international peace and justice issues: Edmonton’s David Hubert, who has written "Canada @ Peace: Co-active Security", published by Canadian Peace Foundation in Feb.2003; Douglas Roche ’s superb treatment of United Nations activity and resources including the culture of peace: "The Human Right to Peace", published last year by Novalis press (highlights at http://www.peace.ca/humanrighttopeace.htm ); and Calgary professor George Melnyk ’s "Canada and the New American Empire: War and Anti War" published by the University of Calgary Press which features a host of Alberta writers.

What all this says, I think, is that we are part of a post 9-11, post-Iraq invasion, reality, a concrete experience that our lives and learning can be transformed and that creative, just, compassionate, and courageous living can be our common everyday passion and vision. I experience it in my personal life, I witness it daily in the "amazing Albertans" I meet each day; and I see it in the modest but impressive events which we celebrate today. It takes guts, courage, patience, and it "ain't always easy", but all will be well, all will be beautifully and wonderfully well, and a vibrant, artful and visionary wellness and peace is my wish for all of you gathered here. Please do keep in touch with each other, with the people you see around you today, with Arthur Clark and David Swann who will be speaking to you later, with me, because we ARE together.

There is a tidal wave, or perhaps a more fitting metaphor for our foothills city, there is a powerful chinook wind, coming our way which most assuredly carries a new warmth, a new spirit of compassion, justice and courage for all of us, not just those of us gathered here in this park, but like the wind which is no respecter of persons wafts its warmth on ALL citizens of Calgary and Southern Alberta.

- Larry J. Fisk – Saturday, August 21st, 2004. (with minor modifications to update to September 2005)