[COAT] Wed.May27:Ottawa Arms Show faces Show of Peace!

[coat AT list.openconcept.ca]

Please distribute this very widely, thanks!   
This notice is
online
here

Ottawa Arms Show will face Show of Peace, Next Wed. May
27!
CANSEC 2009, Canada's largest military trade show, is not
going unnoticed or unchallenged. Next Wednesday, May 27, when two hundred
of Canada's top military exporters descend upon Ottawa's fair grounds for
their war show, they will face a formidable show of peace.
        Activists from dozens of peace
and religious groups have been meeting for months to counter the CANSEC
arms show. Efforts include preparing for a vote at a City Council
Committee on June
2, collecting thousands of names on
paper and
online
 petitions, sparking
discussions in countless grassroots organizations, provoking
newspaper
articles, doing radio interviews and churning out
detailed reports exposing CANSEC's role
in fueling wars. 

All-day
VIGIL May
27
There will be a day-long VIGIL (starting at 7:30 am) near
CANSEC's Bank St. entrance to Lansdowne Park.  Between
4:30-6:30 pm (while arms dealers, war
fighters, government bureaucrats and foreign military attachés gather for
a gala black tie celebration) there will be speakers, poetry and music
outside the gates.
(Click for
details)

Peace RALLY May 27, 7 pm
(followed by Candlelight Vigil) 
Join us for a large Peace Rally at 7 pm on the evening of May 27,
just across the Bank St. bridge from CANSEC at Southminster United Church
(15 Aylmer Ave). The program includes music, poetry and speakers
from various faiths: Buddhist, Christian (Catholic, Quaker, United
Church), Jewish, Moslem and Unitarian Universalist. Following this
indoor peace rally we will have a candlelight procession across the Bank
St. bridge to Lansdowne Park.
(Click for
details)


Honour Ottawa's 20-year Ban on Arms Shows
CANSEC will be the first arms bazaar held at a City facility
in exactly two decades. All such war industry exhibitions were
banned by City Council in
1989. Weapons dealers and users can thank unelected City of
Ottawa Staff, who claim to have found a convenient legal loophole large
enough to drive a battalion of tanks through to get to the arms show at
Lansdowne Park!  Lansdowne is Ottawa's biggest municipal facility.
It resides in a peaceful downtown residential neighbourhood. It will host
this country's largest war show despite the 20-year ban that was passed
11 to 1 by City Councillors in 1989. Peace activists intend to stop this
from ever happening again. Anti-war activists do not want CANSEC held
anywhere. The first step is to remove CANSEC from publicly-funded
facilities. Your help is needed to ban Ottawa's arms shows, for
good!

CANSEC Exhibitors, Weapons Exports and War
Canada is the world's 7th largest military exporter and CANSEC
is the biggest event in Canada helping to facilitate this international
trade in military equipment. Corporations exhibiting at CANSEC
manufacture everything from ammunition, automatic weapons, armed battle
vehicles, warheads, rockets and missiles, to sophisticated electronic
components embedded in virtually all major U.S. weapons systems, such as
warplanes, warships and main battle tanks. 
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/topCANSEC.htm

In recent years, 90% of the total value of Canada's military exports
was sold to 39 countries that had troops engaged in wars and armed
conflicts now raging around the world, most notably in Iraq and
Afghanistan. These wars, that have claimed the lives of more than a
million innocent civilians, are fueled by Canadian military exports and
facilitated by CANSEC.
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/exports/WarExports.htm

CANSEC is run by Canada's top lobby group for military industries. In
recent years it has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the
federal government to promote exports and international marketing
opportunities for this country's war-related manufacturers. 
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/CADSI-DFAIT.htm

Please distribute this widely and link to the URL:

http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/Show-of-Peace.htm

For more information on CANSEC, the campaign exposing it and how you
can help, please visit the website of the
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT).