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Trudeau first target of letter campaign

Anonymous — February 1984

Many peace groups across Canada encourage’ their members to write letters regarding the arms race to individuals in positions of power (politicians, company presidents, religious leaders, etc.). The aim of these letters is usually to educate the recipient and/or influence him/her to work to promote disarmament.

Although these are worthwhile goals, too frequently letter-writing does not have its desired effect because peace groups are not focussed in their letter-writing efforts. For example, a peace group in Sudbury may decide to write the management of Litton, while another peace group in Edmonton is concentrating on writing letters to the Minister of Defense. Obviously the efforts of these two groups would have greater impact if they were simultaneously writing to the same individual.

At the Southern Ontario Disarmament Conference, held in Kitchener-Waterloo on November 19-20, delegates representing peace coalitions in Hamilton, Niagara, London, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto unanimously agreed to adopt the same letterwriting focus each month. Further, the dele. gates agreed to try to promote, in The Peace Calendar, a coordinated letter-writing campaign across Canada. It was suggested that each issue of The Peace Calendar would feature a letter-writing suggestion, the suggestion would be picked up by peace groups across Canada, and they in turn would encourage their members to write to the suggested individual. This strategy would result in letter-writing having many times the impact it presently has.

If your peace group is interested in becoming part of what will hopefully become a nation-wide letter-writing campaign, could you please write me and let me know that your group endorses the concept and is willing to encourage peace activists in your community to write letters. Also, please send suggestions of individuals you would like to see targeted for letters.

This month’s suggestion is to write Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. As you know, he has been involved in an international ‘crusade’ for peace. However, many disarmament supporters wish that he would commit himself to a domestic policy that is “congruent” with his international efforts for peace. This month, we hope you’ll find the time to write him and let him know how you feel about these issues. No postage is required in writing the Prime Minister, and letters should be addressed to the House of Commons, Ottawa Ontario K1A OA6.

In peace,
Doug Mohr
301-103 Church St.
Kitchener, Ontario
N2G 2S3
(519) xxx-xxxx..

To date, the following groups have endorsed the letter-writing campaign. We hope to be able to add the name of your group to the list.

The Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS); the Cruise Missile Conversion Project; East End Peace Action; East York Peace Committee; Educators for Nuclear Disarmament; Guelph Disarmament Group; Hamilton Disarmament Coalition; Lakeshore Committee for Disarmament; Niagara Disarmament Coalition; North York Action for Disarmament; Operation Dismantle; Parkdale for Peace; Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament; Ploughshares – London; Ploughshares -Sudbury; Ploughshares-Waterloo Region; Spadina Peace Group; Toronto Disarmament Network; Trinity Peace Association and the Waterloo Region Peace Network.

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