The proposed Bancroft Area Canadian Peace museum has recently been given charitable status.
The museum would be the first peace museum in Canada and is fundraising with the goal of opening by 2025.
In celebrating the museum’s new charitable status, Houston emphasized the timeliness of the museum’s mission: “The need to promote peace is more urgent than ever. As we navigate through times of uncertainty and conflict, the Canadian Peace Museum will remind people of the importance of cherishing, nurturing and advancing levels of peace locally and internationally.”
We spoke with president Chris Houston about some of the complexities surrounding peace:
“Climate change is changing where water is available and and how cattle can move around and crop growing patterns and it’s putting people in tension with people they didn’t have tension with before” said Houston,
“It’s making people fight for resources that used to be abundant. I feel like nowadays everybody wants a tweet size explanation of issues and many issues are more complicated than that and they require a more comprehensive narrative and more details. And that’s what we want to do. We want to join up the dots between climate change and peace, between gender equality and peace, and between access to healthcare and peace. This is the difficult but important task”
Chris Houston has worked as an international humanitarian worker for Doctors without borders, The Canadian Red Cross and the United Nations. His humanitarian work in Yemen and other conflict zones left him with both PTSD and also a strong appreciation for peace.
The museum has a diverse list of Board members, many of whom have lived experiences relevant to the museum.
Members include:
Dr Anita Schug, a neurosurgeon and a co-founder of the Rohingya Medics Organization.
Dr Oyedeji (Deji) Ayonrinde, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario where he is also Clinical Director for Community Mental Health.
Dr Samantha Nutt, an award-winning humanitarian, best-selling author and the Founder and President of War Child Canada and War Child USA.
Robert Hunter, the elected leader of Kijicho Manito Madaouskarini Algonquin Nation in Bancroft, Ontario. Robert’s primary role is as negotiator of a tripartite Algonquin Treaty with the governments of Ontario and Canada. His broader mission is to build legitimate self-governance, nurture leadership, pride, prosperity and harmony in the Algonquin Community
Founded in July 2023, the Canadian Peace Museum’s aim is to “promote peace, equity, community cohesion, Indigenous reconciliation and planetary health”