I had company on this cloudy day! It was so nice to have Alan and Kelly join me to protest.

Alan is a great anti-war activist who has helped me with my many peace events and demonstrations over the years. He is very friendly and knowledgeable. He has this easy-going and amicable way about him that allows him to connect quickly with strangers. I have gotten to know him better over the years as we have planned together the rally against the Halifax International Security Forum (the NATO war conference) every November. I was glad that he brought his big banner “Canada needs an Anti-War Government” but I was disappointed that he didn’t bring his “No Harbour for War” banner.

Alan closely follows what Canadian warships are coming and going into the Harbour. He also investigates what foreign warships are coming into Halifax and prepares a quarterly No Harbour for War publication.

Alan, Kelly and I talked about the Japanese warships that are in the Halifax Harbour right now. I told Alan that I wished that I could protest them as well, but that I didn’t have time that week to plan anything because of my children being home from school. Alan discussed the Japanese government’s self-defense force, which is really a military.

I told Alan and Kelly about the Japanese government’s plan to amend Article 9 of its Constitution and that there was a worldwide effort to prevent that “Global Article 9 Campaign”.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is the important peace provision and reads: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

Yet, behind of the guise of self-defence, Japan is maintaining a military and violating its constitution – the Japanese warship in our harbour is evidence of that. We also talked about Japan’s role in the war in Iraq.

Then we discussed hydraulic fracturing – war on the earth. Kelly told us about the fracking protests in New Brunswick and the new coalition against fracking in Nova Scotia and the campaign to permanently ban fracking in this province.

The runner ran by and waved.

We got 24 honks & waves and 3 head shakes & 1 hand down.

Dedication – In solidarity with my friend, Alan, the kind and committed long-time anti-war and social justice activist in Nova Scotia. He has a weekly protest every Friday in downtown Halifax – Hands off Libya! Hands of Syria!