The Oshawa Night of 1000 Dinners on November 21, 2018 will feature David Collenette as guest speaker.  David was the Minister of National Defense (1993-1996) leading up to the signing of the Ottawa Treaty and will tell the stories behind the scene how the Canadian military came to support the ban on landmines and how that made the Ottawa Treaty possible.

Oshawa Rotary Club

Night of a Thousand Dinners

November 21, 2018

Officers’ Mess of the Ontario Regiment

6:30pm for 7:00pm

 
 
Landmines present a terrible problem to society as there are so many of them around the world and their effect is so dreadful.  One could say they represent the ultimate folly of mankind.  Not only do they kill and maim people they take away agricultural land and kill livestock in countries that can ill afford reduced agricultural output.
Landmines are particularly fatal for children.  They are smaller and their organs are closer to the blast so they die more frequently than adults when mines are triggered.  Children also come upon these devices and do not realize what they are.
 
The removal of landmines around the world and the banning of such instruments under international law has been a remarkable success of Canadian foreign policy and is supported across the country.
 
In the past when changes to international law were sought, the process was to go to the United Nations and get buy in from the countries and then introduce the “legislation” at the UN.  This did not work with landmines since many large nations, USA,  Russia, China and some small nations refused to give up their weapons and blocked the process.  So our foreign minister at the time, Lloyd Axworthy, a serious Rotarian, started what became known as the Ottawa Process.  He started with a draft treaty. He then went country to country to get buy in and ignored those who would not cooperate. In December 1997 the Ottawa Treaty was signed by 122 countries on parliament hill.  Present were Koffi Anan, Secretary General of the UN, the international president of the Red Cross, Jodi Williams who won the Nobel Peace Prize that year for her work in getting NGOs to advocate for banning mines and many others including of course those who signed for their countries.  While the signing took place the church bells in the city rang out in unison.  It was one of Canada’s greatest days on the world stage. Remarkably the whole process from the drafting of the treaty to signing had taken less than one year. Since then more countries have signed on and today 162 countries are signatories.
 
The Canadian Landmines Foundation was formed and Rotary is an unofficial sponsor as a few board chairs are reserved for Rotarians..  Its role is to raise money to remove the mines, and to educate children in dangerous areas as to what mines look like, to report them to adults and to never touch them.
 
The Canadian Landmines Foundation money is currently going to Cambodia.  Of course it could be used in many countries from the Falkland Islands to Sudan.  Cambodia is working well for us because of the success in reclaiming land and because of the administration by a former American Rotarian who with his wife decided to stay there to save the lives of the children and run the demining operation.
 
Many clubs contribute directly to the Canadian Land Mines Foundation from funds on hand.  Others raise funds through Night of a Thousand Dinners evenings and send these funds to the foundation.  If your club would like to partner with Oshawa Rotary for this year’s dinner, or would like a speaker on the program, we would be very happy to talk about the possibilities.
 
The Oshawa Night of 1000 Dinners on November 21, 2018 will feature David Collenette as guest speaker.  David was the Minister of National Defense leading up to the signing of the Ottawa Treaty and will tell the stories behind the scene how the Canadian military came to support the ban on landmines and how that made the Ottawa Treaty possible.
 
For tickets to The Night of a Thousand Dinners,
please contact:
Ron Dick,  ron@rrdfsi.ca     905-728-4550 
 
$75.00 per supporter of this good cause