VARIOUS groups have expressed an interest to be part of an annual Good Will Walk Against Violence, following the success of the October 25 event walk when a cross section of people walked four kilometres from the Totem Poles in Stanley Park to the Komagata Maru Memorial in downtown Vancouver.
You may watch a video on the walk at:
“Through the act of walking, one is able to claim spaces to transmit knowledge and send a message in solidarity that violence against innocent people, including state violence with impunity will not be tolerated. Such a space was symbolized through the Good Will Walk Against Violence which enabled an awakening for an inner wisdom to surface and above all emit a sense of agency with hope in resisting injustice,” said Indira Prahst, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Langara College, Vancouver.
“Violence can never be wiped away, but civil society must not stop its march against violence to reduce its impact on communities. We, therefore, feel that the Good Will Walk Against Violence must be held as an annual event that will bring a cross section of society together to raise a greater awareness of how peace can prevail over violence,” said Charan Pal Singh Gill, founder and CEO of PICS (Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society), which has for the last 27 years run residential homes for the elderly and vulnerable victims of violence and served immigrant communities’ youth, women and the elderly.
“As partners in the global effort to bring peace amongst all religions, HWPL supports and encourages the continuation of United Sikhs’ peace walk against violence, and we look forward to working with all peaceful Sikhs in the futures,” said Joseph Suhng, Director of North America and International Affairs, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), whose representatives attended the walk last month.
The Good Will Walk Against Violence was organized by United Sikhs in response to the surge in violence in the Middle East and unrest in the Ukraine this summer. For Sikhs, this year marked the 30th anniversary of two violent attacks on its people: firstly, the June 1984 attack on the Sikh sanctum sanctorum, Darbar Sahib, Amritsar (also known as The Golden Temple) that killed thousands of innocent people then and afterwards and, secondly, the genocide against Sikhs in November 1984 when thousands of Sikhs were killed in Delhi and many other cities of India.
“United Sikhs’ first Good Will Walk was held in Malaysia in May this year, to show solidarity with the families of the passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines MH370 that had disappeared mid-flight earlier in the year,” said Rishiwant Singh, United Sikhs’ humanitarian relief coordinator, who launched the Good Will Walk series.
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