White Poppies is an initiative for a more broadly focused Remembrance Day in Canada.
We want to encourage Canadians to broaden their Remembrance Day focus to include the civilians who now make up 90% of conflict victims; to challenge the beliefs, values and institutions that make war seem inevitable; and to urge our government to promote and fund effective non-military means of dispute resolution.
Remembrance for Peace Ceremony
A wreath-laying ceremony commemorating civilian victims of war – held annually since 2016.
This year, our 9th annual Vancouver ‘Let Peace be Their Memorial’ ceremony will held on Monday November 11th at 2pm; hosted live at the Unitarian Sanctuary (Oak & 49th) and online streaming via YouTube, Click here for details.
From 2021 to now it has been a hybrid (in-person and live streamed) event co-hosted by Vancouver Unitarians. In 2019 about 275 people attended this moving commemoration of civilian victims of war on Monday November 11 in Vancouver’s Seaforth Peace Park.
White Lapel Poppies
Since 2008 Vancouver Peace Poppies has run an annual fall campaign to distribute white peace poppies across Canada. In 2019 we shipped white poppies to 49 communities across Canada. Introduced in Britain in 1933, these lapel poppies can be worn alone, or alongside the red poppy to show your commitment to ending war and to recognize all its victims. Read more
White Poppies in Schools
We offer subsidized lapel poppies for use in elementary and secondary school classrooms. Our website offers projects and topics ideas for all ages, mixed poppy wreath materials, electronic resource links. Read more
August 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Aug 3 we held an online presentation Speaking Their Peace – Hibakusha in Their Own Words, now available on Youtube. This was the first in a cross-Canada series of online and live events commemorating these historic and tragic attacks and examining the current nuclear threat. Featuring a mix of powerful poetry and moving first person testimonials from Atomic bomb survivors, Speaking Their Peace offered an intimate look at their lives, their losses and their lasting commitment to world peace. Read more