On March 13,  the Dawson Peace Centre, Dawson Peace Studies Certificate, and the Peace 365 course taught by Ivan Freud, were proud to bring you the second peace panel of the semester on the topic of “Peace & Other.” The distinguished panelists were: Ghayas Hachem, professor of French Literature at Dawson College who spoke on Jean-Jaques Rousseau and his suggestion that a natural peace resided within humanity before the onset of civilization; Patrice Turcotte who began his career as a Psychosocial Specialist in Therapeutic Recreation with Dans la Rue and now teaches in Dawson’s CRLT (Community, Recreation & Leadership Training Program) who spoke of his experiences with homeless youth; and finally Catherine Boulos, a psychologist spoke on her development of Mouvement de Paix (Dance for Peace) which, since 2016, has produced numerous community activities aimed at cultivating peace within oneself and in one’s surroundings.

Students were to reflect on how these three presentations intersected. Visit the link to see the panel here.

“The speakers in front of us were talking about exclusion, fear and vulnerability. We sat in the room as privileged students, protected by the same system that had failed them.”

This realization emerged during the four-day intensive Solidarity in Action: A Local Perspective (January 13–16), where, alongside our teacher Ben Lander, we met immigrants, refugee claimants, and representatives from non-profit organizations across Montreal. The class took the form of workshops and panel discussions, where speakers shared the realities of navigating a system that often works against them, encountering barriers in nearly every sphere of their daily lives.

Visit the link for the full report by student Lina Haouam.