Ernie Regehr, is a Canadian peace researcher and expert in security and
disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as n ...
.
He co-founded
Project Ploughshares
Project Ploughshares is a Canadian non-government organization which works to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence and build peace located in the Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterlo ...
, a peace research organization based in Waterloo, Ontario, with Murray Thomson in 1976
and served as its Executive Director for thirty years.
Project Ploughshares is an ecumenical project supported by the
Canadian Council of Churches
The Canadian Council of Churches (French: ''Conseil canadien des Églises'') is a broad and inclusive ecumenical body, now representing 26 member churches including Anglican; Eastern and Roman Catholic; Evangelical; Free Church; Eastern and Orient ...
.
Regehr has been a Canadian NGO representative and expert advisor at numerous international disarmament forums including UN Conferences on Small Arms.
Regehr is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at
Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ontario) and The Simons Foundation (Vancouver, BC).
He also serves on the board of directors of the Africa Peace Forum in Kenya.
Project Ploughshares
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in English from the
University of Waterloo in 1968, Regehr worked in journalism and for a member of Parliament, during which time he wrote his first book ''Making a Killing: Canada’s Arms Industry''. Regehr and his wife Nancy then served with Mennonite Central Committee in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana from 1974-1976 before returning to Canada.
Remarking on his experiences in southern Africa, Regehr noted:
In 1976, Regehr contacted Murray Thompson, who was the Executive Director of
CUSO (then known as Canadian University Service Overseas). The two began a research project on militarism and underdevelopment, and co-founded Project Ploughshares as an organizational extension to this research on July 1, 1976.
Awards
Regehr’s peace and security work has been honoured with a number of awards.
He was named an Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
in 2003,
and in January 2011 he became the 26th laureate of the
Pearson Peace Medal The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding sel ...
.
Regehr was also a recipient of the University of Waterloo 50th Anniversary Alumni Award in 2007
and the Arthur Kroeger College Award for Ethics in Public Affairs in 2008.
Works
Regehr has written a number of books and articles about peace and security issues. His publications include:
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Regehr has also written numerous articles in newspapers, reports and scholarly journals.
See also
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List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Regehr, Ernie
Living people
Canadian activists
Canadian pacifists
Officers of the Order of Canada
University of Waterloo alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)