Joan Elizabeth Russow (born Ottawa, November 1, 1938) is a Canadian peace activist and former national leader of the
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada (french: Parti vert du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics.
The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It el ...
from 1997 to 2001.
[Affidavit of Joan Russow](_blank)
/ref> She is also a co-founder of the Ecological Rights Association and the Global Compliance Research Project.
Early career
Russow received her BA in art history and a master's degree in education from the University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...
in interdisciplinary studies.
Russow first gained attention in the "Lord's Prayer Case" which resulted in the banning of school prayer in public schools in British Columbia in 1989.
In collaboration with the professors in the Law faculty of the University of Toronto, Russow was the litigant in the Charter challenge of the first-past-the-post electoral system in Canada.
The Green Party and politics
Russow joined the Green Party in 1993 and became leader in 1997. She ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The House of Common ...
in three federal elections; in Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in 1997 and 2000, and in Okanagan—Coquihalla
Okanagan—Coquihalla was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that had been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2015.
Geography
The electoral district included the towns of Penticton, ...
in a by-election in September 2000. She lost all three elections.
Russow was the partner of David Scott White, the former chair of the Green Party of British Columbia
The Green Party of British Columbia, often simply called the BC Greens, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1983 and is based in Victoria. The party won its first seat in the Legislative Assembly of Br ...
, until his death in 2006. White was the manager of Russow's election campaign as leader of the federal Green party.
Under Russow's leadership the party developed policies promoting social justice, human rights, and peace, as well as the more traditional concerns with environment.
In the 2001 Quebec City protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Russow was detained for taking a photograph of the jail that was being emptied to incarcerate the FTAA protesters. Russow promoted the Green Party as a leader in the anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalis ...
, in particular the anti-corporatist and pro-peace movement.
Russow and White left the Green Party in 2001, partly due to the German Green party
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (fo ...
's support of the NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
attack on Serbia. Russow and White both joined the NDP
NDP may stand for:
Computing
* Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol
* Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP
* Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language
Government
* National ...
in 2003 and White continued his work as an activist until his death, most recently researching and writing against Canada's military role in Afghanistan.
In 2005 Russow criticized the Green Party under Jim Harris for moving away from some of its original left-wing principles.
Legal activism
Russow is a co-founder of the Ecological Rights Association and the Global Compliance Research Project. In September 2007, she collaborated on a declaration related to climate change. This declaration called upon the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...
to calculate the contribution of militarism to greenhouse gas emissions.
In March 2008, at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...
, she collaborated on a paper related to the delegitimization of war; this paper was officially sanctioned for distribution to state delegations at the UN.
On August 4, 2008, in Victoria she presented a representative of Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
with a paper entitled ''95 Articles of Condemnation of the Harper Government''.
International and domestic peace activism
Russow developed a "Common Security Index" which was submitted to the Senate Committee on the Anti-Terrorism Act on October 17, 2005. To further common security, the member states of the United Nations have made commitments to work toward the following goals:
* to enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment, and ensure the right to development and social justice;
* to promote and fully guarantee respect for human rights including labour rights, civil and political rights, social and cultural rights: the right to food, the right to housing
The right to housing (occasionally right to shelter) is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate housing and shelter. It is recognized in some national constitutions and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International ...
, the right to safe drinking water and sewage, the right to education and right to a universally accessible not for profit health care system;
* to ensure the preservation and protection of the environment, the respect for the inherent worth of nature beyond human purpose, the reduction of the ecological footprint and to move away from the current model of unsustainable and overconsumptive development;
* to achieve a state of peace and disarmament through reallocation of military expenses; and
* to create a global structure that respects the rule of law and the International Court of Justice.
Recently Russow has been speaking out about the increased militarism in Canada, focusing on the increased military budget; the increased belligerence in the military invasion and occupation of Afghanistan; the increased military exercises involving US nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear arms capable vessels and aircraft and using live ammunition; the increased military recruitment ads on television and bus shelters, in "Navy days" with booths, and in schools; the increased mining and production of uranium, including the contribution to US and NATO weapon systems; and the increased military flights overhead and participation in community events and parades.
In March 2007, Russow lobbied state delegations in the UN General Assembly to invoke Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations to set up an international tribunal to try the Bush administration. On March 8, 2007, the petition, in the six official languages, was submitted to the office of the President of the UN General Assembly.
In 2008, Russow was involved in a film project related to Co-operatives titled ''Counterpoint to Corporatism''.
For the 2009 Conference on Climate change in Copenhagen, she submitted a document co-written with Rickard Levicki of England to the state negotiators.
References
Sources
"The Globe and Mail Election 2000 Series"
Retrieved 11 January 2007.
"PEJ Obituary David Scott White"
Retrieved 11 January 2007.
Retrieved 11 January 2007.
*The University of British Columbia Alumni Directory 1992. Vancouver, B.C. page 558.
"Lord's Prayer Case"
Proceedings of the Special Senate Committee on the Anti-terrorism Act
Proposed Canadian No-fly list
The Bush Regime must be judged by an International Tribunal
Co-operatve film project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russow, Joan
Green Party of Canada candidates in the 1997 Canadian federal election
Green Party of Canada candidates in the 2000 Canadian federal election
Green Party of Canada leaders
Female Canadian political party leaders
Canadian women in federal politics
Living people
1938 births
20th-century Canadian women politicians