Florence Stratton has been for many years an activist in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and has recently received the Ursula Franklin Award of Excellence from the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) for her persistent work for peace and justice.
If you live in Regina, you can often get a glimpse of her trotting to her various activities that range from pleading for the removal of lead from our drinking water, to combatting homelessness to citing the amounts of money spent on weapons at a rally.
Florence has very kindly accepted to answer some questions for Pressenza:
Some people say that helping in one’s community contributes to world peace. Does giving bread to the hungry or a blanket to the homeless contribute to world peace? How?
Social injustices, such as houselesness and poverty, are connected to war in at least three ways:
First, like war, houselessness and poverty are forms of violence. Bombs may not be falling on Regina, but unhoused people are still suffering and dying on the streets of our city.
Then there is the question of who constitutes Canada’s unhoused population. Indigenous People are significantly over-represented, making up 35 percent of Canada’s unhoused people. In Regina the figure is much higher: 75 percent of unhoused people in Regina are Indigenous. This is one of the faces of 21st century Canadian settler colonialism—another prominent and ongoing form of Canadian violence
Finally, there is the matter of money. In the 1990s, the Canadian government terminated the long-standing social housing program that, over a few decades, had built tens of thousands of affordable rental units in cities across the country. Ever since, there has been a growing houselessness crisis in Canadian cities.
Every year, the Canadian government spends billions of our tax dollars on so-called “defence.” In 2025, the government allocated $81.8 billion to defence for the next 5 years—“the federal government’s largest single program expenditure.” This is money that will be spent to kill people in other countries.
There always seems to be money for war and little or nothing to address poverty and houselessness. As Dicken’s Scrooge said of the poor in 19th century London: “Let them die and decrease the surplus population.”
We need to reverse these policies:
No money for war!
Money to end houselessness and poverty!
In the meantime, “giving bread to the hungry or a blanket to the homeless” is a necessary undertaking. But it is not enough. We must also work to end war and poverty and houselessness, as well as settler colonial policies, in Canada.
In the words of Nelson Mandela: “Our motto should be: let us make peace so that we can concentrate on the really important work that needs to be done. That is, alleviating the plight of the poor and the defenceless.”
Or as Ursula Franklin put it: “A true commitment to peace—by individuals, groups, churches, or governments—means a commitment to equal justice for all.”
Recently there have been demonstrations in Regina. At the one against President Maduro’s and Cilia Flores’ kidnapping, there were maybe 40 people. At the one against the attacks of Israel and the U.S. against Iran, there were maybe 15 people. The City of Regina has a population of 226 000. Do you think that these demonstrations are of any use? Or do we do them just to feel better?
No demonstration for peace and/or justice is useless—even if there is only one demonstrator. Look at the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who, at the age of 15, held a solo school strike on the steps of the Swedish parliament calling for climate action—an act that inspired the global Fridays For Future movement.
And even if there is no such uptake, it is essential to speak truth to power! At the same time, we need to work on further building peace and justice movements.
That said, things are not as grim as they might seem, as Regina, in fact, has a very strong and vibrant activist community. In that regard, I would like to give a big thanks to the many Regina peace and justice activist groups for all the work they do to make Regina—and the world—a better place for everyone.
These include:
All the supporters of Making Peace Vigil—the group that handed out peace and justice pamphlets in downtown Regina every Thursday for thirteen years until Covid shut us down and we became an email newsletter
Regina Peace Council headed up by Ed Lehman
End Poverty Regina, led by Peter Gilmer
Regina Citizens Public Transit Coalition, led by Terri Sleeva
Righting Relations Regina, led by Lisa Oodle
The Wednesday Wise Women’s Wine Caucus—which, despite its seemingly frivolous name, is the origin of many social justice actions in Regina
And last, but definitely not least is Sunday Funday, facilitated by Tiro, Erica, and Mandla Mthembu, Shawn Koch, Donna Nelson, Madi Massier, Mirtha Rivera, Jean Hillabold—the list goes on. Among many other things, this group provides a meal and free clothing market for low-income and unhoused people every Sunday.
A big thank you to all of these peace and justice activist groups for all the work they do
Activism requires a community of people standing together to speak up for peace and justice.
Solidarity is contagious!
The world situation is worsening. What keeps you going, as a peace activist?
Fury! Hope! Regina’s powerful activist community! The struggle for a better world continues!
An area where you are very active is combatting homelessness. Regina, like many other places, sees an increasing homeless population. If you were Regina’s mayor and you could have as much money as you wanted to eliminate homelessness, including putting support programs into place, what would you do?
I would use the bulk of the money to build as many low-rent units as are necessary to house all of Regina’s unhoused people. I would reserve some of the money to provide support to any of the renters who needed it—though it is a provincial responsibility to pay for support programs
However, Regina is very unlikely to have such money, as municipalities have very limited means of raising funds, with property taxes being their main source of revenue.
In terms of ending poverty and houselessness in Regina—and in Canada—it will take all three levels of government.
What the federal government must do:
Reinstate the long-standing social housing program that was terminated in 1993. Over the preceding couple of decades, this program built thousands of affordable rental units. Since the program was terminated, there has been a growing houselessness crisis in Canadian cities across the country
What the Government of Saskatchewan must do:
Raise the income assistance rates for Saskatchewan’s two income support programs—Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and Saskatchewan Assured Income For Disability (SAID)—above the poverty line.
Raise the minimum wage, which is currently $15.35 per hour, to $22 per hour.
Implement rent control legislation
Make available for occupation all the empty Sask Housing units in the province
What the Regina City Council must do:
Keep a keen eye out for any federal funding that can be used to provide low-income housing and apply for it as soon as it is available. Perhaps the work could be assigned to a particular city employee whose mandate would be working on ending houselessness. This employee could also study what other Canadian cities are doing to end houselessness.
Put pressure on the provincial government to make available for occupation all the empty Sask Housing units in the city.
Enact rental unit licensing.
Allocate annually an amount equivalent to 10% of the Regina Police Service operating budget to operational funding to end houselessness. For 2025, that would have been about $12.2 million.
Support encampments rather than destroying them and throwing away people’s belongings. Support would include providing toilets and other sanitation services, water and electricity, and fire and health services.
Until houselessness is ended in Regina, have a winter strategy up and running every year by the beginning of November at the very latest.
Organizations like the Regina Peace Council are struggling to attract new members. You are or have been a leader of several organizations. How did you attract members?
Regarding Making Peace Vigil: Mainly by asking folks, wherever I go, if they would like to be added to the Making Peace Vigil email list.
Do you have any rewarding activism anecdotes to tell us?
Note: the answer to this question is taken from
https://scottneigh.ca/learning-from-movements-florence-stratton/
It also appears in other references
At the local level, we have had a couple of victories:
The Study War No More campaign
Note: this material is taken from: Divided: Populism, Polarization & Power in the New Saskatchewan, Ed JoAnn Jaffee, Patricia W. Elliott, Cora Sellers, published by Fernwood, 2021. The title of the essay: “Study War No More: The Campaign Against Military Training in Regina High Schools 2014-2015.
In September 2014, military training was added to the curriculum of Regina high schools. Students signing up for the program would earn two credits toward graduation and be paid $2,000. The program had the support of the Canadian military, the federal government, and both parties in the provincial government.
In January 2016, the program was cancelled, having only been offered once. How did this happen? There are two answers to this question.
First, four Saskatchewan peace groups — three in Regina and one in Saskatoon — came together under the banner “Study War No More” and mounted a campaign that included sponsoring a workshop; writing letters to the editor; collecting signatures on a paper petition, which, in the end, garnered 2,047 signatures; and distributing pamphlets.
The second answer to the question is Regina High School students. Despite being offered two credits toward graduation, along with $2,000, they did not sign up for the program in any numbers. The 2015 program only graduated nine students. By late January 2016, only five students had enrolled in that year’s program. In other words, it was mainly the good sense of Regina young people that rendered the program defunct.
Still, the peace groups would like to think that their persistence helped raise public awareness and thus contributed to the cancellation of the program.
No Business in the Park
Established in 1912, Wascana Park is commonly known as “the Jewel of Regina.” It is one of the largest urban parks in North America — twice the size of New York’s Central Park.
In 2016, Conexus Credit Union offered the University of Regina “up to $8.25 million” for its College Avenue Campus Renewal Project to be used to restore the old college buildings. In return, Conexus got a 90-year lease on 2.6 acres of land in Wascana Park on which to build its head office.
Around the same time, Brandt Industries Limited, the fourth-largest private company in Saskatchewan, applied to build an office tower in the Park.
In response to the Conexus and Brandt moves, in early 2017, No Business In The Park, a grassroots citizens group, was formed. It took as its mandate “to stop commercial development in Wascana Park.” Arrayed against us were a formidable number of opponents, including the Sask Party government and Regina City Council.
Actions taken by No Business In The Park included the distribution of pamphlets around the city, petitions opposing commercial development in Wascana Park; and email campaigns to Conexus, Brandt Industries, the provincial government, and Regina City Council.
Our main action, however, was a weekly rally, held every Wednesday from noon to 1 pm, at one of the proposed construction sites, starting with Conexus. Still, the Conexus plan went ahead, with the destruction of Park trees beginning in June 2018. We had considered direct action — like blocking the machinery — but rightly or wrongly, had decided against it. We did not, however, give up the campaign. The struggle continued.
We refocused our efforts on stopping the Brandt office tower from being built in the Park, continuing our weekly rallies, this time at the proposed Brandt location, and also calling for an auditor’s review of the approval process of the Brandt office tower.
On March 11, 2019, construction of the Brandt office tower was halted until the auditor’s report was completed. When the report was released in December, it was damning. And no Brandt building has been built in Wascana Park. Nor has any further commercial development been proposed for Wascana Park.
Had we not stopped Brandt, Wascana Park would have been overrun by commercial buildings.
Conexus, however, still has its ugly head-office building in our Park. We need to get a campaign going for Conexus to donate the building to the University of Regina.
Anything you’d like to add?
The struggle for peace and justice continues! In the words of Arundhati Roy: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.”
Thank you very much, Florence!
Pressenza is very grateful for your time , expertise and thoughts. Your answers will be very interesting, instructive, and inspiring to its readers.
Notes:
For convenience, this interview has been conducted by email. Therefore, Florence deserves credit as co-author.
Amounts of money are in Canadian dollars. One Can $ is 0.73 U.S. dollar and 0.63 Euro.
