Working for peace, paying for war

by Janet Plenert, executive secretary of Mennonite Church Canada Witness

Can we mobilize a thousand Mennonites to declare themselves to be conscientious objectors to military taxation this year? Would the government take note? Would this encourage other nonviolent, peace-loving people to do likewise? Would it make a difference in diverting our tax dollars out of military spending and into community peacebuilding uses? We don’t know.

We do know that 8.5 percent of the income tax we pay is used to fund Canadian military activities. In 2007-08 this amounted to $18 billion dollars! Paying for this seems inconsistent with our commitment to a God who came to us humbly in a child, in a manger; who taught us to turn the other cheek, and to work to bring two sides into one new humanity (Ephesians 2:14), and to restore all things under Christ (Ephesians 1:10,22).

For several years, Mennonite Church Canada has encouraged and promoted the work of Conscience Canada, a group that has worked tirelessly to legalize conscientious objection to taxation for military purposes for 30 years. Together with this group, we helped create Bill C-460 that would allow conscientious objectors to divert all of their taxes to non-military use. The “Act respecting conscientious objection for the use of taxes for military purposes” was introduced into Parliament, but had not received a second reading when the 39th session of Parliament ended.

As Bill C-460 awaits introduction into the current session of Parliament, the timing is right to increase our witness to government and ask it to take this issue seriously. Will you prayerfully consider submitting a Peace Tax declaration form along with your income tax form this year? The declaration (available for download as a PDF or by calling MC Canada toll-free at 1-866-888-6785) outlines two possible courses of action:

• A declaration of conscience; or
• A declaration of conscience and a redirection of all or part of military taxes.

Both options helpfully and simply guide us in witnessing effectively to our government, and provide additional suggestions and tools to make our declaration even stronger.

I encourage each one of us to consider one of these courses of action as a way to practically witness to our Anabaptist faith convictions. If you do submit this form, I would appreciate you dropping me a brief note indicating this. Let’s get a thousand Mennonites to witness to their faith in this way, this year! Be one of them!

If you need more information, send me an e-mail at jplenert@mennonitechurch.ca, or visit the Conscience Canada website at www.consciencecanada.ca.
(from the Canadian Mennonite, Volume 13, No. 5, Mar. 2, 2009)