Muriel Duckworth, Peace Worker
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Muriel Duckworth, Peace Worker An Intervie W by Christine Ball Muriel Duckworth is one of the found- knew something about me. She thought I Yes. At that meeting, we began planning ers of the Voice of Women in Halifax. could organize and she phoned me. We the public meeting so that was how I fist Since 1962,she has served as a member of had the first meeting in my living room. I got into [the Voice of Women]. .. That the National Council of the Voice of was quite resistant; I had just taken this was 1960. It was founded in 1960 and it Women/LaVoix des Femmes, Canada, as first full-time job and I said to myself spread very rapidly across the country. It Chairperson of the National Education "who needs another organization?". ..I was founded in Toronto in response to a Committee and as Vice-President and wasn't really looking for another organi- crisis in the Peace Talks in Paris. In the National President of the Voice of zation to belong to. Kay said she had the middle of peace talks, word came out Women. She has played a major role in same feeling. about the shooting down of theU2 Ameri- the creation of several organizations, can spy plane with its pilot, Gary Power, including the Canadian Association for The samefeeling? That was at the time the over the Soviet Union. Of course, the US the Advancement of Women and Sport Voice of Womenformed in 1960...? denied it. Eisenhower was the President. and the Canadian Research Institute for He denied up and down, which is what the Advancement of Women. She is a In 1960. Anyway, we had the first meet- they do. We didn't know at the time that's recipient of the Persons Award (1981), ing in our house. The living room was routine; they deny .. [Khruschev] broke and the Order of Canada (1983). The packed, about 25 women came. Margaret up the peace talks and went home. Every- following are excerpts from two inter- Colpitts, known professionally as Joan body was very afraid. Everybody thought views with Muriel Duckworth which took Marshall, who was then a women's mom- that meant that there was immediate risk place on October 23rd and 24th, 1986, at ing commentary on the CBC -they used of nuclear war. You understand that by Kay Macpherson's home in Toronto. to have them all across the country, this time, people hadbegun to realize that, Christine Ball, a Ph.D. student at the 'women's morning commentators' on all in spite of the temble destructiveness of Ontario Institute for Studies inEducation, kinds of issues -we asked her to chair it the atomic bombs, they were going ahead interviewed Muriel. and she did. Then we immediately had an with planning and making even more issue just dropped in our laps. Word came powerful nuclear bombs. This knowledge How didyou hear of the Voice of Women? out that theunited States was considering as it seeped out took the place of the the dumping of nuclear waste off the coast feeling that there could never be another I heard about it on the radio because it of Nova Scotia into the ocean. People nuclear war because it would be too aw- started off with quite a bang in Toronto. A didn't know very much about it but they ful. There was this incident in the South lot of media women were involved and knew enough to be incensed from a na- Pacific where the Japanese fishing boat there was a lot of talk about it but I didn't tionalistic point of view that they would was showered with radioactive fall-out think of it affecting me. I then heard about think that they could dump nuclear waste and one man died and the Japanese peace it from Peggy Hope-Simpson, who lived in our water and we knew that they were movement came alive. Then, the testing, in Dartmouth, N.S.,at the time. I was 52 doing it because there would be too much and the risks of testing, became very clear years old and I had just taken on the first of a fuss for them to do it off the coast of from the testing in the Nevada full-time job of my life working for the Maine or any other place along the East- Desert ...My first grandchildren were Adult Education Division [Department of em seaboard. Harold Hathaway, in charge born in Sackville, New Brunswick in Education, Province of Nova Scotia] of Public Affairs, at CBC Halifax, got in 1959 and the fallout from Nevada was when Peggy phoned me. To back up a touch with us about it. Because he was coming across the border as well as caus- little bit, David Hope-Simpson her hus- highly incensed, he helped with publicity. ing death and destruction in the United band, and she, and my husband and I were We had a good meeting in a school gym, States. involved in an anti-nuclear testing move- a lot of people, television coverage, and a ment at the time ...Somebody from lot of radio coverage, and in the end they So, these were all the factors around that Toronto wrote to David Hope-Simpson didn't do it. Whether our meeting had time that were considerations? and said "do you know any women.. .who anything to do with it or not, of course, we would help to organize?" ...he didn't don't know, but they never did do it. Fallout was a big factor; so was the danger think of her doing it and she said "Well, of nuclear war, without a real realization I'd like to be in on that myself." Shedidn't Was this after thefirst meeting with the 25 of how temble it would be but with some have much time. She thought of me. I women? sense of it. Then, Lotta Dempsey, a news- don't think we knew each other, but she paper woman in Toronto, writing [in] The CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME 42 Toronto Star saidUWhereare the women? moved with her husband and children to peaceable solutions, the general atti- Why aren't the women doing something from Montreal to Halifax in 1%1. They tude of decisions by consensus.. .And it about this temble situation? Half the immediately set up a Quaker meeting in was the simplicity of their belief in the people in the world are women." Then their house and they invited us to come. At "Inner Light" and their belief "that God in came the organization [Voice of that time we were active members of the every person." I was with the Quakers for Women]. ..I had heard that there was the United Church of Canada which did not many, many years but I didn't join. beginning of a women's peace movement have any kind of peace witness - it was Within me, there was this very funny sort in Toronto before that. That women had really pretty shocking. The then Modera- of inverted argument. I didn't want people begun to talk about one and they were tor of the United Church was one of the to say 'Well, of course she's for peace, almost ready to take off and this gave people that the Canadian government she's a Quaker." I resisted that for a long them a real push ...It was Marion Catto took down to Colorado to show them the time. I wanted people to accept the fact who first told me about it. As they met in 'wonderful' headquarters of NORAD. He you didn't have to be a Quaker to be for somebody's house for the purpose of or- came back impressed, and he talked about peace. So, that was one reason I didn't ganizing, a question was raised, "What do the North, Canada's Northland, as a bar- join. Besides. I had an idea that all Quak- we call this women's peace movement?" gaining chip with the United States. We ers were saints and I knew I wasn't one. Somebody murmured tentatively, "It has just couldn't stand that coming from the Finally, when I was 67, it seemed right for to be called the voice of women;" they chief spokesperson of theunited Church. me to join. The path my life and thinking latched onto it. You know, from where I So my husband corresponded with him had taken seemed to lead to becoming a sit today, I think that was brilliant, be- two or three times but he was adamant, he Quaker. Not something imposed from cause the problem of women has been wouldn't back down on this position. For outside, I just felt comfortable there. They their silence. I don't think .. I know that a while we attended both the United have such a strong social conscience and we didn't clearly see it at that time as the Church and the Quaker meetings. Finally, so much comes out of Quaker thinking problem of women that they are silent, we resigned from the United Church. It into the whole community. Later, at some that they don't speak up. wasn't just that. It was also the way the point in all this I discovered that my an- Quakers functioned, the general way that cestor, who came across from the United That was three years before Betty the Quakers functioned which itself leads States in 1792 or 3 and founded the little Friedan's book The Feminine village of Austen [Quebec] Mystique ..