The Cast

Hans Blix - is a career Swedish diplomat and politician and served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs from1978 - 1979. Between 1962 and 1978 Hans Blix was a member of the Swedish delegation at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. Hans Blix was the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency between 1981 and 1997.

He was called from retirement in 2003 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to lead United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission searching for Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. He found none.

Rex Weyler - is a journalist, writer and ecologist. In 1967 after working as an apprentice engineer with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation Rex became active in the anti Vietnam War movement and returned to university to study journalism. After traveling internationally and writing Rex began his journalism career in 1973 with the North Shore News in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Between 1973 and 1982, Rex served as a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation and in 1975 sailed on the first Greenpeace anti whaling campaign. He was a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. Rex is a frequent media commentator on ecology and current events. He served as Program Director for the World Peace Forum.

Kyle Snyder - after a troubled childhood Kyle joined the military when he was 19 years old after attending a government program called Job Corps, in Clearfield, Utah. As a member of the 94th Engineers, a construction battalion he thought he was going to Iraq to help reconstruct the county but soon found himself manning a 50 caliber machine gun escorting convoys in Mosul Iraq's second largest citywhere he witnessed innocent civilian deaths.

Upon his return to the U.S. on leave he came to Canada and applied for refugee status. In 2006 he returned to the U.S. and attempted to apply for a discharge from the Army but was ordered to return to his unit where he could have returned to Iraq. Once again Kyle fled from the U.S. to avoid prison and is now living in Canada.

Stephen Staples - is the Director of Security Programs for the Polaris Institute, a public interest research organization based in Ottawa. He is a regular media commentator and has spoken on defence and foreign policy issues before numerous House of Common's committees.

K'Naan - was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and grew up during the civil war which began in 1977. His father fled to New York, worked as a cab driver and sent money to his mother and hip-hop albums to K'Naan. In 1991 as the Mohamed Siad Barre government collapsed K'Naan and his mother were able to join his father in New York. The family later moved to Toronto, Ontario where K'Naan grew up and started his music career. In 1999 he addressed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2006 he won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year.

Holly Near - is a unique combination of entertainer, teacher and activist. Growing up with activist parents in rural Ukiah, California Holly began her professional career in her early 20's and appeared in "Hair" on Broadway and in 1971 she joined Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland in the Free the Army Tour FTA that became a motion picture. She founded her own record label Redwood Records in 1972. Holly has continued to advocate for peace and social justice throughout her illustrious career and has honoured by organizations such as the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, NARAS, Ms. Magazine (Woman of the Year), and the Legends of Women's Music Award. Most recently, she was one of 1000 Peace Women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.

Byron DeLear - began his career in music, film and television production. Following September 11, 2001 he co-founded and became a director of the NGO Global Peace Solutions. He was producer and host of the Global Peace Network. Running for the Green Party in District 28 in Los Angeles, California Byron achieved 3.5% of the vote. He recently opened the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center.

Cindy Sheehan - After the death of her son Casey, on April 4, 2004 who was a soldier in Iraq Cindy became an antiwar activist.  In August 2005 she gained international recognition when she set up Camp Casey, a peace camp near George Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.  
Cindy is planning on running as an independent for Congress against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco to protest the lack of an impeachment bill against George Bush.

Rana Alaiouby - a Sunni woman from Baghdad she is the director of International Peace Angels, a humanitarian aid agency, operating in war torn Iraq. They were "the only international groups who havesuccessfully delivered aid into combat afflicted areas in Iraq such as Fallujah and Samarra." Dar Jamail wrote on 5/17/2005. Rana is an inspiration for us all.

Dhar Jamal - is an independent US journalist who went to Iraq in 2003 to report on the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers. He wrote for the Inter-Press Service and the Asia Times. He has also been published in the Nation, The Sunday Herald, Islam Online, The Guardian, and the Independent and has been translated into 11 languages.

Paul William Roberts - born in Wales he moved to Canada in 1980. He has reported on Iraq since 1990 when he interviewed Saddam Hussein. His book "A War Against Truth" (Raincoast 2004) is a first hand account of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2005 he received the inaugural PEN Canada Paul Kidd Courage Award.

Rita Leistner - a noted photojournalist Rita was born in Toronto and after obtaining her master's degree from the University of Toronto she moved to Cambodia in 1998 to work as an independent photojournalist. Her photos have been published in Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Macleans and received many awards. She is a contributor to "Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq" published by Chelsea Green in 2005.

Ashok Gangadean - is a Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College (Haverford, PA). He is a founder-director of the Global Dialogue Institute. He has written many books exploring the concept of a global consciousness. Recently he is Co-Convener of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality.

Wade Huntley - a graduate of the University of California (Berkeley) in 1993. He has taught and written international relations theory and nuclear disarmament. He was an Associate Professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute in Hiroshima, Japan. Currently he is the Program Director at the Simons Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Research, based within the Liu Institute for Global Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Hon. Douglas Roche O.C. - a member of Canada's parliament from 1972-1984 and a Senator from 1998-2004, he served as Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Committee in 1988. Mr. Roche is Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative and a member of the Pugwash Council, which won the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for its work for nuclear disarmament. He has written 19 books his latest, which is Global Conscience (Novalis, 2007).

Phyllis Chreighton - Vice-President of Science for Peace, Phyllis is also musical director of the Toronto chapter of the Raging Grannies, a group she co-founded. She is also active on the issue of nuclear disarmament she has presented papers and has spoken at conferences in Hiroshima.

Alfred Marder - A long time peace activist Alfred is President of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities.  Based in New Haven, Connecticut he is also President of the U.S. Peace Council and the City of New Haven Peace Commission.

Julian Darley - is a writer and speaker on energy and environmental issues. He is the author of "High Noon for Natural Gas" and the founder of Global Public Media and the Post Carbon Institute.

Nadia McCaffrey - Nadia's son Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. was killed on June 22, 2004 while serving in Iraq.  On June 20, 2005 the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division concluded that he had been killed by the Iraqi troops he was training.  She is an active member of Gold Star Families for Peace.  She has also founded Angel Staff, an international NGO to bring help and assistance to women and children affected by war.

Dr. Nurid Peled-Elhanan - is the mother of Smadar Elhanan, 13 years old when killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997. She is a Lecturer in Language Education at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She and her family are members of the Palestinian and Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace.

Jef Keighley - Executive Director of the World Peace Forum, Jef is a long time Vancouver peace activist. He is now retired after serving as a National Union Representative for the Canadian Autoworkers and previous to that the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers (CAIMAW). Jef is a founding member of the Stopwar.ca coalition in Vancouver, BC.

Pol D'Huyvetter - is an activist with the Belgian organization For Mother Earth. From 1997 they lead citizen inspection teams through the secret NATO nuclear weapons base of Kleine Brogel, in the northeastern part of Belgium. Pol addressed the UN General Assembly on May 4, 2005.

Jeff Schutts - after joining the ROTC at the age of 18 Jeff went on to serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Germany during the height of the Cold War. He applied for conscientious objector status in 1988 but was denied. After his discharge in 1990 moved to Canada where he now teaches history at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC. He is active with helping war resisters and veterans and the Vietnam Friendship Village Project.