Prince George, B.C. – The inaugural Prince George Peace Walk will be held Sunday in conjunction with the global International Day of Peace.

The theme of the global event this year recognizes the 30^th United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, that all people have a right to peace. However the Prince George walk has a dual purpose as well. The President of the Multicultural Heritage Society, Shawn Bellamy, explains that “I was contacted by my childhood friend Tracey Matters and it was her idea to bring this to Prince George, not solely as a way of commemorating Greg and the situation surrounding him, but more so as bringing kind of a healing to the community of Prince George.”

Tracey Matters’ brother, 40-year-old Greg Matters, was a 15-year veteran of the Canadian military who served during the conflict in Bosnia. He left the armed forces in 2009 and was under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his service in the military. In September, 2012 RCMP members went to Matters’ property in Pineview to arrest him following an altercation with his brother. A 30-hour standoff ensued and came to a violent conclusion when Matters was shot and killed by police. A 2013 Independent Investigations Office report on the shooting cleared the officer who fired the shots of wrongdoing and said Matters was shot in the chest. However a pathologist testified at a Coroner’s inquest that Matters was shot twice in the back.

Regarding the Peace walk Bellamy says “she (Tracey Matters) has come all the way from Australia (her home) to do this and she’s contacted a lot of people, we do have actually UNBC professors, students etcetera working with us on this to just create more of a community awareness. It is the International Day of Peace where the United Nations declares a ceasefire and encourages countries all over the world to unanimously hold a ceasefire on this day. So it’s in that vein that we are moving forward.”

Bellamy says “On Sunday we’re meeting at 10:30 am at the Civic Centre and we’re beginning our walk from there, up 7^th Avenue to Victoria Street, walk along Victoria on the sidewalks, continuing down 3^rd to the courthouse and along George Street to the cenotaph at City Hall. It’s a very peaceful march, it’s a non-violent community gathering.” And Bellamy says anyone who wants to is welcome to take part. “Absolutely, there’s no fee, everyone is welcome and we’d like to see people of all ages. Those people who are not able to do the entire walk are welcome to go from the Civic Centre and meet us at the cenotaph.”

She says speakers have been lined up to address the participants. “We have Dr. Peter Ewert, his wife is chair of the UNBC School of Social Work, Dawn Hemingway, and he is also going to be doing a final closing for us. And then we’re observing a moment of silence in honour of the international ceasefire.” Bellamy says she and Tracey Matters will be speaking as well. “This was very fortuitous that Tracey and I were able to connect in pushing this forward.”

Bellamy also says the aim is to make this an annual event in Prince George. “We would like that, for one day, nobody dies. Nobody dies of war, nobody dies of fighting for just one day. We need to start somewhere, I know it’s idealistic but with that ideology where do we go from here? We sent out the invitations to the mayor, city councilors, to Shirley Bond etcetera and we’re hoping that everyone will put aside politics, put aside differing philosophies and just walk together.”