About Peace Magazine

Peace Magazine

Peace Magazine is a Canadian magazine on disarmament and peacebuilding issues, published in Toronto, Ontario, by the Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS). Launched in March 1985 as the continuation of an earlier CANDIS publication, The Peace Calendar, it has published continuously for four decades — monthly in its first year, bimonthly from 1986 to 1999, and quarterly since 1999. Edited by retired sociologist and peace activist Metta Spencer, it carries a strong editorial emphasis on democracy, human rights, and the technical aspects of disarmament. It carries the ISSN 0826-9521.

Overview

Peace Magazine occupies a distinctive niche in Canadian publishing: it is the country's dedicated journal of disarmament analysis and peace movement news. Its writers are roughly equally distributed between activists and academics, with considerable overlap between the two spheres — a blend that gives the magazine both scholarly rigour and movement grounding. The magazine has had formal and informal cooperation with other Canadian and international peace organizations throughout its history; from 1993 to 2006 it included a section produced in collaboration with Science for Peace, the Canadian organization of scientists working on peace and disarmament issues.

The magazine was one of the first Canadian magazines to be produced with desktop publishing software — an early adopter of the technology that transformed small-press publishing in the 1980s. Its website has been online since 1997 and includes a full set of archives from 1983 to the end of the preceding calendar year, making four decades of peace movement history freely accessible.

History

Peace Magazine was launched in March 1985 as a continuation of The Peace Calendar, a CANDIS publication that had appeared monthly between February 1983 and January 1985. The Peace Calendar began as a simple listings sheet for Toronto-area peace events but had expanded, in the period immediately before the magazine launch, into a 12-page tabloid carrying articles and analysis alongside Canada-wide listings. The new magazine inherited that dual function — movement calendar and journal of analysis — and has maintained it ever since.

The timing of the launch placed the magazine at the heart of the 1980s nuclear disarmament movement, one of the largest mass mobilizations in Canadian history. The early 1980s saw huge peace demonstrations across Canada and around the world, driven by fears of nuclear war amid the renewed Cold War tensions of the decade; The Peace Calendar and then Peace Magazine served the Toronto and Canadian movements as both organizing tool and forum for debate. The magazine's emphasis on the technical aspects of disarmament — the details of weapons systems, treaties, and verification — reflected a movement that prided itself on substantive expertise, in which activists studied the hardware and the diplomacy with equal seriousness.

The magazine's publishing rhythm changed with the times: monthly from March to December 1985, bimonthly from January–February 1986 through May–June 1999, and quarterly since July–September 1999. The shifts reflect the economics of independent activist publishing across four decades, as well as the changing tempo of the peace movement itself — from the mass mobilizations of the 1980s nuclear disarmament campaigns through the post-Cold War 1990s, when the movement regrouped around new issues, to the post-9/11 era of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and beyond.

Throughout, the magazine has been edited by Metta Spencer, a retired sociologist and long-time peace activist whose stewardship has given the publication unusual editorial continuity — four decades under a single editor is rare in any sector of publishing, let alone the activist press. Under her editorship, the magazine developed its characteristic emphasis on the technical aspects of disarmament — arms control treaties, weapons systems, verification regimes — alongside coverage of democracy and human rights, reflecting Spencer's conviction that effective peace advocacy requires substantive expertise, not just moral witness.

Content

Peace Magazine publishes analysis of disarmament issues, peacebuilding initiatives, and the politics of war and peace, alongside news of the Canadian and international peace movements. Its strong editorial emphasis on democracy, human rights, and the technical aspects of disarmament distinguishes it from more general progressive publications: readers find detailed examinations of weapons systems, arms treaties, and military policy alongside movement strategy and human rights reporting.

The magazine's collaboration with Science for Peace from 1993 to 2006 brought scientists' perspectives on disarmament into its pages — a natural fit, given that the technical dimensions of arms control have always required scientific literacy, from the physics of nuclear weapons to the verification technologies of arms treaties. Its writers' academic-activist blend means articles often combine research depth with practical advocacy relevance: the sociologists, political scientists, and natural scientists who write for the magazine bring scholarly methods to movement questions.

Book reviews connect the magazine to the broader literature of peace studies — including reviews of works on war, peace, and militarism published by houses like Fernwood — while the listings function inherited from The Peace Calendar keeps readers connected to the movement's events and campaigns. The result is a publication that works on two levels at once: the journal of record for Canadian peace activism, and a substantive analytical magazine for readers who want to understand the machinery of war and the possibilities of peace in detail.

Coverage & Audience

Peace Magazine serves Canada's peace and disarmament community — activists, academics, students, and engaged citizens — as well as international readers interested in Canadian perspectives on peace issues. Its quarterly rhythm and its comprehensive online archives make it both a current journal and a historical record: researchers studying the Canadian peace movement from the 1980s onward will find its archives, stretching back to The Peace Calendar days in 1983, an indispensable source.

The magazine's audience is small but committed — the nature of a specialized activist journal — and its influence extends through the networks of the organizations it covers and cooperates with, from CANDIS and Science for Peace to the broader Canadian and international peace movements. The decision to put the full archive online, covering every issue from 1983 to the end of the preceding calendar year, makes the magazine's four decades of coverage available to historians, students, and activists anywhere — a public resource as much as a publication.

The early adoption of desktop publishing — making Peace Magazine one of the first Canadian magazines produced with the software — and the launch of its website in 1997, early for an independent activist title, reflect a publication that has consistently used available technology to extend its reach beyond what its modest resources would otherwise allow. The OCLC number 13448481 registers it in library catalogues worldwide, ensuring its preservation in the formal bibliographic record.

Ownership

Peace Magazine is published by the Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS), also identified as the Peace Info Service, based in Toronto, Ontario. The editor is Metta Spencer, retired sociologist and peace activist, who has led the magazine throughout its history — from the March 1985 launch issue through the monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly eras to the present.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, peacemagazine.org, has been online since 1997 — early for an independent Canadian magazine — and hosts a full archive of issues from 1983 to the end of the preceding calendar year. Its history and profile are documented in its Wikipedia entry, which records its origins in The Peace Calendar, its publishing-frequency changes, its Science for Peace collaboration, and its pioneering use of desktop publishing.