Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
I taught an university-level course on Peace through Health at the University of Waterloo and McMaster University . I have lectured around the world from Dubai to El Salvador, Dublin to Tromso, Norway, Dusseldorf to Delhi as well as extensively in the US and Canada on Peace Through Health. My first book, Peace Through Health, was published in 2008. In my advocacy in the prevention of war, I served as Vice President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and President of Physicians for Global Survival (PGS) which is now represented by IPPNW-Canada. I have also spoken about small arms at the UN General Assembly. I contributed to the Medical Peace Work website and represented International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) at the Nobel Peace Laureates summit in 2004. Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing but medicine at a large scale – Rudolf Virchow The CANMEDs Framework for physicians emphasizes the role of advocacy, which I endorse with my involvement in peace through health and environmental advocacy. My interest in peace through health also includes from finding methods of alternative security, which is based on the belief that physicians have a responsibility in protecting the principles of medicine but hard power is not the way.
I am currently involved in the Lancet SIGHT Commission on Peace, Gender and Health and work with WHO Somalia on mental health and peace. on gender-based and interpersonal violence in Tanzania, El Salvador, and Israel/Palestine.