Steven Staples

He is founder of the Ceasefire.ca network of over 25,000 peace activists, and the high-profile research and advocacy organization, the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, based in Ottawa, which together opposed the combat mission in the Afghanistan war, and blunted the defence lobby's efforts for increased combat missions and weapons such as the F-35 stealth fighter.

As a communications and advocacy strategist, Steven Staples founded his agency, Public Response, which has worked with a wide range of leading advocates including Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, U.S. Senator Tom Hayden, Senator Roméo Dallaire, Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow, Unifor President Jerry Dias, and Ontario Federation of Labour President Sid Ryan.

His advocacy over the years has taken him to the front lines of many victories for progressive organizations. He led a union-NGO coalition which organized 41 busloads of Canadians to Seattle to join the historic 1998 protests that shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO), and he headed the Council of Canadians campaigns department during the historic 2001 protests in Quebec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

His 2006 book, Missile Defence: Round One, provides an insider's view of the successful Canadian campaign that rejected George W. Bush "Star Wars" program. In 2008, he co-edited Afghanistan and Canada: Is There an Alternative to War? with Lucia Kowaluk.

Born in Fredericton New Brunswick in 1966, he studied Education and History at the University of New Brunswick, while also pursuing a passion for broadcasting at the university's campaign and community radio station in the 1980s. He received his Bachelor of Education (BEd) Honours History in 1989. During the 1990s in Vancouver, he continued his volunteer broadcasting at Vancouver Co-Operative Radio, hosting the program "Radio Peace" and serving as the chairperson of its Board of Directors for two years.