Owen Sound Sun Times, 21 November 2008
   
The NATO bombing of Kosovo got Frank Barningham started on a peace vigil that has been held weekly for nine years in Durham.

Except on occasional Saturdays when illness prevents it, Barningham, 75, spends an hour on the sidewalk wearing a placard he made in March of 1999 that reads: "War is not a solution." He talks with anyone who'll listen and listens to anyone who'll talk.

Barningham's "lifetime dedication" to peace activism earned him the 2008 YMCA Peace Medallion. Y officials presented the award to Barningham on Thursday before an audience of about 50 people at the Owen Sound Family Y boardroom.

He was one of three area residents nominated for the annual award, now in its 20th year. The ceremony is part of YMCA World Peace Week, an event marked by Y organizations around the world. It included congratulations from both city Coun. John Christie and Grey County Warden Kevin Eccles.

Other nominees this year were area youth justice circle worker Bevan Mc- Neil and theatre producer Joan Chandler for her work in violence prevention projects.

Nominators in the Grey Bruce Coalition for Peace and Justice cited Barningham's personal dedication to peace. Michael McLuhan, a 20-year resident of the region, said Barningham has "kept issues of peace and justice in peoples' minds" through all of that time. Terry Hope said Barningham, known as "Barney" by his friends, "is living his passion for peace."

Born in Norfolk, England, in 1933, Barningham remembers his childhood during the Second World War. The retired aircraft mechanic was drafted into the Royal Air Force in the mid-1950s before emigrating to Canada in 1956, where he found work with the A. V. Roe aircraft manufacturing firm.

It was not until he was laid off in 1959, with the cancellation of Avro Arrow fighter contracts, that Barningham discovered that he had been working on war machinery. It caused what his wife, Liz, described as "an epiphany" and marked the beginning of more than 40 years of political and peace activism, including constituency level work for New Democratic Party founding leader David Lewis and his son and political successor, Stephen.

The couple moved to the Durham area in 1990 and have been active in Green Party politics and the peace movement ever since. Barningham has long been a supporter of five men held in Canada without charges, including Hassan Almrei and Adil Charkaoui.

He is one of 10 people on trial on trespassing charges for demonstrations in Burlington at the L3 Wescam plant that Barningham says makes guidance systems for military drone aircraft.

He brought props to Thursday's event that he has used for street-theatre tactics during his demonstrations. They included an oversized cardboard hypodermic syringe painted white and labeled in red with the words "Peace Vaccine."