In 1957, scientists from both sides of the Cold War travelled to a small village in Nova Scotia to talk about nuclear weapons, global annihilation, and what it would take to pull the world back from the edge of catastrophe. These individuals came in spite of their differences and long-held hostilities. What emerged from this meeting was the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, one of the most significant peace movements of the twentieth century. They received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
The idea at the heart of these talks became known as the Pugwash spirit: that you can sit across a table from those you disagree with, speak uncomfortable truths, and still work toward something better.
On May 3, 2026, I stood on a stage in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to deliver a TEDx talk called On Silence, and Ending Violence. My argument was simple, even if the subject matter was not: peace does not begin with silence.
I have spent years working in the fundraising and nonprofit sector, navigating boardrooms and donor events, being objectified by men. In 2019, I wrote a CBC op-ed about harassment in our sector. I filed a human rights complaint and was offered a preliminary settlement that included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). I said no.
NDAs are one of the most effective tools for silencing survivors. They are used routinely in workplace harassment, discrimination, and abuse cases to silence the people who were harmed. Meanwhile, the people who caused harm (often serial perpetrators) move on. NDAs isolate survivors from their own communities, and they make it impossible to warn others.
In my TEDx talk, I spoke about Wendy Carroll and Erin Casey, who lived for twelve years under an oppressive NDA after filing complaints of sexual harassment against the former president of the University of Prince Edward Island. They couldn’t explain to anyone what had happened to them. They were isolated and forced to leave PEI, their careers, and their community. In January 2026, they were finally released from that agreement.
I also spoke about Zelda Perkins, Harvey Weinstein’s former assistant, who in 2017 became one of the first women to break her NDA with Weinstein and Miramax after reporting his sexual assault of a co-worker. Zelda co-founded Can’t Buy My Silence and has gone on to help bring about legislative changes in the U.K. to ban the misuse of NDAs.
Reform is happening globally. PEI became the first jurisdiction in Canada to ban the misuse of NDAs in 2022. The United Kingdom passed some of the strongest such legislation in the world in January 2026. And Nova Scotia? Advocates, including myself, have been pushing for years. We are still stalled.
This is not a complicated policy question–we have been talking about this since 2019. It does not require lengthy study or jurisdictional review. It requires political will.
The question I put to the room in Pugwash, and the question I am putting to Nova Scotians now, is this: why have we spent years asking why survivors don’t speak up?
That is the wrong question.
The right question is: what are we doing that makes silence safer than truth?
Truth-telling is framed as a brave individual act. That framing is convenient for systems that prefer not to change. The real test of any community isn’t whether it makes room for one person to speak. It’s what happens after they do. Are they believed? Are they protected? Does anything actually change?
NDAs are engineered to ensure the answer to all three of those questions is no.
The Pugwash spirit asks us to sit with discomfort and speak truth anyway. Nova Scotia’s government could demonstrate that spirit with a single piece of legislation.
Real peace is not the absence of conflict. It is not the quiet that comes when people are afraid to speak. Peace is what becomes possible when the truth is safe to tell.
Take Time to Learn More About TEDxPugwash
This is, perhaps, the most Pugwash thing of all: that a small community, situated on the Northumberland Straight, gathered eight speakers, with different stories and different experiences, and asked us all to sit with hard questions together.
The topics varied from peace and sorrow, women in sport, bravery, peace as a practice, finding community as a way to heal, and more. The speakers were of varying ages, experience, and backgrounds. We were strangers when we started but deeply connected by the experience by the end of the two days.
As one of the speakers—the indominable spirit, author, and poet, that is Sheree Fitch—said in her talk: “We are all miracles.”
I was honoured to be in that room. All of the talks are now available, and each one is worth your time. Please take time to watch.
TEDxPugwash 2026 Speakers
Sheree Fitch: Peace and Poetry in a Season of Sorrow
Camryn Reid: A “Peace” of the Action: Women in Sport
Molly Wilson: What is the price for peace?
Keegan McClary: Where the mind finds peace
Beth Charlton: From I Can’t to I Can
Ella Bollong: Bravery Does Not Come With Age — It Comes With Action
Bev Wells: A Practice Called Peace
Liz LeClair is a fundraising consultant, writer, and gender-based violence advocate based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Mi’kma’ki).
