A mini-UN convened in Calgary as Rotarians united

By John Hewko

This article originally appeared in the Calgary Herald's Opinion Section  
© 2025 Calgary Herald.

Like many who grew up in Detroit, I crossed the Ambassador Bridge so often that Windsor and parts of southern Ontario became as familiar to me as my neighbor's backyard.

I’d always wanted to visit Calgary, though not merely as a tourist. Nor did I desire to observe the recent G7 summit, where members of the global power club addressed the world’s pressing trade and geopolitical issues. Instead, I flew from Chicago to participate in a meeting of a different type of club. More than 15,000 Rotary members from Canada, the United States, and over 120 other countries and regions descended on the city 21-25 June for a convention and turned the BMO Centre into a mini-United Nations.

In the past, G7 discussions have been characterized by disagreements as political leaders struggled to co-ordinate actions to handle upheaval and geopolitical tensions. Very different are the annual Rotary conventions, which bring together civic leaders of all cultural and political backgrounds and people from countries in conflicts. We rally around a shared goal of advancing goodwill and peace through fellowship and community projects. If the G7 summit operates as a top-down policy-making body, our gathering illustrates the bottom-up approach of a massive, global grassroots movement.

The trend toward isolationism and looking inward is taking hold in many developed nations, with Canada standing out as a notable exception. Drastic shifts in governmental policies have led to significant cuts in humanitarian and development funding and programs. In these times, community-based organizations are stepping in to fill the gaps in essential social services created by changes in governmental priorities.

Millions of ordinary people worldwide make up an extensive and well-established web of civic organizations — from service clubs to PTAs, faith communities and business groups. Below the radar of headlines, protests and global power politics, volunteers are quietly at work in their communities: feeding the hungry, tutoring disadvantaged children, maintaining parks and playgrounds, or baking cookies to raise funds for projects farther afield. These NGOs wield a kind of soft power and project their values onto global issues, affecting everything from global health and disaster response, to development programs and education.

In the case of Rotary, through humanitarian grants and volunteer projects, we help create an environment conducive to peace by addressing the underlying causes of conflicts, such as poverty, inequality, the degrading environment and the lack of access to education. Our global scholarships and youth exchange programs, key components of our people-to-people diplomacy, foster cultural understanding and collaboration.

While peace in Ukraine wasn’t on the agenda at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, it was featured at our Calgary convention. Rotary doesn’t negotiate peace treaties, but we have never wavered in our humanitarian support for Ukraine. Since 2022, Rotary clubs around the world have raised more than C$116 million in cash and in-kind contributions to provide essential medicine, food, water, shelter and transportation for people in Ukraine and abroad as refugees. A small Ukrainian delegation to our convention connected with attendees to co-ordinate the delivery of more medical supplies and other aid to their war-torn country.

At our convention, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, addressed our ambitious endeavor of polio eradication in a challenging era when vaccine funds for developing countries face cuts. Rotary, a founder of a landmark public-private partnership led by national governments alongside organizations such as the WHO and Gates Foundation, has contributed more than US$2.9 billion and countless volunteer hours to vaccinate children against polio. Of that funding, Canadian Rotary members have contributed US$50 million to the cause. As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk.

In the face of overwhelming social and political uncertainties, my Rotary friends and I are reassured and re-energized by our renewed commitment to using soft power for global good.

I hope you can be a part of this movement.

This piece was originally published in the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.