UPF-Canada Strengthens Collaboration with Lions Club
- May 2
- 3 min read
Updated: May 19
Montreal, Canada – At a large community center in Montreal, on May 2, 2026 the Lions Club District U-1 of Québec hosted UPF-Canada as a collaborating organization in the service of the larger community in Québec and beyond. Since April 29 the Lions had been convening the annual district meeting of their members in the region, with the presence of prominent international visitors.
The partnership between the Lions Club and UPF dates back to August 26, 2023, when a friendship agreement was signed between the two organizations, represented respectively by Mr. Antoine Nahas, area leader for Canada and past president of the Board of Governors, and Mr. Franco Famularo, president of UPF-Canada, following which Mr. Nahas was appointed an Ambassador for Peace.
Since September 2023, represented by Mr. Nahas and Ms. Diane Boudreau, the District U-1 representative, and by a growing number of its members, the Lions Club has been a loyal partner of the Peace Road, an event organized annually by UPF to promote the building of bridges of peace between the nations of the world.
In September 2025, Ms. Christa Maria Abou Akl, a young Canadian of Lebanese origin with great artistic potential, brilliantly expressed her vision of peace through a performance of her composition, the song “Yesterday and Tomorrow.”
In May 2024, a Peace Walk in Gaspé was led by Mr. Robert Lapointe, governor of District U-3 of the Lions Club, Mr. Daniel Côté, mayor of Gaspé, and Ms. Isabelle Laurin, coordinator of UPF-Québec, walking behind a banner bearing the logos of UPF and the Lions Club, symbolizing the two organizations’ commitment to work together to build lasting peace.
In November 2024, our UPF representative to the European Union, Mr. Yvo Bruffaerts, shared the stage at a Lions Clubs International event in Bordeaux, France, during which Dr. Patty Hill, past international president of the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) for the 2024–2025 term, was awarded the title of UPF Ambassador for Peace.
The partnership also involves collaboration on projects such as the “Peace Paintings,” an initiative launched by the Lions Club to inspire young people to express their vision of peace. A new feature added to this year’s Lions U-1 District convention was the March for Peace, continuing a tradition started in Gaspé in 2024 with the two organizations.
On the third day of the convention, UPF was invited to introduce the joint UPF-Lions’ March for Peace as the UPF-originating component of their developing interest in adopting peace as an ongoing objective of the Lions Club brand.
Representing UPF at the event was Mr. Robert Duffy, secretary general of UPF-Canada, accompanied by Mr. Pierre Beauregard, Canadian coordinator of IMAP, the media-for-peace arm of UPF-Canada.
Mr. Duffy gave a short history of the two organizations’ collaboration and offered a Certificate of Recognition to Lions U-1 District Governor Ms. Diane Boudreau in recognition of her life-long dedication to serving her community and the large district that comprises most of northwestern, western and southwestern Quebéc.
Mr. Duffy closed by thanking the organizers for their tremendous service work, explaining some of the work UPF has been doing, and expressing hope for a long and fruitful collaboration with Lions going forward. Mrs. Boudreau returned the thanks, noting that “to work for peace is to speak the language of the heart – a language of love and peace for the whole planet.” She then offered a certificate of recognition to UPF for its work.
The assembled conventioneers were then invited to go outdoors to do a symbolic March for Peace around a park adjacent to the convention center.
Mr. Neils Schnecker, one of the directors of Lions Club International, was present at the convention, and participated in the March for Peace together with over 70 conventioneers. His positive outlook on future collaboration with UPF was strongly in evidence, especially in working together on the international level.
