The group was formed in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent military actions of the United States of America and its allies.

[2] Its website featured news updates on rallies and petitions during the war itself, and the Ottawa Citizen described it as one of the two main sites of the Canadian peace movement in this period.

[3] In 2004, NOWAR-PAIX attracted attention for its role in organizing anti-war demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in New York City.

in January 2005, hypothesizing that the emergence of NOWAR-PAIX and related groups marked a shift in Canadian protest culture from anti-capitalism to a new anti-war movement.

[7] In 2007, NOWAR-PAIX argued that undercover police officers had been used as agents provocateurs to discredit protestors at the North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec.