How can people verify that key humans rights are actually respected? For many years Canadian Friends Service Committee has focused on making sure that the vitally important rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration or UNDRIP) are implemented. How is the Declaration—which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called…
by Canadian Friends Service Committee
Latest articles
Being an anti-racist Quaker here and now
This took shape for me while I was sitting in silence in a weekly Meeting for Worship hosted by Canadian Friends Service Committee. In that receptive and giving space, I felt led to stand up. The coming together of a number of events and conversations in my mind and heart showed me that we often…
Canada, stand up for Palestinian children’s rights
In the context of the recently escalating violence in the West Bank, I would like to highlight a particular concern for Palestinian children. According to a 2022 year-end report by Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP), evidence they have collected suggests that Israeli forces use intentional lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount…
Keeping up with Friends
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel winning film awards In the Winter 2022 edition of Quaker Concern we wrote about CFSC’s funding support for Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel’s documentary film work. Since then, Ellen’s Kanàtenhs: When the Pine Needles Fall, has achieved several major awards! The honours include being Selected at the American Indian Film Festival 2022, an Honourable…
Friends on the move
CFSC’s Communications Coordinator Matt Legge gave a virtual presentation on the topics of violence and forgiveness to a conflict class organized by Mennonite Central Committee in Saskatchewan. He joined World Beyond War online to facilitate a month-long study of CFSC’s book Are We Done Fighting?. And he recently finished co-facilitating another installment of our popular…
Through the bars: making connections
Have you ever had a pen pal? Was it a good experience? Did you learn about where they lived, their customs and culture, or perhaps their life circumstances, including the joys and the sorrows? When I was in grade 7, our teacher decided that assigning pen pals to the class would be a great learning…
Watch accomplished experts offer hope on the path to reconciliation
This past November, I was excited to reconnect with Chief Robert Joseph—a hereditary chief of the Gwawenuk people—at an event for the release of his book, Namwayut. He has been Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and an honorary witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We first met in 2013 at…