For a long time I have wanted a place in my community where I could experience the diversity of my city and where I could be of service. I am so grateful to have landed in just this kind of organization. It’s called Bridge of Hope. This is a very harmonious group, fortunate in leadership…
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is of critical importance in the struggle to transform relationships based on colonialism and oppression to ones based on human rights and mutual respect. We know how significant the UN Declaration is to Indigenous Peoples, and we work for its full implementation through being active allies…
No Way to Treat a Child One of Canada’s closest allies is systematically mistreating children, and Canada is turning a blind eye. The United Nations reports that for a Palestinian child thought to have thrown a stone, “[T]he common experience… is being aggressively awakened in the middle of the night by many armed soldiers…
In May the CFSC staffing model was revised. We affirm our ongoing relationship with Jane Orion Smith, who is unable to return to her duties as General Secretary at this time due to a head injury sustained in 2015. Jane Orion’s readiness to return to work will continue to be assessed jointly with her medical…
Each summer CFSC seeks a young Friend or young person interested in Quakerism and social justice to work as a Program Assistant (PA), supporting both CFSC’s various program committees and its general administrative operations. This summer I was honoured to take the PA position, have the opportunity to work on so many issues close to…
Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. It was devastated by many years of civil conflicts and wars following its independence from Belgium in 1962. The breakdown of economic, social, and cultural structures led to a deterioration of women’s condition. The worst example is Kamenge, a slum in the northern part of…
“Violence begets violence. We know that a child experiencing abuse is more likely to see violence as normal, even acceptable… and more likely to perpetuate violence against his or her own children in the future.” – UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake1 Children are persons in formation. As such, they continually challenge parents as they…
An historian at Trent University recently uncovered the fact that in 1951 the Prime Minister of Canada authorized a top secret surveillance program about which Parliament was kept in the dark. The program, code-named “Picnic”, involved spying on Canadians felt to be “subversive” for reasons including in some cases that they were homosexuals. In 1954,…
There are striking parallels between Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Colombia. This is a hemisphere where efforts have been made since contact to eliminate Indigenous Peoples through policies of physical and cultural genocide. While there are clear differences, the shared experiences are of structural discrimination and destructive policies leading to marginalization, displacement, and barriers to…
Ten years ago I gave the annual Sunderland P. Gardner lecture at Canadian Yearly Meeting on the theme Toward a Culture of Peace: Can we afford to pay the price? It was a time, like today, when the human race faced a combination of threats to our very existence. The Cold War ended long ago,…