Children are humans. They have human rights. On the international stage, Canada has agreed to uphold these human rights. Yet we are concerned that Canada is not currently protecting children’s rights with integrity. A major focus of CFSC’s work is the human rights of children whose parents have been incarcerated. CFSC works to promote…
When a parent (or a person with parental responsibilities) is arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned, it can have a profound and lasting impact on their children. A standard measure of childhood trauma that psychologists use is called the Adverse Childhood Experiences score. One of the ten questions used to calculate this score is, “Did a household…
Editor’s note: Over a year ago CFSC reached out to several of our long-term Indigenous partners, asking them for guidance and support as we considered the rightness of operating a Reconciliation Fund. We set up a working group with some of these Indigenous partners, who agreed to review applications to the Fund. Based on…
A few years ago, I attended a talk by Mohawk Elder Rarihokwats in Ottawa and received a mighty teaching when he asked us (the non-Indigenous folks attending), “Why are you still settlers?” His question challenged my settler/ally identity, which felt destabilizing and made me angry. Reflecting on this question and my anger in the years…
I flew into Kinshasa with Leon, a Congolese trainer in the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). While waiting for two hours for my luggage, I was thrilled to have a young man ask if I was Bertha. It was Johnny, from Kinshasa Monthly Meeting’s Project Muinda, which CFSC has supported for two decades. We finally…
Each year in St. Catherines, Ontario, the Haudenosaunee hold a whitetail deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park. The right to hunt there is guaranteed under treaty, but each year the entrance to the park is cut off by a group of protesters. On November 17th, CFSC Program Assistant Keira Mann spoke on a…
Video explains how a Department of Peace could make a difference CFSC program assistant Keira Mann narrates a five minute video The Story of the Rohingya: Imagine Another Way. It considers what a Department of Peace might do to coordinate efforts to prevent and respond to atrocities. 2018 report on Friends and reconciliation In…