During my years working in the youth justice field, I was often stunned by the repeated gaps I encountered between policy and practice. Policy was regularly recited as assurance that legal obligations were being met (all necessary medical and dental care was being offered, prisoners were free from physical punishment, and so forth). Frequently, the…
In the summer of 2020, the catastrophic death of George Floyd created a sudden swell of public attention regarding calls to defund the police, the over-representation of Black and Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, and systemic racism in Canada. CFSC discerned the need to respond, and began planning for a new project—The Only…
On December 3, 2020, Minister of Justice David Lametti tabled Bill C-15, a federal government bill to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is intended to provide the overdue framework for the federal government to work cooperatively with Indigenous peoples to implement the rights affirmed in the UN Declaration in…
For several years my service work with CFSC has involved researching conflicts of all types, as well as various peacebuilding skills and techniques. In 2020 associate member Trevor Chandler and I began facilitating online workshops to help people practice some of these techniques. Over 100 people have taken part so far. In these many conversations,…
As travel remains impossible, we continue to create virtual opportunities for our many supporters to gather, connect, and learn together. CFSC’s Clerks host a weekly Meeting for Worship via Zoom (contact us for details), and we delivered major online series The Only Way Forward and Are We Done Fighting? discussed in this issue of Quaker…
No fighter jets Canada is attempting to procure new fighter jets that could turn out to cost $77 billion dollars. These jets are not needed for security and could produce tremendous harms to humans and to the environments where they are used. Polls suggest that the purchase is unpopular. Politicians need to hear from us.…