Friends on the move
Jennifer Preston and Jeremy Vander Hoek travelled to Ottawa in June to meet with members of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Coalition was able to do significant planning for the Advancing implementation webinar and an upcoming symposium on the impact of important recent court decisions.
Jeremy and Jennifer then met with members of the Global Indigenous Rights Research Network in Toronto, visioning and strategic planning for the network over the next several years. It was an exciting time for all to reflect on what we have learned in previous research engagements and how we can implement this learning in future projects.
Jeremy visited Yonge Street Monthly Meeting to hear about the work of their Peace and Social Action Committee. He heard impressive stories about the relationships Friends had developed with local Indigenous Peoples to advance reconciliation and shared about the topic of paying reparations.
Jennifer presented about the history of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to students of Environmental Law at Concordia University.
Sandra Wiens presented on Canadian Friends Service Committee’s work on Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI) in Canada at a Friendly Economics meeting hosted by Swiss Quakers. She participated in Lobby days on the hill together with partners. Advocates met with more than 20 Members of Parliament and with Senators, helping them to understand how a GLBI demonstration project in PEI could advance economic equality by collecting the data required to implement a GLBI across Canada.
Sandra joined CUPE and Canadian Voice of Women for Peace to give a presentation: $150 billion on the military? Canada’s reckless plan to increase military spending. The session discussed what such a massive increase looks like and the need to redefine security as spending not on war, but on peace, people, and the planet.
CFSC was a sponsor of the National restorative justice symposium in November. Sandra was also able to inform participants about Bill S-236, an amendment on the Victims bills of rights. This change will ensure that those who experience a crime are informed of all their options, which includes restorative justice. Karen Ridd, Lindsay Hunt, and Lisa Bowden also presented at the Symposium.
Karen spoke about transformative justice at two Winnipeg churches. She also showed episodes of CFSC’s new Unshackled series, which brings forward the voice of Lisa, who has lived experience of incarceration.
Karen is currently teaching an Advanced transformative justice course at Canadian Mennonite University and has used CFSC-created resources as required reading. In addition to the Unshackled series, Master’s-level students are reading CFSC’s Cui bono report and all students are using a draft of a soon-to-be-released compendium of alternatives to policing. The students in this class also spent a powerful two hours with Lisa, who taught them beading and reflected on her experiences inside carceral institutions and her ideas for transformative change.