Friends on the Move shares the recent travels of Canadian Friends Service Committee in carrying out our peace and social justice work. Our newsletter Quaker Concern comes out three times a year and each edition includes this brief section Friends on the Move.
This section describes our journies to realize our mission. CFSC alleviates suffering and develops transformative and sustainable approaches to human rights, justice, and peace. We act through practical assistance, research, education, and policy dialogues.
Our vision is a world in which dignity, justice, peace, human rights, and harmonious relationships with creation are fostered and upheld.
Quakers seek to experience and answer to that of God in all creation. In living out this experience, CFSC’s values are rooted in the Quaker testimonies of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and respect for all creation.
Early 2020 saw Indigenous Rights Program Coordinator Jennifer Preston traveling to Maskwacis Cree territory (Treaty 6) for meetings related to ongoing partnership work. She and CFSC associate Paul Joffe travelled to northwest BC for a series of educational presentations on the UN Declaration and meetings, including with regard to the challenging situation in Wet’suwet’en territory.…
Staff Matt Legge has presented content from CFSC’s book Are We Done Fighting? in Kitchener, Ottawa, Vancouver, Duncan, Nanaimo (twice), Gabriola Island, Victoria, Lillooet, Kamloops, Kelowna, Edmonton, Orillia, and facilitated a workshop in Toronto together with CFSC member Daisie Auty (Toronto Meeting). Discussions focused on practical responses to hate and polarization. A huge thank you…
CFSC’s criminal justice program coordinator Verena Tan was at the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents conference in England. The conference gave CFSC the chance to connect with individuals and organizations with a shared concern around the impacts on children when parents are incarcerated. CFSC was able to share our new report Breaking the…
CFSC staff Verena Tan was in Ottawa for board meetings of the National Associations Active in Criminal Justice. Verena was also joined by CFSC’s full criminal justice program committee Daisie Auty (Toronto Meeting), Dick Cotterill (Halifax Meeting), and Joy Morris (Calgary Meeting) in Winnipeg for committee meetings and to deliver a Penal Abolition Workshop. …
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…
CFSC member Dick Cotterill (Halifax Meeting) travelled to St. Mary’s University in Halifax to attend a conference on Harm and Harm Reduction in the Criminal Justice System. This was a good learning and networking opportunity for Dick, who serves on CFSC’s criminal justice program committee. CFSC communications coordinator Matt Legge was at Western Half…
CFSC peace program coordinator Matt Legge was on Vancouver Island in March speaking about the practical peace skills he’s been researching for a forthcoming book. In particular the talks raised issues like how we can engage with people we disagree with in the most constructive ways possible, and what evidence shows are the false or…
CFSC members continue to visit cities across Canada to lead workshops on penal abolition, and to strengthen our connections with grassroots Quaker justice work. In October 2017, Dick Cotterill (Halifax Meeting) and David Summerhays (Montreal Meeting) visited Sackville, New Brunswick and Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. In January 2018, Joy Morris (Calgary Meeting) visited Edmonton, Alberta.…
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…
We are happy to welcome Maggie Sager, who will serve as CFSC’s Summer Program Assistant from May to August. Maggie will not only support the smooth functioning of the office here at Friends House in Toronto, but will also provide direct assistance to the program committees as they do CFSC’s service work. Maggie is pursuing…