Published three times a year, Quaker Concern shares stories from the work of Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers). Each edition of Quaker Concern including brief highlights in the Keeping up with Friends section. These highlights touch on recent educational materials, open letters, news, and events relevant to our work.
Keeping up with Friends shares content from all of our program work, touching on criminal justice, Indigenous peoples’ human rights, and peace issues. It sometimes invites readers to take specific actions as led.
Each of the issues mentioned briefly in this section of Quaker Concern is described in more detail on our main website https://quakerservice.ca and so the items in Keeping Up usually link to specific parts of that site.
Partnership continues to support humanitarian relief in Gaza In addition to raising our voices, we’re still working with American Friends Service Committee, which has staff on the ground in Gaza. AFSC has reached more than one million people in Gaza with lifesaving aid. Your donations are vital to those persevering amidst devastating conditions. Assistance you…
Our latest resources We’ve put out many new resources since our last issue of Quaker Concern: Indigenous Peoples’ human rights joint statements from the UN in Geneva: https://QuakerService.ca/EMRIP2025 Joint statement from multiple Quaker agencies calling for immediate action to end genocide in Gaza: https://QuakerService.ca/GazaGenocide Submission with our peace and social justice priorities in advance of…
Joining hundreds to protect rights We joined almost 200 organizations in calling for the withdrawal of Bill C-2. We called for Canada to reject the US-style anti-migrant and anti-refugee agenda, ensure equal rights, fair treatment, and non-discriminatory access to permanent resident status for all, stop scapegoating migrants and refugees for the housing and affordability crisis,…
2025 federal election kit The Spring 2025 issue of Quaker Concern is all about Canada’s federal election happening April 28th. We hope this special issue will inspire you to ask peace and social justice questions of candidates seeking election. You can find our full nine-page election kit at: https://QuakerService.ca/Election Statement on US-Canada trade war The…
Weekly tips for better conflicts We’re excited to offer a fresh series of short tips for better conflicts. Years in the making, this series distills expert knowledge on what works in difficult conversations down to simple bite-sized videos. It’s a calendar, one tip to reflect on each week for a year. Download all of the…
Latest actions on situation in Israel/Palestine CFSC joined many civil society groups calling on Canada to implement an arms embargo on Israel in keeping with the United Nations Human Rights Council’s urging all countries to immediately “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions, and other military equipment to Israel.” https://QuakerService.ca/ArmsEmbargo We joined a…
Latest joint statements Eight Quaker agencies, including CFSC, came together in mid-April to issue a new joint statement and calls to action for a just peace in Israel/Palestine. There are specific actions called for from Israel, Hamas, the Western governments, and Friends. You can read the statement and Quaker groups can endorse it: https://QuakerService.ca/DifferentFuture On…
Joint statements supporting Indigenous peoples’ human rights The Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples issued a statement. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the most comprehensive international human rights instrument affirming the collective rights of Indigenous peoples and the individual rights of members of Indigenous Nations. Indigenous peoples worked…
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel winning film awards In the Winter 2022 edition of Quaker Concern we wrote about CFSC’s funding support for Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel’s documentary film work. Since then, Ellen’s Kanàtenhs: When the Pine Needles Fall, has achieved several major awards! The honours include being Selected at the American Indian Film Festival 2022, an Honourable…
New statements and letters Since the last edition of Quaker Concern CFSC has released the following statements and open letters: In response to the immanent threats of forced eviction of the residents of Masafer Yatta https://QuakerService.ca/MasaferYatta On the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples https://QuakerService.ca/UNDeclaration15 Calling…