Our work seeks to prevent, repair, and move beyond harm for all those impacted by crime. Our newsletter Quaker Concern comes out three times a year sharing stories from our transformative justice work and how we’re making a difference.
Canadian Quakers believe that justice must be compassionate and focus on how to heal rather than how to punish. This is what’s called “penal abolition”—working to put an end to punishment and harm throughout the justice system. This is the ground from which our methods, processes, and partnerships emerge.
A particular focus for our transformative justice work is on children and youth. Policing and imprisonment regularly harm children and youth directly or indirectly. They’re particularly vulnerable when they enter the justice system, but are also collateral victims when their parents are arrested or imprisoned.
Children are often ignored in the process of a parent’s arrest, remand, sentencing, and imprisonment, yet they experience a range of psychological, social, and economic hardships. Many challenges are faced by children who are born into or living in prison with a parent, as well as children who are left on the outside.
What do you believe? can be a challenging question for an unprogrammed Quaker like me, but the minutes of our business meetings contain collective wisdom, innovation, Spirit, and Light that might provide some answers. Reading one of those minutes nearly a decade ago helped lead me to membership in the Religious Society of Friends: Minute…
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…
Defund the police! It’s a demand that is all over the streets, the news, and in our minds right now. It’s a demand brought on by centuries of inequality and injustice. Although public attention was reignited in May following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, Canada is certainly…
After dinner one night, a friend of my mother’s shared a story that has stayed with me. She had been shopping at the local mall with her kids when police officers stopped her and took her in for questioning. She matched the description of a shoplifter they’d been looking for. As it happened, she had…
Working in partnership with other organizations is a cornerstone of how CFSC operates. We connect with those directly involved or affected by injustices, supporting the needs and initiatives that matter to them. We also consult with a range of experts who help deepen and compliment our work and perspectives. We value these partnerships because, being…
In late 2017, three friends and I rented a car and drove out to Six Nations, about an hour and a half from Toronto. We were going to see the Walking with our Sisters exhibition, a commemorative art exhibition made up of nearly 2,000 pairs of moccasin vamps (tops) donated by Indigenous communities around Turtle…
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…
Imagine being put on the street in the winter wearing a t-shirt and shorts or wearing a jumpsuit, with flip flops on your feet. People are watching you. You don’t have your ID and you have no family or friends to pick you up. Your valuables are back at the jail, and it’s now late…
Scroll down for a list of all articles about Canadian Friends Service Committee’s transformative justice work.