KAIROS Times: April 2017
- Countdown is on for the Biggest KAIROS Blanket Exercise Ever
- Our Land, Our Rights, Our Peace: Philippine leaders visit Canada
- KAIROS launches Let Justice Roll campaign!
- Migrant Justice in Prince Edward Island
- Donor Testimonial
- Upcoming
- Featured Partner
- Featured Resource
- Spirited Reflections
Countdown is on for the Biggest KAIROS Blanket Exercise Ever
On June 2, thousands of people will converge on Parliament Hill to take part in the Kitchi Blanket Exercise. You are invited! Kitchi means “really big” in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the unceded Algonquin territory where our settler capital is located. Together we will walk through over 500 years of colonization in what we now call Canada and bring focus to the impact on Indigenous peoples.
The Blanket Exercise is felt in the body, heart, mind and spirit and with thousands going through the experience together, reverberations will be felt far and wide.
We want to bring a different focus to Canada 150 – Canada’s formation includes stolen land, broken promises and cultural genocide. The Kitchi Blanket Exercise is a way of saying we do not want the celebrations to gloss over this shared history. Truth is the foundation of a future of reconciliation.
Holding a large-scale Blanket Exercise on Parliament Hill is the vision of the Indigenous youth-led organization Assembly of Seven Generations (A7G). This initiative is a partnership between KAIROS and A7G.
Join us for this historic event and help us spread the word! If you cannot be there in person, urge your friends who are in or near Ottawa to be there on your behalf. We will also provide other opportunities to show your solidarity from wherever you are.
Parliament Hill Schedule:
3:30 p.m.: Cultural programming
5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Kitchi Blanket Exercise
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In a recent article, Blanket Exercise uncovers deep injustices in Canadian history, the World Council of Churches recognizes the KAIROS Blanket Exercise’s powerful role in reconciliation and its reach beyond Canada.
Our Land, Our Rights, Our Peace: Philippine leaders visit Canada
Five delegates from the Philippines visited six Canadian cities from March 20 to April 5, urging Canada to establish an extractive sector ombudsperson and provide access to Canadian courts for people in the Global South affected by the actions of Canadian mining companies. They asked as well that Canada play a leadership role in the Philippines’ peace process. The tour took them to Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto where they met with political representatives, including civil servants at Global Affairs Canada, the media, and members of the KAIROS community.
Hailing from the heavily mined Philippine island of Mindanao, the delegates included:
• Nenita Andes Condez and Eufemia Campos Cullamat, Lumad women leaders
• Representative Carlos Zarate, a Member of Philippine Congress
• Bishop Antonio Ablon, Anglican Church/IFI, Zamboanga del Sur
• Dr. Anie Bautista, National Coordinator, Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice) – a KAIROS partner
They spoke of the devastating impacts of Canadian mining in their communities. Their stories were often personal, particularly from Nenita and Eufemia, who spoke of killings, displacement and death threats.
The event drew media interest, including an interview by TVO’s The Agenda, an editorial meeting with Vice News Canada, a press conference by the Philippine Press Club Ontario and coverage from the Anglican Journal, with more to come. The Hill Times also printed KAIROS’ Connie Sorio’s op-ed on March 22, How Canada can better its brand in the Philippines and the Canadian Press Gallery hosted the delegates at a press conference on Parliament Hill on March 23.
We will post The Agenda interview and other coverage on kairoscanada.org when it becomes available.
KAIROS launches Let Justice Roll campaign
On March 31, KAIROS member churches, in collaboration with Mennonite Church Canada (Indigenous Relations) and Canadian Baptist Congregations, launched Let Justice Roll, a campaign that calls for the full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the government of Canada. The campaign’s goal is a legislative framework and a national action plan for implementing the UN Declaration over a 20-year period. Read more.
Migrant Justice in Prince Edward Island
Advancing the rights of migrant workers was the focus of a public forum held on March 27 at the PEI Farm Centre in Charlottetown. The forum, entitled Rights, Faith and Policy: A Public Forum on Migrant Workers’ Issues, brought together migrant workers, community organizations, faith groups, and provincial representatives to build capacity for action, policy and solidarity on migrant worker rights.
KAIROS’ Jennifer Henry was among an informative panel moderated by Jesson Reyes, Council Member (Ontario West) of Migrante Canada that also included Fay Faraday, an award-winning human rights lawyer, and Jocelyn Romero, a migrant worker from the Philippines, currently working PEI. This event was made possible by Cooper Institute, CUPE, UFCW, and KAIROS.
This event was made possible by Cooper Institute, CUPE, UFCW, and KAIROS Canada.
Media coverage:
CBC – Public forum shines spotlight on migrant workers’ rights and The Guardian – Foreign workers at risk on P.E.I. with no protection
Donor Testimonial
Upcoming Events
Hamilton: Holding Canadian Mining Companies Accountable
April 8 @ 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Binkley United Church – 1570 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON
Peoples’ Climate Movement March
April 29
Click here for events listed on Facebook. Some marches are also listed on the Peoples’ Climate Movement website.
Ottawa: Kitchi Blanket Exercise
June 2 @ 3:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Ottawa Parliament Hill
Ridgetown, ON: Cahoots Festival 2017
June 8 @ 5:00 pm – June 11 @ 1:00 pm
18669 Kenesserie Rd, Ridgetown, ON
Featured Partner
Innabuyog is an Indigenous women’s rights organization in the Philippines that includes 82 women’s groups, mostly based in remote rural areas. In an atmosphere of increased militarization, Innabuyog is working to enhance the capacity of Indigenous women in mining-affected communities to document, monitor and report on human rights violations. Learn more.
Featured Resource
KAIROS celebrated International Women’s Day with the launch of a video on Isabel Caicedo Polanco and the work of KAIROS’ partner, the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP) in Colombia. Watch the video.
Spirited Reflections
Truth Telling and Decolonization, by Christine Migwans
In the context of settler colonial genocide, Indigenous peoples were targeted for mass cultural destruction, and the legal, moral, and cultural meaning of humanness itself was defined as being non-Indigenous. Read more.
Living Water, by John Bullas
So… there they are, the people of Israel, wandering in the desert…lost… and they’re thirsty… and they’re afraid, and they’re mad. Like the ancient Israelites, we too, are in many ways a lost people. Read more.
Spirited Reflections on Sheep and Goats, by Tim Wood
The “sheep and goats” passage from Matthew: 25 is a familiar one to Christians who yearn for God’s justice in our world. I was recently asked to preach on this passage and decided to consider three different perspectives. Read more.
Call for Submissions: Aim to Inspire
As a key part of KAIROS’ commitment to faithful action for ecological justice and human rights, we are seeking new Spirited Reflections to help inspire our constituents and others. Read more.
