Canadian Friends Service Committee
CFSC is the peace and social justice agency of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada. Website: quakerservice.ca.
- Canadian Friends Service Committee October 2024
In 2019 after Canadian Friends Service Committee’s book Are We Done Fighting? Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division by Matthew Legge came out, Psychology Today offered the organization a blog on its site. Legge, a CFSC staff member, continues to blog for PsychologyToday.com, sharing success stories from social justice work and practical and evidence-based ways to transform conflicts. The latest posts explore conflict strategies, acceptance versus judgment, and surprising research suggesting that people change throughout life much more than they expect to.
CFSC continues to work publicly and behind-the-scenes against the war in Gaza. Together with many partners, the organization is pressing the government of Canada to implement a full two-way arms embargo on Israel, to support the International Criminal Court unequivocally in its decisions, and to otherwise implement Canadian and international law, which would contribute to a just peace.
CFSC has become more active on YouTube in the last year. The group has shared short videos from Indigenous partners explaining what reconciliation means to them as well as videos about alternatives to prisons and the impacts on children when a parent is incarcerated.
Continue reading → - Canadian Friends Service Committee April 2024
In June 2023, Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) hired a government relations representative, which is a new position: Sandra Wiens. Wiens is based in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, close to elected officials and many other influential organizations and individuals. In a recent article for CFSC’s newsletter Quaker Concern, Wiens explains that she’s building relationships and bringing Friends’ voices to key decision makers.
CFSC participated in a coalition contracted by Canada’s national broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), to provide expert advice on the UN-delineated human rights of Indigenous Peoples in the development of the CBC’s new strategy for its broadcasting. CFSC has been working to raise awareness and see full implementation of these human rights for decades.
Continue reading → - Canadian Friends Service Committee October 2022
After decades of work, Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) was thrilled when, in June 2021, Canada passed an act to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). CFSC, together with Indigenous partners and other human rights groups, was deeply involved in this success.
UNDRIP affirms Indigenous peoples’ inherent right to self-determination, including the right of Indigenous peoples to make their own decisions about how their lands will be used and protected and how their cultures and traditions will be maintained. Canada’s implementation act affirms that UNDRIP already has legal effect. However, instead of leaving interpretation to Canada’s courts, the act requires the federal government to take active measures, in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples, to reform its laws to be consistent with the provisions of the declaration.
The act requires that a National Action Plan to implement UNDRIP through law, policy, and programs be developed and adopted. The implementation measures required must all be taken “in consultation and cooperation” with Indigenous peoples. The act also requires regular public reporting on the progress, as well as accountability measures developed in collaboration with Indigenous peoples.
At recent UN meetings in Geneva it was discovered that several countries are studying this act and may use it as a model for promoting Indigenous peoples’ human rights.
Continue reading → - Canadian Friends Service Committee April 2021
Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC)’s office remains closed due to the pandemic, and staff have been working from home since March 2020. Nonetheless, the work continues. CFSC now offers more virtual events, including hosting various film screenings, workshops, and a weekly meeting for worship.
This year marks CFSC’s ninetieth anniversary. To celebrate a new website has been created with pictures, videos, and stories: 90years.quakerservice.ca. Once a month all year long, CFSC will be hosting a series called Get to Know Thee, Friend. Each event offers the chance to hear personal stories about Quakerism and service work from one Friend who has made a major contribution to CFSC.
To help build community and spread peace skills, CFSC continues to offer the six-week-long virtual Are We Done Fighting? workshop series. It features facilitated group activities and one-on-one discussions in breakout rooms. More than 100 people have participated so far.
CFSC is also working to support the passage of Bill C-15, which repudiates all racist doctrines of superiority and rejects colonialism. It would provide a long-overdue framework for the government of Canada to work cooperatively with Indigenous peoples to implement the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in both law and policy.
Learn more: CFSC
Continue reading → - Canadian Friends Service Committee October 2020
Canadian Friends Service Committee’s (CFSC) work has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, for the first time in two decades CFSC wasn’t at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that was scheduled for April—because it was canceled. Although the CFSC office is closed, staff are able to do most of the same work virtually, and in some cases moving to Zoom has even allowed for a broader geographic diversity of participants.
Staff have started offering a free six-week-long peace skills workshop series allowing group members to learn from each other using several chapters of CFSC’s award-winning 2019 book Are We Done Fighting? Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division as a basis for conversation. There are also facilitated group activities and one-on-one discussions in breakout rooms. The series is scheduled based on each group’s availability; registration information is available on the website.
In response to the killing of unarmed Black and Indigenous people in the United States and Canada, CFSC created another free series of workshops that help participants study and learn about systemic racism, particularly as it relates to the criminal justice system. This series started in September and includes a number of external experts helping to advise and shape the discussions.
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