To Work Towards Justice is to Persevere

As someone who spent her life in the heart of Africa, where the sun’s warmth lasts throughout the year, I am fascinated by Canadian seasons and the profound life lessons they carry. My work is to look at the state of the world daily and what a sight it is today. From the grueling violence in the Middle East to the threats faced by Indigenous communities and our natural world, it is easy sometimes to feel as though our world is crumbling, and human rights an unattainable quest. Have we not learnt anything about history, one might ask? Is humanity destined to always repeat the same mistakes, and for injustice to prevail?

The fall season with its gorgeous trail of auburn, copper and crimson leaves dropping on the ground, one at a time, giving way to the long silence of winter, and eventually an astounding rebirth in the spring have been a source of deep comfort in my work on human rights. They remind me that like the seasons, injustice comes and goes, and rebirth is always within our reach. The pursuit of justice is demanding. It asks us to be patient and diligent, to cultivate hope against all odds, to never give up. Just as we know with absolute certainty that spring will come, we must trust that a more just world is possible.

This week I was overjoyed to learn that Brazil had finally convicted two former police officers for the murder of Marielle Franco, a prominent young female politician killed in a drive-by shooting in 2018. Our team in the Brazil office has devoted much of its work to this case. Marielle may not be back, and her family remains forever shattered, but this conviction breaks a culture of impunity that had engulfed Brazil for too long. It took six long years of mobilizing, advocating and campaigning in what seemed like an impossible case for this conviction to emerge. My first thought upon hearing the news was the wise words of Martin Luther King, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What a privilege to bend the arc daily, with the support of so many of you, even in what seems like a cold winter for human rights.

To work towards justice is to persevere, to doubt, to stumble and to get up and start again, always guided by those most impacted, breaking the silence cast around the unheard, and casting light on the most forgotten wrongs. It is to look at the falling leaves, and to trust, without the shadow of a doubt, in the return of the spring.

Guest Blog by: Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada

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Images: Michael Starkie/Donnie Rosie/Annie Spratt c/o Unsplash

Is the World only Two Colours?

None of us would likely name ourselves a racist.  And in fact, no one is born a racist.  Racism is something we learn.  We may learn this in our families, our schools, our churches, or in the broader society.  From our earliest days we learn and are influenced by our experiences in life, by the people with whom we interact, and by the society where we grow up.

Many of the ways I look at people who are different than I am may be because I learned to make assumptions about that difference I see.  We may feel uncomfortable, confused, uncertain or any other number of feelings.  The feelings are within me.  However, if I can learn to pay attention to what is going on within me and not assume that my feelings convey the truth, then I can begin to examine the mental models of my thought processes and begin to explore the assumptions from which my thinking and conclusions emerge.  Just a simple example:  Let’s take colour.  Why is white seem as preferable to black?  Or is it? It is only a colour or non-colour, but we have learned to attach value to colour.  It may as simple as “I like _____ or I do not like ______.  But when this kind of thinking is attached to a human person, then I can make any number of harmful and wrong conclusions.

The point of this short blog is not to suggest that I understand or recognize the many nuances of racism but rather to invite us all to pay attention to our thoughts, feelings, and to be curious about what we discover within us to assume that we are right.  If the world we live in is to become less divided, less racist, it can only start with each one of us.  We are never too old or too young to try. 

Addressing racism is “soul work”.  For me it is summed up in the thoughts of Michael Leunig, an Australian journalist and cartoonist.  He counsels us “Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. There is no other way.” 

And so the soul within us has some wisdom to teach us. Let’s slow down to listen.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ | Office for Systemic Justice  

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Image: Unsplash/Ed Robertson

For the Love of Creation

The Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada are part of a coalition of 35 Canadian churches and faith-based organizations mobilizing an unprecedented, months-long campaign of personal environmental action coupled with federal climate advocacy. 

For the Love of Creation's faith-in-action campaign mobilizes people across Canada to reduce their household greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and demonstrate support for increased federal climate action by writing letters to key federal Cabinet Ministers on a range of climate justice issues: climate ambition, a just transition, Indigenous rights, and support for the Global South. 

Take Four Actions Now!

Make a personal pledge to reduce your GHG emissions and engage in acts of solidarity with justice-seeking communities!

 Make your personal pledge!

Share your pledge and call on federal Cabinet Ministers to commit the Government of Canada to:

A. Increase our national GHG emissions reduction target and invest in a just transition to a fair, inclusive, green economy.

Sign Letter A: Emissions & Transition

B. Implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including, but not limited to, the right of free, prior, and informed consent.  

Sign Letter B: Indigenous Rights

 C. Commit equal support for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in the Global South.

Sign Letter C: Adaptation & Mitigation

The Power of One

No doubt you know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States died on Friday, September 18. May the “Notorious RBG” now rest in peace after her years of loving labours fighting for justice for all. 

What is it with Fridays?  They keep tripping me up.  Here where I am, we first went into lockdown on Friday, 13 March.  RBG died last Friday, just as our Jewish neighbours were ushering in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. As of Friday 24 September we are once again back in lockdown.

My latest lockdown is of little significance compared to the significance of the phenomenal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying on Rosh Hashanah.  Immediately after her death, “A number of prominent Twitter users began to circulate the notion that, when a Jew dies on the holiday, it is testimony to the fact that he or she is a zaddik [or a zaddika] a righteous person.” (washingtonpost.com)

““All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, but the Lord weighs the heart.  To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” (Proverbs 21:2) ”

I started these scribbles on Tuesday, and it so happened the Scripture reading from the Old Testament that day was from Proverbs, “All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, but the Lord weighs the heart.  To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” (Proverbs 21:2 NRSV) This verse, in a nutshell, describes what the righteous RBG did all her life. From all we have learned this week about this incredible, tiny wisp of a Jewish woman, I would say she can easily be summed up in these few words: she lived and breathed justice and equality for all.  “Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, who leads the Adas Israel Congregation [where the late RBG worshiped], eulogized Ginsburg at a ceremony in the Capitol's Statuary Hall where the late justice became the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state.” Among other things that the Rabbi said about her was, "Justice did not arrive like a lightning bolt, but rather, through dogged persistence, all the days of her life. Real change, she said, enduring change, happens one step at a time." (thehill.com)

I would say this phenomenal, living legend of a woman personified the human being the great Abraham Joshua Heschel describes in his words, “…God is absent, invisible, and the task of a human being is to represent the Divine, to be a reminder of the presence of God.”  Tiny, polite, with a soft-spoken voice belying a steely mind, she was a reminder of the presence of God.  Was she ruthless in her work for justice throughout her many years as a Justice?  Certainly, but never without compassion.  Ruth is a perfect example of the power of small. Small as she was, she is a huge inspiration, a hero to many, especially to women of all ages.  Women may now feel “Ruthless” but undoubtedly many are inspired to take up the torch from her. 

-Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps

Taking A Stand for Justice

The deep prejudice against African Americans is so painful and shameful to witness on our newscasts, and in our own experience and makes me think of the way Sister St John Fournier in 1845 defended the teaching of African American girls, against a furious white mob in St. Louis, who came at night to forcibly drive out the Sisters.  I want to share with you what she wrote about it. 

But first, I think we would be proud to note also that in the book Spirited Lives, which treats the way a French Sisterhood, namely the Sisters of St. Joseph, adapted to American culture, the authors (Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith) has a footnote listing those Sisterhoods that used slave labor, and state that the Sisters of St. Joseph never did so. (Spirited Lives, footnote 14, p.241). 

-Sister Wendy Cotter, csj

Now, here is Sister Saint John Fournier: 

Sister St. John Fournier

"In 1845 Bishop Kendrick, [Bishop of St. Louis] established a school for Catholic coloured girls, the daughters of free negroes". Sister Saint John Fournier  (to whom Mother Saint John had given her name while she was preparing to come to the New World, a new novice) was now thirty years old when she faced the threats of a mob determined to drive them from the house.  Here is her account:  

"Obedience sent me there with two Sisters.  We were preparing these girls for the reception of the Sacraments. This so displeased the white people that they threatened to drive us away by force.  The leaders came every day. One morning several persons spoke to me after Mass and warned me that the next night we were to be driven from the house. I had no fear and said nothing to the Sisters because I had so much confidence in the Blessed Virgin.  I placed miraculous medals on the street door and on the fence.  

That night, at eleven o'clock a great noise suddenly awakened the Sisters.  A crowd of men, gathered in the street, were screaming and blaspheming.   We cast ourselves on our knees and began the Miserere and other prayers.  In the meantime, the enraged mob rushed upon the door.   The police drove them away. They returned three times that night.  The Blessed Virgin protected us.  In spite of their fury and their efforts, they succeeded neither in opening nor forcing the door.  

The day after this occurrence, the Mayor of Saint Louis advised the Bishop to close the school for the time being. Peace was restored.  The Sisters' schools received indiscriminately rich and poor, Catholics, Protestants, schismatics, and children of all religions.  A few years later, the asylum alone numbered two hundred fifty orphans."  

- Mother Saint John Fontbonne; A Biography, 1936 English translation of the French original, 1929, researched and written by "A Sister of St. Joseph", pp 358-359.