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Shifting Consciousness - waking from oblivion
Our Federation Ecology Committee has been reading this book and discussing it at their meetings. The book is advertised as addressing how North Americans can come to terms with the clash between Indigenous and settler cultures, faiths, and attitudes toward creation? As one Sister confided: this book helps me face uncomfortable truths. Is this not part of our CSJ charism of unity and reconciliation? Awakening to the Way, the Truth and the Life in our everyday world, is Jesus’ call. Come now awaken us, O Spirit of God.
A week of Prayer for our Oceans
Pope Francis reminds us in Laudato Si’ of the challenge given us in the Earth Charter which followed the Earth Summit in Rio. Pope Francis says: “Here, I would echo that courageous challenge: ‘As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning…Let ours be a time remembered for the wakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.”(148) Laudato Si’ # 207
For further details please visit: Sustainable Ocean
A critical moment to reflect
As we experience the transformative energy of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping around the world, it is a critical moment to reflect on unconscious bias and the racist assumptions which affect Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities in our own city and country. It’s not an easy thing to do. Our cultural tendency to view things through the lens of the individual blinds us to much of what’s going on in society, including systemic racism. It’s not an easy thing to do. Our cultural tendency to view things through the lens of the individual blinds us to much of what’s going on in society, including systemic racism. It can also blind us to the graced potential for transformation which exists even within imperfect social actions such as protests marred by the violence of a few. The challenge is to focus on and follow the graced energy for transformation which is working to bring about greater wholeness and justice. In that spirit, we revisit this short excerpt from a 2019 newsletter from the Federation Office for Systemic Justice.
Robin DiAngelo, who is white, wrote a book called White Fragility (2018). She insists that white people are all racist, and whites who think they’re not racist cause the most damage of all. DiAngelo explains “we are taught to think about racism only as discrete acts committed by individual people, rather than as a complex, interconnected system”.
The individual framing of the issue means we can focus on changing a few individuals who say or do hateful things. It means we don’t have to examine our own unconscious racist assumptions. It means society doesn’t have to change, just individual ‘bad’ persons.
In our society, whites have held, and continue to hold, nearly all the positions of social, political, and economic power. So, the pre-judgements (thoughts, feelings and assumptions into which we are socialized) which whites tend to hold about people of colour have become institutionalized; that is, white prejudice has shaped the structures and systems of our society.
DiAngelo points to a New York Times article from 2016 which illumines the degree to which white people still hold the seats of power. The article is based on the U.S. context but is relevant to Canada. Here are a few examples:
Ten richest people - 100% white
Highest-levels of politics – 90% white
People who decide which television shows are available – 93% white
People who decide which books are available – 90% white
People who decide which news is covered – 85% white
Teachers – 82% white
These statistics reveal “power and control by a racial group that is in the position to disseminate and protect its own self-image, worldview, and interests across the entire society”. Whiteness becomes the norm, while other races are ‘othered.’ The impacts can be devastating:
• Racialized people in Canada are significantly more likely to live in poverty. The 2016 Census showed that 20.8% of peoples of colour are low-income compared to 12.2% of non-racialized people.
• In 2015, there was a 69% high school graduation rate for Black students and 50% for Indigenous students, versus 84% for White students.
• People of colour living in Ontario have higher unemployment rates than White residents. Racialized men are 24% more likely to be unemployed than non-racialized men. Racialized women are 43% more likely to be unemployed than non-racialized men.
Sue Wilson, Federation Office for Systemic Justice
Blue Community April Update
EARTH DAY EVENTS
Earthrise Screening Party with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
“Earthrise" tells the story of the first image captured of the Earth from space in 1968. This iconic image had a powerful impact on the Apollo 8 astronauts and the world. Told 50 years later, "Earthrise" compels us to remember this shift and to reflect on the Earth as a shared home. There will be time after the screening for a live discussion with Emmanuel and a moderated Q&A with the audience.
When: Apr 22, 2020 3:00 PM
Register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HyUfD50sQ_CUbycTEw6bwQ
New 90 minute film: OUR WATER
Four friends kayaked around Lake Superior to help raise awareness of the pristine waters and landscapes they behold. Sharing stories and values of what makes our backyard to important to us and those that live with it. Ryan Busch will be live on Facebook to answer questions.
When: April 22, 2020 from 7:00-8:30 pm EST Watch the film and engage with the makers at: https://www.fourthewater.com/
ENCOURAGING NEWS
Council of Canadians Announcement In an email from Vi Bui (Blue Communities Coordinator for the Council of Canadians) announced:
I’m writing today to bring to you some good news. A few weeks ago, Vancouver City Council voted to become the second largest Blue Community in Canada… That means that one in four residents in British Columbia live in a community that has committed to protecting water as a human right, banning bottled water, and saying no to privatization of water and wastewater services.
When youth carry the weight of the world
These young activists have proven to their communities and the world that there is no time like the present to make a change.
11 year-old Stella Bowles wanted to swim in the river near her home in Bridgewater, N.S. but it was contaminated. She took action. After a couple months, Bridgewater officials announced they would be funding $15.7-million to clean the rivers and remove the 600 straight pipes that were contaminating the waters.
In her final year of high school, Emma-Jane Burian from Burnaby, B.C. plans climate justice strikes on the first Friday of every month.
Known as a water protector, Makaśa Looking Horse is from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and fights for water rights – especially against Nestlé’s bottled water permits.
Watch on Netflix/In the News
Canadian actor Ellen Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in her home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures. From the TIFF website.
The CSJ Blue Community project sponsored the documentary, There’s Something in the Water, for a Peterborough community screening. Now you can watch it on Netflix whenever you like.
In related news, this CBC article updates us about the recent closure of a mill that polluted Pictou Landing for decades. This story is featured in the above documentary There’s Something in the Water. Read the full story
While not specific to water issues, the privatization of long-term health care has dire consequences for the quality of care for society’s most vulnerable. Read the full story that is also playing out across Canada during this COVID-19 virus crisis.
PROJECT UPDATES
Public Health & the Right to Clean Water – a new blog post. The recent spread of COVID-19 across the world shows the gaps in our collective preparedness and many systemic and social inequalities. For instance, how do people wash and disinfect their hands without access to clean and affordable water? Read more
