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Kairos Times
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Even if I know the world will end tomorrow, I will go out to the garden and plant an olive tree. If we don't plant olive trees now, there will be no shade for our children to play under, no oil to heal wounds, and no olive branches to wave for peace when it comes.
Rev. Mitri Rahib, Lutheran pastor, Bethlehem
Join our 2003-4 campaign, Cultivating Just Peace! Contact us for information:info or toll-free 1 877 403 8933, extension 233. New resources are now available for ordering through orders or our website. You can also leave a message at 1 877 403 8933 x246.
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- KAIROS condemns recent anti-Semitic and racist acts aimed at Jews and Muslims
- KAIROS endorses Our Canada Project
- KAIROS delegation returns from the Middle East
- FTAA negotiations practically out of gas
- Commemorating Rwanda ten years later
- Send an Unhappy Birthday card to the World Bank and IMF!
- Update on Bill C-7 urgent action—the Public Safety Act
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An Easter message from KAIROS |
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Once again, Easter brings us back to the spiritual source of our hope. For Christians, the passion and death of Jesus and the redemption of humanity are not historic moments, but continuing realities.
In a rare historic alignment, all Christian churches are celebrating Easter this year at the same time. As we enter holy week, our Jewish sisters and brothers around the world moment are celebrating the Passover of their people from slavery into freedom, even as they confront the fear and offense caused by recent, outrageous acts of anti-Semitism in Toronto and Montreal. In the same way, Muslim sisters and brothers pray for peace while facing hateful acts such as the recent firebombing of a mosque in Pickering, ON. As Canadian Christians, we offer our own prayers and actions alongside all work for justice and peace in this country and throughout the world.
Spring finds you, as supporters and network members, promoting our KAIROS campaign Cultivating Just Peace and working locally on a variety of justice issues. You are a source of hope for people around the world. A few weeks ago, our KAIROS delegation to the Middle East was in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and then Palestine. Over and over again, people told us that what mattered most about our visit was that people from Canada still care about them, that we came, that they are not forgotten. They didn’t get to tell you personally, so I pass on to you their heartfelt thanks for the work of KAIROS.
It seems to me that every week is Passion Week in Israel and Palestine. Yet the Palestinian and Israeli peace activists we met have not given up hope. The lives and future of land sacred to all God’s children, Jewish, Muslim and Christian, depend on hope. In the face of the intransigence of governments, we saw extraordinary, ordinary people creating conditions for a new future. On June 9th, Palestinian and Israeli women will scale the 30 ft separation wall and exchange photos of their children killed by the violence. How then can we in Canada follow this courageous example of redemption and take bold, constructive actions honouring the presence of God in every life?
Mary Corkery,
Executive Director, KAIROS
The latest news…
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KAIROS condemns recent anti-Semitic and racist acts aimed at Jews and Muslims |
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KAIROS condemns the fire bombing of the United Talmud Torah elementary school in Montreal on Monday, the recent desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Toronto and the vandalism and arson attack at the Al-Mahdi mosque in Pickering, Ontario.
“KAIROS deplores these violent expressions of hate,” says Mary Corkery, KAIROS Executive Director and delegation member. “We deplore also the ways in which complex issues in the Middle East are framed by the media through acts of violence. Our media seldom inform us of the many courageous and creative acts of peace-building that we saw in the Middle East.” A nine-person KAIROS delegation returned from the Middle East just two weeks ago.
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KAIROS endorses Our Canada Project |
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The Our Canada Project is an unprecedented initiative of 25 major environmental, women’s, labour, student, arts, faith and social justice organizations. It represents the first major intervention by citizens’ groups in the upcoming federal election.
Father Paul Hansen, chair of the KAIROS Board, speaking at the March 31 launch of the Project, noted that “a nation is truly of God when her people say yes to life, yes to the dignity of the human and human relationships, yes to the integrity of creation, yes to peace and good will among all peoples.” KAIROS has endorsed the Our Canada Project statement.
“While the Project is non-partisan, we urge voters to use the ballot box to affirm Canada’s position as a peace-maker, defender of universal social programs, and champion of human rights”, said Maude Barlow, Chair of The Council of Canadians, one of the signatory groups.
At the launch, the Project released polling sponsored by The Council of Canadians and The Polaris Institute. The polling shows that Canadians in overwhelming numbers support peace-keeping over joint combat operations with the United States, and reject President Bush’s “Star Wars” program.
Click to see the Project’s
statement (
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and a copy of the speech
offered by KAIROS.
KAIROS local groups and affiliated churches will be active in the election campaign, calling on candidates from all parties to answer questions on a range of national and global justice issues. Stay tuned for more information and resources that will assist you in naming issues that impact Canadian and global security.
For more information on the Our Canada Project and the KAIROS Cultivating
Just Peace campaign, please contact Adele Halliday, interim Network
Coordinator, at
ahalliday
or 1 877 403 8933 x236.
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KAIROS delegation returns from the Middle East |
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A national delegation of high-level Canadian church leaders, laypeople,
and staff returned from the Middle
East on Thursday, March 25, 2004. The mission was a response
to a special request from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).
The MECC, KAIROS’ partner in the region for more than 25 years,
asked that Canadian Christians come to the region to witness and
support people in Lebanon, Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian
Territories who are working for peace and justice.
Middle Eastern church leaders warmly thanked delegates for having
the courage to come to the Middle
East in such a time of crisis. An
initial overview from Executive Director Mary Corkery is available
on the KAIROS website, along with links to various KAIROS letters
on the situation in Israel/ Palestine. More information will be
added in the weeks to come as delegation members reflect on their
experiences and share partner perspectives.
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FTAA negotiations practically out of gas |
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Lead negotiators from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador,
Chile, Costa Rica and the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina,
Uruguay, Paraguay) met in Buenos Aires March 30 - April 1 in an
"informal" attempt to move ahead with the stalled FTAA
negotiations. Since the failed Miami Trade Ministerial in November
2003, several attempts to restart negotiations, including this latest
attempt, have ultimately led to impasse.
Prior to the November 2003 Trade Ministerial meeting in Miami, FTAA
negotiations rapidly advanced the Canadian- American agenda at the
expense of Southern countries. Since Miami, disagreements over agriculture,
services, investment, intellectual property and other issues have
blocked the path to a NAFTA-type FTAA as Southern countries continue
to stand their ground in negotiations.
The lack of movement has not only called into question the January 2005 deadline for implementing the agreement but also the entire FTAA project.
The Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), the broad-based group of concerned citizen's from across the Americas working to resist this unjust trade model and lift up an alternative vision, warns that the sputtering and stalling of FTAA negotiations will probably lead the US and Canada to put more emphasis on negotiating bilateral free trade deals. These deals allow wealthy countries to use strong-arm tactics in order to win trade conditions that are favourable to them and immensely damaging to the peoples and environment of both Southern and Northern communities.
To learn more, see the article "People's Movement Grows as
FTAA Stumbles and Stalls" which will be posted on the KAIROS
website under Global Economic Justice/ Trade.
For more information contact Rusa Jeremic, Program Coordinator,
Global Economic Justice,
rjeremic
or 416 463 5312, ext.225
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Commemorating Rwanda ten years later |
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“I am traumatized by the memories of the day they cut off my arm and my leg.”
Child survivor of the genocide in Rwanda
April 7, 2004, marks a decade since the start of the genocide in Rwanda. 800,000 people were killed in just ninety days while the international community largely stood by. In response, the United Nations has declared April 7th the “International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.”
We recommend to you this list of educational materials to learn more about the roots of the Rwandan genocide, and to reflect on how we can work to halt these types of atrocities in the future. The following is a partial list of websites and books that we have found useful for broadening our understanding of the dreadful consequences of extreme racism and hatred.
Websites
Vision Television’s “Remembering Rwanda” Project
at
www.visiontv.ca/RememberRwanda/index.htm
International Campaign to End Genocide at
www.genocidewatch.org
Human Rights Watch Rwanda Commemoration at
www.hrw.org
Books
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (Picador, 1999). This is a heartbreaking collection of survivors’ stories written by a contributor to The New Yorker magazine.
Romeo Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Random House, 2003). This is the story of the failure of international mechanisms for humanitarian intervention told by the tragic yet heroic figure leading the United Nation’s peacekeeping force at the outbreak of the violence in Rwanda, Canada’s Lt. General Dallaire.
Take action
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Send an Unhappy Birthday card to the World Bank and IMF! |
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2004 marks the 60th anniversary of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, but this is no time to celebrate. KAIROS is part of a global initiative, coordinated in Canada by the Halifax Initiative, to send a message to these institutions that there can be no celebration without debt cancellation. The Unhappy Birthday e-card calls on Canada to insist that 100% of the staggering debts owed to these institutions by the poorest countries be cancelled immediately and without condition. The e-cards will be delivered to the Canadian government just before the meetings of these institutions in late April. This campaign will continue throughout the year. To write an e-card click here.
For more information on the campaign contact John Mihevc, Team
Leader for Global Justice, at
jmihevc
or 416 463 5312 x228.
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Update on Bill C-7 urgent action—The Public Safety Act |
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Thanks to all of you who quickly responded to this urgent action, and faxed, e-mailed or mailed the Senators representing your province. Currently, Bill C-7 (The Public Safety Act) has not been amended, and it has been referred back to the Senate with a recommendation for full adoption. The original vote on this bill was expected to take place as early as March 25; instead, Bill C-7 will continue to be debated in third reading when the Senate reconvenes after the Easter recess on April 20th. At least two senators intend to propose amendments at the time of the third reading. If an election is called before April 20th, the bill will fall off the legislative agenda, meaning that it must be reintroduced after the new government takes power. Because Bill C-7 is once again being debated in Senate, there is still time to express our concerns to individual senators.
Please see our website urgent actions list (under “Take Action”) to find a sample letter you can send to the Senators representing your province. Find a list of Senators here.
This action is part of the KAIROS Cultivating Just Peace campaign.
For more information on this action, please contact Adele Halliday,
interim Network Coordinator, at
ahalliday
or 1 877 403 8933 x236.
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