Spread the Word: We Need Your Registration by Sept 24

Sign-up before September 24 and tell your friends!

Elements of Justice: KAIROS InterGenerational Gathering 2013 will be held October 24-27 on gorgeous Squamish Nation Territory, north of Vancouver! Register now and secure your spot for this exciting inter-generational event!

We are so excited to announce our speakers for the event; Christine Boyle, Sylvia McAdam and Caleb Behn.  With community organizers, a founder of the Idle No More movement and an environmental legal activist, if you don’t sign-up you will miss out on the wisdom and inspiration these great speakers and a host of workshop leaders have to share! To read full bios for our speakers, download a poster, learn more about the program, and to register for the event please click here. If you have not yet done so, please "like" the Facebook page KAIROS Canada Gathering and join in on the exciting conversations and announcements around the upcoming gathering. We need your help to get the word out about this event.  Please share the poster with your networks and ask your friends to get involved in the event though social media. It is with your help that we will make this a truly memorable event!  Register BEFORE September 24 to guarantee your spot.

For more information please contact:
Caroline Foster
Young Adult and Network Coordinator
cfoster@kairoscanada.org
1-877—403-8933 ext 221

National Truth and Reconciliation Commission BC national Event

The national Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools resumes its work with the BC national event in Vancouver September 19-21. We are honoured to have Circle members, Board members, local and regional supporters and staff accompany Guatemalan partner Naty Atz Sunuc as a global witness to this important moment in Canadian history. Read more here. (link to KT article on Naty)

Please take even an hour to listen to survivor testimony on the TRC’s online livestream at http://www.livestream.com/trc_cvr

For more information on the event and KAIROS presence, please read more here.

For more information please contact Julie Graham
Education Coordinator (Dignity and Rights)
jgraham@kairoscanada.org
1 877 403 8933 x233

The 2013 Nation to Nation Bike Tour rolled to a close on August 14th after two and a half weeks of learning, growing and sharing together. The twelve tour members spent five days with leaders and community resource people in Akwesasne before hitting the road to spread awareness about the need for peaceful and just coexistence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples based on a nation to nation relationship.

Click the image to view a slideshow of some tour highlights:

For more information please contact:
Katy Quinn
Indigenous Rights Program Coordinator
kquinn@kairoscanada.org
613 235-9956 x224

KAIROS Briefing Paper: First Nations Challenge FIPA

In August, KAIROS hosted Brenda Sayers, a band councillor from the Hupacasath First Nation on Vancouver Island. Ms. Sayers eloquently explained why the Hupacasath had filed a request in a federal court seeking a judicial review of the government’s decision to proceed with the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA). Her stop at KAIROS’ Toronto office was part of a week-long tour that included events in Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough and Belleville.

The Hupacasath FN application asserts that the federal government failed to consult with First Nations on an issue affecting their Indigenous rights as required by Section 35 of the Canadian constitution and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This challenge to the investor-state provisions of FIPAs also defends the rights of non-Indigenous Canadians.

A new KAIROS Briefing Paper, First Nations Challenge Foreign Investment Protection Agreements, describes how investor-state provisions threaten Canadian public services, such as health care, and the integrity of the environment. It also explores the validity of the concerns raised by the Hupacasath and other First Nations in light of recent investment tribunal cases.

Download 'First Nations Challenge Foreign Investment Protection
Agreements (FIPA) PDF'

For more information please contact:
John Dillon
Economic Justice Program Coordinator
jdillon@kairoscanada.org
416-463-5312 x 231
Toll-free: 1-877-403-8933

October 4th Sisters in Spirit Vigils

What are you doing on October 4th in your community?

October 4th is a day where we honour the lives of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. The violence experienced by Aboriginal women and girls in Canada is a national tragedy. We must take the time to give thanks to the families who have inspired the Sisters in Spirit (SIS) movement and who are the reason we all continue to demand action.

KAIROS and other organizations including Amnesty International Canada, National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), and Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) continue to work in partnership with The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) to rally advocates and local, grassroots organizations to host vigils in their own communities. A vigil can take many forms from a moment of silence, to a rally, to a community feast.

Over the years the support and involvement of KAIROS groups and communities in the Sisters in Spirit movement has grown.  Find out what’s being organized in your community and see how you can be involved.
For more information: http://www.nwac.ca/october-4th-sis-vigils
To find out what is already being planned in your community and others: http://www.nwac.ca/www.nwac.ca/2013-vigil-locations

To register an event: http://www.nwac.ca/programs/2013-vigil-registration
There are also many local initiatives started by family members of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls that need out support!

Tears 4 Justice is a non-profit project founded by Gladys Radek. This is the fifth walk across Canada in honour of the missing and murdered women and children. It began on June 21, 2013 in Nova Scotia and ended along the Highway of Tears in northern BC. The walks provide a voice for those who have been silenced for decades after losing loved ones, and who have little or no options for proper justice, closure or accountability. The walkers have just arrived in Prince George. Follow them here.

Families of Sisters in Spirit is a grassroots, volunteer-based group in Ottawa dedicated to supporting families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. FSIS was created as a response to the federal government’s decision to de-fund the work being carried out by Sisters in Spirit (SIS) to document the epidemic of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada and to identify root causes of this trend and work towards solutions. FSIS holds vigils every year on Parliament Hill on October 4 and the Day of Justice on February 14th.

Walking with Our Sisters is a commemorative art installation for the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and the United States. More than 1,600 moccasin tops have been created by over 1,200 caring and concerned people to create one large collaborative art piece that will be installed for the public in various galleries and sites.  You can find more info here or download the exhibit schedule.

As well as engaging in national campaigns like Sisters in Spirit, October 4 in an opportunity to find out who the local family members are in your area and what kinds of support and action they are calling for.


For more information please contact:
Katy Quinn
Indigenous Rights Program Coordinator
kquinn@kairoscanada.org
613-235-9956 x 224
Toll-free: 1-877-403-8933

Naty Atz Sunuc, an Indigenous woman and KAIROS partner from Guatemala, to participate in the BC National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Vancouver

KAIROS is facilitating the participation of Naty Atz Sunuc, an Indigenous woman and KAIROS partner from Guatemala, as an international witness at the BC National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Vancouver.

 Naty Atz is the general coordinator of CEIBA, the Association of Community Development and Promotion in Guatemala, a long time partner of KAIROS.  She is a Mayan woman, the daughter of a catechist, and a survivor and orphan of the armed conflict in Guatemala in the 1980s who has become a highly respected human rights defender and community activist.

Naty’s presence at the TRC will bring international witness and solidarity to this important and historic process, as well as deepen and strengthen relationships with and between Indigenous peoples here in Canada and in Guatemala.

Naty will be in Vancouver from September 15-23.  She will participate in a number of pre- TRC events including an ecumenical service, Seeking Truth and Reconciliation, and a public event, From History to HerStory: the Power of Women’s Testimony in Truth and Reconciliation, organized by the local KAIROS committees and other sponsors.  Naty will also have the opportunity to bring witness and solidarity to the official program of the TRC in Vancouver in her capacity as an international partner and dignitary.  KAIROS will facilitate the blanket exercise during the education day of the TRC (Sept 19), a day in which thousands of students are expected to attend.

Historically, our Southern partners have called on Canadian citizens, churches and NGOs to bear witness to and participate in human rights tribunals and processes in their countries; for KAIROS, these have included Colombia, Sudan, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guatemala.    They have spoken to us of the importance of memory, testimony, and truth-telling in the pursuit of justice, as a vital part of understanding history and ensuring that these atrocities never happen again (“nunca mas”).  Now, global partner are being called to Canada to witness the TRC, to hear testimonies from residential school survivors, to learn about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada and to support processes for justice and reconciliation here in Canada.  
     
For more information on  KAIROS participation and partner presence at  the BC National event of TRC in Vancouver please contact Katy Quinn, Indigenous rights program coordinator (kquinn@kairoscanada.org)  or Rachel Warden,  Latin American partnerships/gender justice program coordinator (rwarden@kairoscanada.org)

KAIROS Concerned About the Expansion of Petroleum Licensing in the Amazon

In response to a call from our partner, Accion Ecologica, KAIROS wrote a letter to the Ambassador of Ecuador expressing concern about the expansion of petroleum licensing and exploitation in the Amazon, including in ecologically fragile areas and Indigenous territory.    The letter was sent on July 16, a date that marked the launch of XI Oil Round, when the eleventh round of petroleum licensing began and was part of a campaign to gather letters of concern from partners around the world.

Read KAIROS' letter to Dr. Teran-Paul, Ambassador to Ecuador.

For more information please contact:
Rachel Warden
Latin America Partnerships Program Coordinator
rwarden@kairoscanada.org
416-463-5312 x 242
Toll-free: 1-877-403-8933

Rev. Can. Kawuki Mukasa, PhD, is the Coordinator for Dialogue at the Anglican Church of Canada in Toronto, ON.

Rev. Mukasa reflects on prophetic ministry and martyrdom, drawing from his youth in Uganda where Archbishop Janan Luwum resisted the violence of the regime of Idi Amin. While Archbishop Luwum ultimately lost his life, Rev. Mukasa asserts that "the Archbishop's death triggered a series of events that led to the demise of Idi Amin's regine."

Prophets and martyrs act and speak "in ways that may be disturbing, discomforting, embarrassing and subversive." While this may result in tragedy, it may also open "new channels for accessing God’s grace."

Read the full reflection here.