Announcing: “First Nations Version An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament”
WN: The Lord’s Prayer in this version is beautiful! Please view its reading below. A few sample passages follow the video. I’m excited to read the Story afresh through First Nations People on Turtle Island, who have suffered so much–and that suffering continues!–under us White Settlers. excerpt: The Great Spirit loves this world of human […]
Highlighting “Absolute Carbon Reduction Is an ‘Issue of Life and Death’ for Indigenous Peoples”
By Amy Goodman Juan González, Democracy Now! Published November 2, 2021 photo above: flickr.com WN: Tom Goldtooth (Native American environmental, climate, and economic justice activist, speaker, film producer, and Indigenous rights leader within the climate and environmental justice and indigenous movement) sums up the challenge: Traditional knowledge means that the government is going to have […]
How to ensure Indigenous tourism experiences support the right communities
By Mike Alexander | June 4, 2021 photo above: Jusquan Bedard paints finishing touches on the Gwaii Haanas legacy totem pole before it is raised in Haida Gwaii, B.C., in 2013. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck) WN: We’re gently called as settlers to embrace reconciliation by learning about our Aboriginal Neighbours . . . excerpts: Growing up […]
Utilizing Indigenous Thought to Cope in the Age of Trump
Sunday, November 26, 2017 By Four Arrows, Truthout | Op-Ed photo above: aljazeera.com WN: Below is a wise, challenging, hopeful piece. As I read it, I reflected on how similar it is to The Great Tradition within the Judaeo-Christian Story, and beyond. Today’s reading on this is copied below: An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Reverence,” […]
Indigenous Alliance Launches Divestment Campaign Against US and Canadian Pipelines
Thursday, May 25, 2017 By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, Truthout | Report photo above: Indigenous activists march with allies in the Tar Sands Healing Walk in northern Alberta, Canada. (Photo: Velcrow Ripper) The struggle is interminable – and sometimes what to do intangible. What is suggested here and below is hopeful and doable. an excerpt: Earlier this month, the Treaty […]
Teargassing of Indigenous Youth in Australian Detention System Reeks of Colonialism
photo above: Activists display a sign decrying the murders of Aboriginal Australians in prison at an Invasion Day march and rally in Brisbane, Australia, on January 26, 2007. (Photo: David Jackmanson) Wednesday, 03 August 2016 00:00 By Leila Nasr, IC Magazine | News Analysis an excerpt: During the peak of colonial conquest in Australia, the […]
Will Canada Recognize Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Poor Countries?
photo above: Indigenous women and children in Guatemala are among those most impacted by Canadian mining companies’ destructive practices. (Photo: Danilo Valladares / IPS) an excerpt: It’s estimated that 75 percent of the world’s mining and exploration companies are based in Canada, and mining is one of Canada’s most economically powerful sectors. Activists say as […]
New Report Confirms: Human Rights Are Integral to Climate Action
Thursday, December 5, 2019 WN: Greed and Care for Human Rights have never gone together: they are an oxymoron of course. excerpts: MADRID, Spain – Rights in a Changing Climate, a new report released today by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and funded by the Government of Luxembourg, provides the first comprehensive review […]
Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018
At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]
Was America Great When It Burned Native American Babies? (Audio and Transcript) – Truthdig
Posted initially on Aug 5, 2016 Interview by Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer “Benjamin Madley1 has changed the conversation on genocide and American Indians. After An American Genocide, it will no longer be possible to debate whether or not genocide took place. Instead we will need to confront the questions of how and why […]
The Great Sumas Lake Heist: A Guilty Little Secret in Plain Sight
Sumas Lake until a century ago covered about 10% of the Fraser Valley’s fertile farmland. Then it was ‘disappeared.’ Whatever happened? And what to do about it? NOTE: There are several footnotes that add related material to the article, that for some may be of interest. NOTE 2:It was exactly a year ago that the […]
The Secret Path – Gord Downie’s Secret Path In Concert
WN: The concert and the TV Special, “The Secret Path” (the latter written and directed by Gord Downie of “The Tragically Hip,” co-created by his brother Mike), are simply powerful. They remind of Canada’s horrific treatment of Aboriginal children in a longstanding cultural genocide through residential schools that has left an enduring legacy of profound […]
Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004
WN: Some of the papers on Restorative Justice are understandably repetitive, though I culling the obviously such. image above: sikhnet.com Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004 By Wayne Northey In 1974 two youths who had been drinking and had been “talked to” by the police already, took out their frustrations on the small […]
Commentary on: “The Invention of Thanksgiving”
By Philip Deloria November 18, 2019 image above: The Indians who joined the mistrustful Pilgrims, Wampanoag tradition suggests, were honoring a mutual-defense pact. Illustration by Rui Tenreiro WN: If the article highlighted below shocks the reader, I suggest gently that you have grown up on a different planet . . . It is a story […]
Love on a human scale: The Gospel according to Ivan Illich – Review by Marcus Peter Rempel
Every now and then a book comes into my life that puts me in a happy dilemma: I want to lend it to all my friends, but I don’t want it to leave my house. Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey is a labour of love by Illich’s long-time friend and co-conspirator, David Cayley. At 552 […]
Earth’s climate outlook grim but not hopeless, faith leaders say
Aug 10, 2021 by Brian Roewe Action photo above: A girl in Falmouth, Britain, plays with sand during a climate protest June 11. (CNS/Reuters/Tom Nicholson) WN: Hopeful indeed! Jesus would say: Faith communities arise! excerpts: Grim but not hopeless. A foreboding future but the potential for a better one, if immediate, systemic and sustainable action […]
This Is Why America Needs Catholicism
By Matthew Walther Mr. Walther is the editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributing editor at The American Conservative. image above: Vartika Sharma WN: Cogently presented and inspiring. Amen! excerpts: When I began reading through the archives of Triumph several years ago, I found these arguments striking. This was not because […]
Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire
SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. The website is dedicated to: The Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire. More on Empire below. PLEASE NOTE: the Sitemap. There is also a list of all Book Reviews separately, and alongside each post. You may search the Blog too. Please consider […]
Screaming into silence
By Cindy Blackstock June 30, 2021 photo above: Memorial to residential school victims outside Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Shelby Lisk) WN: Just what will it take? . . . See too my post, December 10, 2018: Black Toronto residents 20 times more likely to be shot dead by police, study says. Just what will it […]
This entire country is haunted
By Alicia Elliott July 12, 2021 photo above: The Mohawk Institute Residential School, referred to by former students as ‘the Mush Hole’ (Photograph by Alex Jacobs-Blum) WN: This statement from the article highlighted below haunts me: These acts were done on behalf of every non-Indigenous family who proudly calls themselves Canadians, because this is what […]
The Catholic Church must come clean—completely—about what it did to Native Americans
The Editors June 30, 2021 photo above: A young woman takes part in a rally in Toronto June 6, 2021, after the remains of 215 children were on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May. For years Indigenous people in Canada have wanted an apology from the pope for the church’s role […]
One priest’s message to the church: ‘Shut your mouth and just listen’
By Maclean’s June 8, 2021 photo above: Shoes are placed on the lawn outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on June 4, 2021 (Darryl Dyck/CP) WN: I think I’ll just shut my mouth and listen . . . You may wish to view the video first, then read some excerpts. excerpts: Last Sunday, Father […]
John A. Macdonald can wait
By Stephen Maher June 7, 2021 photo above: Shoes sit in front of the Parliament buildings during a ceremony on June 3, 2021 in Ottawa (Adrian Wyld/CP) WN: It is the human condition that historians from within a culture generally silence any contrary narrative that might put into a negative light the moral rectitude of […]
I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry
WN: This review is from THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM Review: “I Was a Catholic Zionist“–An Eloquent Exploration of Judaism’s Moral and Ethical Tradition and Zionism’s Departure From It by Allan C. Brownfeld Issues Winter 2019 I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry By Ted Schmidt 430 pages, $28.00 (information […]
Eyes Open: An Anti-Asian Racism PSA
May 13, 2021 by Cindy Lu WN: This video speaks for itself . . . Description: Melissa Grelo and Elaine Lui, the co-hosts of (Canadian Television Network) CTV’s The Social, created a video about Anti-Asian racism during COVID, in support of the work by the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice. This video, which […]
Return the National Parks to the Tribes
Story by David Treuer May 2021 Issue Editor’s note: This article is part of a new series called “Who Owns America’s Wilderness?” photo above: Katy Grannan–Glacier National Park, in Montana, as seen from the Blackfeet Reservation, near Duck Lake. WN: It’s hard to fathom the horror of White genocide against the Indigenous of North America. […]
Joe Biden’s War Powers:
Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill April 28 2021 Recording: Go to website and listen to Joe Biden’s War Powers 2021-04-28·36 min. Transcript excerpts below. illustration above: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism by Joel Andreas. WN: In the end, Joe Biden’s devout Catholicism, his profound empathy from personal tragedy, his commitment to the welfare […]
Opinion: Prolonged solitary confinement is torture. It’s time for all states to ban it.
Opinion by Tammie Gregg and Donna Lieberman April 28, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. PDT image above: Julie Lai for The Washington Post WN: My wife Esther and I felt uniquely fortunate to have attended the Conference below: CURE International Conference Costa Rica 2017 Over 40 prison reform advocates representing a dozen countries participated in CURE’s 7th […]
Out of Sight / Out of Mind
The Magazine: Spring 2021 COVID-19 in prisons got our attention. Manitoba has quietly been home to the highest incarceration rates in the country, with a grossly disproportionate number of Indigenous people behind bars. And Canada has one of the highest prison rates in the world. Members of our UM community who’ve witnessed a broken system […]
Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre Rescinded
Mark Walker April 23, 2021 photo above: Kristina Barker for The New York Times WN: This kind of story can be repeated ubiquitously in European worldwide Empire/colonization history over many centuries. One post of many is: The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism. Related posts may be pursued there. “Moving on” as beneficiaries […]
Saving the salmon and Beauty:
After years of trying to get the province to protect an important salmon watershed, one northwest B.C. First Nation is taking matters into its own hands Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative reporter April 17, 2021 photo above: Chief Wii Litsxw (Gregory Rush) hiking in Gitanyow territory. The area behind him is part of the so-called […]
Former inmate taps into her prison experience for ‘groundbreaking’ PhD research
CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 24, 2020 6:07 PM ET | Last Updated: March 3 photo above: Prison For Women, or P4W, in Kingston, Ont., opened in 1934 and was shut down in 2000 after decades of reports about prisoner mistreatment. (Google Street View) Listen to Ideas from the Trenches: The Resilience of Incarcerated Women […]
Houses of hate:
Dangerous, racist and falling apart. By nearly every metric, the nation’s penal system is not just failing, it’s making things worse. By Justin Ling February 28, 2021 photo above: Medium security range at Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba (Correctional Services Canada/Flickr) WN: The article highlighted does not sugar-coat the reality: Canadian prisons (and […]
Vancouver Police Have Reduced Street Checks. They Should Stop Them Altogether, Say Advocates
Jen St. Denis Today | TheTyee.ca Jen St. Denis is The Tyee’s Downtown Eastside reporter. Find her on Twitter @JenStDen. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative. photo above: Vancouver police report they dramatically reduced the number of street checks in 2020. Photo by Jen St. Denis. WN: When every study conducted […]
Earth Matters: Fossil fuels kill 8.7 million people a year; climate crisis an eco-justice issue
By Meteor Blades February 13, 2021 Earth Matters is a weekly compendium of wonderful, disturbing, and hideous news briefs about the environment. WN: As many point out. Even if one discounts the all the ACD/ACC science, the earth’s beauty would blossom astoundingly; cityscapes would clear remarkably; and species on the brink of extinction would stand […]
Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity.
Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity. By Christine Mungai, Truthout Part of the Series: Religion’s Role in the Struggle for Justice December 16, 2020 photo above: howafrica.com WN: This is the central theme of this website! A significant portion of what follows is from the previous highlighted part. There is […]
Gustavo Gutiérrez and the preferential option for the poor
Nov 8, 2011 by John Dear Blog | On the Road to Peace WN: What can one say? The highlighted article is deeply humbling. I could have cited the entire article, so full of wisdom and insight–and great challenge! As well, the overwhelming opposite juxtaposition leaps out in light of the just-released McCarrick Report: The […]
Seminario John Main 2020
WN: Please consider joining still in this amazing worldwide seminar! The World Community for Christian Community (WCCM) is to be thanked for this looked at in light of the great worldwide trauma the Church delivered to indigenous people . . . All I can say is: Lord, have mercy. Copyright © 2020 | THE WORLD COMMUNITY […]
The TSN anchor is a proud voice for the Black community
Kayla Grey is using her platform to fight racism By Claire Sibonney October 5, 2020 WN: The article highlighted below is immensely hopeful! With all colours represented in our extended family, my greatest yearning is that the world over be inflicted with an enduring colour-blindness. Sadly it needs to start in that same extended family, […]
Life Under the Bomb Means a Life of Resistance
Published on Thursday, August 06, 2020 by Common Dreams by Rev. John Dear photo above: “Our message over the years has been simple and urgent: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They don’t make us safer; they don’t provide jobs; they don’t make us more secure—these are age-old lies. Instead they bankrupt us, economically and […]
An Open Letter To Joe Biden
Dear Mr. Biden. If I might be so bold, I wonder about connecting some dots at this incredible kairos moment of U.S. and world history. I was moved by your empathetic videoed message to the Floyd family during the funeral service in Houston. You have deeply suffered multiple losses as this article sensitively points out: […]
Black Toronto residents 20 times more likely to be shot dead by police, study says
Black people made up 61% of cases where police used force that resulted in death, Ontario human rights commission report said Leyland Cecco in Toronto Mon 10 Dec 2018 photo above: rt.com WN: The article from a year and a half ago highlighted below was brought to mind by today’s “Trudeau: Canadians watching US unrest […]
Why this ‘genius’ scholar is mapping out the world’s largest jail system
photo above: Kelly Lytle Hernández, who received the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant, views prison abolition through the eyes of rebels Fri 11 Oct 2019 by Sam Levin WN: In a revised forthcoming publication by Wipf and Stock Publishers, namely Volume One of Justice That Transforms, I write: Longtime Restorative Justice promoter Howard Zehr once directly critiqued […]
How Can We Celebrate “Freedom” While Kids Are in Concentration Camps?
How Can We Celebrate “Freedom” While Kids Are in Concentration Camps? By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Published July 4, 2019 photo above: Pro tip, flag-waver: Your July Fourth “freedom” narrative is a bald-faced lie.Lauren Walker / Truthout WN: And damned if anyone out there for the most part cares!… I have a close relative who […]
Good Friday Sermon and Easter Sermon, 2017 by Randy Klassen
Good Friday Sermon and Easter Sermon, 2017 by Randy Klassen photo above: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem WN: Randy Klassen is an esteemed member of the CoSA Canada Board, and past National Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Mennonite Central Committee Canada. That position and others were sadly eliminated due to financial restructuring at MCCC […]
The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change
The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change A three-year UN-backed study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has grim implications for the future of humanity. 03/15/2019 05:45 EDT | Updated 03/16/2019 15:18 EDT by John Vidal On Assignment For HuffPost WN: I know […]
On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal
On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal Trudeau tried to pressure justice minister to cut deal to let corporation avoid bribery prosecution, she says. By Tyee Staff February 27, 2019 | TheTyee.ca photo above:Jody Wilson-Raybould: ‘I come from a long line of matriarchs and I am a truth teller in accordance with the […]
A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy
[irp]A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy The Green New Deal’s mastermind is a precocious New Yorker with big ambitions. Sound familiar? Robinson Meyer Feb 19, 2019 illustration above: John Trumbull / Caitlin Ochs / Eric Vidall / Reuters / Thanh Do / The Atlantic WN: The Deal continues to sound hopeful! However, as we […]
Nova Scotia Chocolatier Peace by Chocolate Pledges To Hire 50 Refugees By 2022
Nova Scotia Chocolatier Peace by Chocolate Pledges To Hire 50 Refugees By 2022 The now-famous company will also mentor 10 refugee startups over the next few years. Holly McKenzie-Sutter Canadian Press photo above: Andrew Vaughan/CP — Assam Hadhad, a Syrian refugee, displays a tray of chocolates at Peace by Chocolate in Antigonish, N.S. on Sept. […]
Why the Justice Department Can’t Be Trusted to Investigate Abysmal Conditions in Federal Prisons
Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019
Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019 By Michael I. Niman,Truthout Published January 13, 2019 WN: The article highlighted below is a call to see beyond dystopian rise of fascism in the world to what we Christians call “Kingdom Come”. The article is nonetheless very sobering. excerpts: bitchute.com [su_dropcap size=”5″]T[/su_dropcap]he New Year’s Day […]
Trump routinely says things that aren’t true. Few Americans believe him.
Trump routinely says things that aren’t true. Few Americans believe him. Polling A new Washington Post Fact Checker poll Take the quiz to see how your fact-checking skills stack up against others nationwide. Reporting by Glenn Kessler and Scott Clement Graphics by Kevin Schaul Analysis and fact-checking by Emily Guskin, Meg Kelly and Salvador Rizzo […]
Pope revises catechism to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’
Commits the church to working toward its abolition worldwide1 Aug 2, 2018 by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Theology photo above: Pope Francis gestures before speaking about the death penalty at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican in this Oct. 11, 2017, file photo. […]
Enough Bombs Bursting in Air. We Need to Love One Another.
By William Rivers Pitt Truthout, Published July 4, 2018 WN: I love it when people not necessarily in the faith reflect back to us Jesus’ central message to “love one another”. And I think it singularly sobering that they remind people of faith about its central tenet. Would that the white evangelical majority everywhere in […]
Jesus Was Not White. Here Is Why Recognizing That Matters
Newsweek Newsweek Europe 2018-03-31 by: Robyn J. Whitaker photo above: © Provided by IBT Media (UK) Depictions of Jesus WN: Racial bias is overwhelmingly problematic in Western Christianity. Change must surely start with the “most radical of all” proposals according to the article highlighted, “if we were more mindful that the person Christians celebrate […]
The Last Temptation
How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]
They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change with Author John Dear
Book Review of: They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change, John Dear, ORBIS BOOKS, 2018 In this landmark work, author, activist, and Nobel peace prize nominee Father John Dear connects the way of active nonviolence with solidarity with Creation, and shows how our global epidemic of violence and […]
The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism
Posted on July 21, 2015 by christian hegemony Challenging Christian Hegemony Practical tools for recognizing and resisting Christian dominance WN: Every time I read an essay so well presented as that highlighted below (and so beyond tragic!), as a committed follower of Jesus, I know that I don’t have to wear the blame, but I […]
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 3 (3) (2011) pp 54-70 ©2011 International Journal of Critical Pedagogy Permission to quote from paper granted by the author, Dr. Robin diAngelo WN: In our immediate family, we have a non-white daughter and daughter-in-law, a non-white nephew and his non-white partner, and two non-white grandsons. As I reflect […]
Doctrine of Discovery Task Force – Christian Reformed Church of North America
WN: There are so many in dominant North American culture who simply deny any relevance in the past treatment of indigenous peoples to North American realities of today. At least, if acknowledged, they say that nothing can be done about it, and that indigenous peoples should just “get over it, and move on”. They usually […]
We Are the 99 Percent—Except for the Top 20 Percent of Us
In a new book Dream Hoarders, Richard V. Reeves argues that members of the upper middle class, not just the ultra-wealthy, are making our society profoundly unequal. By Bryce Covert JULY 3, 2017 WN: What the author calls for in the article highlighted below is what biblical Jubilee Justice repeatedly heralds: that for everyone “enough should be […]
Beyond #Canada150: A Statement from Primate Fred Hilz on National Aboriginal Day, June 21, 2017
WN: Below is a wonderful statement by Primate Fred Hilz of the Anglican Church of Canada. Would that all Christians take it to heart and action! Would that all Canadians do the same! Would that all humanity grow into this kind of hopeful reconciliation! Amen. Like many other Canadians, I am mindful that within just […]
The US and Israel Share a History of Ethnic Cleansing
Sunday, May 28, 2017 By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview an excerpt: Mark Karlin Historically, what are some examples of the US and Israel sharing a history of ethnic cleansing against Indians and Palestinians, respectively? TRUTHOUT PROGRESSIVE PICK ________________________________________ What will liberation look like for Indigenous America and Palestine? Click on how to order his new […]
Restorative Justice Then, Now and A Dream
WN: A massive body of Restorative Justice literature has emerged. A superb early study is Restoring Justice (Strong and Van Ness, 1997). A great early overview of the wider context is The Expanding Prison (Cayley, 1998). The first major study was Changing Lenses (Zehr, 1990) – considered a classic. The two best Christian theological studies […]
Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) is in crisis.
photo above: Council of Canadians campaigner Daniel Cayley-Daoust presenting to the NEB modernization panel February 22, 2017. Revelations of secret lobby meetings forced the resignation of its Energy East pipeline review panel last year. The NEB has long been accused of being biased in favour of industry, and leading pipeline reviews that don’t take transparency, public input […]
Fifty Years On: MLK’s Concerns Still Plague Us, Including Militarism
Tuesday, 04 April 2017 photo above: Racism, extreme materialism and militarism are still inextricably linked, and still prevent our society’s becoming anything close to Dr. King’s “beloved community.” (Photo: Susan Melkisethian) KEVIN MARTIN AND REVEREND DR. HERBERT DAUGHTRY WN: The United States has acted like an empire since its inception: its two foundational sins are indigenous […]
Trump travel ban hits major setback after judges uphold temporary restraining order
Ben Jacobs in Washington @Bencjacobs Thursday 9 February 2017 23.17 GMT Complete victory’: attorney general celebrates Trump travel ban verdict Judges upheld order issued last week to prevent 90-day travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries and 120-day freeze on US admission of any refugees Travel ban: judges refuse to reinstate Trump’s order – live WN: One […]
2016 Annual Christmas Appeal
an excerpt: Dear Friends, “All we want is our dignity, and to stop being treated like animals in a cage.” This sentiment was heard across six Canadian time zones and a dozen venues from Newfoundland to B.C. by participants in our live videoconference – ‘Gaza Calls: Canada Answers’ (watch the recording online!). Along with it came […]
The Republic Repeals Itself
By Andrew Sullivan WN: The article linked below is one of despair. There is no doubt this is a sentiment joined in by untold millions around the world, not least in America. However, Andrew Sullivan’s painting of the American Republic as an ideal to emulate was only ever that: an ideal with a hollowed-out centre. […]
Walking from Wrongs to Rights: UN Declaration shows the way | Church for Vancouver
By Laurel Dykstra September 15, 2016 image above: cover of the new Mennonite Church Canada publication well worth ordering – for individuals and groups! an excerpt: A couple of weeks ago, members of our community joined a circle of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in our diocese to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls […]
Where Movements Meet: Black Lives Matter Organizers Visit #NoDAPL
photo above: by Melinda Lee By Kelly Hayes, Truthout | News Analysis an excerpt: Last weekend, as thousands of Indigenous protesters continued their efforts to ward off construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a delegation from another life-and-death struggle visited the Native encampments in Standing Rock, North Dakota. While there have been numerous expressions of […]
Platform – The Movement for Black Lives
photo above (from this article): A sign marking the number of days activists have occupied Freedom Square, an encampment across the street from the Chicago Police Departments’s “black site” of Homan Square. (Photo: Sarah Ji) Released August 1, 2016 Click on each of the six categories below “DEMANDS” to read the much fuller statements. an […]
Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (C.U.R.E.)
Upcoming World Conference Human Rights and Prison Reform Seventh International CURE Conference April 25-29, 2017, San Jose, Costa Rica, Courtyard Marriott Airport Alajuela Theme: Implementing United Nations Mandela Rules in the Americas (the treatment of prisoners in the Twenty First century) Photo above is an Argentine prisoner, the dove of peace is actually a pigeon. […]
An ‘American Holocaust’
Dr. Stannard, by most accounts, published in 1993 a meticulously researched, powerful book about genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas: in fact by far the greatest generations long genocide in the history of the world; primarily promulgated by white Christians. See. for instance, the Kirkus review that sums up the book thus: Genocide on […]
A Partial List of Democides in the Last Hundred Years
WN: Democide: “the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.” While this is a partial list, Wikipedia contains an expanded list of Genocide here. The Most Dangerous Animal by David Livingstone Smith of course puts humans at the top of the list. • Eight million residents of […]
Towards A New Paradigm of Justice
WN: Contemporary Western Restorative Justice theory and practice were not first developed by Americans, though they have greatly contributed to its worldwide expansion. In particular Howard Zehr’s name stands out in the earlier and subsequent years; but not as theory originator, or first practitioner. From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, […]
Restorative Justice
NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]