A Turning of the World

“Dear Black America — We are many things, aren’t we? We are hair. God yes, we are hair. And song. And memory. We are a language so deep it has no need for words. And we are words that feint, dart, and wheel like birds. Like James Brown, we feel good. Like Fannie Lou Hamer, we are sick and tired. We are fearsome. We are fire. Like God, we are that we are.”

These words from the poem, Dear Black America, by Tracy K. Smith are the opening words of a very provocative interview with Krista Tippett in her podcast On Being on May 27, 2021. In this year and a half of the pandemic, which as a side effect brought forward the depth of systemic racism and the depth of human alienation from our other-than-human world, Smith called together a group of 20 poets of colour to reflect out loud on the meaning and the impact of a barrage of reminders of the racial inequities of the world in which we live.

Also in the interview was poet Michael Kieber-Diggs who offered a piece of his writing about the experience of the last year and a half.

“It wasn’t that I wanted to let go and sink. It was that it was hard to keep my head above water and carry my stone at the same time. I wanted a place to rest. Okay? I wanted to float, just for a little while.”

The podcast offers a fresh and searing look at the impact of racism in the day to day lives of people of colour. Simply taking his dog for a walk evokes multiple feelings for Kieber-Diggs. What is most amazing is that there remains for them in the midst of it all a capacity for hope. Maybe it is connected to the belief that there is a revolution going on outside, and hopefully inside -

…one that may actually see a turning of the world. 

Sister Margo Ritchie, csj

Our Vanishing Heritage: Canada’s Irreplaceable Old Growth Forests

Forests  are our climate allies – defending against climate change. They sequester carbon below and above ground, provide habitat for endangered species, clean water and revive our spirits. The survival of Canada’s remaining old-growth forests is in jeopardy. The logging of old-growth forests in BC has increased this past year despite protests.   

In the June 2021  issue of The Walrus, Suzanne Simard, Professor of forest ecology at UBC, provides a startling description of how “trees cooperate, share resources, and communicate through underground fungal – or mycorrhizal – networks . . . “ in British Columbia’s old-growth forests. The giant 250-year-old trees are central in the ecosystem consisting of plants, fungi, rainfall, fires, birds, animals, and humans.  These marvelous old-growth forests contribute greatly to the quality of our environment and enjoyment of life.  However, they are rapidly disappearing and will never be replaced.   Our future will lack giant trees that nurture seedlings, host disappearing species, deter wildfires, protect water systems, absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and feed our spirits.   

The May 27 issue of The Globe and Mail  contains an article by Justine Hunter, “Understanding the backstory behind the Fairy Creek blockade”.   The Teal Jones Group, the largest privately-owned timber harvesting and lumber-product manufacturing company in BC., had obtained a license to harvest a 12.8-hectare block of mainly old-growth forests.  On discovering a new logging road to this site last summer, a group of protesters called the “Rainforest Flying Squad” established a series of moving blockades to prevent access. On April 1 this year the BC Supreme Court granted an injunction that authorized the RCMP to remove protesters from blockades in logging roads within Tree Farm License areas.     

Hunter’s article states that BC has 57 million hectares of forests and about 200,000 hectares are harvested each year—mostly in replanted second-growth areas “which do not recreate the rich biodiverse ecosystems of an undisturbed forest”.  There are about 13 million hectares of old forests in B.C. and 80% of that consists of less productive areas of bogs or high altitude sparsely treed land of low commercial value. Approximately 50,000 hectares of old-growth is harvested annually. Unlike countries, such as New Zealand, old-growth logging is still permitted.    

Protests against logging old-growth forests continue despite more than 150 arrests. Protesters are chaining themselves to whatever they can to fight against logging in the Fairy Creek area of B.C. Hundreds of people continue to flood back into old-growth blockade camps cleared by the RCMP to protect what they view as the very limited remaining old-growth forests.                 

In Canada, we are facing a choice of valuing a lucrative resource that rewards governments and corporations versus protecting a valuable and irreplaceable heritage.   

-Sister Patricia McKeon, csj

Is This a New Moment for our Country?

It is only a few short days ago that the remains of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of a Residential school in Kamloops B.C and that a family of five out for a walk in London were intentionally run down by a speeding truck because they looked different. These are two instances that shook our country and so many of us have stopped to take a second look.  Many of us are asking what is our call right now?  How can we move with love and stand side by side with our dear neighbour in their suffering? 

I heard from a friend who shared a situation that happened to her and her father when they visited one of the Indigenous communities on Prince Edward Island.  There was a display set up in memory of the children and they wanted to go and pay their respects at the site.  There was an unexpected bonding that took place between her father who had been raised in an orphanage over 75 years ago and the woman they met whose father had been sent to a residential school on the Island at an early age.  It seemed that although their situations were different – they were the same.  Places of struggle and oppression where fear and mistrust of anyone in authority grew inside of these very young children which they still carry today.

As their conversation went on, the sharing of their stories became a healing moment of vulnerability as both parties realized that they – the white settler and the indigenous woman –had a commonality in each of their lives that they could name and claim in this moment as strangers.  Today, the display is to be taken down and my friend’s father has gone to assist with the task – certainly not something he would have ever dreamed of doing but now he has a new friend who is in need of assistance.  So easy when you think of it?  Neighbour helping neighbour. 

With Canada Day in a few short weeks, words from our National Anthem come to mind as I reflected on this dark moment in the history of our beloved country and our Province.

O Canada we stand on guard for thee. 

Is this our chance?  Could Canada Day 2021 be inviting each of us to create a new moment – where we can truly say together “we stand on guard as a Nation for you and you and you – and you are my sister and brother and we journey together for our children and our children’s children? 

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj

Save Our Water

June 8 is World Oceans Day, the United Nations day for celebrating the role of the oceans in our everyday life and inspiring action to protect the ocean and sustainably use marine resources.

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An outrageous event is happening in North America. Suddenly, in the United States, water is being sold and traded as a commodity for profit.  We should have seen this coming.  For years now, right under our own noses here in Canada, Nestlé, for example, has settled in places such as Wellington County.  They have pumped zillions of gallons of precious groundwater, bottled it in plastic, paid nothing for the water but only a pittance levy of $503.71 per million liters, and sold it back to Canadians and around the world at a shocking price.

Quietly at first, but unable to tolerate what was happening to their precarious water, a group of concerned citizens in Wellington County gathered and began their work to stop Nestle’s water grab on their land.  Naming their new initiative, Save Our Water (SOW), the members who are all volunteers, thoroughly studied the water situation and enlisted Kelly Linton, the energetic Mayor of Centre Wellington.  Backed by municipal membership, the group became experts in groundwater supply and protecting it at all levels.  Since water taking is a provincial responsibility, their stewardship of local water reaches all the way to the provincial legislature where they have ready access to discussing the long-term negative impact of water extraction with politicians. (Join the Fight)

The Save Our Water initiative and the growing involvement of concerned citizens and water protectors is proving to have a successful impact.  Last month I had the privilege of being on a Zoom call of over 125 concerned citizens sponsored by Wellington Water Watchers for an update on the new moratorium on taking bottled water from Wellington County’s groundwater.

The Save Our Water volunteers, Mayor Linton and council of Centre Wellington as well as increasing numbers of concerned citizens have been the push behind Nestle’s recent withdrawal from Canada.  With one voice, they acclaim, “We are not a willing host for bottled water”.

There is still much for Save Our Water to do concerning the preservation of priceless water in Wellington County.  Vigilant oversight lies ahead as the area is projected to double in size by 2041 and the local Middlebrook well has been purchased for 4.3 billion by big companies, including some in the USA. 

Throughout the intervening years, Save Our Water will be there, studying, advocating, and influencing the rest of the world who come to them for advice as they are already doing.  Every local level in every municipality in North America needs a Save Our Water group to protect precious water and battle to ban water as a commodity. There is an urgent cry across nations: access to clean, potable water is a human right.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

The Sisters of St. Joseph are proud to be a BLUE COMMUNITY so that we can protect water as a shared commons, sacred gift, and human right.

 www.saveourwater.ca

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