International Day of Recognition for Nelson Mandela

WE REMEMBER NELSON MANDELA - JULY 18, 2022

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”.

(Words of Nelson Mandela during the days apartheid)       

The United Nations declared July 18th (the birth date) as Nelson Mandela Day and encouraged people engaged in the struggle for justice to celebrate this day in honor of “Madiba.” The initial celebration, held on July 18, 2009, was a gathering of peoples across South Africa and around our world to recall how one person made a difference for both black and white communities in South Africa.   Today, in 2022, voices continue to be raised around our fragile world as the struggle for equality for all peoples is indeed not yet equally shared as we watch the evening news.   

I personally have admired Nelson Mandela for years in his passion and commitment to help bring about a just solution to the racial discrimination that he and many others lived through in his beloved country. Madiba’s long struggle for right relationship and for a just South Africa FOR ALL- came at great cost to him and his family.  I suspect that the journey to freedom was not an easy one for him. Nelson Mandela lived among the daily injustices he saw around him and oftentimes caused a negative response to the situation.

“When a man/woman is denied the right to live the life (s)he believes in, (s)he has no choice but to become an outlaw”.  (Words from Mandela as he faced a long jail term for his actions)

Madiba was arrested in 1963 and found guilty of conspiracy and sabotage to overthrow the government of South Africa which meant he would be facing an extensive jail term which was a way the government used to silence him and the movement that was coming into its own!  After 27 years of incarceration, with many of those years in solitary confinement, Nelson Mandela did not show hostility or anger toward his oppressors and in the upcoming election was selected as the first black leader of the Rainbow nation.   

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, we are able to see some of the attitudes Nelson chose to live by to survive this difficult time in his life…his transformation time…his time to live in a liminal space.  Perhaps each of us will take courage as our own personal journey of transformation continues to unfold from his insights:

1. Believing that things would get better – There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested but I would not and could not give myself up to despair.

2. Oppression was character building – The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and my people.

3. Focusing his hatred on the system not the PEOPLE running the system – In prison, my anger toward whites decreased, but my hatred for the system grew.  I loved even my enemies.

4. Finding beauty in unexpected places fueling hope – Some mornings I was in the courtyard and every living thing there, seemed to smile and shine in the sun. I knew that someday my people and I would be free.

5. Tending a garden became a metaphor for Life and Leadership – I saw the garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life.  A leader tends his garden; plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates and harvests the result.  A leader, like a gardener, must take responsibility for what is cultivated – mind his work, repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved and eliminate what cannot succeed.

6. Reading survival stories of others – In reading classic Greek plays, I learned that character was measured by facing up to difficult situations and a hero would not break under the most trying of circumstances.

7. Leaning on the camaraderie of others – Prison is designed to break one’s spirit and destroy one’s resolve, by stamping out that spark that makes each one of us a unique human being. We supported each other and gained strength from each other.

The home of Nelson Mandela, Soweto, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962.

While working with Scarboro Missions in Malawi, our return flight was diverted to Cape Town, South Africa and there was not a connecting flight to Malawi for two days.  Being in Cape Town meant that there might be a possibility of visiting Nelson Mandela’s home located in the heart of the city - and right down the street from the residence of Desmond Tutu! My travelling companion, Brian Swords, a member of the Scarboro Leadership Team, was coming for a visit to our Mission in Malawi.  He was open to venturing out and finding the neighborhood where Nelson Mandela lived, and healed, after his years in confinement.  Upon crossing the threshold I noticed that his home was a small, humble dwelling – yet these were the words that came to mind as we stood on holy ground that day. 

All are welcome in this home where a new reality for the people of South Africa was born and continues to be lived out even to this day. 

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj

International Day for Malala

International Day for Malala – July 12, 2022

Many will remember Malala, who at age 17, received the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating on behalf of young girls in her country, Pakistan to receive an education along with the boys who were schooled without question.  Pakistan was under the rule of the Taliban and still today education for young girls is forbidden.  As a youngster wanting the opportunity to learn, Malala defied this rule and went to school – and one day was brutally attacked for her action against the rules of the Government.  This forced her family to flee Pakistan for medical help and also to protect her family members.  Her passion and commitment did not wane and up to the present day, Malala continues to use her voice on behalf of the many girls and women desiring an education in her country and other countries around the world. 

On July 12, 2013, the United Nations called for world wide access to education with the institution of Malala Day.   Her words that day still are heard across our broken world: “Malala Day is not my day.  Today is the day of every woman, of every girl, of every boy who have raised their voice for their rights.”  (UN Address, July 12, 2013)

A line from our own Sisters of St. Joseph Statement, Moving With Love, comes to mind for personal reflection on the current situation in our world:

            “We commit to risk taking and justice making”…

What risks do we need to take to build a more just world for all?

Where are we being invited to use our voice to promote justice for all? 

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj

Canada Bans Single-Use Plastic

Guest Blog from Karen Wirsig, Plastics Program Manager

Karen Wirsig, Plastics Program Manager, Environmental Defence made remarks at the announcement in Toronto, ON. Photo by: www.shaymarkowitz.com / Shay Markowitz

We finally did it! Canada’s single-use plastic bans are for real

Big news this week! With a series of live announcements held across the country, the federal government finally released the final regulations to ban six single-use plastics – straws, stir sticks, check out bags, cutlery, some takeout containers, and six pack rings. 

Pat yourself on the back. This is only happening because so many of us demanded it.

The bans will start to come into force this year, earlier than suggested in the draft regulations. The final rules also ensure that these harmful products can no longer be exported to other countries by the end of 2025. These improvements in the final regulations are the result of so many of us insisting on them.

Check out our Instagram Live and learn more about what the new single-use plastic bans mean, what they can accomplish and what still needs to be done.

By the end of 2022, companies will no longer be able to manufacture or import single-use plastic stir sticks, checkout bags, cutlery and certain takeout containers. The same rule will apply to six-pack rings in mid-2023. A year after the manufacture and import ban comes into effect, these items will no longer be allowed to be sold or given away with other products. Straws will continue to be available, but only in packages in retail stores intended for people who need them for medical and accessibility reasons.

The news was met with celebration, as these bans are an important first step in reigning in the plastic pollution crisis. But not everyone was feeling so joyous…

It’s sickening that the main producers of plastic in this country – including Nova Chemicals, Dow Chemical and Imperial Oil – are still trying to kill the government’s action on plastic pollution. Yes, the outrageous Big Plastic lawsuit against federal regulation of plastics is still before the courts. Now these same companies have sent a new round of letters to the government specifically to oppose the bans. 

Countries on every continent are imposing bans on plastic. It’s wonderful to see Canada join that club. 

By this time next year, we shouldn’t have to pick up any more used straws on the beach or fish plastic bags out of streams and tree branches. The government estimates that the bans will mean 1.3 million tonnes less of plastic waste over a ten-year period, and 22,000 tonnes less of plastic litter leaked directly into the environment. 

Of course there’s much more to do to end plastic pollution … including further bans on harmful single-use plastics and easy access to reusable and refillable packaging. And you can count on us to keep the pressure on to make sure these things happen – we hope you’ll join us. 

We’ll have more to announce on the next steps soon, so stay tuned!

- Karen Wirsig. Plastics Program Manager, Environmental Defence Canada

Learn more: https://environmentaldefence.ca/

World Oceans Day

United Nations World Oceans Day

Theme Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.

I live along the Thames River and only rarely have had occasions to put my toes in the surrounding ocean of earth’s continents. Paul Bains, our Blue Community Coordinator reminds us in our June Newsletter that “Over 30 million Canadians live inland. One in two live along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. For many Canadians, it is not the ocean and coastline that frame our identity; rather, it is the vast interconnected landscape of wetlands, lakes, rivers, and waterways. Canada has over 2 million lakes and more than 8,500 rivers. All of this water flows through one of five drainage basins to the ocean – 60% of this water flows north to Inuit Nunangat (Inuktut word meaning homeland, used by Inuit in Canada). Thus, in Canada, ocean literacy is fundamentally about our relationship with the ocean and the waterways that connect us to each other and the sea.” (Sourced from: https://colcoalition.ca/our-work/)”

Our congregational heritage, having grown out of living the gospel, continually calls us to live in right relationship with God, with all people and with creation. And so, I am fascinated by this beautiful and mysterious system that God has loved into being – the ocean: the rich interplay of hundreds of thousands of marine species, deep cold currents transporting oxygen and nutrients, the fact that the ocean is really one continuous body of water that oceanographers have divided into four principal areas. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/all-about-the-ocean

The UN reminds us that “the ocean connects, sustains and supports us all. Yet its health is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it.”

Since 2017 when our congregation became a Blue Community, we have challenged ourselves with effecting change with the multiple relationships we have with water, from our misuse of it in over consumption, to clogging it with plastic, to advancing the awareness of water as a sacred right for all.

The many voices calling for change are heralds of hope.

This year there is a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more, and find out about the communities, ideas and solutions that are working together to protect and revitalize the ocean and everything it sustains. This day long event is hosted by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, with the generous contribution of Oceanic Global, which is made possible by La Mer. The event will be broadcast live. RSVP to join the United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD) virtual broadcast taking place on Wednesday 8 June, 2022.

Perhaps we will meet around the zoom screen!

Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

60 Years of Amnesty

May 28, 2022, marked the end of Amnesty International’s 60th anniversary year, and the end of an unusually tumultuous year in world events.

When the Sisters of St. Joseph posted our last Amnesty International blog a year ago, women and girls in Afghanistan were still attending school and university classes, holding down jobs and planning their futures with optimism and hope.

When Amnesty’s last blog was posted, the people of Ukraine were probably most concerned about the Covid-19 pandemic which had infected millions in their country with the vaccination program being somewhat slow to roll out.  

A year ago, during the week that Amnesty’s anniversary blog was posted, the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children from the Kamloops Residential School were identified, and since then, many hundreds more unmarked graves of Indigenous children have been identified on the sites of former residential schools. Indigenous communities know there are many, many more still to be identified.

Conflicts still rage today that were in progress a year ago—in Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, Myanmar, Nigeria, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to name just a few.

There are still more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim people detained by the Chinese government in what have been called ‘concentration camps’ – the largest-scale arbitrary detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.

One million Rohingya refugees are still living in precarious conditions in Bangladesh and other countries, having fled ethnic violence and persecution in Myanmar.

With two recent mass shootings in the past two weeks, in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, the list of horrors continues to grow. While I was writing this on June 1, another mass shooting happened at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There have been 233 mass shootings in the US in the first 152 days of 2022.

The past year has not been a year that anyone who cares about human rights and justice could celebrate.

Yet, the resilience of the people experiencing these terrible human rights violations, and their courage in standing up to oppressive governments and injustice is breathtaking and inspiring.

Three months after the unprovoked invasion by Russia, we continue to call for justice for violations of international law that have been perpetrated in the context of the ensuing conflict. Russia, like others who possess them, has used indiscriminate and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs and Amnesty International researchers are collecting evidence for future war crime trials. Millions of people have been displaced in a matter of weeks – both inside Ukraine and those who have fled the country as refugees, and entire cities are being reduced to rubble.

There are courageous human rights defenders in the Uyghur community who continue to speak out—at great personal risk – about the injustices their community is facing.

Women and girls in Afghanistan continue to fight for their fundamental rights, despite the decrees of the Taliban.

Wherever there is a conflict and an abuse of human rights, there are also courageous people who are willing to risk their lives to speak out, to demand justice and to work for change.

Amnesty International’s role is to research and report on grave abuses of human rights, and to work in solidarity with human rights defenders and amplify their calls for justice. We are grateful to know that many individuals and groups remain committed to our human rights work, and to helping Amnesty work with human rights defenders in their pursuit of justice, dignity and respect for all people.

Confronted with the human rights challenges faced by so many millions of people around the world, we celebrate our ongoing partnership with so many others including the members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada who share a commitment to continue our collective work for justice. The Sisters have been long-term partners in Amnesty International’s human rights work, both in Canada and globally, and we treasure this special partnership.

 -Rosemary Oliver

Rosemary Oliver is a member of the Senior Management Team of Amnesty International in Canada and has had the great privilege of visiting with the Sisters of St. Joseph in London over the past several years.