September 2012

"Under the surface: mining, violence and solidarity"

2012 Peace Sunday Packet

Thinking about the impact of global mining and resource extraction takes us down interconnected tunnels: creation care, economy, conflict, solidarity, and consumerism, to name a few. 

 

While mining is not new, the massive scale of resource extraction and of the economic gains clearly is. Mining eats away at land, uses vast amounts of water, leaves pollutants and poisons in its wake, and creates competition for wealth. In short, it affects people, it affects land and it generates conflict. 

 

Mining companies are sometimes accused of stealing land, poisoning environments, trampling the rights of indigenous peoples, and stirring up violence. Mining companies are also credited with bringing sanitation, public health and economic benefits to impoverished areas.

 

So mining is a complex issue full of ethical, social, environmental and economic ramifications. It is also one of the main industries in the Canadian economy. We can't live as we do without the benefits of resource extraction. Minerals are an essential part of our daily lives: from fuelling our cars to adorning our faces, from keeping us connected by cell phones to giving us jobs and solid financial investments. 

 

At the same time some mining practices are steeped in the politics of greed, feed violent conflict in many places and sometimes trample the health and livelihood of our global sisters and brothers. As Anabaptist people who believe that how we live matters to our faith, this all has spiritual implications.

 

-- adapted from the introduction. See below under "Resources" for how to acquire this year's Peace Sunday Packet.
Parliamentary Business
Fall session opens September 17

 

After a three month summer recess, next Monday elected officials will return to the House of Commons for the start of the fall session. Given some of the policy items already on the horizon, it won't be long before Parliament Hill is buzzing with activity.

As the fall session kicks off, the Ottawa Office will continue to track motions and bills in the Parliament of Canada that directly relate to MCC's priorities, approaches, and values.

 

We anticipate that there will be a wide range of issues up for debate, including legislation to continue implementing the budget, and to begin to implement the Cluster Munitions Convention. Committee reports are also anticipated for recent studies on tax incentives for charitable donations and the role of the private sector in achieving Canada's international development interests.

Get Involved

2013 Ottawa Office Student Seminar

"Peacebuilding in a Dangerous Time"

 

R2P ... F-35s  ... 

Arms Trade Treaty ... 

Cluster Munitions Convention ... 

Department of Peace ... 

The Fight for Canada ...

 

February 14-16 in Ottawa, for college and university students.

 

Register on-line here, and with your provincial MCC office.

 

If you're not a college or university student, then  this to those who may be interested.

Resources

 2012 Peace Sunday Packet

 

Under the surface: mining, violence and solidarity


Every year on Remembrance Day our nation invites us to reflect on the wartime sacrifice of soldiers. Many Anabaptist churches, as peace churches, choose to observe Peace Sunday. 

It is an occasion to preach, teach and reflect upon Jesus' gospel of peace and to offer a witness against violence and war.

 

MCC's Peace Sunday Packet is a worship, study and response resource to be used the Sunday on or before Remembrance Day. This year, it connects us with our global neighbours who often suffer violence and injustice as a result of bad mining practices.


In This Issue
Under the surface
Parliamentary Business
Get Involved
Resources
Staff Update
Newsletter archives
High tech disclamer
 
Quotation of the Month   
 

"We recognize that we are salt and light of a society that every day is declining into the moral abyss of massive environmental destruction, whose sole purpose is the enrichment of the wealthiest at the cost of exploiting the poorest."

 

"Our role as Mennonite Brethren church is to accompany and guide both our members along with the community at large to develop mining activities responsibly and with social justice."  

-- Jos� Rutilio Rivas D., Pastor, Mennonite Brethren Churches of Choc�, Colombia, in "Mining and Resource Extraction in Choc�, Colombia: Pillage, Destruction, Violence and Misery."
Links


Staff Update

Casey Van Wensem

Fall 2012 

Advocacy Research Intern

Casey recently completed his BA in Political Science and Professional Writing at the University of Victoria. He is also a co-founder of Music for Youth Works Society, a charitable organization that provides free music education to at-risk youth. He is excited to be learning more about faith and political advocacy at the MCC Ottawa Office.

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Ottawa Office Newsletter archives

 

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