April 2013 

Building a Safer World  


The Ottawa Office urges supporters to help build a safer world by signing a parliamentary petition on cluster munitions by May 15, 2013.

This is a next step in MCC's over thirty-five years of involvement in seeking to address the harm caused by cluster munitions.

 

MCC workers like Titus Peachey (left) first learned about cluster munitions in the 1970s, when the U.S. dropped millions of these "bomblets" on Vietnam and Laos. 

  

An international Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in 2008. Canada is now ratifying the convention through its own legislation, but the legislation is weak and needs to be strengthened.

 

MCC Canada, together with Mines Action Canada (a longtime coalition partner), is urging Canadians to sign a parliamentary petition to strengthen Canada's commitment to ending the scourge of cluster munitions.

 

Please add your voice!  Click here to download the petition, and find detailed instructions and additional information. 

 

Parliamentary Business:

Why changes to CIDA matter to MCC   

 

This week, MCC added its voice to the chorus of commentary about the government's decision to amalgamate the Canadian International Development Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

 

Read Paul Heidebrecht's blog and MCC Canada's news release.

Advocacy Update: 
An Arms Trade Treaty

Congratulations to Project Ploughshares and the many other organizations who worked steadfastly for an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) for more than a decade!

The ATT was adopted  overwhelmingly at the United Nations on April 2, 2013.

According to Ploughshares,
Resources:

Our Waters Our Life 

 



KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives invites Canadians to affirm the importance of the connection between our waters and our life by declaring solidarity with Indigenous peoples and protecting the waters on which we all depend.

KAIROS encourages individual, local, and national actions between World Water Day (March 22) and National Aboriginal Day (June 21), 2013.

In the words of Chief Shining Turtle of Whitefish River First Nation:

Let us work together, to ensure respect for earth, the water and our fellow creatures.
Let us work together to honour the sacred treaty relationship we have with one another.
Let us work together to creatively, peacefully and firmly push our government to repeal or amend the recently-passed laws which will harm the earth and us all.
Let us join together in the circle dance of respect for each other and the earth.

 Visit Our Waters Our Life.               
In This Issue
Feature Article
Parliamentary Business
Advocacy Update
Resources
Staff Update
 
Quotation 
of the Month

  

"Meeting members of my global Anabaptist family in Colombia today, face to face, was finding gold in a relational vein that has been untapped for far too long. The richness of their hospitality and the wealth of their stories have this unlikely prospector already more than overjoyed that he came." -- David Esau.

David Esau is pastor of Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship in Coquitlam, British Columbia. He was a participant in Menno Colombia 2013. 
Staff Update

 

Jenn Wiebe 

Policy Analyst  

From March 4th-15th, Jenn travelled to Colombia along with seven Mennonite Brethren church leaders from across Canada.

As part of Menno Colombia 2013, a learning tour organized by MCC's teams in Ottawa and Colombia, the delegation had the privilege of meeting with local MB leaders, learning about the development and peace work of MCC partners Mencoldes and Justapaz, and experiencing Colombian hospitality.

Check out the blog to learn more about their journey through Bogotá and the province of Chocó.


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