Remembrance Day will have special poignancy this year. And not just because it will mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. But because of the killing of two military service personnel on Canadian soil during the week of October 20, 2014. The violent death of these two men is a reason for deep sadness.
Additionally, our nation is once again at war. Only a short while after ending a 13-year military mission in Afghanistan, Canadian forces are participating in a U.S.-led military air assault on so-called Islamic State targets in Iraq.
As a ministry of Anabaptist peace churches, MCC is committed to the nonviolent resolution of conflict. We acknowledge that U.S. airstrikes in Iraq in the summer offered a measure of safety to some of our partners, but we, together with our partners, are deeply concerned that this latest foreign military intervention will exacerbate the violence within the region. We believe that sustained attention to underlying political, ethnic and religious divisions is paramount if the threat of extremist violence is to abate.
We were surprised to discover the omnibus budget implementation bill (Bill C-43: Economic Action Plan 2014 Act No. 2) introduced on October 23 includes the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act. Also buried in the Bill are elements of Bill C-585, a private member's bill which could impact refugee claimants' access to provincial social assistance.
KAIROS has produced an excellent Advent resource called Building Reconciled Relationships. It asks: How will your church community approach reconciliation -- with the land, in the waters, with Indigenous peoples, and across genders and generations?
"If we want to point fingers from the twenty-first century we can accuse those who took Europe into war of two things. First, a failure of imagination in not seeing how destructive such a conflict could be and second, their lack of courage to stand up to those who said there was no choice left to go to war. There are always choices."
The international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will set global rules for the international transfer of conventional weapons and has been signed by a large majority of states.
Thus far, the Government of Canada has not signed the ATT, despite the fact that many of Canada's closest allies, including the United States, have already signed.
Learn more about this issue and how you can urge the Government of Canada to demonstrate a commitment to international peace and security by signing and ratifying the ATT.
Staff update:
Monica Scheifele
Program Assistant
In her spare time during the month of November, Monica spends many hours helping to coordinate the month-long Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale at Ottawa Mennonite Church. Unpacking product and mingling with customers are her two favourite aspects of the sale.
A new 
