March E-News from Canadian Friends Service Committee

Details

Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00

Written by editor

Download this newsletter in PDF.

Helping prevent election violence in Nigeria

Last month CFSC funded our partner Nonviolent Peaceforce to deliver a three-day participatory training for young leaders in Abuja, Nigeria. Conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Peace Advocacy and Sustainable Development—a Nigerian nonprofit—the training was on prevention of violence during Nigerian elections.

42 women and men aged 18-32 participated in the training, learning techniques of violence prevention including: early warning early response, rumor control, and protective presence and accompaniment. Participants committed to: collect data to monitor incidents and promote peace initiatives; share their knowledge and skills with others; initiate online awareness on electoral violence prevention; and be present at polling stations on election day as observers.

It's a long election process, but so far these prevention activities seem to have contributed to a decrease in violence compared to previous elections.

CFSC meets in Toronto

Our board of directors is comprised of Quakers from across Canada. This means we spent a lot of time knowing each other as small boxes on a Zoom screen. It's a rare and exciting thing when we can be together in person!

Our board and staff came together at Friends House in Toronto from March 24-25 for two days full of meetings and Priscila's delicious homemade tortillas! See what you miss when you're not at a CFSC board meeting? Check out the photos from our meetings on Facebook.

We’re hiring a Government Relations Representative

We're excited to be expanding our work and doing more to bring our peace and social justice concerns directly to decision makers. We're hiring a full–time position (35 work hours/week) Government Relations Representative. Consideration will be given to all qualified applicants who are located in Ottawa or willing to relocate to Ottawa.

This is a dynamic position that requires the implementation of a government relations strategy, cultivating relationships with elected officials, senators, staffers, civil servants, and other relevant stakeholders. The position requires a self–starter excited about representing the different areas of work of CFSC. The position will work collaboratively and closely with our existing staff team. Find out more and please share with any qualified candidates you know!

We joined over 30 groups in opposing the use of this flawed definition of antisemitism

As organizations and individuals committed to both anti-racism and freedom of expression–amongst us recipients of Canadian Heritage grants–we are deeply concerned by recent statements indicating the department’s possible use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA WDA) for the purposes of attestation and vetting of Canadian Heritage applicants/grantees, as well as training of departmental officers.

We understand that these measures have been proposed in response to a series of troubling tweets posted by a contractor to an organization that received funds from Canadian Heritage. However, we believe that the possible application of the IHRA WDA in response to this incident risks casting a chill within Canadian civil society that will negatively impact the anti-racism work of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, racialized, feminist, 2SLGBTQ+, labour, human rights, academic, arts and civil liberties organizations.

Keep reading this joint letter.