It is a health hazard to go outside today, a warm June day in Ottawa where I live. Across wide swaths of North America, smoke from wildfires has made air quality warnings as essential as UV ratings and weather forecasts. At a deeper level the threatening smoky haze adds a visceral element to concerns about…
Justice, reconciliation and building relationships were at the heart of the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Canadian National Gathering held in Ottawa in May. The four-day conference was an opportunity to hear from Christian indigenous leaders and elders who shared their stories and challenged the largely white audience to sit, listen and learn. Most of the…
Superheroes may be all the rage on movie screens, but in Paraguay, the Lilac Agents have become real-life guardians who are committed to protecting children from violence. These champions for children get an early start, training at an early age to recognize trouble when they see it and take action. “It feels really good to…
Two months ago, I saw the post on Facebook about a missing woman. The name was vaguely familiar, and she was from my hometown, Kenora. I waited a couple of days before sharing the post on my page. She was still missing and there was no information about where in Winnipeg she might be. Then…
“I think it’s just people being stupid,” one man says. “They’re drinking or whatever. Horse-playing. They end up falling in.” “I think there is a possibility that it was foul play,” a woman says. “I also think it could be just, you know, a result of being drunk by the riverbank.” Those quotes are from…
“‘Monsters aren’t real, are they mommy?’ And time stood still as everything I hear [in court], every day, flashed in my mind . . .” Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to publicly accuse sports doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault, part of the army of more than 200 Nassar abuse survivors whose testimonies led…
Few news reports have infuriated me as much as the one coming out of Alabama, where the state legislature’s plan to redraw congressional districts was recently approved by a divided United States Supreme Court. Since 1790 the federal government has conducted a census every 10 years. Based on the resulting population statistics, each state is…
When I think about others, I like to consider all our relations – of all species. We have been blessed with so many abilities and luxuries and we have a responsibility to help those who are more vulnerable, and this includes all the animals and winged ones. When I was in my Toronto apartment, still struggling…
Perhaps it is not a surprise that the mere installation, at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of a deacon who is in a same-sex marriage has stirred a controversy in the CRC. However, as a lawyer and member of the CRC, it concerns me that my faith community routinely lags…
Someone at church once asked me, “Just what do you people want anyway?” Well, first, maybe don’t call us “you people.” We Indigenous people actually expect a lot from Canada, because a lot was taken from us, and a burden was placed on us that we have carried for centuries. We expect Canada will negotiate government to government, ours to theirs. We expect healing of our identity that has been so shattered, mostly by the residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. We also expect an end to the persistent cycles of racism in Canadian society.
Death is pervasive in the Christian story. Our central symbol? The cross. More than 1/3 of the Psalms? Psalms of lament. One of the central metaphors of the Christian life is dying to the old self and putting on the new self.
Public awareness that courts and the police don’t work like Law and Order shows on TV is a good thing. But loss of public confidence in our justice system is a serious issue, especially when it is deepest among groups who feel like they are on the margins.
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