Taken from Antler River Council e-Newsletter May 31, 2024, written by Kathy Douglas, Faith Formation Minister with Antler River, Western Ontario Waterways and Horseshoe Falls Councils.
For more than 25 years I have witnessed friends and colleagues in the United Church of Canada who have travelled to Palestine, usually as Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) or with Come and See Programs, return from Palestine and Israel transformed. They do not return to Canada as anti-sematic. They return to Canada as prophets crying out for justice as they witness one highly militarized government consistently oppressing one group of people.
This oppression is not new but for many, like me, not obvious until now. As the world witnesses the invasion in Gaza, we cannot say we have not seen or heard the suffering. My eyes are now open and I must choose to stand with the oppressed and say NO to injustice, as we commit to working for a just peace for all people.
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The United Church has signed on to a new call for Canada to end all military sales to Israel, in light of very plausible concerns that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. On May 22 in Ottawa, Moderator Rt Rev Dr Carmen Lansdowne stated, “Canada can do better. We can avoid being complicit in genocide by imposing a comprehensive and binding embargo on military trade with Israel.”
International human rights law takes genocide very seriously, and those aiding and abetting genocide are also considered complicit. Military aid is considered one form of complicity, and there is great concern that Canada could be crossing this line.
link to e-Newsletter this originated from: https://mailchi.mp/united-church/arw-enewsletter-may312024
Update for March 2025
The news from Gaza just seems to get worse. At the G7 meeting in March at Kananaskis B.C. notably there was no mention of the two-state solution in the final joint statem
ent whereby Palestinians would have their own land. Canada has long supported this in the past. And the bombing and suffering in Gaza has begun again with the Israeli decision to abandon the cease-fire agreement. President Trump has proposed rebuilding Gaza – but only after the residents have been moved somewhere- no country for sure, an unfair solution for the residents.
Picture from Human Rights Watch; the moon rises as a man sits atop a pile of rubble it al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on November 15, 2024
Update – June 2025
Last week, the 45th Parliament opened, with a new prime minister at the helm of government, and fresh opportunities for faithful Canadians to bring justice priorities to the attention of a new Cabinet.
The Moderator, The Right. Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, and the General Secretary, Rev. Michael Blair, wrote Prime Minister Mark Carney to request an urgent meeting to outline The United Church of Canada’s justice priorities, and urge the government’s action. Promising regular contact from senior administration and congregants, the Moderator and General Secretary noted the United Church’s priorities for Canada’s 45th Parliament:
- 2S & LGBTQIA+ peoples’ rights
- Advancing racial equity
- Indigenous Peoples’ right to truth, justice and reparations
- Acting for climate justice
- Standing for global solidarity, peace, and respect for international law
“Our reach is far beyond our membership: we hold deep and reciprocal partnerships throughout Canada and around the world, play an integral role in national networks and coalitions, both faith-based and civil society, and have become a highly respected voice in those spaces,” the letter reads. “You and the government will regularly be contacted both by our senior administration and by individual congregants.”
Marking the one-year anniversary of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage, a collective effort to bring attention to the plausible genocide in Gaza, The United Church of Canada is one signatory of many on an ecumenical letter on behalf of KAIROS Canada
to Prime Minister Carney. Together, the group of denominations and organizations, which unify more than 4 million people from communities across Canada, also requested a meeting with the Prime Minister.
The letter urges the prime minister to lead Canada to take a principled stand in respecting international law, work to end famine, respond to Israel’s plausible genocide in Gaza, and build conditions towards a just peace in Palestine and Israel.
Further, the Moderator wrote to the prime minister on behalf of the United Church Women (UCW) supporting a petition, Women’s Voice for Gaza: A Palestinian Christian Call for Justice and Life
, written by Palestinian Christian women about the deliberate starvation being used as a weapon of war in Gaza. The United Church of Canada also signed this petition; endorsements from individuals and organizations of all backgrounds who support the call for justice are encouraged.