Joe served as Executive Director at CPJ from 2008 to 2019.
How should the church respond to the large number of refugees around the world? In Refuge Reimagined, Mark and Luke Glanville show how a Biblical understanding of kinship calls Christians to welcome refugees in their communities and advocate for refugee rights nationally and internationally. The book opens with a rich discussion of kinship in the…
Seth Klein’s A Good War, is a book about solutions. Big, broad, whole-of-society, our-house-is-on-fire-and-we-must-act-like-it pathways to a better future. He asks, “If climate change is truly an emergency (and it is), how must we respond?” and “What lessons can be drawn from the ways that Canada has responded to emergencies in the past?” Ironically, A…
Like many others, I was shocked, saddened, and at a loss for words when I heard of Stephen’s tragic and sudden passing. Alongside my former colleagues at Citizens for Public Justice, I continue to grieve this loss of life amongst the ongoing inequities and injustices of the COVID-19 pandemic. While working together at CPJ, Stephen…
As a small child, I attended a church where members greeted each other as family. I had many “aunts” and “uncles” who I sat with during services while my mom would provide ASL interpretation. One perspective would be that this group of Deaf members, sitting at the front right edge of the church, was on…
“Your clothes are an agricultural act—by purchasing and wearing you are voting for the agriculture you do or don’t want to see in the world, and depending on how your clothes break down, you’re either feeding microbes, or you’re leaving a world of plastic pollution.” – Rebecca Burgess (Founder of Fibershed) We have become so…
The Federal Government’s 2021 $30 billion budgetary commitment to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care services begins a hopeful chapter in the decades-long struggle for high-quality child care. The COVID-19 pandemic has called attention to the child care crisis that families across the country have faced for years. In short, there…
For our staff, CPJ is more than a place of employment. People who work at CPJ are drawn by the faith-based platform promoting and advocating for policies that will help develop a just society for Canada. Striving for public justice is a cause, a worthwhile ministry. CPJ is funded by thousands of donors, many of…
The following is an excerpt from a keynote conversation at CPJ’s Seeking Justice Together Conference in May 2021. Melina Laboucan-Massimo: Our Indigenous worldviews are holistic, circular, and reciprocal. We don’t see a pyramid where man sits on top with dominion over the world. One of the most beautiful stories I remember learning from my aunties,…
This book provokes questions about how (and why) we settle for failure: the failure of our society to ensure people’s rights and dignity are honoured, the failure of our current “solutions” to homelessness to bring about real social inclusion, and even the presumed “failure” of people who are marginalized by our social structures and systems….
“Nothing to see here, folks!” wrote Karri Munn-Venn, senior policy analyst at Citizens for Public Justice. “In a highly anticipated announcement about Canada’s new emissions reduction target, Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said, well, nothing.”
Let’s take advantage of the unprecedented heat wave we have all been experiencing. Email your MP now to demand decisive action. The House of Commons website enables you to find the name and contact information for your MP just by entering your postal code. The Citizens for Public Justice website provides tips on what to write and other…
Tomorrow is Canada Day. For many across the country, feelings of grief and lament are eclipsing those of celebration and national pride. The remains of over one thousand bodies have been uncovered in unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools in Kamloops, Marieval, Brandon, and other locations—and the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission…
