From the Catalyst, Winter 2018
CPJ On the Hill
In July, a CPJ delegation including Karri Munn-Venn, grade six student Taya Lavictoire, CPJ board member Martha Wiebe, and the Minister of Glebe-St. James United Church Rev. Teresa Burnett-Cole, delivered over 2,500 Give it up for the Earth! postcards to an enthusiastic Catherine McKenna, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.
In September CPJ’s new public justice intern Serisha Iyar joined Deb Mebude and Mennonite Central Committee’s Ottawa’s Anna Vogt and Rebekah Sears to meet with the vice-chairs of the Citizenship and Immigration Committee NDP MP Jenny Kwan and Conservative MP Michelle Rempel to present over 1,500 petitions on refugee travel loans. These petitions will be tabled in the House in the coming weeks.Darlene O’Leary, CPJ’s socio-economic policy analyst, met with the co-chair of the All-Party Anti-Poverty Caucus and Senator Kim Pate to talk about the new Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy. Karri Munn-Venn joined Tony Clarke to meet with NDP MP Linda Duncan to talk about a just transition to clean energy.
CPJ In the Community
In August, Joe Gunn attended the 98th annual convention of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada held in Winnipeg.
In September, Karri Munn-Venn attended the United Church of Canada’s Indigenous Justice and Climate Justice Consultation in Squamish, BC and spoke at the Christian Schools Canada conference in Ottawa.
In October, Serisha Iyar gave a presentation on the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement at a workshop put on by Development & Peace. Jim McIntyre represented CPJ at the Sarnia Justice Film Festival in Sarnia, ON in honour of Thea DeGroot. Joe Gunn spoke about Canada’s poverty strategy at a panel at St. Paul University. CPJ held a Dignity for All Summit, alongside Canada Without Poverty, which brought together experts in the anti-poverty movement to discuss policy solutions to end poverty in Canada following the release of the Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Poverty Trends 2018 Report
CPJ released Poverty Trends 2018, our annual report on poverty in Canada, a day ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. It reports that a staggering 5.8 million people in Canada (or 16.8%) live in poverty. The report uses several low-income indicators, including the Low-Income Measure (LIM), the Census Family Low Income Measure (CFLIM) and the Market Basket Measure (MBM). Each measure of low income provides different information on poverty using different methodologies to calculate rates of poverty. To read the report, visit: cpj.ca/poverty-trends-2018
Staff Changes
CPJ is glad to welcome Serisha Iyar, our newest public justice intern, who will be working on refugee rights for one-year. As the child of refugees, Serisha has been a lifelong activist. She is a recent graduate of McGill University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in World Religions.
CPJ is sad to say goodbye to our Executive Director Joe Gunn, who has served CPJ faithfully since 2008. Joe will be going on to work at St.Paul University.