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https://www.change.org/p/kathleen-wynne-end-discriminatory-funding-for-catholic-public-private-schools-in-ontario
We have now reached 500 signatures (actually 517 signatures) – a strong start towards pushing the government towards much needed change.  Next goal: 1000 signatures.  Hopefully, soon, we will be at 10,000 signatures! 🙂
To help achieve the next goal (and others after that), I am asking for your help in two ways:

1. Please spread the word in your circles: family, friends, coworkers, social media and/or others. Sharing really does help to bring in additional support.
2. Contribute to the campaign. Every donation – even $1 or $2 – helps to share the petition with more people on the Change.og website. (NOTE: All of the funds go to change.org. I do not receive anything personally.)  As far as I can tell, every time that there is a donation, there appears to be a corresponding spike in signatures – so it really does help, whether that is a few dollars, or if you are able to give more.

Thank you for your support so far, and for your continued support on this important issue.

The Forrest Trump Presidency https://nyti.ms/2J6ylZn
Never thought that I would see a comparison between Trump and Forrest Gump, but the author makes some good points. At the core, one is fundamentally good, and striving for peace, justice, equality and love. The other is openly spreading hate and divisiveness for personal and financial gain at the expense of the common good.
Let’s hope that all parts of the world where divisiveness and isolationism is currently growing reorient towards peace and justice before things get any worse for everyone. Let’s match electing peaceful leaders with a massive grassroots movement to strengthen civil society and create the peaceful world that we want, deserve and need. 🙂

Right now, Trudeau is considering using your tax dollars to bail out Texas oil giant Kinder Morgan’s floundering pipeline and tanker scheme. [1]
Dozens of First Nations still don’t have clean drinking water. We’re facing a housing crisis. Renewable energy projects are desperate for more funding. But Trudeau thinks there’s enough extra cash lying around to hand over as much as $2 billion to bail out a corporation from Texas? [2]
We need to show the Trudeau government that taxpayers won’t let them get away with using our hard-earned money to bail out a billionaire oil corporation. But secret talks with Kinder Morgan are starting this week, so there’s no time to waste. [3]
Will you sign the petition right now to stop Trudeau from giving billions of our tax dollars to Kinder Morgan?
https://act.leadnow.ca/stop-the-kinder-morgan-bailout/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blast2018-04-16 

Just saw this petition/letter-writing campaign in a newsletter from Citizens for Public Justice. Appears to be a joint effort with several groups. I can’t imagine why a country like Canada is still charging refugees for travel expenses – it is definitely time to make some significant changes to this system, and give our newcomers a warm welcome to Canada. 🙂
See text and link below.
“We all want refugees to settle well in Canada–to learn one of our official languages, find jobs, become integrated into communities. But Canada currently asks refugees to pay back the money that the government spent on their travel to Canada.
The evidence shows that these immigration travel loans have a negative impact on refugees’ ability to settle well. The pressure to pay them back can make it difficult to pay for necessities, push refugees to find jobs before they’ve completed their language training, and add unneeded stress to already stressful transitions.
The government knows this–which is why they just stopped charging interest on the loans. But it would cost just 40 cents per Canadian to stop asking refugees to repay these loans entirely.
We all want refugees to settle well in Canada–and for just 40 cents per Canadian, we can do it.
Ask the Minister of Immigration and your MP to exempt refugees from travel loan repayment!”
https://p2a.co/MZlo7zc?utm_source=justicENEWS&utm_campaign=7184a5d597-JEN_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_00b7fceacb-7184a5d597-100929949

http://www.canadianmennonite.org/stories/peace-everyone%E2%80%99s-business
Love this article from Lowell Ewert for CM.  Great summary of the value of peace education. Worth reading in full.  🙂
Here are a few highlights:

The political scientist Harold Lasswell once defined politics to be “who gets what, when and how.” If that is politics, peace studies in contrast can be seen as an attempt to answer the question “why” things are given to whom, when and how.

Work to achieve the goal of dignity for all requires creative thinking and mobilization of many resources. Imagine, for example, that the physical structure of a house symbolizes the laws, institutions and customs of society that are designed to regulate how we live with each other. These rigid and not easily changeable laws, institutions and systems—the floors, walls, roof, doors and windows—are set in place to protect the occupants from the arbitrary use of power or violence against them.

Figuratively, imagine the roof as protecting the occupants from the hail of persecution, the walls from the driving winds of hate, the floor from the seeping cold of discrimination, while the windows allow them to look at other options they may wish to explore safely, and the doors allow one to come and go yet be protected from interference from others.

Peace studies programs serve as one of many architects of a just society by helping to analyze the impact and design of the figurative house in two different ways.
First, peace studies architects analyze how a house may better serve its occupants and, through nonviolent conflict resolution, begin remodelling as needed.
…
But a house, even a very nice one with a kitchen and pantry (adequate food), living room (place for people to meet) and a bedroom (safe place to sleep), does not create community for the occupants.
…
Second, peace studies programs therefore complement structural analyses with an emphasis on what are referred to as soft skills—the study of mediation and negotiation, the appropriate use of rights and power, restorative justice, trauma healing, forgiveness, religious and cultural understanding—many of the same things that are central to our faith. These skills are an essential part of a vibrant civil society.

Constructing a house of peace that is inclusive, containing a healthy and safe environment in which the human soul can thrive, requires the involvement of all vocations and disciplines.

A Billionaire and a Nurse Shouldn’t Pay the Same Fine for Speeding https://nyti.ms/2GwJQZZ
I would suggest that the same principle applies to many things – the scope of change with something like this is very broad eg the cost of post-secondary education and many others. 🙂

https://www.livekindly.co/12000-doctors-call-out-government-pushing-dairy-sales/
Further exploration of the link between government and industry, in this case as it relates to the diary industry. Specifically relates to activities in the US, but it’s not a stretch to assume that the same thing is happening in Canada and other countries, to the same extent. Even negative government intervention, though, is not stopping momentum towards plant-based eating – imagine how quickly things would change with positive government intervention! 🙂
Key quotes:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has condemned the U.S. government for increasing servings of cheese at fast food outlets, a new report revealed. The organization, which is made up of 12,000 doctor members, spoke out specifically about the government’s partnership with Pizza Hut. The collaboration will see 25% more cheese added to pizzas in 6,000 locations across America, and according to the committee, will put the health of the public at risk.
The committee believes the decision is an effort to improve dairy farm income, as the changes will see an additional 150 million pounds of milk being used to produce the cheese.

PCRM named the partnerships, specifically the collaboration with Pizza Hut, as a “ploy to shore up the sinking dairy industry”. 
“Cheese intake went really through the roof and it’s still going up,” Barnard explained. It was pointed out that in 1909, the average American ate 4 pounds of cheese annually. In contrast, the average American today consumes 35 pounds of cheese every year.

However, it has been suggested that the growing popularity of veganism may deter consumers from cheese, regardless of government involvement. In fact, the rise in veganism was named a “market restraint” of the dairy cheese industry.
Recent research shows almost 30% of people in the UK want to give up cheese and dairy milk in 2018.

Happy International Women’s Day! Here are a few articles that I have been reading today, with a few of my fav quotes:
Saudi women hope right to drive paves road to bigger freedoms  https://www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4565776

“Saudi women are stronger than any other women, because there are so many obstacles, and they find ways around everything,” she said.

Summary: Obits are more a reflection of who and what made history in the past, than who or what is making news in the present. As progress is made on gender balance etc in positions of power and influence, this will shift. In addition, they are doing some work to highlight people who should have been noted in the past, but were overlooked – a way to rectify the past, while working to change the future. If the NYTs obits section can find a way to work for social justice, then probably anybody can do it. 🙂

 
Enough with the talk about getting more women on boards. Here’s how to actually do it: We need an attitudinal shift, new sponsorship programs and women themselves to become more proactive http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/women-on-boards-1.4566959

You can’t fix a problem without acknowledging there’s a problem. But according to most of the men disproportionately occupying boardrooms across Canada, nothing needs to change in terms of gender representation at the top.

The stats reveal the scope of the problem. But what’s more striking is the number of respondents who don’t even think we have one: 94 per cent of the board directors surveyed in the Canadian Board Diversity Council report said they believed the issue of board diversity was extremely important, but nearly 86 per cent of them said the board they were serving on was already diverse (and we know, of course, that most boards are not).

If anyone wonders why change is necessary, don’t tell them it’s 2018: tell them it’s good business practice.

I am thrilled to see MEC taking a stand on this issue. I don’t want co-op money going to support companies that are adding more weapons into the world. Hopefully we have reached a tipping point here, and weapons divestment will join fossil fuel divestment as two of the critical issues for everyone to address. 🙂
MEC says it will stop selling products from gun, ammo maker Vista Outdoor
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mec-vista-outdoor-1.4557071
Shared via the CBC News Android App

Really interesting new plan – writing off national debt for island nations, in exchange for them working with conservancy groups to create large, protected marine conservation areas. Seems like a perfect win-win solution to me – and one that could be easily replicated in countless ways in other places in addition to marine protection – eg desert reclamation projects, rainforest protection etc. Would love to see this expanded more widely. Hope it goes well!
http://gu.com/p/863xx