Join us for the launch of the Canadian Chapter of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM Canada)!

Learn more about how Canadian Catholics can act in support and solidarity with Indigenous environmental concerns.

Time/Date: Oct 2, 2019 1pm (Toronto Time)

Location: On-line webinar

Purpose: To introduce GCCM Canada, its mission, and the many ways Canadian Catholics can get involved in caring for our common home. We will also be discussing the disproportionate impact that climate change and unsustainable resource extraction have on Indigenous Communities both in the Amazon and Canada.

Keynotes:

Anne Catherine Kennedy, program officer at Development & Peace responsible for the Brazil and Colombia programs, with nearly 20 years of experience working with social movements and social pastorals in Latin America, will join us to discuss the connections between the October 2019 Synod on the Amazon, what is happening in the Amazonian region and why Pope Francis considers this a global concern, and the importance of an effective Canadian ombudsman on mining.

Peter Kulchyski, author, community activist, and University of Manitoba Professor of Native Studies, will bring the discussion of climate justice and the protection of Indigenous rights back home by examining environmental racism in our own country, treatment of Indigenous communities when extractive industries are prioritized, and the need to protect Canada's Boreal forest.

GCCM Canada Background:

As Pope Francis teaches in Laudato Si’, unprecedented ecological devaluing, pollution, and waste is endangering the flourishing of future generations. Moreover, the cost is being born disproportionately by vulnerable communities around the world.  Catholics have been called upon by our last three popes and the Canadian bishops to respond to these social and ecological, moral and spiritual crises.  We need to care for our common home in order to heal our relationships with our human family, the rest of creation, and God.

The Global Catholic Climate Movement Canada (GCCM Canada) will offer support for paths of dialogue and action to activate such multidimensional healing

The GCCM is a gobal coalition of 650+ Catholic member organizations, with over 75 trained Laudato Si’ Animators, dedicated to turning Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ into action for climate justice. GCCM Canada is hosted by Canadian, interfaith, environmental charity Faith & the Common Good.

GCCM Canada will work with the global GCCM movement to:

• Bring Laudato Si’ to life by growing a community of Canadians willing to act courageously to care for our common home.
• Build an online forum to foster connections and sharing between and among the GCCM movement, Canadian Catholic organizations, Indigenous and Allied land and water defenders, and Canadian Catholic laity who are called to be creation care leaders
• Encourage Canadian Catholics to raise our voices in the public sphere to call for bold climate policies, and amplify the Laudato Si’ message in the media.
• Work to understand and seek transformative action on the disproportionate impact that climate change and unsustainable resource extraction have on Indigenous Communities