Justice Team

Justice Team takes actions to respond to climate change, and to work toward more justice between indigenous and settler peoples; to do so with prayerful discernment, grounded in Anabaptist wisdom, as well as the wisdom of other faiths and peoples who seek to act out of deep love for the world.

If you would like to be involved with Justice Team or learn more about what we are doing, please contact the office. We are always looking for more friends to join the Team!

Here are a few things Justice Team have been up to:

• Understanding that climate and Indigenous justice are linked, the team helped organize a march and a letter-writing campaign as part of a broader push for the federal government to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The ecumenical campaign ultimately led to Canada’s adoption of UNDRIP and a framework for its implementation.
  
  
• The Justice Team collected information on big banks funding new fossil fuel projects and led a series of conversations within the congregation about divestment. Local experts on ethical investing were invited to speak to the congregation. The team held a church service of lament at an oil pumping station and a service of exhortation in a bank parking lot at which church members announced the closure of their bank accounts. Members of the congregation and others inspired by these conversations have moved their money from fossil-fuel funding banks to credit unions.
  
  
• In 2021 the Justice Team supported two members of the church who traveled to Wet'suwet'en territory to support Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs resisting the construction of a natural gas pipeline across their land.
  
  
• The Justice Team recently drafted a public statement on climate change and guided the congregation through a conversation that resulted in Hope Mennonite Church formally adopting the statement and publishing it on their website. (contributed by Josiah Neufeld)

And a few more actions included:   

   Organized a workshop with Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Training in Non-violent Action
   Created a fun cartoon: Two Ways to be a Hero

      Comic by Hope's Justice Team with Jonathan Dyck

Learn more about Divestment and banks that are fuelling the Fossil industry:

- The Yellowhead Institute special report Redwashing Extraction: Indigenous Relations at Canada’s Big Five Banks
- Article in Indigenous Climate Action about RBC funding the oilsands:
- CBC article on UN’s third rebuke of B.C. and Canada for treatment of land defenders. The fossil fuel projects being opposed are funded in part by RBC.

Want to help but not sure what to do? Here are some ideas for you!
1. Share the cartoon!
- Download the PDF version

2. Financially support an Indigenous Organization taking action on Climate Change
- Yintah Access
- Indigenous Climate Action
- Yellowhead Institute

3. Join an event, or donate to, a faith based or secular organization taking action on Climate Change.  Organizations work through activism or supporting the people whose homes, lands and waters are most negatively affected by climate change.
- Mennonite Central Committee supports people adapting in their home places to many factors including climate change
- The Red Cross helps people survive Climate Change Related Disasters
- Multifaith Climate Action is urging RBC to stop funding fossil fuels and invest, instead, in life.
- Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition (MEJC) does advocacy and activism supporting a future of just energy sources in Manitoba