All public forums are free and open to the public. For the all-day forums donations are appreciated. Pre-registration is required for events where a meal or snacks will be provided or where workshop space is limited.
9 August 2008
Sanctuary: Zones of Peace Against State Violence
Kathryn Poethig, Carlos Morentes, Jared Will, and Jai Birdi
Location:
Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha
Saturday: 7271 Gilley Avenue, Burnaby, BC 2:00 pm - 8:00pm
“Sanctuary is shocking to the secular mind. How can there be any place within the confines of the nation that the law does not operate? How can religion claim a privilege to say it is beyond the law? How can the law stultify itself by acknowledging that in certain places the law ceases to hold sway?” Fr. Noonan
“Sanctuary” for religious communities in advanced capitalist states such as the US, Canada, and the UK is offered to refugees or undocumented migrants who are threatened with deportation. It challenges obstructionist and racist immigration policies. Sanctuary in North American church memory has a prestigious legacy – the American Sanctuary movement in the 1980’s provided an ‘underground railroad’ for Central American refugees fleeing repressive regimes supported by the Reagan administration and traced its history back to the abolitionist Underground Railroad providing lodging to runaway slaves. Now a New Sanctuary Movement is emerging, which has inspired a number of cities, like San Francisco, to declare themselves as sanctuary cities for global economic and political refugees and immigrants.
In Canada, there have been approximately 36 incidents of sanctuary between 1983-2003, beginning with the case of a Guatemalan woman in Montreal's St. Andrew's United Church, which resulted in a halt of deportations to Guatemala in that period. Since 9-11 and the war on terror, new restrictive immigration policies have contributed to more than 20 Sanctuary cases across Canada in the last 5 years.
Elsewhere in the world, “sanctuary” serves as a zone of peace in areas of protracted conflict - a space offered for fugitives fleeing state reprisal (torture, execution, disappearance, extended imprisonment). A Zone of Peace (ZOP) “is a place that declares itself a refuge from those who would seek to harm or threaten those within the zone.” These zones are considered an attempt to mitigate conflict within a defined territorially in a wide array of contexts – nuclear free zones, regional zones, or safe corridors in Somalia or cities in the former Yugoslavia. Often such zones of peace require relinquishing arms within its space.
Both groups – sanctuaries in North America and in the Global South's conflict zones -consider religious-based sanctuary a moral geography, asserting an extrajudicial claim against the state. Both are a response to different forms of state violence that have emerged in the context of globalization. Sanctuary has been historically often connected to sacred sites. Sanctuary derives from Latin Sanctus or sacred, refers to both the holiest part of a sacred space, or such a space where fugitives were immune from arrest and protected from retaliatory violence.
We consider in this forum the intersection of these notions of sanctuary and their implications for a challenge to state sovereignty. The North American challenge is primarily related to issues of citizenship in the receiving state; at the same time, those who are hosted are fleeing numerous forms of violence in the Global South. Sanctuary in zones of conflict is linked to protection from state violence, a violence that is linked to the global war on terror.
Are there limits to justifiable religious protection within a nation state? The US and Canada differ on the way they recognize religious-based sanctuary. What are the parameters of this engagement? Are all claims to sanctuary legitimate? Should the recipients of sanctuary only be respected for 'civilians' or 'refugees' with humanitarian causes? Or is its space indiscriminate in terms of protecting human life and dignity? Does a religious sanctuary based on a liminal, non-public multi-dimensional territoriality challenge the material territoriality of state? And how do new theories of contingent sovereignties, both expressing states of exception and resistance to such states, illuminate these particular contexts? What theologies of the sovereignty of God intersect with these new renderings of sovereignty, states of exception, extraterritoriality and sanctuary?
This forum will consist of a panel and workshops.
Please pre-register at info@interfaithjustpeace.org (for the meal) or at 778-782-5769.
12 August 2008
The Perfect Storm of Inequality: Sexism, Racism, and Economic Exploitation in Contemporary Pornography
Robert Jensen
Location:
Simon Fraser University (Harbour Centre-Segal Room)
Tuesday: 515 Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC 7:00 pm - 9:00pm
Although the media reform movement is committed to a consistent progressive critique of racism, sexism, and commercialized mass media, the pornography industry has never been part of that movement's agenda. As pornography has become increasingly normalized and pop culture becomes increasingly pornographic, the movement against trafficking and sex tourism in the context of the Olympics is an appropriate context to take up the issue for both principled and strategic reasons. Pornography is a genre in which we can see the worst aspects of patriarchy (relentless misogyny), white supremacy (overtly racist depictions), and corporate capitalism (the commodification of all aspects of our lives). As pornography's images of women grow more cruel and degrading, and more overtly racist, it becomes increasingly dangerous to leave this issue to right-wing religious forces and more imperative for progressives to understand a feminist critique. With racialized women the largest group that is trafficked, how can a critique of pornography be a vehicle to educate men to join in challenging the sexual exploitation of all women.
Robert Jensen will report on 20 years of research on the pornography industry and men's use of pornography. Drawing on hundreds of formal interviews and informal discussions with men, Jensen will explore strategies for reaching men through this issue in ways that can open doors to a larger discussion of sex and violence.
14 August 2008
Muslim Youth and the Racial Politics of the Home Grown War on Terror
Jasmin Zine
Location:
Simon Fraser University (Harbour Centre-Segal Room)
515 Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC 7:00 pm - 9:00pm
Past Summer 2008 Forums
14 June 2008
Engaging with Indigenous Worldviews on Truth and Reconciliation: Working toward a Community – Based Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Location: Native Education Centre 9am-4:30pm
5th Ave and Scotia Street, Vancouver, BC
The opening and traditional welcome to the Coast Salish territory will be conducted by Bonni Hanuse.
This event builds on the March, 2008, “Remembering the Children” national tour of church and Aboriginal leaders that promoted Canada’s upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools. In order to enhance the possibilities of the TRC benefiting Indigenous peoples, this forum will focus on what Indigenous worldviews mean for the concepts of truth, reconciliation, and restoration of balance in relationships. Speakers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, from a range of faith backgrounds, will address what truth and reconciliation mean to them. Panelists and participants will be asked to consider how Indigenous worldviews on truth and reconciliation will benefit the direction that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission takes.
The participants for the panels include the following: Rosalyn Ing, Chief Robert Joseph, Cheryl Jourdain, Saahiilthit (Gerry) Oleman, Lyana Patrick, Larry Grant, Marie Zarowny SSA, Bill Chu, and Jim Manly.
27-28 June 2008
Valuing Human Dignity: Challenging the Trafficking of Women
Location:
Simon Fraser University Segal School of Business
500 Granville Street
Friday: 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Friday, June 27, 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Saturday: June 28th, 9:00am to 5:00pm
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8:30am – 9:00am Registration
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9:00 am Opening
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9:30 to 11:00 am. Concurrent Workshops (see list below)
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11:15 – 12:15 Keynote Address - Lydia Cacho
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12:15- 1:15 Lunch (not provided) local restaurants or bring your own
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1:25- 2:45 Panel What’s Happening on the Ground: Now and Tomorrow Carol Martin, Naomi Minwalla, Annalee Lepp, Louise Cleary
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3:00 – 4:10 Open Space
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4:10 – 4:40 Gallery
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4:40 – 5:00 Closing and Invitation to Meet and Greet 5:30 -8:pm
Speakers and workshop leaders include Lydia Cacho (Mexico), Bonnie Hanuse (Kwakwaka’wakw-Musqueam), Sarah Hunt (Independent Researcher), Laurel Dykstra (VANDU), Debra Issacs (SCION), Carol Martin (DEWC), Angela Sterritt (Gitksan-Irish), Naomi Minwalla (lawyer), Annalee Lepp (U.Vic), Louise Cleary (UNANIMA) and Shauna Paull. Erin Graham (Vancouver Rape Relief) will be moderating panel discussions. Click on names for bio links where available.
Workshops: Indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference when you register. (Remaining workshop descriptions will be added as they come in).
A. By the Side of the Road: Re-Reading Christian Scriptures on Prostitution- Laurel Dykstra
Christians and especially white Christians have a long history of interaction with women involved in sex commerce, often this involvement has perpetuated harm. If Christians are to be credible and trustworthy allies in work for justice with trafficked persons we must look critically at our roots and our traditions. Grassroots biblical scholar Laurel Dykstra will facilitate a workshop on reading prostitution-related biblical texts in ways that are feminist, post-colonial, and anti-racist.
B. “Run for your life”: the Real Life of Victims and Survivors of Sex Crimes - Lydia Cacho
Sexual crimes like family abuse, carry out by fathers, teachers, priests or strangers, the commercial sexual exploitation of minors and women, child pornography and prostitution, are generally discussed within the framework of taboo. Debates focus in moral and/or religious arguments or, even doubtful data “scientifically proven”. In this workshop we will attempt to show how these debates are lived by the victims themselves, and why is it so difficult to assist them when living in a world that has yet to understand and accept the real cultural origins of sexual violence.
C. Truth-telling and Other Brave Acts: Addressing Violence and exploitation in Aboriginal Communities - Sarah Hunt and Cee Jai (PEERS)
Aboriginal girls and women are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, as part of the continuum of violence faced by Aboriginal people. This workshop will focus on addressing the experiences of Aboriginal girls and women across BC, within the context of intergenerational trauma and a multitude of risk factors. In many communities, silence and shame prevent women and girls from speaking out about their experiences of abuse, and allow for normalized violence to go unchallenged. Participants will hear personal experiences of moving from exploitation to healing, including the strength of truth-telling and finding one’s voice to speak out. The role of allies in this truth-telling process will also be explored.
D. The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights: Community Responsibilities - Annalee Lepp and Shauna Paull
This workshop will consider how centring human rights and taking a human approach is both necessary and critical in shaping all state campaigns and community measures designed to protect and assist transnational trafficked persons. The role that community has played and could play in dissolving borders between 'trafficking victims' and key stakeholders in receiving countries will be the main focus of discussion.
E. A Human Rights Model for the Protection of Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking - Debra Issacs
Using a Human Rights Model we will look at the needs of child and youth victims of human trafficking and what should be present in their care in order to meet them.
F. Indigenous Women and Girl's Resisting Colonization: Honoring and Mobilizing our Sisters Today - Angela Sterritt
This workshop will take a look at how an epidemic of horrific crimes against Indigenous women and girls in occupied Kanada can be understood in the historic context of colonization and particularly in an analysis of the Indian Act. Participants will learn about how systemic oppression against Indigenous women and girls can be challenged and how survivors and activists are fighting back against violence, oppression, sexism and colonization today.
Angela Sterritt recently visited Sonora Mexico for a historic Indigenous Encuentro where she spoke with other Indigenous women of the 'Americas' about this world wide phenomenon of mass violence and murder against Indigenous women. Women at this convergence decided that although it is important to focus on social issues, what needs to happen is a political and systemic awareness of the murders. Indigenous , poor and racialized women need to mobilize with each other and challenge the colonial institutions that not only seem to allow, but perpetuate violence against women. Sterritt has also taken this issue, in particular violence against girls on the Highway of Tears to the United Nations with Justice for Girls where she stressed the importance of an inquiry into the entire Justice System and its treatment of Indigenous girls.
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