Are you looking to take action?
Below are the current campaigns that Canadian Friends Service Committee has endorsed and participated in. We encourage you to take action as led.
Unsure what your role could be? Check out our pamphlet Being a Quaker, Being an Activist (PDF). It explains different roles in social change work and how to be effective.
Need more support in deciding what issue to take on? We have a second pamphlet that details how Friends discern this: Advice and Queries: Discerning Peace and Social Concerns (PDF).
Want to get more comfortable meeting with elected officials to talk about your concerns? Get tips in our handout Visiting Your Member of Parliament: A Friendly Encounter (PDF).
Need financial assistance to make your social justice leading a reality? CFSC offers grants to Canadian Friends who have the support of their Meeting.
Have other questions or need more support? Our staff team is happy to chat and can offer educational presentations or Q&A sessions on a range of social change skills and topics. Contact us.
Want to support meaningful social change but can't commit to taking on a campaign? Why not make a donation so CFSC can do peace and social justice work on your behalf?
Campaigns
Free Grassy Narrows. For many decades we have supported calls by Grassy Narrows First Nation for justice for mercury poisoning as well as unauthorized development on their traditional territory.
Learn more about CFSC's work in support of the human rights of Indigenous peoples.
No New Fighter Jets. The goal of this campaign is to stop the purchase of 88 fighter jets for the Canadian military. The campaign hopes to generate much needed discussions about the true costs of militarism and military spending and to impact the mindset of politicians and everyday Canadians alike.
Learn more about CFSC's peace work.
No IHRA. This campaign opposes the use of the overly vague International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance "working definition" of antisemitism.
Read our concerns with the IHRA definition and why we use the definition from the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism instead.
Stop Ecocide. This campaign recognizes that mass damage and destruction of ecosystems–ecocide–committed for decades with impunity, has led to the current climate crisis, the collapse of biodiversity, and the increase in serious environmental harms. The campaign seeks to get countries, including Canada, to support a new crime at the international level to ensure the lasting protection of all life on Earth: ecocide.
Learn about what CFSC is doing about climate change.
Canada, Stop Arming Saudi. This campaign aims to get Canada to implement its own laws, respect the Arms Trade Treaty to which it has acceded, heed the calls of UN experts who have singled out Canada for helping to fuel the brutal war on Yemen, and immediately end all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The campaign further seeks the support of the government of Canada for converting arms manufacturing facilities into peaceful green production. Read the most recent open letter on this issue.
Learn more about Canadian Friends’ concern over Canada’s involvement in the arms trade.
Fresh Start. This campaign urges reforms to Canada’s criminal records system. The desired change would automatically seal a person’s criminal record if they have successfully completed their sentence and lived in the community without further criminal convictions. Evidence shows that this change would promote reintegration and workforce participation and improve community safety.
Learn about CFSC's transformative justice approach.
Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. This campaign aims to end the widespread human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad. Canada encourages but does not require companies to prevent harms from harassment to murder in their global operations and supply chains. This campaign seeks a new mandatory law to require companies to prevent adverse human rights impacts and environmental damage.
Canada, Stand Up for Palestinian Children’s Rights. This campaign was initiated by a cross-Canada planning team with representatives from several churches including Canadian Friends. Started with a parliamentary e-petition in 2020, the campaign is open to anyone who wants to take action for the rights of Palestinian children.
Learn about CFSC's work and vision for a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
Canadians in prisons need access to the internet to take online courses. The federal government does not allow people in prisons to have access to the internet, while paper correspondence courses have been almost entirely eliminated. Canada is lagging behind other countries on this issue and needs to address it. WriteOn! who launched this campaign notes, "By granting this fundamental right, we can reduce recidivism rates and improve the quality of life of incarcerated people, with the ultimate goal of carceral abolition."
Learn about CFSC's transformative justice approach.