The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology

Activities

ORCIE Presents Position Paper and Gathers Support for Jubilee 2025 Petition at St. Paul University Eco-Fair

Filed Under: Activities, Media, Take Action

On March 25th and 26th, ORCIE was grateful for the opportunity to participate in St. Paul University’s Ecological Fair, an inspiring event that brought together students, faculty, and organizations committed to sustainability. The fair began with a screening of Princess Mononoke, followed by a thought-provoking panel discussion that drew connections between the film’s themes and today’s ecological and socio-political challenges.

ORCIE’s Executive Director, Genevieve Gallant, and Advocacy and Communications Officer, Sasquia Antúnez Pineda, collaborated with Le Centre Oblate’s Executive Director, Tara Hurford, offering support and encouragement to the student organizers. ORCIE was honored to support the fair’s success and encourage student leadership.

During the fair, Sasquia represented ORCIE on the panel “Future Leaders of Sustainability: Organizations Making an Impact”, presenting ORCIE’s position paper titled “Linking Ecological Debt to Global Financial Exploitation“. This presentation highlighted ORCIE’s advocacy within the Jubilee 2025 campaign, focused on the topic of ecological debt, and emphasized the urgent need for debt cancellation of low-income countries and ecological justice.

In addition to the panel, ORCIE hosted a booth where attendees were invited to learn more about the Jubilee campaign and sign the petition calling for global financial and ecological debt justice. The event fostered valuable conversations, raising awareness about ORCIE’s mission and ongoing advocacy efforts.

The fair also provided opportunities to expand ORCIE’s network. Notably, the Ottawa Peace & Environment Resource Centre (PERC) invited ORCIE to contribute an article for their publication, further amplifying our message. Additionally, Sustainable Eastern Ontario extended an invitation to a networking meeting, offering a platform to exchange strategies and strengthen partnerships in the pursuit of ecological justice.

We are grateful to St. Paul University for hosting this impactful event and to all those who engaged with ORCIE’s work.  ORCIE celebrates the initiative of SPU students in bringing this event to life, demonstrating their spirit and dedication to sustainability. 

Together, we continue to build momentum for the Jubilee 2025 campaign and advocate for a just and sustainable future!

Webinar: From Ecological Debt to Ecological Hope

Filed Under: Activities, Take Action

ORCIE invites members of religious congregations and friends to: From Ecological Debt to Ecological Hope on March 18, 2024 1h EST with Guest Speakers: Journalist Elton Bozzetto, Sr. Nilva Dal Bello, CSJ Brazil & Dr.Sue Wilson, CSJ Canada, with Sasquia Antunez Pineda, ORCIE Advocacy and Communications Officer (with full translation)

Join us to hear from religious in Canada and Brazil and for small group discussions about our call to action and hope. How can we amplify the voices of religious in the Global South in this Jubilee campaign? How can we spread the word on the crushing unjust and unpayable debts facing so many countries around the world?

Learn more with ORCIE’s new position paper: Linking Ecological Debt to Global Financial Exploitation. A shorter executive summary is available. 

We look forward to an invigorating discussion!

Joining the Jubilee campaign 2025

Filed Under: Activities, News

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With the Jubilee 2025 Turn Debt Into Hope campaign we are mobilizing a worldwide ecumenical movement advocating for systemic change to address global economic inequality and the burden of unjust debt.

Hope is at the heart of the Jubilee vision, which is described in the Book of Leviticus (25: 1-55) as a time of liberation through the cancellation of debts, freedom from captivity, and the restoration of community and land. In announcing Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis wrote “We are called to be tangible signs of hope.”

According to the UN report “A World of Debt,” today more than 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt service than on education or healthcare. There is an ethical obligation to create fairer rules around the restructuring of debts as part of a wider transformation of the international financial structures. There is also the ecological debt that the Global North owes to the Global South, a debt rooted in justice and moral responsibility. This debt cannot be dismissed. Indeed, it is integral to the transformation of the global community.

On June 5, 2024, at the meeting Addressing the Debt Crisis in the Global South, Pope Francis says “ecological debt and external debt are two sides of the same coin that mortgages the future”. “Therefore, dear friends, the forthcoming Holy Year of 2025 calls us to open our minds and hearts to be able to untie the knots of those bonds that strangle the present, without forgetting that we are only custodians and stewards, not masters.”

We are pleased ORCIE’s experience with advocacy and the Jubilee campaign 25 years ago has allowed us to serve as a resource in this important work. In the coming weeks you will receive invitations to learn more about ORCIE’s policy positions on ecological and financial debt, as well as news about the Jubilee campaign webinars, messages from religious in the Global South on the impacts of financial debt, and advocacy opportunities related to the G7 in Alberta in June.

Demanding a just, fossil-free future at Ottawa-Gatineau Climate March

Filed Under: Activities

On the Season of Creation Action Day, September 21, 2024, ORCIE participated in the Gatineau-Ottawa Climate March alongside friends from Fridays for Future and various partner organizations, including Citizens for Public Justice, the Laudato Si Movement, For the Love of Creation, as well as individual parishioners from St. Joseph’s, St. Mark the Evangelist, and Canadian Martyrs Parish.

The focus of the march was to call out six organizations—Ottawa City Hall, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Canadian Gas Association, the Province of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, and Export Development Canada— that are obstructing effective climate policy, spreading misinformation, and funding the detrimental fossil fuel industry. The climate rally brought together hundreds of voices in Ottawa, demanding a just, thriving, fossil fuel-free future for all!

Learning and Lobbying: Embracing the energy transition

Filed Under: Activities, Advocacy

In March 2024, ORCIE organized a three-day “Learning & Lobbying” series, which

culminated in in-person meetings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa with MPs and top civil

servants to discuss the transition away from fossil fuels, with a particular focus on

capping emissions. Eight participants from various congregations attended the event, with most traveling from outside Ottawa.

The L& L process prepared two small teams to meet with MPs and top civil servants on Parliament Hill. Our preparation began with an online panel discussion on Canada’s transition away from fossil fuels with guest speaker Alex Cool-Fergus, National Policy Manager with CAN-Rac and led by Genevieve Gallant, Executive Director of ORCIE and Sue Wilson, CSJ, PhD – Office for Systemic Justice, Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada. This session addressed two key questions to consider in preparation for meetings with MPs and senior civil servants:

  1. What are the legislative actions and moments to leverage right now in our transition to clean energy?
  2. Where and how can we act to be a part of a ‘new reset’, understanding there is no room for new oil and gas production in Canada?

The second step involved an in-person presentation titled “Brass tacks: Multilateralism from below,” led by Genevieve Gallant, Executive Director of ORCIE at St. Paul University, Ottawa, followed by lunch. This session covered a review of the ORCIE’s lobby guide, report-back documents, policy briefs, and elevator speech. We also trained participants for MP meetings and ended with small group discussions to set specific meeting goals. The final step involved participants from the different congregations holding in-person meetings on the Hill with MP’s and top civil servants ending with a concrete ‘ask’. This final step concluded with a debrief and dinner to share experiences and feedback.