The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology

Activities

Divestment announcements

Filed Under: Activities, News

ORCIE is proud to have played a role in Saint Paul University’s recent announcement that it has divested from fossil fuels!

Do you know of other Catholic colleges and universities we might challenge to follow suit?

In the past year ORCIE joined 7 campus organizations/unions in a divestment campaign with the fresh ‘win’ shared publicly at a special event where SPU was recognized as a Blue Community by Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians.  

SPU is joining a growing number of municipalities, schools and faith-based groups that have adopted principles that treat water as a common good, one that is shared by everyone and the responsibility of all, as well as committing to develop action plans to engage with students about these principles through popular education and in tangible ways such as installing new water fountains and refill stations.  

SPU is the 7th university and 104th community to take the Blue Community pledge. “The Blue Community commitment aligns with SPU’s broader social responsibility initiatives, which includes divesting from fossil fuel-based funds and prioritizing investments in enterprises that are socially and environmentally responsible.” SPU Goes Blue: A Pledge for Water Sustainability and Access, January 24, 2024

Friday for Futures Ottawa & Gatineau

Filed Under: Activities

On September 15th, 2023 ORCIE was on Parliament Hill with friends from Fridays for Future, For the Love of Creation, KAIROS, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada, Citizens for Public Justice and many more groups for the Global Climate Strike, the biggest in-person rally of the climate movement in Ottawa since the pandemic. The major focus was the urgent need for an oil and gas greenhouse gas emissions cap in Canada, over 2 years overdue!

Learning and Lobbying: New wine and new wineskins

Filed Under: Activities, Advocacy

In May of 2023 ORCIE and Joint Ecological Ministry (JEM) organized a successful, multi-day “Learning & Lobbying” series, culminating in meetings in Ottawa on Parliament Hill with MPs and Senators on issues of ecological justice.  Our preparation began with our online education session SEE: The Problem of Climate Change in the Context of Canadian Public Policy, a panel conversation with staff from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Climate Action Network-Reseau action climat.   The second step in the process involved 30 religious meeting online for DISCERN: Levers for Faith Communities, led by Sr. Sue Wilson, CSJ, PhD – Office for Systemic Justice, Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada.  In this session we looked at how our creation-based worldview calls us as people of faith to heal the distorted relationship we have with nature, and to act with the level of urgency this emergency requires.  The final step was an in-person advocacy training ACT: What is the focused government action we want to achieve?  by ORCIE’s Genevieve Gallant, ahead of visiting 8 MPs, Ministers, and/or Senators on Parliament Hill the following day.   These sessions as well as the excellent debrief can be watched at: http://tinyurl.com/learnandlobby

Productive advocacy meetings took place with Senator Rosa Galvez (Quebec), MP Elizabeth May (Green), MP Julie Dabrusin (Liberal), MP Joanne Thompson (Liberal), Sheri Meyerhoff (CORE), MP Peter Fragiskatos (Liberal), MP Damien Kurek (Conservative) and MP Filomena Tassi (Liberal), Minister of Public Services and Procurement. The day was also a great opportunity to attend the House of Commons where we heard London, ON MPs talk about the opioid crisis, and to visit the Senate of Canada for International Women’s Day, where ORCIE and women religious were recognized as special guests.