Environmental Racism

 

Environmental racism occurs when racialised communities are targeted for the establishment of environmentally hazardous sites and the subsequent neglect of those communities in relation to the cleanup of those sites, especially where this happens with respect to environmental policy-making by any level of government.

A private member's bill that aims to address environmental racism is headed for debate in the House of Commons this month.

According to a CBC news article: "Introduced by Nova Scotia MP Lenore Zann, Bill C-230 is seeking a national strategy to examine the link between race, socio-economic status and environmental risk, as well as the connection between hazardous sites and negative health outcomes in communities where Black and Indigenous people and people of colour live." Read the full article here: Bill that aims to address environmental racism heads for debate in House of Commons.

The bill was inspired by Ingrid Waldron, associate professor in the faculty of health at Dalhousie University in Halifax and author of "There's Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities", which in turn inspired the 2019 Netflix documentary featuring actors Elliot Page and Ian Daniel.

If you have Netflix, do yourself a favour and watch this documentary, "There's Something In the Water."

Saint Francis and the Gift of Alms

 

Image credit: https://aleteia.org/

The following reflection is taken from the Franciscan Spirit Blog: Lent with St. Francis.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” —Matthew 7:11

With passages such as we find in today’s Gospel, it’s not hard to see how Francis decided that relying on other people to provide for the brothers’ needs was a way of living out their total reliance on God.

Once when St. Francis visited Cardinal Hugolino, and the hour of dinner was at hand, he went out for alms, and returning, placed some of the scraps of black bread on the bishop’s table.…When the dinner was finished, the bishop arose and taking the man of God to an inner room, he raised his arms and embraced him. “My Brother,” he said, “why did you bring shame on me in the house that is yours and your brothers by going out for alms?”

To find out how Saint Francis responded to the bishop, read the rest of the reflection here: Lent with St. Francis: The Gift of Alms

We are warmed by the fire, not by the smoke

 

Conference spiritual reflection

We are warmed by fire, not by the smoke of the fire. We are carried over the sea by a ship not by the wake of a ship. So too, what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being, not in our outward reflection in our own acts. We must find our real selves not in the froth stirred up by the impact of our being upon beings around us, but in our own soul which is the principle of all our acts.

Merton, Thomas, “No Man is an Island” p 117, 1955, Harcourt Inc., New York