MCCC Ottawa Office, Annual Report, September 1, 2006 - August 31, 2007

“The Ottawa Office is there to help with the governmental aspects of MCC’s various ministries.” This brief statement of purpose explains why our work touches on a wide range of subjects and why it tends not to have a stand-alone character. This report is a survey of our activities - additional information is available on request. 

International:

On the Middle East, we arranged meetings in Ottawa with civil servants, Members of Parliament, and NGOs, for Tim Siedel, an MCC worker from Bethlehem; we participated in Kairos’ Middle East Working Group and in a similar group involving the MCCs of Canada; we drafted letters on Middle East issues for MCCC, for Kairos, and for Project Ploughshares; we participated in the Middle East sessions of the annual Foreign Affairs Consultations on Human Rights and corresponded with officials at several points.

On Africa, I (Bill) was privileged to join other MCCers in a fall trip to Uganda, South Sudan, and the Congo. That led to several government meetings, as well as to written communications; it also helped in my involvement with the coalition, Sudan Inter-Agency Reference Group, which holds more broadly-based meetings with the government, and in other discussions with people both inside and outside of government. We also arranged meetings for two MCC Africa staff who, having been given new peacebuilding assignments, wanted to learn about initiatives from Canada.

On Afghanistan, we supported two inter-church fora, one hosted by Project Ploughshares and the other featuring Harri Lammi, the head of the International Assistance Mission, a consortium that includes Mennonite groups. We also participated in a collective NGO meeting with Foreign Affairs and CIDA officials and in other Ottawa based discussions. We also helped the Canadian Council of Churches in drafting a church leaders letter to the Prime Minister and we met with EFC people.

On Colombia, we arranged meetings with officials and NGO representatives for Rebecca Bartel, an MCC worker based in that country but with regional responsibilities for peace and justice issues. We also wrote a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the suspicious break-in at Justapaz, a Mennonite Peace and Justice organization in Colombia.

On international development, we participated in the Advocacy Committee of Micah Challenge, though this gradually became inactive. We attended some meetings of CIDA and of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and wrote reports about them for colleagues in Winnipeg. Monica supported Deo Namwira in his CIDA related work. And MCCC joined the CCIC in signing on to a letter to the Prime Minister on climate change issues.

Monica continued her involvement with Mines Action Canada. I continued on the boards of Project Ploughshares and Kairos and as MCCC’s link to the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee (CPCC). In the case of Ploughshares, this included the memorable 30^th anniversary celebrations and a two day strategic planning exercise. For Kairos it included an extensive involvement in a restructuring subcommittee.

Domestic:

On domestic poverty, Sandra prepared a brief for the Human Resources Parliamentary Committee on issues relating to the employability of people “on the margin”, whether for reasons of mental health, criminal justice or other factors. She also did extensive research on the work that the national and provincial MCCs have done to address poverty in Canada. Her report, which also suggests advocacy work, is helping the further work on this issue. Sandra also helped organize an Ottawa event where groups including the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), mainline churches, and people living in poverty, shared their experience and developed action plans.

On criminal justice, Sandra helped MCCC’s Restorative Justice Coordinator, James Loewen-Malloy, with his presentation on conditional sentencing to the House of Commons Committee on Justice, Human Rights, and Public Security. She also worked with him on an article on “de-politicizing” criminal justice. Further, she worked with Eileen Henderson from the MCCO “Circles of Support and Accountability” on several issues as well as an appearance before a Parliamentary Committee. And she helped organize the public event, “Not Throwing Away The Key,” which, among other things, led to discussions with an interested MP.

On Aboriginal issues, Sandra worked with the MCCC Coordinators, Sue and Harley Eagle, in correspondence relating to Canada’s stance on the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with MCCS staff on matters relating to the Treaty Commissioner, and with Kairos staff person, Ed Bianchi, on other concerns. Our intern, Chuck Wright, did a research paper on the conditions of drinking water on aboriginal reservations;

On refugee issues, Sandra supported MCCC’s Refugee Coordinator, Ed Wiebe, in his appearance before a Parliamentary Committee on the private sponsorship of refugees and worked with the MCC refugee network in Canada in developing an “advocacy guide.”

Chuck Wright also organized a weekend seminar for Mennonite University students. Sandra, Monica and I helped in various ways. More than thirty young people, from many parts of Canada came for this February event. Their feedback was remarkably positive.

Low German Documentation Work:

A key event was the April 26 workshop in Aylmer, Ontario attended by twenty Mennonite documentation workers from many parts of the hemisphere and by ten government officials, representing Citizenship, Immigration, and Passport offices in Ottawa as well as several Consulates in Latin America. The event, which reflected the long and constructive relationship we’ve had with officials, was most fruitful in terms of learning about particular issues. This workshop came after the three-day networking meeting of MCC’s Low German workers where I gave two speeches, both of which were later published as pamphlets.

Another highlight was our February 26 appearance before the House of Commons’ Citizenship and Immigration Committee where, in our ten-page submission, we addressed the problems relating to the retention process and the legacy of the old born-in-wedlock requirement. Mary Boniferro of Aylmer joined us for this submission. Our ideas were well received. We also responded to the considerable media interest in these issues. And in the weeks after our submission we did considerable follow-up work. This included a substantial March 27 letter to all committee members.

We also kept in close touch with the many documentation workers in the hemisphere, organizing a telephone conference in December, sending out memos with information about legal developments, and responding to inquiries. One helpful development was the decision of the government to start placing expiry notices on new certificates issued to people whose citizenship expires when they turn 28. If the government had started doing this in 1977 when the retention provision first came into force, an enormous amount of confusion would have been avoided.

Other Activities:

We prepared a letter of support for a Muslim conscientious objector from Turkey who, having been refused refugee status, is seeking approval on “humanitarian and compassionate” grounds. We sent information to Mennonite Church Canada with regard to its interest in “fiscal conscientious objection”. We responded to an inquiry from some Old Order Mennonites about their interest in being exempted from the CPP and EI and from photograph-bearing passports in relation to their desire to travel into the United States. We also helped an Ottawa couple, intending to leave their estate to MCC, to formulate their Will.

We helped a number of out-going MCC workers to obtain the necessary visas. However, getting visas for people coming into Canada is less certain. Remarkably, in the cases of two resource people, one coming for the MCC Alberta HIV/AIDs campaign and the other for the MCCO Muslim/Christian dialogue conference, the Minister’s office responded favourably to our requests even though the people had been refused by the local visa officers. But in the case of a Burkina Faso family, set to study at CMU for a two year period, our considerable efforts were not successful.

We try to monitor Ottawa developments on a number of issues and send reports about them to appropriate MCC colleagues. We respond to inquiries from colleagues and assist them in their governmental work. We did some writing for MCC Communications and made several oral presentations including a workshop at the MCCC AGM. We prepared the Governmental Communications Register. And we helped to draft material for an election kit.

We interacted with representatives from a range of groups including: the United Church, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, the Christian Reformed Church, Citizens for Public Justice, the local Quaker International Affairs office, the EFC, the CCC, the Salvation Army, the United Nations Association of Canada, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations and also with some MPs.

Concluding thoughts:

As noted at the outset, the Ottawa Office does not stand alone. Most of our work relates to that of others in MCC. At times this raises uncertainties about our role. Nevertheless, we believe our work contributes substantially to the effort of MCC as a whole to, among other things, provide relief and to promote development, justice and peace, as an arm of the churches. Finally, in June we bade farewell to Sandra Elgersma whose two and one-half years with us, even if only on a half-time basis, proved very valuable.

Monica Scheifele

Sandra Elgersma (half time)

Bill Janzen