CPJ calls citizens to envision Canada without poverty

CPJ’s Envisioning Canada Without Poverty campaign has ended. We thank CPJ members and supporters for contacting their MPs and sharing the important message that poverty must be addressed. Thanks to you, the campaign was a success. For new opportunities to get involved in the fight against poverty, check out CPJ’s new campaign: Dignity for All.

May was an exciting month for CPJ as we travelled across Canada engaging people in a dialogue about poverty in Canada and suggesting ways to fight against poverty. In coordination with the recent launch of our Envisioning Canada Without Poverty campaign, CPJ held workshops in five different cities, Ottawa, Halifax, London, Winnipeg and Edmonton, to explore a national poverty reduction strategy and empower citizens to engage in advocacy.

The poverty reduction workshops attracted diverse participants including people from faith communities, those working in policy, anti-poverty activists, CPJ members, students and those new to issues of poverty.

It is important to include young people in the conversations since they are the future leaders who will tackle poverty issues. So it was especially encouraging for us to see young people at the workshops eager to learn more and to get involved in the fight against poverty. People brought in different perspectives and shared their personal experiences dealing with poverty issues, broadening the discussions.

During our workshops, we looked at poverty as an issue of dignity and rights in the context of its impact on well-being and challenged people to think about the symptoms and causes of poverty. We saw that poverty is more than just low income: poverty includes not being able to afford sufficient food, not having access to child care, having no hope for the future, social exclusion, lack of affordable housing, lack of opportunity for education, and losing your job and not having access to employment insurance.

Public justice recognizes that not only do governments have a responsibility to protect human rights, but we all have an individual responsibility to ensure that everyone’s rights are respected and basic needs are met. Justice calls us to work toward solutions for poverty to ensure that all people, created in the image of God, can live with dignity.

Poverty’s complexity requires a comprehensive solution that will address various factors contributing to poverty and tackle the root causes. A national poverty reduction strategy could successfully fight poverty with a long term vision of targets and goals, action plans with a supporting budget, accountability structures and poverty indicators to measure success and failures.

In looking at the reality of poverty in our workshops, people spoke honestly as they challenged each other with questions and shared their doubts and success stories from their experiences of advocacy. While some had been actively engaged in anti-poverty advocacy and others had never spoken to their Member of Parliament before, our goal was to empower people to advocate by writing a letter or visiting their MP, asking for their commitment to work toward a federal poverty reduction strategy.

Through our open discussions, participants raised questions about the effectiveness of advocacy and talking to their MPs. It was encouraging to hear people shared their experiences of contacting their MPs and building relationships with them. Personal stories can contribute to successful advocacy as we talk with our friends and family and engage them on poverty issues in the community. Personal experiences can also come from spending time with those living in poverty and learning how to walk alongside them in their journey.

It is important to focus on ways we can make a difference and take action on poverty, and not be immobilized by the overwhelming task at hand. Advocacy is an ongoing process; change does not come in a day. We must keep persisting because we have a duty to work toward a just society in which all people can live in dignity and have access to basic needs. God’s call for love, justice and compassion should motivate us to be an advocate for those who experience injustice in their lives.

There are various ways of getting involved that are mutually reinforcing in fighting against poverty such as holding letter writing campaigns, organizing an MP forum, writing letters to newspapers to raise awareness of poverty, volunteering in local organizations and spending time with those who are experiencing poverty and listening to their stories.

Since our workshops, we have been following up with MPs like Glen Pearson and Irene Mathyssen to talk about poverty reduction strategies. We encourage you to continue to write letters or meet with your MP and ask them to demonstrate serious commitment to eliminate poverty by implementing a national poverty reduction strategy.

Our hope is that together we can make poverty reduction a collective priority and create change for those living in poverty by envisioning Canada without poverty.