Public Justice in a Time of Recession: what has hopeful citizenship to offer?

Public Justice in a Time of Recession: What has hopeful citizenship to offer?

Address to the Annual General Meeting of
Citizens for Public Justice
May 7, 2009 Ottawa

Joe Gunn, CPJ Executive Director

First of all, I’d like to thank the Board of CPJ for giving me the opportunity to address you, the members of the organization, this evening. I heard that I wasn’t the Board’s first choice, but when Kathy got that phone call back from Barack, saying sorry, he just couldn’t make it, I was glad to get her next call…

You see, I’m not worried. Michael is taping this presentation for posterity, and the staff has assured me that I really do remind them in so very many ways of Susan Boyle on “Britain’s Got Talent” – I don’t know why they forced me to promise not to sing for you. Nonetheless, I fully expect that, after tonight, just like Susan, 30 million people will soon be flocking to my video on You Tube!

As a relatively new ED at CPJ, someone perhaps not known to a majority of CPJ’s members, I’m glad to take advantage of a few moments to provoke some thinking about “Public Justice in a Time of Recession: What Has Hopeful Citizenship to Offer?”

I want to end up giving you a sense of where we, together, could take CPJ in future. As you know, CPJ is involved in a process of strategic planning over the next couple of days. We’ve organized focus groups (two took place here in Ottawa), done on-line surveys of Board and former Board members, partners, key informants and reps of churches. We’re convinced that the vision and mission of CPJ remain clear and strong guides for our work, but with new staff (nobody with more than two years experience at CPJ) it’s a worthy enterprise to take the time to discern what a good niche for the organization could be in this current, and very fluid, context. So I’m pleased to have been offered the chance to jump in first with some of my own musings designed to provoke your thinking as this process advances.

I’m going to leave time for questions and comments at the end, so that you’ll get a chance to share your own thoughts. I’d like to center my remarks on three main questions:

1) What are a couple of trend lines in this time of recession and difficulty?
2) What is the status of faith-based work for social justice in Canada today?
3) Where might we find meaning in this business of “hopeful citizenship? How might we concentrate our efforts at this time of recession and difficulty? Where do life, hope and energy reside.”

Major Trend Lines

There are many major trend lines that we could discuss, but for purposes of this discussion I’d like to mention just a few…

It isn’t a bad place to start, by referring to Barack again, especially now that we have had the chance to see him in action for just over 100 days. You have to believe that there really is an “Obama Factor” at play that spills over to Canada in at least three ways:

a) our largest trading partner’s new economic strategy (where government intervention for bailouts and stimulus might reach as high as $13 trillion) has the effect of making government intervention and even regulation a necessary, and even “good” thing again. This has had an impact at the G8, where all member countries agreed to stimulate their economies and avoid trade barriers. We’ve seen the Conservative government in Ottawa undergo a major conversion from the Economic Statement of last November in which no extra spending was necessary, to a January budget where massive deficit spending has now been proposed;

b) President Obama seems to propose a new manner of insertion in the global game of power projection, with a softer, much less unilateral, rhetorical stance (something that Ottawa has not quite imitated yet);

c) evidence of a different style of leadership: a calm and eloquent leadership that relies heavily on teamwork (values-based and emotionally compelling narratives.) A noticeable shift in the PMO and the PM himself towards less belligerent attacks on opposition parties, no use of attack ads such as those that were mercilessly unleashed on Stéphane Dion last year, and a lessening of efforts to control the media, have been perceived since the government almost fell and Parliament was prorogued at the end of last year.

I’ll make another point on Obama’s influence on the Canadian government’s climate change policy a bit later, but let me move to another, perhaps the most prominent trend line for Canadians at present…the economic recession.

The economic crash of 2008 in North America has been an unspeakable tragedy for many; that some 4 million poor people in the USA have been driven from their homes due to the market meltdown, and that many North Americans have lost one quarter of their net worth in just a year and a half. And while Canadian politicians try to assure you that Canada is better able to handle the mess caused by the greatest regulatory failure in modern history, thousands of us have already lost work and livelihoods, and feel that our future is in peril.

The first round of layoffs has hurt the manufacturing and commodities sector, “men’s jobs” hardest, but this will spread soon to the service sector. Here in Canada, 387,000 full time jobs have been lost to date. That’s real time pain that can only be understood by families that have a loved one who has now been laid off, is without income and suffers that crisis of self-worth that comes from losing good work. Some studies suggest that unemployment could rise to 12% (although we can all hope that might be over-estimated.) But what’s interesting is that in the recession of the 1980s, the economy recovered lost ground in a year and a half, but it took 4 years for the number of full time jobs to rebound. And it took 7 full years to get back to the pre-recessionary number of full time jobs after the 1990-91 recession, even though GDP bounced back in 4 quarters.

Worse yet, changes made to the Employment Insurance system in the 1990s have gutted worker protections: whereas in the last recession, 85% of unemployed men and 81% of unemployed women could rely on EI benefits if they lost their job, today only 45% of men and 39% of women can. No wonder the head of the Bank of Canada, a fellow known for his rather rosy economic predictions, is saying that employment will be a major difficulty in Canada for quite some time even after the recovery begins.

A study released last month by the CCPA called, “Exposed: Revealing Truths About Canada’s Recession” reports that in previous recessions, Canadian households offset the impact of job loss by having women take up more paid employment. In this recession, however, most women are already working. As well, about 60% of Canadian households were already in a net debt position before this recession began. So we may not be able to expect consumer spending (57% of the economy) or exports (30% of the economy, mostly to the troubled USA) to lead Canada out of the quagmire. This leaves governments as the main remaining actors to stimulate the economy, and even believers in “small government” like Canada’s Conservatives are being forced to hold their noses and take up the stimulus cause.

It has been incredible this week to hear Ontario’s Economic Development Minister take up the echo, and name this new government strategy of massive intervention in the economy as “Reverse Reaganism.” Ronald Reagan, of course, had famously stated that, “Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.” With the exception of the family, government has arguably become the most influential institution in modern life.

Let me make a third observation, concerning a trend that we people of faith must attempt to change…the tendency to look inward as the recession takes hold. In other words, when things get tough, we can recoil into our safe havens and cocoons, or we can be seen and known to translate our deepest beliefs into visible and effective action.

You see, even in this recession, it might be a privileged time for groups like CPJ to propose action by the federal government towards developing a federal poverty reduction strategy. Our Dignity for All campaign, to be announced in Calgary at the Canadian Social Forum in just two weeks, will do exactly that. We’re hoping that Canadians who are affected by the economic downturn will increasingly see the need for such a strategy, because they themselves understand that even middle class folks have become more vulnerable. Taxpayers might be a bit less cynical about paying for services when they can appreciate having EI and other supports there when they need them. Some observers have suggested that as loyalty to the corporation has weakened (after all, some of the biggest employers are close to bankruptcy), and perhaps many are awakening to a stronger faith in and appreciation of, the role of the state. On the other hand, we must be vigilant against the opposing trend – recessions can build resentment and anger amongst and between social classes. The rise of the Nazi Party in Germany before the Second World War, and Mike Harris’ Ontario where those receiving social benefits were specifically targeted, were examples. (I’m not calling the Harris regime fascist here.)

It’s easy to turn from the world, but perhaps a bit harder for someone like me who lived 7 years in the Global South. As Thomas Homer Dixon helps us recall in his book, “The Upside of Down,” It’s easy for those of us in rich countries to forget that nearly half the people on Earth take their water from local wells, ditches and streams; use their own or their landlord’s farmland to grow their food; and gather wood, charcoal, straw, or cow dung to heat their homes or cook their food. How are these 3 billion people faring in the economic downturn, and why don’t we hear about them?

Although the first wave of the financial crisis began in the USA, the contagion has spread. Less well known perhaps, is the fact that the global recession could bankrupt as many as 16 “emerging” economies. Countries such as Latvia, Ukraine and Hungary are part of the second wave of the downturn, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been rushing to their aid. However, a third wave is coming as well, composed of poor countries. Weaker economies are now experiencing the downturn in international trade, the precipitous fall in foreign investment and perhaps most importantly, large reductions in remittances (those monies sent home to families by loved ones working overseas. ActionAid, a British anti-poverty charity, has released research suggesting that the global financial meltdown will cost developing countries over US$180 billion by the end of 2009 and over $400 billion within three years.

How has Canada responded? We’ve turned inward, away from the poor.

The recent federal budget made no mention of international aid. Apparently the government intends to maintain its previous commitment to an 8% increase. Even with this level of over $2.2 billion, however, Canada’s aid spending now sits at less than half our stated commitment of 0.7% of GDP.

So a new Parliament should not be allowed to dodge Canada’s international commitments. It was amazing how little debate there was on Afghanistan, where Canada has spent billions of dollars and lost over 100 soldiers. In the face of growing international hunger, rising hunger rates and economic turbulence, Canada must increase development assistance and display the leadership necessary to keep our pledge to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

There are many more trend lines we could discuss tonight, but what we’re really here for tonight is to engage in thinking about our role as faith-filled citizens. So allow me to move on…

What is the status of faith-based work for social justice in Canada today?

The answer to this question is much bleaker than I’d prefer to report.

First the good news: Jim Wallis of Sojourners in his latest book, The Great Awakening speaks of the post-Religious Right in America.

Let me ask one question to provoke your thinking on this question: where is the denunciatory voice of the Canadian churches in the light of the suffering of millions of people in this economic meltdown? Can you quote one major church statement that has chastised the greed of Wall Street or the systematic deregulation of markets that allowed felons to embezzle millions from unwary investors?

Personally, I wonder if the prophetic voice of the churches should once again be heard loud and clear to denounce the ancient sin of usury – that excessive and uncontrolled interest on loans. The mismanagement and failed supervision of the financial sector is where the current crisis started, after all. Critics argued this all started years ago when Ronald Reagan removed the cap on interest rates, and then was pushed even further by Republicans demanding deregulation during the Clinton Administration. Eventually, as we know, the financial sector became bloated, as money flowed into derivatives, easy mortgages, credit card and payday loan schemes (some earning as high as 500%) where much bigger returns can be made than in truly “productive” enterprises.

The church used to ban profit on a loan - usury - basing this teaching on several biblical passages, like Psalm 15, which reads,

O Lord, who may lodge in thy tabernacle?
Who may dwell on thy holy mountain?
The man of blameless life who does what is right…
Who does not put his money out at usury
And takes no bribe against an innocent man.

And the controversial passage Luke 6:35, "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great…” was clarified by John Calvin, who argued that usury should be determined by the Golden Rule, i.e., it was not profit from a loan but profit from a neighbour’s loss that was usury. In either case, the churches today could rely upon the tradition to demand, as did an article by Thomas Geoghegan in April’s Harper’s magazine, that a new law against usury be passed, limiting interest rates to a suggested 9%.

But that is unlikely to happen, not because of theological debates on usury, but because leadership and capacity on social concerns in our major churches has slowed today. As an example, the national church house where I worked for 11 years was once quite active in making declarations on public issues. The other day I happened to be on the website and noticed a rather deafening silence - that only 5 interventions had been made in the last 4 years. Service to the world now seems less of a concern than doctrine and maintenance of a shrinking membership base. Economically, the mainline churches are suffering, with unfortunate cuts to church staff and budgets becoming widespread.

Just last autumn, the Canadian Council of Churches closed down its successful project dealing with health care concerns. The Ecumenical Health Care Network, which had provided good health policy leadership to denominations, was no longer able to continue to attract sufficient staff and volunteer participants. So now the churches do not work together nationally on an issue as crucial as health care.

For ecumenical social justice agencies, the situation has also been difficult. Last week KAIROS announced that decreased donations from the churches, rising costs, and weak earnings on investments have created a situation where (6 staff) 4 of their 27 full-time positions will be lost. KAIROS will no longer work on refugee issues, international trade, debt or corporate accountability. The Anti-Poverty grants program has also been ended. (New positions in communications and fundraising will be eventually filled.)

Perhaps this sad situation offers possibilities for CPJ to be more collaborative and helpful to those churches that are desirous of recovering their voice on public justice issues. And perhaps we need to remind ourselves that large, unwieldy institutions really don’t have the genetic make-up to be prophetic. The cutting edge seems to flourish more easily on the margins, in smaller groupings that are more nimble, responsive, and enjoy fewer organizational constraints.

Where do life, hope and energy reside in this business of “hopeful citizenship?

The task before us is to find openings, even in a difficult economic setting, that will allow us to advance the public justice agenda in Canada. With the time left to me, let me suggest a couple of possibilities (you may care to add more…)

A great challenge seems to me to be the need to propose and encourage the appropriate and effective stimulus package for the economy that does not reward the same actors that got us into this fix in the first place. In colloquial terms, we can’t plan on doing the last dance with the one who brought us. Or, as Einstein once reportedly said, you can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that got you into it.

As a humourous aside, did you hear how one group of Chinese bureaucrats have decided to stimulate their economy? They ordered officials to smoke nearly ¼ million packs of cigarettes, and threatened those who failed to meet their “targets” or who smoked rival brands manufactured in other provinces. There are even smoking quotas now for teachers – all to increase economic production and boost tax revenues!

If we do silly and short term things, we’ll emerge from this recession with the same old industrial model intact, with the same physical and social infrastructure, only more of it, and we will have missed a wonderful opportunity to direct investments towards changing some of the root injustices and inequalities that have dogged us for too long.

CPJ is addressing this issue of change head on in our Dignity for All campaign as I mentioned. We want to lever changes in EI to extend benefit periods, increase eligibility and amounts, and certainly make the program more responsive to needs of particular groups, like women and folks in precarious jobs. A real federal poverty reduction strategy would introduce many other important elements like this directed towards children and families, Aboriginals, lone parents, and others.

But nowhere is this challenge to change the way we do things more stark than in terms of the need to face up to and seriously address the environmental crisis.

2009 is “the year of Copenhagen.” Starting in Bonn next month, and culminating in the Danish capital December this year, a new climate change treaty needs to be negotiated. It will guide national responses to the post-Kyoto period, and as all Canadians know, our country was the only nation on Earth to ratify Kyoto and then officially renege on the commitment to apply it. Worse yet, in recent years, Canada has been accused of blocking progress towards international progress on climate change, winning the “Colossal Fossil” award from frustrated environmentalists on more than one occasion.

If you read CPJ’s analysis of the January 2009 federal budget, you’ll know that our organization criticized the lack of environmental sensitivity in the government’s plans. That budget eliminated financial support for wind energy, threw more money at AECL, cut research for climate change research, and the home retrofit program was announced with tax rebates, none of which were dependent on spending for solar, geo-thermal, better insulation or energy-saving building. It was a lost opportunity. As one usually conservative wag put it in his Ottawa Citizen column, the only opportunity the Conservatives saw as “green” in the home retrofit program would be a homeowner laying new sod on the front lawn!

The Harper government is far short of Kyoto, relying on intensity-based target reductions to get the country to reduce GHG emissions by 20% over 2006 levels by 2020. At Kyoto Canada promised to cut our emissions to 6% below 1990 levels, but according to Environment Canada this week, we raised them 26% over 1990 levels. But let’s face it: even though Canada has not taken the opportunity to advance a climate change policy of any substance (no suitable targets, no carbon credit market, no carbon offset system), we will soon get one. And for better or worse, we will again have Mr. Obama to thank. Ottawa will quickly adopt a made-in-USA cap and trade system as soon as Washington can announce it.

We won’t do better than that without a firm determination from the Opposition to propose firmer targets, but Mr. Ignatieff is already clearly stating that he will not be running on the “Green Shift” program of his unfortunate predecessor. The NDP criticism has also been relentless, even in the BC provincial election for Tuesday, where they have criticized the Liberal government’s carbon tax.

A public justice response to the ecological crisis could once again call forth the best of CPJ. We should be able to say that carbon-based growth is just not an option. There is no question that failure to negotiate, and then implement an appropriate international global accord to fight global warming will leave the poor to suffer first and worst. A viable climate regime must take steps to mitigate the problem, adapt to the damage already done but also safeguard the right to a sustainable development (especially for the poor of the world who have done least to cause this crisis.) Canadians should face up to the fact that we have common but differentiated responsibilities from other nations, based on our respective capacities as well as our contributions to the problem. One fascinating study of “Greenhouse Development Rights” which I read on Earth Day, suggests that Canada, with 0.5% of global population, should actually accept to carry 2.9% of global financial responsibility. That would move us substantially beyond the “no regrets reductions” of changing light bulbs and undertaking other measures that don’t really hurt. (Total costs could reach $685 per capita per year, and given Canada’s refusal to meet ODA commitments, such spending also seems unlikely without visionary leadership and change in public consciousness.)

Vandana Shiva’s latest book (Soil Not Oil, 2008), rants against “eco-imperialism” that has been imposed upon the poorer nations and populations from Western “development” models. Her solution is “Earth Democracy,” ecological equity, and the creation of “carbon democracies.” She asks, “Should we choose a non-sustainable paradigm in which we affirm an equal right to pollute…or a sustainable paradigm in which we affirm an equal responsibility to not pollute?”

Of course, folks from Alberta and my former province, Saskatchewan, here tonight, are probably wondering what this means for the oil sands. Oil produced there creates 3 to 5 times the GHG emissions of conventional sources, and there are already 11 million litres a day of toxic effluent leaching into local waterways in this project that is expected to equal the size of the state of Florida. Some of you will recall John Hiemstra’s presentation and slides on this issue at last year’s AGM. William Marsden is a writer for the Montreal Gazette, whose recent book won a Business Book of the Year award (a review of which is featured in your next Catalyst magazine.) Marsden says, “The tar sands are suddenly a root metaphor for every pressing issue we face both as Canadians and as members of the human species.”

CPJ’s history might hold some guidance for us as these weighty economic and ecological matters come before us. Listen to this quote and see if you recognize it:

“In the interests of justice, in the interests of freedom, in the interests of future generations of Canadians - Native and non-Native alike – there must be fundamental social change. In order to foster that, we call for a moratorium. In order to change, we need time.” (pg. 185, Moratorium: Justice, Energy, the North and the Native People, McCullum, McCullum and Olthius, 1977.)

Vandana Shiva reminds us that we need to change our mind before we can change our world.

To develop this visionary for change, we need to walk humbly with our God. When we walk this creation in humility, loving kindness and seeking justice, we acknowledge that our social systems are out of step, but that perhaps our religious understandings also need constant development to be helpful in this challenging journey ahead.

Theologian Daniel Maguire has said, “If current trends continue, then we will not.” An organization interested in God’s love, justice and stewardship must speak to the ecological crisis, or risk becoming, according to Maguire, an “obsolete distraction.”

A recent article in The Christian Courier categorized responses of believers to the environmental crisis in four ways. (The four “i”s.) A minority saw an emphasis on “creation care” as insidious, wanting no part of it. Others saw it as irrelevant. A majority saw it as incidental, that is, secondary to other things that good religious practice was about. A final group perceived care for the environment as integral to their lives. CPJ is moving to make the environment an integral concern in all we do, through in-house staff seminars and through our strategic planning process. I can say more about that, and how we plan to respond, if questions arise.

I hope that you get a chance to meet some of the folks who work at CPJ this evening. CPJ has a wonderfully dedicated staff, with youthful energy, passion for faith-filled work for justice and huge capacity – you can expect big things from them. Given that all of the policy folks are women, something heretofore unseen in CPJ history, not only big things, but some new ways of looking at the world are bound to emerge!

CPJ celebrated its 46th anniversary just a couple of weeks ago, on April 18th. That’s a lot of history to learn (for a new staff) and to value (for our many members, not all of whom have supported us for decades.)

I’d very much like to see CPJ develop a vibrant plan leading up to our 50th anniversary celebration. I’d love to see us produce a book of historical reflections on the journey towards public justice, to be ready to help us understand the anniversary’s meaning. I’d also like us to focus on the next 50 years, lead by a strategic plan that focuses the energies of a new and young staff team that is already “punching above it’s weight” but that can move even better in tandem with our experienced and seasoned Board members and the engaged volunteer base of CPJ. As well, we definitely need to establish a campaign to build a financial reserve for the organization (which would surely assist our cash flow issues, but also might help me get less grey hair, and even perhaps keep some of it!)

As I stop now to allow some time for discussion and commentary, perhaps I’ll just leave you with a couple of questions to open the dialogue further…

What do you find compelling and engaging in this conjuncture of economic depression that also presents opportunities for renewal and change?

What public justice concerns are showing the energy and creativity of Christian communities in ways that CPJ should be attentive to or be part of as we go forward?

I’m quite aware that we have just celebrated Easter, and the scripture from that day has remained with me as I was trying to pull together these thoughts and reflections. You know, it may well have been that the stone rolled away from that tomb was not so much to let Jesus out, as to allow the disciples to enter. What do we disciples need to discern? Where is there new life? What do we need to do to allow this new life of public justice for all to happen?

Martin Khor of the Third World Network has made a beautiful and challenging reflection that was brought to my attention by Jesuit Fr. Bill Ryan. This is something that fits well, I believe, with hose of us interested in CPJ and its mission. Khor challenges his readers o work so that a better word is possible by holding two conflicting mindsets, or paradigms, in tension at the same time. In the first, we work within the system through civil society organizations for public justice in what may seem like tinkering: trying to improve a federal budget, get a better deal for refugee students, working on environmental legislation, etc. In the second paradigm, we recognize the present corporate economic system as incompatible with social justice, survival and nature’s limits. The key to becoming people who are effective and don’t burn out or get bitter is to work pragmatically in the first paradigm’s shorter-term perspective to make things better for the poor, while belonging and living emotionally in the second paradigm. It has always seemed to me that people of faith have an Easter advantage in living this way, as we have always tried to live as if the reign of God is here and now, and yet not yet fulfilled.

And so this I pray, from Paul to the Philippians, Chapter 1:9-10,

That your love abound more and more
In knowledge and insight of every kind
So that you test what is vital.