We broke our fast last night in a candlelight service. There was a wonderful mix of people from all
walks of life – old and young, First Nations from several tribes, many
ethnicities. We were delighted to have
Michelle Penny and her friends from the friendship centre to centre and ground
us with drumming and song. Then we all
proceeded over to my house where we broke our fast with delicious, organic
vegetarian soup and bread. Those who had
been eating a little took some cheese and some fruit.
I laid the table with a beautiful red embroidered tablecloth
from Bangladesh. It was decorated with
patterns including fish and elephants, plants and insects. I set it out in honour of Dewan Afzal, a
Bangladeshi elder and our leader who initially proposed the fast. He was our inspiration and our teacher. When we viewed the film “Climate Refugees”,
we learned that Bangladesh, like many islands in the Pacific, will soon be
completely underwater (Maybe 8-20 years) with hundreds of millions of people
landless with no place to go except to drown in the coming waters. The movie talked about the potential loss of
whole nations, and of whole cultures.
Did you know that no country in the world gives climate
refugees “refugee status?” And no one
wants to take in all these climate refugees.
In our closing circle we took the time to appreciate what we
had gotten to know about one another. We
exchanged contact information. Raven
prepared for two weeks with her sons and her family in Thunder Bay before she
goes back on the road on her walk to promote having ecocide put in the UN
Convention on Peace as one of five crimes against humanity and the earth. She is promoting the work of Holly Higgins
(Eradicating Ecocide). She is walking
across Canada with this mission. Watch
for her. She is worth supporting.
Many are coming back to Ottawa in a few weeks for the
amazing youth and young adult (with adult allies) conference called
PowerShift. One of its organizers is Brigitte
de Pape. Their website is a model of
interactivity, generativity, and offers great hope as an organizing tool in
itself. It is designed with such respect
for process, focused mission, and valuing the diversity and potential of every
single person who engages with it. We
hope to engage with them in this important conversation and consider methods of
creating change.
Today, a core group went back to the hill and signed up 34
Liberals including Bob Rae to the pledge.
Justin Trudeau was not there. Our
group was hopeful to sign up Thomas Mulcair after question period. I’m waiting to hear what happened.
Most amazing to me, I have begun to receive feedback from
some of you. Some of you have sent me
your letters. Some have fasted with me
for a few days. My friend at USC Canada
told me that her husband (a person who has never taken any kind of action for
justice in his life, read my blog and what I was doing and decided that during
the fasting period “perhaps we should use our car a little less and walk
more.” I was moved to tears that as
simple an action as a fast could generate that kind of increased awareness and
opening of heart.
This is not the last time you will hear from the creative activists at Climatefast.ca.
Thank you so much, all of you, for your personal support and
for walking with me in whatever way you are able. It gives me courage to keep going.
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