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Summer 2026
KAIROS Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
NEWSLETTER
A Message from the GL-SL Executive

2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the formation of KAIROS. This newsletter includes a few personal memories from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region throughout that span. Of course, ecumenical coalitions working on justice, peace and reconciliation were active earlier than 2001. See the Executive report for more history. And KAIROS social justice work continues today: highlights from local committees’ recent activities are also featured and a regional fall meeting announced. KAIROS, Greek for an opportune time for action, continues as local groups “seize the day”, each in their own way and place. Happy 25th Anniversary!
SAVE THE DATE!

Our annual Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Regional event will occur Wednesday evening, November 18th, 2026. Our guest speaker will be Evelyn Encalada Grez, Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University, who contributed a chapter to the recently released book, A Renewed Canadian Welcome, writing on experiences of migrant workers in Canada.  This informative event will be on Zoom and open to all. Stay tuned for details.
National Campaign: Turn Debt into Hope

On April 28, KAIROS with the Turn Debt into Hope Canadian Coalition delivered 72,514 petition signatures to the Canadian government. This was the culmination of 16 months of education and mobilization demanding an end to the sovereign debt crisis that thwarts sustainable development in low-income countries, thereby destabilizing global security. The campaign called for cancelation of unjust debt and for urgent financial reforms to avoid future crises.

April 28th began with a Parliamentary roundtable breakfast in the Wellington building,sponsored by MP Robert Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Speakers noted Canada’s historical role in debt cancelation and the urgent need to lead again. At noon more than 100 people gathered on the lawn for the Rally on Parliament Hill for Global Debt Justice, when the petition signatures were handed over to MP Oliphant and MP Judy Sgro.

Coalition partners and volunteers have met with numerous MPs explaining the issue and Canada’s potential role toward justice. An online form letter to MPs also called for sovereign debt justice; 812 letters were sent in English or French. We hope meetings with Parliamentary Committees will soon occur.

KAIROS representatives were well received by Guelph MPs Michael Chong and Dominique O’Rourke. After York Region KAIROS had no response from their Conservative MP, the group sent a letter to her, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs explaining the campaign requests. KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga members and KAIROS Canada’s Cheryl McNamara, met with Liberal MP James Maloney, Chair of the Liberal caucus, and urged his support of the campaign.

You can read more about the culmination of this campaign on the website.

Brian McIntosh

Image: Signatures gathered in support of the campaign and delivered to Parliament.
Highlights of the Justice Work by Local Groups
Indigenous Rights

Kathleen Lichti, member of the Sisters of St. Joseph and of Southwestern Ontario KAIROS (SWO KAIROS), has been supporting Mary-Anne Kechego, an Indigenous facilitator in London who, offers the Kairos Blanket Exercise (KBE). Other local leaders are in the KBE re-certification process.

In February, Kathleen Lichti helped to organize a Tea Time with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers session via Zoom with 147 registrants. It will also be offered in June.

Image: Teatime with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers February Event

Two KAIROS Guelph members are investigating the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)’s Call 30 Activity. It refers to the TRC Call to Action regarding the disproportionate number of Indigenous women incarcerated in Canada.  This participatory exercise is considered a good follow-up to the KBE.

An Indigenous KAIROS Guelph member offered prayers in the Haudenosaunee tradition at the Remembrance Day ceremony and ensured that a wreath was presented to honour Indigenous veterans of Guelph. Coldstream Quakers, members of SWO KAIROS, hosted a Full Moon Ceremony with Mary Lou Smoke at the end of May.

KAIROS Toronto West partnered with Mining Watch Canada on April 25th to host an event “You call it the Ring of Fire. We call it home.” Resource extraction companies have overridden Indigenous land rights for decades, and Jamie Kneen of Mining Watch shared the latest violations and the growing Indigenous resistance.

Image: Ring of Fire vs Home Event held in April by KAIROS Toronto West
Ecological Justice

Partnerships between KAIROS groups and Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!) have taken place in a few locations in Ontario. On Earth Day, Simcoe County KAIROS (SC KAIROS) hosted a 2-hour workshop developed by For the Love of Creation and facilitated by Lynn Godfrey, a SCAN! Barrie group member. The event was meant for people wanting to move from concern to action. KAIROS Guelph has learned about effective ways to mitigate climate change through monthly presentations given by SCAN! Guelph.

SC KAIROS signed the Ontario Nature Letter concerned about Ontario Government’s proposed changes to Conservation Authorities.

Image: Earth Day Event hosted by Simcoe County KAIROS in April
Combatting Poverty
 

Basic Income Guelph (BIG) members met with KAIROS Guelph, describing their current priority to build a groundswell of support by meeting with potential ally groups already concerned about poverty.

York Region KAIROS heard a presentation on the Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge (also known as the Poorhouse), which operated from 1877-1947. Has society’s support for the vulnerable progressed?  

John and Yetty Joosse of SWO KAIROS went to South Africa for 5 weeks to visit projects they have supported for over 20 years. Projects include support for  residents with disabilities and vulnerable children, gift packs for community care givers, and vegetable seedlings for community and home gardens. Rich-poor disparity remains a big problem.   

Photo: Community Caregivers from a rural area called Mkiweni planting the donated 200 each of beetroot, spinach, cabbage, onion, green pepper, tomato seedlings. 

SWO KAIROS volunteers help at various food and clothing distribution events, and one member visited an Anabaptist peace-focused education facility in Guatemala and El Salvador.

A SC KAIROS member wrote a letter to the Globe and Mail to highlight the homeless crisis in Simcoe County. The group then organized a couple of events on homelessness. Clergy were invited to a Christmas gathering to discuss how SC KAIROS could assist with Social Justice projects within their congregations, opening up some new pathways for communication. Then in May, 55 people from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith communities met to plan joint action around Barrie’s homelessness crisis.

Image: Interfaith Event held in Barrie in May to talk about homelessness
Peace

SC KAIROS partnered with Simcoe County 4 Palestine and others to sponsor a Film and Speaker Event on May 2nd to highlight the Environmental Crisis caused by Wars.

Image: Film Screening and Speaker Presentation hosted by Simcoe County KAIROS and Simcoe County 4 Palestine in May.

Some KAIROS Guelph members attend weekly rallies in downtown Guelph calling attention to the tragedies in Palestine. One member wrote to MP Dominique O’Rourke expressing dismay about expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and urging support of Bill C- 233 to prevent Canadian arms reaching Israel via the U.S.A. MP O’Rourke replied that Bill C-233 would affect too many other exports and interfere with US trade negotiations.

York Region KAIROS partnered with the Yonge Street Quakers, to host a beautiful Candlelight Peace Vigil in the historic Quaker Meetinghouse.

Toronto West/Mississauga KAIROS hosted the experiential Palestinian Blanket Exercise (PLE), developed by the United and Mennonite churches. York Region KAIROS members attended. Coldstream Quakers, members of SWO KAIROS, participated in a PLE hosted by Wesley Knox United Church in London. They also offered a retreat on Simplicity, focusing on managing the news that we are digesting daily.
Other justice activities
 
  • SC KAIROS participated in the Barrie Chapter of World Day of Religion on Jan 19th and the Barrie World Day of Prayer on Jan 22nd
  • SWO Ontario and SC KAIROS offered support for the Ontario Health Coalition.
KAIROS is 25 years old: Anniversary Memories
A memory from KAIROS Guelph: KAIROS is ^NOT going away
 

In 2009, KAIROS funding for human rights and ecological sustainability programs was approved by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as matching its priorities. But Bev Oda, the Minister of International Cooperation, reversed that decision by inserting a hand-written “not” into the approval letter and claimed CIDA priorities were unmet. Soon after, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, justified the cut by incorrectly accusing KAIROS of boycotting Israel and being “antisemitic”.

An uproar ensued. In Parliament, KAIROS support was led by Guelph’s Liberal MP Frank Valeriote. KAIROS Guelph periodically visits MPs, including Mr. Valeriote, to raise awareness of KAIROS concerns.  We were pleased that he respected KAIROS work so much that he energetically defended the organization. His main debate opponent was an aggressive young Pierre Poilievre.

The episode brought both Bev Oda and the Harper administration under heavy scrutiny. KAIROS Guelph was gratified that our contacts with Frank Valeriote prompted him to be such a vocal and effective supporter.

Elizabeth Snell

Photo: KAIROS made Minister Oda’s handwritten “not” infamous by putting it on T-Shirts.
A memory from Simcoe County KAIROS: Unknown Neighbours

In 2017, Simcoe County KAIROS – aided by KAIROS staff - hosted the annual Great Lakes St. Lawrence Conference with a focus on migrant rights. Speakers included presenters from the Filipino Migrant Worker community, a local farmer, and representatives from Churches that supported migrant workers in the past.

Little did we know how important these connections would be during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Funded by the Government of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, KAIROS Canada launched its Empowering Temporary Foreign Workers (ETFW) and we in Simcoe County KAIROS partnered with other community groups to create a non-profit under their umbrella. We named the non-profit Unknown Neighbours.

During COVID, migrant workers and employers needed help for everything from navigating apps during quarantine, to emergency grocery shopping, to PPE, to interpretation support. Unknown Neighbours was there to help.

Elaine Gareau

Photo:

Migrant Worker event sponsored by Unknown Neighbours in Bradford, Ontario in the Fall of 2021. Green Valley Alliance Church hosted the Iglesia Hispana in 2021.
Two memories from KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga: Going Where Few Others Go
 

In 2021, the Government of Canada declared September 30th, long known as Orange Shirt Day, an annual statutory holiday called National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga always observes the day by organizing a reflective and educational event. In 2021 it was a modest gathering outside a local church. 

By 2025, about 150 people, many wearing orange, attended the Campfire art installation at Humber Bay Shores in Etobicoke for a moving and motivational day. We learned it was the only event in the area honouring the day, underlining the importance of the committee’s annual commemoration.

We also are a leader in hosting the first Palestinian Land Exercise (PLE) in Mississauga. Modeled after the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, the PLE is a scripted interactive and participatory learning event that shares the history of Palestinian land dispossession due to the Israeli occupation and ongoing genocide. All participants, even the best-informed, came away with a much fuller appreciation of the trauma and injustice.

Brian McIntosh
A memory from York Region KAIROS: Indifferent No More!
 

A fond memory for me was an event planned by York Region KAIROS before the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Report.  KAIROS Canada was encouraging KAIROS groups to learn more about the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and take this to their communities. 

Indifferent No More: Reconciliation in Our Community, was held at Trinity United Church, Newmarket, on April 14, 2015. Linda Parsons, a York Region KAIROS member and on the United Church national committee Living Into Right Relations, had many contacts in Indigenous communities, including friends in the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. Linda had hosted Gladys Radek, who walked in Walk4Justice in support for missing and murdered women and girls. Gladys Radek was one of the speakers at Indifferent No More. The other two speakers were Rev. Riscylla Shaw (now Bishop Shaw) and Brian Schouten of the York Region District School Board. Indifferent No More was opened by Elder Becky Big Canoe of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. This event stands out for supporting the initiatives of KAIROS and for community engagement in Indigenous relations.

Cherilyn Spraakman
Books to Read!

A Renewed Canadian Welcome: Eleven Visions from Migrants and Advocates edited by Emilio Rodríguez. Born of the work of Citizens for Public Justice, a national research and advocacy organization, A Renewed Canadian Welcome is a must-read for those advocating for human rights in immigration policy. It is a compelling call to reimagine Canada’s approach to immigration as one that affirms dignity, equity, and justice for all. Available here from McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Oblivious: Residential Schools, Segregated Hospitals, and the use of Indigenous Peoples as Slaves of Race Science by Elaine Dewar. An investigative journalist reckons with the cost of her own—and the culture-at-large’s—obliviousness. Part memoir, part investigation, Oblivious tells the story of a Jewish girl from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who grew up in a society so segregated—its Indigenous people consigned to an alternate universe—that she, like so many of us, failed to notice their plight for decades. Available here at independent Kelowna, BC bookstore, Mosaic Books.
KAIROS Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Coordinating Committee
EXECUTIVE REPORT

The 25th Anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on past accomplishments.

Canada has led the world in ecumenical justice work. The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) formed in 1944, eight years before the Lund principle grew out of the Faith and Order Conference of the World Council of Churches (WCC) held in Lund, Sweden. The Lund principle is a foundational ecumenical mandate that calls on Christian churches to “act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately." After centuries of divisions among Christians, the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and the subsequent cooperative programs including numerous justice and peace pursuits, have created a greater sense of Christian unity. Canadians were at the forefront of the ecumenical movement, and numerous Canadians have held positions of leadership in the WCC and other global ecumenical bodies over the past almost 80 years.

The ecumenical justice coalitions in Canada which formed in the 1970’s and 80’s, beginning with Ten Days for World Development (later Ten Days for Global Justice) in 1973, have been a unique Canadian contribution to ecumenism. Those ten coalitions broke new ground in education, advocacy and action and led to the major Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative (the precursor to the current Turn Debt Into Hope campaign) and ultimately to the formation of KAIROS Canada in 2001.

The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Region of KAIROS is one of five such Regions in KAIROS, enabling the nurturing of grassroots faith-based cooperation on important justice and peace issues while also implementing national campaigns at local levels. Our Region holds two Coordinating Committee meetings a year as well as an annual Regional gathering. The Executive also organizes two e-newsletters a year and seeks to nurture and support the local KAIROS groups in our Region.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns. Join us on November 18th for the Regional gathering. Celebrate your group’s accomplishments in the past 25 years.

Our work for justice and peace as people of faith who have hope for a better world has never been more urgent!

Co-Chairs: Elizabeth Snell, Guelph; Brian McIntosh, Toronto

Regional representative to the National Network: Brian McIntosh, Toronto

Secretary: Janyce Elser-Ethier, Russell

Treasurer: Cherilyn Spraakman, Newmarket

Social Media Coordinator: Elaine Gareau, Barrie

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KairosGLSL

Instagram: kairos_glsl
 
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KAIROS Canada website