Justice Tapestry Conference Aug 27-28, 2011

Justice Tapestry: Shedding Light on the Atrocities of Human Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation - Seeking God’s Heart & Our Response

Listen to presentations from the conference

Justice Tapestry Brochure                       Registration Form

Hope Community is hosting this conference to raise awareness about children and women who are victims of human trafficking and to inspire action to end sexual exploitation and gender-based injustice. Mark Wollenberg of International Justice Mission Canada (IJM) will deliver the keynote address, along with presentations by artists and activists who work for justice locally, nationally and internationally.

This Justice Tapestry will gather together people from our community and across Southern Alberta who share a concern for justice in order to empower them both to stand against injustice and to care for the victims of exploitation and abuse. A number of artists will present visual works and performances throughout the conference as a response to these injustices, in the tradition of Hope’s annual Tapestry art gallery and performance event.

IJM’s Mark Wollenberg says, “The church is starting to realize that acting justly is something that is required of us by scripture, but many of us have little knowledge about the kind of injustice that takes place in the world today. I think again of Jesus’ words in Luke 4:18 when he quoted the prophet Isaiah and said that he had come to bring freedom to the captives and release for the prisoners. 

“Today, most of us live without the knowledge that there are approximately 27 million slaves in the world. Most people do not know that there are more slaves in the world today than the 1800’s, when slaves were ripped out of Africa in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. These are people who are forced to work in cocoa and coffee plantations, brick kilns and rice mills, or in brothels and they have no option to leave. They are literally owned by someone else who sees them as a source of revenue for themselves. After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest illegal enterprise in the world today.”

Wollenberg continues, “There are people today who need an advocate, someone to raise their voice on behalf of the voiceless, and say. ‘Slavery must come to and end!’” IJM is a human rights organization that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. 

Other presenters at the conference include:

Andrew Kooman of Raise Their Voice (author of the play She Has A Name)
Amie Gosselin of Hagar International (an aftercare and reintegration organization for victims of sex trafficking)
Stephen Waldschmidt of Burnt Thicket Theatre (director of She Has A Name)
Edmonton’s Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE)
Advocacy for Victims of Abuse (AVA, which addresses domestic violence)
Opportunity International
Ten Thousand Villages

Our children are not for sale to be abused for someone’s financial gain.
Neither should anyone else’s children be!

Schedule Overview:

Saturday August 27
8:30 - 9:30 am   Welcome & Sign In
9:00 am - 12:00 pm   Sessions
12:00 - 1:00 pm   Lunch Break
1:00 - 6:00 pm   Sessions
6:00 - 7:00 pm   Supper Break
7:00 - 9:00 pm   Sessions & Closing

Sunday August 28
10:00-11:00 am  Worship Service (Message by Mark Wollenberg, IJM) 

Registration

Early Bird Registration Fee - $35 (Aug 10 deadline)

Registration Fee - $40 (Aug 24 deadline)

At the Door - $45

Registration forms are available here and at the church. Please send any questions by email to: 

justicetapestry2011@gmail.com

For more information on this issue: 
Evangelical Covenant Church Human Trafficking Site: http://www.covchurch.org/trafficking/
International Justice Mission Canada: http://www.ijm.ca/

Time for a Canadian National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking

NOTE: Petitions are DUE APRIL 1st… Last night we learned more about how Canada is facing changes to its laws about prostitution. Our M.P. Kevin Sorenson wrote several of us back about our request in January that he lead Canada to adopt the Swedish model of law. He said he forwarded our request to Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson. That’s encouraging!

We watched this short video from Evangelical Fellowship of Canada detailing the differences between Holland’s reasons for legalizing prostitution and Sweden’s approach of criminalizing johns and pimps while treating the prostituted women as victims of exploitation and violence. Click here to read the full EFC report.

Why is it ok to criminalize the johns’ and pimps’ part of the transaction if the prostituted woman is free to sell sex? It is internationally acknowledged that the average age of entry into prostitution is 12-14 years of age. Here’s the conclusion from an exhaustive journal article about the effects of prostitution reprinted on REED’s website:

“Does a john’s payment of money to a woman in prostitution erase all that we know of sexual harassment, rape, and domestic violence? The adage silence is consent is mistakenly applied to women in prostitution. We blame those who keep silent for what- ever happens to them because, the logic goes, they should have protested abuse. Women in prostitution are silent for many reasons. They are rarely given the opportunity to speak about their real lives because this would interfere with sex businesses. The silence of most of those in prostitution is a result of intimidation, terror, dissociation, and shame. Their silence, like the silence of battered women, should not be misinterpreted, ever, as their consent to prostitution.”

She is not freely consenting, she is living out the results of a life of abuse and exploitation. It is like arguing that a battered woman is silent because she consents to domestic abuse.

Last night we also celebrated answers to our prayers that burnt thicket theatre’s production of SHE HAS A NAME was well-received and sold out every show of its three-week run, bringing many people face to face with the reality of human trafficking. Steve Waldschmidt talked about getting to know one of the organizers of 4MYCANADA, on whose website he learned more about M.P. Joy Smith’s work against human trafficking in Canada. 

In order to learn more about trafficking specifically in Canada we watched the first part of the following documentary called ENSLAVED AND EXPLOITED: The Story of Sex Trafficking in Canada from Hope for the Sold. Our country needs to step up and fight this rampant organized crime in new ways. 

We learned about M.P. Joy Smith’s proposal for a National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and why Canada needs a coordinated effort to connect the many separate government agencies and regional NGOs working to prevent trafficking and rescue its victims. We signed Smith’s petition to Parliament and wrote letters to Prime Minister Harper and four cabinet ministers asking them to develop and implement such a National Action Plan. 

Please watch the videos, read the reports and click on the above petition and letter links BEFORE APRIL 1st when the petitions are due — join us in calling for Canada to fight the devastating reality of human trafficking right here.

God of justice and mercy, help our government do the right thing and may your kingdom come across Canada in every way. Let our land become the true north, strong and free, in actual reality.

Fight Human Trafficking Through Canada's Prostitution Laws

NOTE: Petitions DUE APRIL 1st… It was a good evening tonight, even with a disturbing subject. We learned a lot about how prostitution is inseparably linked with human trafficking. We also learned that legalizing prostitution (which Ontario is on the verge of doing) only benefits pimps; it actually increases human trafficking, puts prostituted women at greater risk, and makes the male exploitation of women more prevalent and socially acceptable! Holland is a sad example of this.

Now is an opportune time for you to let your MP know how you’d like Canada’s laws to be re-written regarding women who are bought and sold in prostitution. The current laws have been ruled unconstitutional and the Canadian government will be required to make changes if this ruling stands.

We wrote to our MP (Kevin Sorenson) and asked for the implementation of the Swedish (or Nordic) model of prostitution law in Canada. Swedish model of law recognizes prostitution as a form of male violence against women and children and acknowledges how it’s linked with the demand for paid sex that human trafficking supplies. See this great article for more on that: 10 Reasons Not to Legalize Prostitution.

Want to join us in asking your MP to do the same? Here’s the postcard campaign:

Canada Can Do Better for Prostituted Women

And here’s a good template for a letter to your MP, specifically about the Nordic model of law, and petitions from M.P. Joy Smith’s website (which are due back to her by April 1st). 

Here’s a video from Covenant Women Ministries about the sad reality of sex slaves prevalent across North America. Most are children.

Break the Chains pt 3 from Covenant Communications on Vimeo. 
 

This breaks the heart of God. Thank you REED for the info and your concern for how our culture’s perspective on the sex trade affects human trafficking in Canada!