God and get to know Him. From that relationship, we are better able to be with our brothers and sister, in family, in community and in fraternity.

Today we need our communities and fraternities. Lives have become busy. Loneliness has heightened and, more and more, people are hiding behind the screens of their online devices.
It is said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. This applies to all of our relationships, and our apostolic mission is to let people who are struggling know that they are loved. It is also an important message to consider in fraternity. It is important that we develop caring relationships with our brothers and sisters. It is also important that we extend our interaction beyond our monthly meetings. What about taking some time occasionally (setting time aside) to just chat with each other about what is going on in our lives, and offering support and encouragement? This builds community, and community builds vibrant, healthy fraternal life.
(taken from Catholic Teaching and Fraternal Life, Carloyn D. Townes, OFS, National JPIC Animator)

Today we have five questions for you to think about and come up with ways you and your family can help fight our climate crisis.

1. What Are You Eating? Food production accounts for 23% of human greenhouse gas emissions. We must adjust our diets. If we eat less or eliminate meat and dairy it is one of the most effective carbon – cutting changes we can make in our homes. Discuss what dietary changes you can make.
2. What Transportation Do You Use? Globally transportation accounts for 23% (28% in Canada) of human emissions. Suggestions that might help: start riding a bike, car pool, use public transportation when possible. Live car free if possible or drive a smaller car.
3. How Does Your Home Contribute? Heating both space and water, makes up 80% of residential energy in Canada. Small actions you may take would be to wash clothes in cold water. On a larger scale you might consider retrofitting your home for more energy efficiently.
4. What Do You Throw Out? On a per capita basis, North Americans produce the highest amount of waste in the world. Most of us know the mantra reduce, reuse, recycle. To reduce, plan carefully and buy only what you need. It saves money and reduces emissions from packaging, transportation and production. Families could consider how they might reuse goods.
5. Who Can You Influence? Take time to educate yourself on the evidence, causes and effects of climate change. Children are sure to notice when an adult makes an effort to reduce waste. Explain what your actions and choices mean for the environment.

​
These are some ideas you may use. Come up with some of your own. Share ideas with family, friends and your community. Small steps can lead to big change. 
                                                                                     (Article from the PEI Guardian newspaper, Monday Jan. 20, 2020)

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
From the St. Francis of Assisi, PEI, JPIC Team, November, 2019
 
Lord, Make Us Instruments of Your Peace
by Pope Francis (World Communications Day - January 24, 2018)

​ 
Lord, Make Us Instruments of Your Peace

We challenge you to go further with your commitment to live out our rule. 
 
Rule #18: ” Moreover they should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate which bear the imprint of the “Most High”, and they should strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship.”
The 7 R’s

• Reduce: use less of something
• Recycle: re-use the item and make something else with it.
• Reuse: put it into service or action again
• Respect: treat with consideration
• Refuse: avoid buying products that are not sustainable or recyclable.
• Rethink: think about how you can reuse a product or its materials.
• Repair: fix or mend items rather than buy new ones.

 
Did you know that you can re-order new bins if yours are damaged or missing by calling the City of Ottawa at 311?                          or click City of Ottawa - Recycling   
 
 Actions: 
1. Our fraternity has decided to reduce its footprints at meetings by recycling materials (paper, plastic, glass and compost) from our potluck meals.
 
2. Members are encouraged to adopt at least one new practice in their daily life and share next month.   
                                                                               Prepares by the JPIC Committee of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Fraternity

“We are sisters and brothers to animals and plants, water and soil, earth and sky.”
 
 Just as we meet:

• ​the dancer in her dance,
• the painter in his art,
• and the poet in her finely crafted words, so we encounter the creator in Creation. Indeed, we are nature aware of itself, consciously creating itself, celebrating itself and its creator.

  
Like Jesus before him, Francis knew the power and joy of rejoicing in the blessings of God, that is, the blessings of nature.
 
JPIC Action for the summer of 2019: Each week, think of 2 ways in which you can show more respect for Mother Earth and act on this.
 
(excerpt from Praying with Francis of Assisi by Joseph M. Stoutzenberger and John D. Boher)

                 Comment: Something to share in fraternity and beyond - FVC

Brazil’s new president makes Trump look like a saint: he praises dictators, wants to destroy the Amazon, and says gay children should be beaten up. And like Trump, the polls said he stood no chance, but he still won! His secret weapon?

Disinformation
5 things we all need to know about disinformation

1. It feeds off our fear and it travels fast.
Humans are hardwired to remember negative information over positive, it’s how we learn. Peddlers of disinformation know this and play on deep emotions, which make us far more likely to share it on social media -- and so it spreads up to six times faster than factual news!

2. It thrives on social media and reaches billions.
The more time we spend on social media, the more money those companies make. They know that extreme and shocking content hooks our attention, so they programme their sites to promote it. And it reaches billions.The biggest newspapers sell a few million copies, while news on Facebook reaches over a BILLION per day.

3. It is being weaponized against us.
Authoritarian leaders from Brazil to China are weaponizing disinformation as the newest move in the playbook for age-old divide and rule politics. But it’s Russia that leads the pack -- their huge ‘troll farms’ employ legions of people to set up millions of fake accounts to spread disinformation. And RT, Russia's propaganda outlet, is one of YouTube’s most-viewed news channels with an estimated 2 billion views!

4. It's killing people and poisoning democracy.
Disinformation is driving vigilante violence in India and Brazil, and fueled brutal ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. It’s also poisoning our politics. Fake news helped give us Brexit, Bolsonaro, and Trump. And it’s destroying trust in mainstream media, our democratic institutions, and political leaders, creating the perfect breeding ground for anti-establishment strongmen to rise to power. Because of disinformation, social media is now a threat to democracy.

5. No one is immune.
People across the political spectrum are being micro-targeted as part of a strategy to polarise and erode our societies. In the US, Russia's troll army created a fake page for American black activists that drew more followers than the official Black Lives Matter movement pages! We think we’d never fall for this stuff, but studies show that even the most educated among us tend to believe fake news, and people over 65 are even more likely to spread it.

Disinformation spreads distrust, fear, and lies. But the more we know about it, the more we can stop it -- share this briefing with friends and family to educate them on the disinformation threat. And read on to see how to protect yourself!


5 ways to protect ourselves from disinformation

1. If you see something, say something!
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Seen a random Facebook post with shocking info about a political candidate? Don't trust it! Check the facts with reliable sources, and if you think you may have found a piece of disinformation, let us know here.

2. Keep supporting real journalism.
Most traditional media is covered by regulations and ethics that make it far more trustworthy than a random dude on the internet. They’re not perfect, but they check their facts and can be held responsible! Subscribing to a high quality newspaper with real journalism is one of the most powerful acts a citizen can take today.

3. Join the campaign to clean up social media.
Avaaz has a simple and effective plan to push the tech giants to cure the disinformation epidemic on social media -- by showing independently-verified factual corrections to fake news. Join the campaign.

4. Don’t give up on democracy!
The goal of the troll armies is to create such a climate of distrust that ordinary citizens walk away from democracy. When that happens, fanatic extremists can dominate it. We must keep showing up and voting, encouraging our friends and family to do the same, and holding our elected officials to account.

5. Choose hope in humanity.
Disinformation preys on our deepest fears, appealing to our natural negativity bias and bringing out our more angry and cynical sides. But if we can learn to engage with the arguments of people who don’t think like us, with empathy, big ears, and wisdom, we can connect across our differences. We have more in common than our fears make us believe. If we trust that, amazing things can happen.


P.S. What does disinformation actually look like? Check out these 3 terrifying real-world examples!

When disinformation is used to fuel a genocide

Hateful lies about the Rohingya minority in Myanmar went viral online. Fake claims of things like cannibalism (like above) were used by the military and anti-muslim groups to justify ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Rohingya families were slaughtered, women brutally raped, and homes torched to the ground, leading UN officials to declare a genocide.

When fake news is used to attack entire groups, like migrants

Almost 10 million people saw this video of migrants destroying a police car. The problem? It's also entirely fake -- it's actually from a movie, and was debunked years ago! That didn't stop far-right groups in Italy and across Europe from sharing it again, even just a few weeks ago -- and Facebook did nothing while it went viral, inflaming suspicion, hostility, and even hatred of immigrant people.

When disinformation is used to polarise and stoke fear and anger

In France, people shared a letter by French actor Gérard Lanvin over 251,000 times, criticising President Macron and his government! The only problem? It was completely fake, with the actor himself claiming he had been a victim of identity theft. It's a clear example of how disinformation is used to sow distrust of the government -- and why it's such a major threat to democracy. ​

     from Avaaz

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
From the St. Francis of Assisi JPIC Team,
April, 2019
 
Social Justice & the 2019 Federal Budget
 
   The government’s new budget commits to a bold vision in some critical areas for people living in poverty in Canada – but misses the mark by extending housing dollars to promote homeownership for the middle class, when so many people in Canada are homeless and living in unaffordable, inadequate housing.
   A central focus of the government’s budget is a commitment to a National Pharmacare Plan. The government’s budget relies on the release of the report of the Advisory Council on National Pharmacare coming later this year but promises a Canadian Drug Agency, and a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.
   Although Canada has the tenth largest Gross Domestic Product in the world, we are one of the only countries with national Medicare but lacking Pharmacare.
   The focus on the middle class and homeownership is out of step with where the most urgent needs lie – addressing homelessness for the more than 235,000 in Canada and lack of affordable, adequate housing for millions.
   In November 2017, the government launched the National Housing Strategy, recognizing the right to housing of all people in Canada for the first time – and committed a significant budget to the strategy. However, programs within the strategy like the Canada Housing Benefit, will not roll out until 2020.
 
(excerpt from the website of Canada Without Poverty, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to eradicating poverty in Canada and educating Canadians about the link between poverty and human rights.)