59 Cents

Yesterday a fair number of those in church wore red or tee-shirts with Canada emblazoned on them, or, in the case of one woman in her eighties, a towering Canada hat! I took along my Dominion Day tee-shirt, the vestige of a campaign started by the Globe and Mail newspaper to keep the term Dominion Day, rather than change it to Canada Day. People may have forgotten that the name Canada Day is only thirty years old and that the previous moniker came from psalm 72 which speaks of a "dominion from sea to sea."

It was great to see this patriotism and thanks to an idea from colleague and reader Anne we sang all Canadian-written hymn tunes or lyrics, then finished  with a rousing rendition of O Canada.

In the service I invited folk to consider participating in the 59 cent campaign. This initiative asks Canadians to mail 59 cents to Prime Minister Harper, which is the per capita cost of providing health care to refugee claimants. Of course Canada was and still is made strong through immigrants and refugees but on this Dominion/Canada Day weekend many health benefits were cut off for refugees. As mentioned before, there have been protests in a number of cities by doctors and other health care professionals who provide these services and are deeply concerned about this mean-spirited withdrawal.

I shared an open letter written by Christopher Majka whose parents were refugees. His father became a physician while his mother Mary Majka received the Order of Canada for her environmental work in New Brunswick. http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/christophermajka/2012/06/fifty-nine-cents-open-letter-prime-minister-stephen-harper

I'm sure some thought my urging was too political, but sometimes justice and compassion have political implications.

Have you heard about this campaign? Will you participate? Just won't work? Other thoughts?