KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is a Canadian faith-based ecumenical organization effecting social change through advocacy, education and research programs in: Ecological Justice, Economic Justice, Energy and Extraction, Human Rights, Just and Sustainable Livelihoods, and Indigenous Peoples. These programs are informed by, and networked with, approximately 21 partner organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East; about eighty local grassroots groups across Canada; as well as with countless other organizations, churches and individuals.
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On July 1, 2001 KAIROS brought together the work of ten previous national ecumenical coalitions whose work ranged geographically from the Americas (including Canada) to Asia, Africa and the Middle East; thematically from human rights to economic justice, ecology, and aboriginal rights; and in practice from research to education and advocacy.
The KAIROS national Board is made up of representatives from its member churches and religious organizations:[1]
KAIROS is also a member of the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of Canadian non-governmental organizations for public interest work and education on international financial institutions, as well as the Canadian Council on International Cooperation, Mining Watch, and many others.
KAIROS' primary occupation is to help people to change current structures that allow hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and human rights abuses to occur. As such it supports positive structural transformation at a grassroots level, rather than providing humanitarian aid.
KAIROS current program framework is set out under the two main categories of ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Dignity & Rights’. Within these categories are the following projects: Climate Justice[2], Resource Extraction[3], Global Finance[4], Indigenous Rights[5], Women of Courage[6], Trade & Rights[7], & Migrant Justice[8]. KAIROS partners with small NGOs in a variety of Countries of Concern[9] (particularly Colombia, DR Congo, Palestine/Israel, Sudan and the Philippines) to carry out its programs.
KAIROS 2011-12 Campaign is on 'Truth, Reconciliation & Equity'[10]: working towards the realization of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples[11] (UNDRIP) in Canada.
KAIROS promotes its grassroots education and action campaigns via about 100 ecumenical community groups across Canada. KAIROS also works very closely, via its Global Partnerships Program, with grassroots organizations around the world with which it has built long-standing relationships. These Partners, from 2009, include:[12]
On November 30, 2009 CIDA informed KAIROS that its 2009-2013 program proposal (worth $7 million) had been rejected. The proposal, developed with support from CIDA staff and in collaboration with KAIROS’ Global Partners, was approved at every level of CIDA before being rejected by the Minister for International Cooperation, Bev Oda. A letter from the Minister Oda (sent four days after KAIROS received notice of the funding cut) claimed that KAIROS did not meet CIDA’s new thematic priorities (Food Security, Children and Youth, and Economic Growth) and that CIDA only funds projects that deliver “results that make a real difference to the lives of those living in poverty.” CIDA’s own evaluator, however, wrote that KAIROS’ 2006-2009 program “is very much in line with CIDA policies, particularly the United Nations (UN) Millennium Goals and with CIDA’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) priorities, Key Agency Results (KARS) and Strengthening Aid Effectiveness policy.” [13]
KAIROS resubmitted a program proposal to CIDA in March 2010. CIDA rejected the application a year and a half later (in Sept. 2011) citing that it would not be "good value for money".
On December 16, 2009, Jason Kenney, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, spoke at the ‘Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism’ in Jerusalem. As an example of its fight against anti-Semitism, he said his government had “defunded organizations … like KAIROS for taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign” against Israel[14] (NGO Monitor documented these accusations [15], and Ezra Levant accused Kairos of editing their web site after Kenney's speech.[16] Kairos denied these accusations. [17]). Minister Kenney later denied that this was the reason for the defunding.[18] It is possible that Minister Kenney mistook KAIROS Canada (who, in 2007, decided *against* advocating sanctions against Israel or a boycott of products from Israel [19]) for Kairos Palestine. [20]
In December 2010 "documents emerged showing that CIDA’s senior civil servants, including the agency’s president, Margaret Biggs, had recommended a new grant for Kairos, but the word “not” was inserted after they signed it – changing it to a rejection".[21] Minister Oda's handling of the document involved in KAIROS' defunding led to her being severely rebuked by the Speaker of the House of Commons [22] and to subsequent formal accusation of contempt for misleading the Commons.[23] The national election of May 2011 precluded the outcome of that accusation.