In November 2019, Bishop Geoff
Woodcroft shared with me about his dream and vision for guaranteed basic income
(GBI) for every Canadian. The setting
was the district deans and archdeacons retreat. In a private conversation about GBI, I heard enormous
care and passion in Geoff’s voice. His
body language, voice and words exuded excitement, hopefulness and resolve to
work towards it. Because of busyness of
life and circumstances beyond my control, I did not have a chance to pick up my
conversation with Geoff re: GBI.
On May 3, 2020, Anglican House of
Bishops along with the National bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
and Lutheran bishop of Manitoba and North Western Ontario forwarded a letter to
the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance
encouraging them to bring in GBI for every resident of Canada. Resident in this context means citizens,
landed immigrants, refugees, seasonal foreign workers, indigenous peoples – in other
words, everyone in need should receive GBI.
It is indeed a remarkable witness of our bishops in these challenging
times. Bishop Woodcroft’s vision and
dream has become a reality and now is a time for all of us to work towards this
goal.
The bishops encouraged every
person regardless of their denomination to write to their member of parliament
and other political leaders to summon their support for this cause. Certainly, advocacy and lobbying are
extremely important not only to show numerical support to our bishops but also
to remind the politicians about their duty to listen to their constituents.
Social Media and press, at times,
have these sad indictments and comments about the new Canadians, refugees, and
the indigenous peoples of Canada. Comments
and opinions generally portray those in need as a burden on the society. Most of the information is misleading;
nevertheless, its primary purpose is to malign, stigmatie and blame the
vulnerable sector as the reason for all our financial, legal, ethical and moral
problems. We cannot ignore it neither
can we dismiss these sentiments by believing that no one will pay attention to
it. Social Media is an extremely
powerful and persuasive medium with inter-generational audience and consumers.
What we should and can do is to work,
simultaneously, on GBI and discrimination and discriminatory attitudes in our
society and our churches. The chorus of the
song, ‘we are one in the spirit’ rightfully proclaims, ‘they will know we are
Christians by our love’. Love, as we
know, conquers all and does not differentiate one from the other; in fact, love
brings everyone together.
By addressing privileges of
various kinds, all the
isms (sexism, racism etc.), hierarchy, patriarchy,
nepotism, and elitism in our own dioceses, parishes, congregations, clerics and
laity; we will not only be respecting and honouring everyone but will also be
setting an example for our neighbourhoods, cities and country.
