From 2019 to 2025, Amnesty’s Be There program has worked in over 150 countries to protect people affected by crisis and conflict. Watch five team members share their favorite projects and the human stories behind the impact.
Spark Newsletter
December 2025 | Vol 5 | No. 5
Spark is Amnesty International Canada’s monthly guide to activism and human rights in Canada (formerly known as the Activism Guide). From online petitions to events and important days of action, Spark is your resource for igniting change in your classroom or community, across Canada and around the world.
featured campaign
Bill 6: Why Punishing Poverty Fails Us All
Ontario’s Bill 6, the Safer Municipalities Act, is now law. Despite its name, it deepens the criminalization of poverty by expanding police powers and displacing people who are unhoused or use drugs.
Rather than addressing unsafe drug supply, lack of housing, and underfunded care, the law relies on enforcement and removal. This pushes people away from community and harm reduction supports, increasing isolation and preventable deaths.
Indigenous people, especially Indigenous women, will face disproportionate harm, reinforcing patterns of overpolicing, displacement, and ongoing colonial violence.
Urge the Ontario government to repeal Bill 6 and Bill 223 and invest in community-led harm reduction that protects life, dignity, and human rights.
Take Action
Defend hope for human rights
Upcoming Events
Write for Rights is still underway. Events are happening throughout December and into January. Find a Write for Rights event near you and join a community of people who care. Your presence and your words can help change lives.
View all Write for Rights events near you!
Upcoming Events
Member Spotlight
Linnea Nguyen: From Action to Leadership
From a first Write for Rights letter to shaping youth leadership across the Amnesty movement
My involvement with Amnesty began in my last year of high school, when a teacher hosted a Write for Rights 2019 letter-writing session. It was my first concrete engagement with global injustices, and I was deeply moved by the success stories showing what ordinary people can achieve through collective action. Seeing young people at the centre of these efforts made a lasting impression on me.
Soon after, I joined the Urgent Action Network and the National Organizers Program, where I met young activists already stepping into leadership in their schools and communities. Through this work, I learned how sustained, coordinated advocacy can create real pressure for change.
I later found my footing in governance as Strategy and Global Partnerships Officer for the National Youth Action and Advisory Committee, helping implement the National Youth Strategy and co-organizing the 2025 Youth Leadership Summit ahead of the AGM. Today, as Co-Chair of NYAAC and a Global Delegate, I work to strengthen youth voices across the Amnesty movement. What inspires me most is the ripple effect of empowerment, when one person gains confidence and creates space for others.
Amnesty has given me direction, community, and a deep belief that young people are not just the future of this movement, we are shaping it right now.
We’d love to hear from you too! Share your Amnesty journey with others in the movement by sending a short story to activism@amnesty.ca.
Get Involved
Write for Rights 2025
Share Your Impact and Inspire Others Around the World
Write for Rights is still unfolding in meaningful ways. Across Canada, small groups and individuals continue to gather, write letters, and stand in solidarity with people whose rights are under threat.
Recently, members of the Amnesty Group in Winnipeg came together in one of their homes to write letters. It was a simple, powerful reminder that Write for Rights lives in living rooms, classrooms, and community spaces wherever people choose to show up for human rights.
If you’ve taken part this season, we’d love to hear from you. Report your action using the form below and share your stories and photos with us at writeforrights@amnesty.ca.
Start or Strengthen Your Amnesty Club
Connect, learn, and get inspired by student-led human rights action
Interested in starting an Amnesty club at your school or looking for ideas for your existing club?
Join our online info session and meet other student activists from across the country. Learn about Amnesty’s Youth Program, pick up practical tips for events and club leadership, and get your questions answered.
We are offering two sessions — pick the one that works best for you:
➡️ Tuesday February 3, 7:00–8:00 PM EST (Register here)
➡️ Sunday February 8, 1:00–2:00 PM EST (Register here)
We hope to see you there!
Sign up for the Spark Newsletter
Sign up and get the latest stories of courage, updates on urgent campaigns, and ways to connect with the wider Amnesty community, right to your inbox.
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Recommended resources
Check out some recommended Human Rights content curated by Amnesty members just like you.
Read
Catch up on what you’ve missed! Visit the Book Club archive to explore past book selections and download discussion guides for meaningful conversations on human rights and justice.
Listen
What does resistance look like when girls are denied an education? In this special episode of On the Side of Humanity, Amnesty’s Global Human Rights Defenders team speaks with Fatema Uzgun Nusrat, who runs a secret online school for girls in Afghanistan.
Donate
Amnesty Canada doesn’t accept funding from the government. We rely solely upon the generosity of people like you to keep doing our crucial human rights work.
December 9, 2025
A welfare payment denied. A visa delayed. A protest quietly surveilled. Around the world, automated systems are shaping access to services, freedom, and safety, often without transparency or accountability. Built for efficiency, they frequently reproduce discrimination and leave people with little ability to challenge life-altering decisions.
This Amnesty International toolkit draws on years of investigations by the Algorithmic Accountability Lab to help journalists, civil society, and community groups uncover these systems, document their human rights impacts, and push for change. Explore the toolkit to learn how to investigate, expose, and challenge harmful uses of AI in the public sector.
The Urgent Action Network
By becoming a member, you can help protect people at imminent risk
Amnesty campaigns for human rights in many ways, but when safety is a concern of the individual at risk, the best way to ensure their protection is the Urgent Action Network. Volunteers use letters, emails, and social media posts to urge authorities around the world to protect individuals and communities at risk of imminent human rights violations.
Over the past five decades, the Urgent Action Network has become one of Amnesty’s most effective campaign tools. Worldwide, more than 500,000 volunteers worldwide are standing by to take action. Want to join them? It takes just a moment to sign up. As a member of the Urgent Action Network, you’ll become a lifeline for those in immediate danger of human rights abuses.
hope in action
Stories to Energize and Inspire Your Activism
Thank you for supporting human rights
Sharing these success stories is only possible thanks to the continued generosity of donors like you.
