from Kim Thiessen
Dear MCC Canada and US leadership and board members,
My name is Kim Thiessen. I am a former MCC staff person, having worked with MCC Alberta from 1997 to 2016. I have seen and experienced the best of MCC in my work in Alberta, as well as internationally, visiting MCC partner work in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, US, Canada, and Kenya. And I have also witnessed first hand how poorly MCC has handled far too many terminations of both staff and volunteers, local and international. I am writing this letter as a supporter and advocate for all of those whose lives have been devastated by the actions of MCC leadership. And I am writing this letter as a supporter of MAST (MCC Abuse Survivors Together). If you are not aware of MAST and the open letter they released in June 2024, please visit https://www.mccabusesurvivors.org/ The open letter, survivor stories, letters of support, and press releases, are all available to read.
I have written numerous letters to MCC Canada and US leadership staff and boards regarding the open letter, and the call for an independent external investigation into MCC's handling of abuse allegations. Only an external process can provide the credibility, transparency, and impartiality needed to begin rebuilding MCC into the organization it purports to be. The call for an external investigation is not based just on the illegal termination of Anika Fast and John Clarke, rather, it is a call in support of all survivors who have been wrongfully terminated by MCC. MAST has collected more than 70 survivor stories of abuse, terminations without cause, gaslighting, harassment, intimidation, and more. Attached is a chart that details the types of abuse of people who have come forward. The abuse dates back to 1970 and is on-going.
As board members of MCC, I believe that you are committed to the values of peace, justice, truth-telling, and service in the name of Christ. I am deeply concerned about the lack of any meaningful and engaging response to survivor stories of harm. I am troubled that those values have not been front and centre in far too many employee/volunteer terminations. I am disappointed and frustrated that MCC public communications and responses to the open letter and the singular focus on Anicka Fast and John Clarke, and that the communications have consistently implied that they are to blame, and that they are difficult and uncooperative. Their lives have been upended, and the severing of ties that happened so fast and so harshly, is a trauma that Anicka and John and their children continue to deal with. Multiply that experience by the more than 70 stories collected from couples, individuals, and families, and by many more people who have not come forward. There are many cases that happened long before John and Anicka's "bad ending" with MCC. I ask that as a board you learn all that you can about the survivor stories, ask hard questions of senior staff, and please connect with and listen to those who have publically come forward about the hurt and abuse they experienced in MCC. Their stories deserve to be heard and acknowledged. Reparations need to be made.
I do not ask these things of you lightly. I believe in the work of MCC. I believe that national and international staff do critical work often in very difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. The partnerships I have visited are a testament to this. Please take actions to hold senior leadership, HR, and PLDR accountable to MCCs vision, mission, and values.
There are three requests that MAST has put forward to MCC, but have had little to no meaningful response to:
1. Accept the facilitated conversation parameters proposed by facilitators Cory Lockhart and Rus Funk on June 21, 2025 (attached), for conversations with Anika Fast and John Clarke. Agreeing to this reasonable request is a necessary first step toward repair.
2. Commit to an independent external investigation into MCC's handling of abuse allegations. An external investigation process can provide the credibility, transparency, and impartiality needed to begin rebuilding trust with survivors and donors. The choice of firm and the mandate of the investigation must be approved by the MAST steering committee. The investigation must include binding public recommendations about accountability for perpetrators and reparations for survivors.
3. Release survivors and former staff from non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that prevent truth-telling. This would be an act of restorative justice. The only thing the NDAs are protecting is MCCs reputation. Please consider reading this link and taking the pledge https://www.ndafree.org/pledge/
These steps are not sent out of hostility, but out of a deep commitment to seeing MCC's mission fully realized, and to see MCC embody the values it proclaims.
I will end with a plea for transparency from MCC leadership and boards. Please pressure MCC leadership to be transparent about cases highlighted on the MAST website. Ask leadership to provide: detailed financial information about the fees that have/are being paid to lawyers when dealing with "problem" staff or volunteers; a copy of an NDA that leadership ask staff or volunteers to sign during a termination process; financial details about NDA payouts; financial information about staff or volunteers who refused to sign an NDA (was the payout drastically reduced if they refused to sign?); detailed financial information regarding travel costs, local, national, and international, to "deal" with "problem" staff and/or volunteers. As board members, you deserve to see those numbers, and more importantly, MCC donors deserve to see those numbers.
I am not writing this letter because I want to "bring down MCC". I am writing this letter because I believe in MCC. I have since I was a young child. I believe in the work that so many good people carry out around the world in partnership with local communities and organizations. But I also believe that MCC can and must do better in relation to its staff and volunteers. Service in the name of Christ is a high and worthy goal. I hope that MCC can find its way back to living out that goal.
Sincerely,
Kim Thiessen