The buzz has been circulating for what will be an IMMENSE gathering of activists, front-line fighters, and allies alike for the protection of Mother Earth.
Starting this Monday, hundreds (hopefully thousands!) will descend on Queen’s Park in Toronto to stand up for the rights of Indigenous peoples to govern and take care of our own land.
I’ll be facilitating Wednesday, so I hope to see you there!
OFFICIAL INFO AND WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
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There’s an interesting trend developing in US queer rights cases at the moment. Hot on the heels of the California marriage decision, the federal appeals court in California has reinstated a lawsuit challenging “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
The lawsuit is being brought by a decorated Air Force flight nurse who was thrown out of the military after a civilian tip-off about her six-year relationship with another woman. The case was initially dismissed, but the US Court of Appeals has reinstated it.
What’s interesting is the reason for the Court of Appeals’ decision. There was an article on Slate earlier this week that explained the significance of the California marriage decision (it’s written by Kenji Yoshino, who is incidentally the author of Covering, a discussion of the ways in which society’s limited tolerance of race and homosexuality demands that nobody flaunt their difference).
The article explains, with the minimum of legal jargon, the difference between “rational basis” and “strict scrutiny”, two different standards of review applied by the courts to constitutional laws that constitute the main distinction between the gay marriage decision in Massachusetts, and the one in California.
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SHAMELESS has already brought attention to the ridiculousness that is Bill C484, and next week on May 28th we will debunk the surrounding myths of this dangerous anti-woman and anti-choice bill.
A People’s Hearing on proposed Bill C484 ‘Fetal Homicide Bill’
Wednesday, May 28 7:00pm-9:00pm
Student Centre at Ryerson University, 55 Gould St.
A private member’s bill called The “Unborn Victims of Crime Act” (C-484), passed Second Reading in Parliament on March 5. This bill would amend the Criminal Code to allow separate homicide charges to be laid in the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman is attacked. If passed, this bill would be an unconstitutional infringement on women’s rights, and would likely result in harms against pregnant women. It is a key step towards re-criminalizing abortion, but it could also criminalize pregnant women for behaviours perceived to harm their fetuses.
The language and surrounding issues of this bill are unclear for many, so this event will aim to concretely address the real risks this bill poses to reproductive rights in Canada.
Featured speakers:
Shelly Gavigan, Osgoode law professor
Jessica Yee, Canadians for Choice
Ronda Rofey, Women’s Habitat
Ayesha Adami, Immigrant Women’s Health Centre
Organized by the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics
For more info contact: ocac@sympatico.ca or 416-969-8463
The Campaign for a Democratic Media is heading to Parliament Hill on Tuesday for a Net Neutrality Rally (I love rhyming names!) to demand broadband access and choice for all, as part of their campaign to stop internet throttling by telecommunications corporations.
Tuesday May 27, 2008
Parliament Hill, Ottawa
Event starts at 11:30 am
Speeches start at 1 PM
Speakers include:
Charlie Angus - NDP MP Mauril Béllanger - Liberal MP
Steve Anderson – Campaign For Democratic Media & SaveOurNet.ca
James Clancy - NUPGE
Philippa Lawson - CIPPIC
John Selwyn - National Capital Freenet
Meera Karunananthan - Council of Canadians
Buses available from Toronto, Montreal, and Chatham. If you can’t make the rally, you can get involved online.
From our good friends at Kickaction.ca
We are so pleased to announce L Project, our brand new, national, leadership training program!
Where: Camp Perce-Neige – an hour north west of Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains.
When: October 19-26, 2008
L Project – Leadership Building for Young Women is a training for 20 young women, ages 16-24, from across Canada. L Project is for young women who have an interest in getting involved in their community and want to create action on issues that are important to them. For 7 days, 20 girls from across the country will be getting together to do activities and workshops about how to organize, plan events, talk to the media, report on projects, change policies and change their world! Afterward, we will be participating in PCN/FA’s National Network Retreat, where we will do skill-building workshops, intergenerational networking, sharing projects and knowledge and more!
The L Project training is part of a larger program. We expect that participants come to the training having done some thinking and research on issues that interest them in their community. The L Project extends beyond the training too! We will
support participants in finding mentors and getting their ideas off the ground in the months after meeting. If you would like to participate in this event, please take into consideration that it is a longer commitment than the 7 day training!
The deadline to register is June 23, 2008.
Space is limited so register now!
PCN/FA will be financing the travel and accommodation costs of those who are not able to do so. Please indicate on the application form whether or not you require a subsidy to participate.
For more information and online registration click here!
Okay this just annoys me.
First Place Pregnancy Centre was one of three charities designated by the Sens Better Halves, a group of Ottawa Senators’ wives and girlfriends, to receive funds from the SENSational Tree Raffle organized last November. In December, First Place withdrew from the fundraiser after Planned Parenthood issued a press release saying the group was “anti-choice.”
First Place executive director Terri Mazik said her group has since noticed “a severe decline” in clients. The statement of claim names Planned Parenthood, executive director Stephanie Piché, and Heather Greenwood, program co-ordinator.
For real? This is what First Place has the time and funds to be doing?
And for the record, there is absolutely no doubt that they are anti-choice, anti-woman, and extremely judgemental. It is ridiculously unfair to trick people into thinking you are going to support and give them “options” when you get through their doors and the tactics to steer you away from actual choices (with what you want to do with your body) interestingly enough begin. It is part of the ongoing problem with these so-called “pregnancy crisis centres” popping up across the country that SHAMELESS has blogged on before.
Feministing‘s recent series of guest posts from Justice Now, a women’s prison justice group, has really got me thinking. The poster at the top of this most recent post lays it out:
Increase of Women in Prison, 1980s to present: 14,000 to 140,000. Female offenders, mostly black women, are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. 80% of them are imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses.
I’m no expert, but my guess would be that much of this stems from the United States’ mandatory minimums on crack cocaine. Crack, which is stereotypically associated with people of colour, carries much tougher penalties than powdered cocaine, associated with the white elite. And even though the majority of crack users are white, most people who go to jail for crack use are Black. (I double-checked these points with this great fact sheet from PublicEye.org on racism in the American justice system.)
A couple months ago, I launched a blog about my first love, feminism, and my current intellectual passion, economics. I’m doing my best to make EconomicWoman.com accessible to economists who haven’t encountered much feminism and to feminists who haven’t encountered much economics, without boring those who are already interested in both.
My site now has a bit of an audience, so the comment threads are more lively every day. Despite the fact that two very different intellectual groups are meeting up, everyone has been quite civil. *crosses fingers* Still, I’d like to see a few more women commenting. So please, come over and join the discussion!
Wired Wednesday is on auto-pilot this week. As I’m moving tomorrow, and even this post is written from the floor, using stolen wireless, eating a sad little muffin. So I give you a link medley week. Some newfangled things, and a bunch of classics. Hold onto your mice.
GAMES
* A teaser for a game I’ve been looking forward to forever (okay, since last summer) — Mirror’s Edge. Featuring a strong, smart, athletic, neither over nor undersexed female lead. Le drool.
Ever thought your parents were evil? Ever feel like you were raised by super villains?
Playing on suspicions we all might’ve had about our families at some point, the kids in Runaways discover that their parents are part of an association of the most powerful super villains in LA. They band together against their parents (and other bad guys) and run away to make up for the destruction their parents have caused.
Runaways is a monthly series (one issue comes out each month, they’re later collected into books), put out by Marvel comics. It’s a mainstream comics series, but it has some of the most inclusive representations and stories of any comic series.
For example, Runaways features some of the best female characters in comics. There’s Nico, who learns her parents’ magic, becomes a wizard and eventully becomes the leader of the team. Karolina, who realizes she’s both an alien and queer. Gert, smart and sardonic, who would probably read Shameless, and has a psychic connection with a razor-toothed dinosaur. The youngest member of the team, Molly, is also the strongest. She’s a mutant and can beat up just about anyone.
The Runaways kids are diverse in gender, race, sexuality and even body types. Writer Brian K. Vaughn does an amazing job of having diverse representations without having any token characters. The kids talk about race, and sexuality (it’s part of who they are) but it’s only one part of their complex characters.
Plus: How to get published, pay for school, and bind your own books.
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