Can-Con

New Apps Tackle Dating Violence, Street Harassment

notyourbabyby Jarrah Hodge

Back in 2011 Gender Focus contributor Roxanna Bennett reported on YWCA Canada’s Safety Siren app, which gave women and girls a way to use their smart phones to learn about dating violence and easily send an emergency signal if ever in danger.

Now, other Canadian non-profits are adapting our new technology to give young women new, on-the-spot tools to fight violence and harassment.

Toronto non-profit METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children) launched their “Not Your Baby” app last fall after they heard many people saying they didn’t know how to deal with harassment on the spot. The app provides a technological solution to help people as they experience harassment. People using the app select where they are and what kind of harassment they are experiencing and the app pops up helpful suggestions. Users can also submit their own suggestions for how to deal with these kinds of difficult situations.

METRAC Communications Director Andrea Gunraj told me that over 250 people responded to their survey in the lead-up to creating the app: “We found that people had a diversity of responses depending on the context and situation of the harassment. I learned a lot reading peoples’ comments and stories and felt that ideas on dealing with harassment at school were so smart, especially when it’s not easy to make a complaint or the person harassing you is a friend.”

Gunraj is pleased by the media coverage and positive feedback they’ve had so far. Being out there alongside other campaigns like Hollaback! and Stop Street Harassment, Gunraj is optimistic that more people are becoming aware of harassment as an issue, but warns “we have a long way to go before harassment is seen as unacceptable in any space – street, home, work, malls, public transit, and so on. There is still the idea that some people are ‘fair game’ for harassment just by virtue of who they are.”

Another new initiative has come out of BC, where the Ending Violence Association has partnered with Telus on an app for women who are at a high risk of violence. The SOS Response app is being piloted in Prince George, Courtenay, Terrace, Vernon and Surrey. Local assistance programs in those communities are identifying at-risk women and providing them with a phone with the app installed. The app is very simple for a woman in crisis to use. All she has to do is press a button and the phone takes 30 photos in 30 seconds, which are sent to the security monitoring centre along with GPS information.

“The SOS mobile monitored alarm app is an easy-to-use, cost-efficient tool that will increase safety for women across Canada who are fleeing violence,” said Tracy Porteous, Executive Director of EVA BC. “The program is also a great example of community and business working together in the most positive of ways.”

Of course,these kinds of apps aren’t enough in and of themselves. As Gunraj told me about “Not My Baby”, “It’s a simple app and not an end-all solution, but it’s just one way of broadening the dialogue.”  If new technology can be leveraged in this way to give useful information and help women and girls feel safer and more empowered in their space, that’s a huge step in the right direction.

 

Posted on May 18, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism Leave a comment

Harper’s Gendered Attack on Justin Trudeau

Recent print attack ad against Justin Trudeau by the Conservatives.

Recent print attack ad against Justin Trudeau by the Conservatives.

by Matt Moir. Matt is a writer based in Toronto.

Michelle Rempel rolled her eyes and paused, choosing her words carefully.

Standing in the lobby outside the House of Commons, the Conservative MP for Calgary Centre had just been informed that she had been voted Sexiest Female MP in an Ottawa newspaper’s annual poll.

“I get the opportunity to speak to a lot of women’s groups about encouraging women to run for office, and about women’s leadership issues and the number one thing I always say is women should be judged and evaluated by their merit.”

If only her boss would heed her message.

Her Conservative Party’s negative ad campaign against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau may, as some have claimed, be successfully rallying the Tory base, and thus helping the party fill its coffers. But it’s also alienating a section of the electorate vital to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chances of winning another majority government: female voters.

Trudeau’s poll numbers are overwhelmingly positive among women. A recent Harris/Decima poll found that 61% of Canadian women view Trudeau favorably, whereas Harper is viewed favorably by only 37% of women.

Some commentators attribute this support for Trudeau to the fact that women in Canada traditionally are more supportive of left-leaning politicians than conservative ones.

Others say that women are drawn to the Liberal leader’s charisma and good looks- he was, after all, voted sexiest MP in The Hill Times’ annual survey.

What shouldn’t be discounted, though – and what probably should be explored further – is that Canadian women might be able to identify with the young MP, and the nature of the personal attack ads he’s had to endure.

Immediately after Trudeau won his party’s leadership race, the Tories unleashed a torrent of ads attacking the newly minted Liberal leader. This is nothing new, of course. The Conservatives are well versed in the art of the political takedown; just ask Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. But what makes the ‘Justin’ ads different is the unseemly gender baiting aspect to them. Read more

Posted on May 13, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Politics Leave a comment

Why the Delay Approving RU486 in Canada?

ru486by Jarrah Hodge

Australia is well on its way to making publicly available mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs that make up RU486, used for abortion up to 49 days after becoming pregnant. If you’ve never heard of it it might sound a little scary, and that’s the angle anti-choice activists and legislators love to promote, but the truth is RU486 has been around for more than 20 years and has been demonstrated to be very safe. It is approved for use in 38 countries and is the preferred method for medical abortion in many, including France.

According to the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, RU486 has been associated with proportionately fewer deaths than Tylenol or Viagra. It’s also less risky than going through a full-term pregnancy.

Gail Rhyno at ROAR notes that RU486 is on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines, which catalogues 312 drugs considered international benchmarks in meeting “priority care needs”.

If a woman needs to terminate a pregnancy, it doesn’t make sense to prevent her from choosing this option. It allows a woman to make the decision with her family doctor and not have to face in many cases travelling long distances to a clinic where they may be subject to anti-choice harassment. Even more importantly, it has lower complication rates and is significantly cheaper than other forms of medical abortion. In Australia, public pharmaceutical coverage is likely to make RU486 available to all women for $36, and $12 for women who receive benefits.

So why the delay in Canada? In a country where many women still face barriers to accessing surgical abortion, it would certainly fill a need. It’s important to note there is an approved method of medical abortion in some places in Canada, but it’s not as efficient or effective. Health Canada’s procedures for approving drugs are stringent (as they should be), but the issue is not that the drug has gone through the process and failed; it has never been submitted to the final step for approval. Some RU486 advocates believe that what’s missing to get it through the process is political will and a greater commitment from Health Canada.  Fern Hill at Dammit Janet points out that Health Canada’s handling of the recent Apotex birth control pill recall raised questions about the agency’s level of understanding of women’s reproductive health needs.

The best thing to do right now is for people who care about reproductive health to educate themselves on RU486 and to raise the issue with your family doctor or OB/GYN. It’s time for Canada to catch up with the rest of the world on making private abortion safer and more effective.

(photo of pills [not RU486]  via Wikimedia Commons)

Posted on May 9, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Politics Leave a comment

YWCA Advocates for Homes for Women

HFW-Header

by Laura Riina. Laura is a YWCA Toronto Volunteer with the Y Act Up Campaign.

While we have known for years that poverty disproportionally affects women, what remains hidden is the rapid increase in Canadian women’s homelessness- as well as the domestic violence, growing economic inequality and sexual abuse that creates many of the conditions for homelessness.

What is important to remember is that women’s homelessness seems to affect some categories for women more than others. It impacts many vulnerable groups, including single mothers, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, women with mental health & addiction issues, racialized women, members of the LGBTQ population, and women with precarious immigration status. These groups are more likely to be at risk in the future as women are now Canada’s fastest growing homeless population. Even more concerning is that the majority of women’s homelessness is “hidden”.

Because of the great safety risk women face living on the streets, women are far more likely to resort to “hidden homelessness”. This can include couch-surfing with friends, staying with exploitative and abusive relatives, spending time in a shelter, or continuing to stay with an abusive partner. That women in these situations are homeless is often not recognized, and, as a result, women are greatly under-counted.

As a result, women are greatly under-counted in the homeless population and services are underfunded.

The phenomenon of increased women’s homelessness and economic inequality is not likely to change without rapid, comprehensive action from every level of government. This is an issue that impacts Canadian women, or status: Every year, 75,000-100,000 women and children leave their homes for the temporary safety of a shelter for abused women. 42% of homeless girls in Vancouver were First Nation, Métis or Inuit- a rate 10 times their representation in the general population. 55% of homeless women in Toronto have a mental health diagnosis, at double the rate of homeless men.

Our system for dealing with the homelessness of women and girls homelessness in Canada needs to change.

To combat this issue, YWCA Canada has created Homes for Women, a national campaign to prevent, reduce, and ultimately end the homelessness of women and girls in Canada.  YWCA Canada believes individuals and governments, community groups and corporations, trade unions and local leaders can all take meaningful action that prevents and reduces women’s homelessness. Some of the important policies the Homes for Women advocates include:

 

If you believe women have the right to a safe, secure home, please sign YWCA Canada’s national pledge to end women’s homelessness Sign the Pledge and consider donating to this important cause.

Posted on May 7, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism Leave a comment

DOXA Festival Pushes Boundaries, Inspires Social Change

doxaby Jarrah Hodge

As I mentioned the other week, Vancouver’s DOXA documentary film festival is coming up. In fact, it opens tonight! I’m a partner for the screening of Anne Braden: Southern Patriot coming up on Tuesday, but that’s not the only film I’m going to try to attend. There are a whole bunch of other films on issues of women’s rights, queer issues, and other social justice-y topics. It makes it hard to choose.

I was interested in what goes in to planning the festival and why it’s important for DOXA to show documentaries that deal with these kinds of social and political issues, so I did a quick interview with Dorothy Woodend, DOXA’s Director of Programming. Here’s what she had to say:

Q: Can you tell me a bit about how and why DOXA started?

The very first DOXA festival was held in 2000. It started as a small, grassroots event, with the intent to show films that you couldn’t see anywhere else at the time. The emphasis was not only on documentaries that engaged with social justice issues from around the globe, but also films that embodied the art of the documentary, meaning films that challenged the  the nature of the genre. We have worked very hard to maintain the original intent of the festival, while actively keeping pace with changes in filmmaking practice. As documentary has evolved and developed over the past twelve years, DOXA has grown alongside it.

Q: How does the festival choose the films that will be shown?

DOXA employs a very rigorous method choosing films for the festival. Every October, we issue an open call for film submissions that is sent around the globe to filmmakers, distributors, film institutes, film schools, and organizations. We have always kept our submission fee extremely low, so that it is not a barrier for anyone who wanted to submit a film to the festival. We also research films that in production, look at what other festivals are screening, as well as invite a number of films. We have a two-tiered system of screening films at DOXA. The screening committee, which is roughly 10-12 people, is the first set of eyes to look at the submissions. Ideally, a film is seen by at least 2-4 people, in order to ensure that there is a breadth of opinion and taste.  The programming committee is a smaller group of people who decide on thematic strands, pair features and shorts, and integrate the program as a whole with the aims of the festival’s mandate.

Q: Why do you think it’s important to explicitly promote films that address specific social issues like women’s rights and the environment?

I think it is extremely critical that we show films that address women’s issues, social justice, environment, The failure of traditional media has really allowed for the development of documentary to act as a form of long-form journalism. There are so many stories that would never see the light of day, if it wasn’t for the courage and commitment of individual filmmakers. I am always perpetually bowled over by what documentary filmmakers can do through sheer perseverance, tenacity and occasionally just plain old cussedness. I think that level of authenticity, for lack of a better term, is what drives audiences to actively seek out documentary films. We are living in a pretty strange and volatile time, and a great many of the films we show, dive deep into just how odd, terrible and curious the world is at the moment. The emotional impact of many of these films is what I am always struck by as well. These films do not pull any punches, and for that reason, they provoke, even demand a response. Read more

Posted on May 3, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Pop Culture Leave a comment

My Reality: Racism in Academia, Then and Now

Emily and her Great-Uncle Roy

Emily and her Great-Uncle Roy

by Emily Yakashiro. Emily is a 23 year old third-generation, mixed-race Canadian strongly committed to feminism and anti-oppression. She has a background in anti-violence work, and is the founder and editor of The Closet Feminist, a Canadian website focusing on fashion, personal style, and of course feminism which launched in December 2012.

One year ago I had the privilege of graduating from the University of British Columbia with my Bachelor of Arts. More importantly, I had the honor of graduating with my great-uncle, Roy Oshiro. I was 22, he was 90. My family picked me up and we drove to the Chan Centre; Uncle Roy jumped a plane from Okinawa. The journey we both experienced graduating from this particular institution was certainly a momentous one for my family, and has had me reflect a lot over the past year about what our graduations and education have meant to me.

I spent my entire undergrad degree at UBC. I was accepted easily, I got into all the courses I wanted to, I met a bunch of cool people and got my degree. My Uncle Roy, on the other hand, was kicked out in 1942 after his first year, and sent to work on a sugar beet farm in Lethbridge with the rest of my grandpa’s family. No UBC degree for him, on account of him being of Japanese descent in World War Two.

He eventually did return to post-secondary education, but not UBC. Seventy years later, my great-uncle did receive a degree from UBC, in an honorary ceremony recognizing the many Japanese-Canadian students the university dismissed during World War Two. Mind you, it is important to note that he received this honorary degree not because of initiative on behalf on the university to right this historical wrong, but because of the persistence of an amazing local woman named Mary Kitagawa.

What is especially remarkable about Kitigawa, is that prior to her campaign to grant the degrees, she had had no connection to UBC; her efforts were those of a conscientious activist from the community-at-large. I personally had no idea that my Uncle Roy had experienced this particular encounter with my alma mater, nor anything about Kitigawa’s lobbying until I was informed by my family that we would be in the same graduating class.

It really is amazing that both Uncle Roy and I could share this experience. Nevertheless, this experience has really had me thinking a lot about access, inclusivity, and institutionalized racism.

A quick view of the special honorary degree ceremony itself was certainly revealing. I attended the whole thing along with much of my family, and it was indeed a beautiful ceremony. I was surprised, therefore, that it wasn’t entirely sold out. From what I could see, the Chan Centre actually had quite a few seats available to an interested public. I also noticed that there weren’t as many people who appeared to be faculty members present as I would have thought. Note, of course, that during the time when the Japanese-Canadian students were banned from attending school at UBC, only a handful of professors spoke out against this injustice. In fact, from what I could see before, during, and after the ceremony, the majority of attendees (aside from the graduates themselves) appeared to be of Asian descent. Interesting.

My graduation ceremony was pretty standard, and thankfully reflected the diversity of students and faculty that UBC is known for. I did remind the Dean of Arts and Chancellor, however, as I crossed the stage and shook their hands that, “education is a right, and to please protect that right.” Though surprised, the Dean of Arts agreed with me heartily, which was a relief, and so did the Chancellor, though she had lost her voice from all the speaking she had had to do during all the ceremonies.

During the actual process of getting my degree (Major in Religion, Literature, and the Arts, and a minor in Political Science), a few things happened that made me think that maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t quite as welcome as I thought I was, being a third-generation, mixed-race Canadian. Read more

Posted on May 2, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, My Reality, Racism Leave a comment

Occupying Love

occupy-love-6by Jarrah Hodge

When B.C. filmmaker Velcrow Ripper started making Occupy Love in 2009, some of his activist friends weren’t sure what to make of his questions. How can the crises we’re facing socially, economically and environmentally become – of all things – a love story?

Occupy Love is the culmination of twelve-years spent filming social movements for his Fierce Love trilogy (it’s the third installment, after Scared Sacred and Fierce Light), but Velcrow Ripper’s involvement with social activism started even before that, growing up in Gibsons, B.C. In high school he got involved with local environmental campaigns protesting the spraying of DDT, and he worked to establish a student-run broadcast cable channel that still exists today. In 1995 he filmed and participated in the environmental protests at Clayoquot Sound and he says the fact that he grew up in a province with such a vibrant environmental movement shapes what he does today. It’s certainly a part of this trilogy.

Despite the initial confusion on the love story question, Ripper continued filming social movements from the Arab Spring to the European Summer, Occupy Wall Street and environmental movements. And he started seeing a shift, with more and more people responding: “Of course it’s a love story.” What that means is that the social movements emerging in response to these crises are becoming a movement of movements, joining in interdependence and interconnectedness.

I asked Velcrow Ripper about the way we see these kinds of movements represented in the mainstream media, about how if you’re not actually involved on the ground you might think some of the movements are no longer active. Ripper replied:

“I think the mainstream media doesn’t understand social movements, they don’t understand the interconnections between movements. They think in terms of news cycles and they only respond to spectacles…They see things in isolation, which is a real problem in Western society in general…it’s only when movements really have this full bloom moment that they get noticed but movements don’t stay in that mode all the time.” Read more

Posted on May 1, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con Leave a comment
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