F-email Fightback - 2007 - looking in the rearview mirror

Blogging for one year - here's a look back at some of our posts....

January

We cheered for the women who held a Sit-in at BC/Yukon Status of Women Canada Vancouver Office

February

We were delighted to promote the new website for the Ad-hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights website http://www.womensequality.ca/

We cheered for the women who occupied the SWC office in St. John's

We joined the “Women are angry” valentine card campaign to Harper: (“Chocolates and flowers don't last, but Equality is Forever) while cheering with the Halifax RadicalFeminist Cheerleaders

March

We yelled “shame” at Stephen Harper’s flip flop on child care which showed that the Conservative government can’t support its own ill-conceived child care policy.

We sent kudos to the Angry Women On The Halifax Pier" and we reported on the March 30 rallies for Status of Women (in Toronto and Hamilton) and Child Care

We cheered Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin who said the courts are now facing growing pains that are limiting access to the justice Canadians deserve

We sent kudos to LabourStart's IWD news page which proved so popular they made it a permanent feature

April

We promoted Bill C303, the Early Learning and Child Care Act

We were surprised that our post on male privilege was so appreciated in the blogosphere

We were thankful to xtra.ca for giving us a countdown of 60 of the ways Harper is reshaping Canada in his own image. We had fun creating cartoons!

May

We echoed rabble.ca mockery of those who support exorbitant bills for the military action while denying government funding for festivals in Quebec, Canadian studies research, cultural programs, recreation, social housing, urban transit, student bursaries, court challenges, women's shelters, and child care

We were sad to report that in Alberta - "Basically zero child care spaces available"

We couldn’t believe that Feds can't say for sure where $2 billion in child-care funding went?

We cheered the results of the Manitoba election - women won more seats than ever

June

We cheered 150 members of the Women Against Poverty Collective (WPAC) who took to the streets of Toronto to take part in an anti-poverty demonstration.

We were saddened to read that a motion by the Anglican Church of Canada to bless same-sex unions lost by only two votes.

We saluted Jinny Simms who said "Goodbye for now" as the head of the BC Teachers' Federation makes way for a new President.

July

We urged women to Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)

We were disappointed that the Supreme Court of Canada launched a new portal for litigants wishing to represent themselves before Canada’s highest court. (The “Representing Yourself” portal ) We wish that the Court Challenge Program was reinsituted instead

We promoted The Child Care Advocacy Forum has launched a new website: "Setting the Record Straight". Their goal with this feature is to get underneath government 'spin' about child care announcements and decisions.

We joined in on the fundraising campaign to save NAWL from closing

August

We spread rumours about Bev Oda – the enigmatic and lacklustre head of culture as heritage minister since early 2006 – who was rumoured to be a likely target for Stephen Harper cabinet shuffle. Bev Oda and Josee Verner then switched posts

We reported that two Vancouver lawyers launched a constitutional challenge of Canada's prostitution laws, arguing they force sex workers into unsafe conditions and infringe a sex worker's right to freedom of expression

We knew that women in Canada and Quebec were smart - According to recent polls, 71 per cent or more of Canadian women say they do not support Harper, and in Quebec it is even worse if you’re the prime minister of a minority government looking for a majority. As few as 14 per cent of Quebec women say they would vote for Harper.

September

We reported vicious sexual assaults on campuses, and as a new threat appeared at a third school, Canadian universities beefed up their security measures

We sadly reported that the latest organization to close its doors was the 33-year-old National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), which lost a critical $300,000 a year after Status of Women Canada changed its funding rules last fall.

We cautioned that Tax Cuts Come With a High Price

We were happy to report that for the first time in Canada's labour history, more women than men are joining unions, according to a recent Statistics Canada Labour Force survey. And women now hold a majority of jobs in core federal government employment, a dramatic shift over the past decade.

October

We celebrated the The 80th anniversary of the Persons Case

We criticized Harper’s Tories for not delivering a single one of the 125,000 child care spaces they promised

We rejoiced that the cookbook – “Out of the Kitchen, Cooking Up Equality” - wass rolling off the presses in October !!!

We alerted readers that 'Big-box' daycare coming to Canada

We reiterated once again that Harper lacks the political will to abolish child poverty - More than 1 million children, one in six kids in Canada, live in poverty.

November

We advocated for Jordan's Principle and urged others to do likewise

We were sad to report that thousands of women are turned away from Alberta women's shelters

We had fun promoting Olivia's Adventures in The Land Of Pay Equity ”(As published in NB Women’s News)

We joined the party to celebrate Canada’s New Democratic party marking 40 years of fighting for LGBT rights

December

We reproduced Pamela Cross’ piece Violence rooted in inequality

We proudly reported that advocacy groups head to court to fight cancellation of the court challenges program

We loved the Ad-hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights presents an animated response to the Stephen Harper Conservative Government's 2006 cuts

We sent kudos to Burnaby-Douglas MP Bill Siksay is calling for transgender and transsexual people to be protected under Canadian hate crime laws.

We sent more kudos to The Sudbury City Council whovoted in favour to amend the Purchase of Service agreements so that in the future, only public and/or not-for-profit child care qualifies for any form of public funding

R.I.P.

We mourned the deaths of activist Jane Rule; author Peg Bracken of the I Hate to Cook Book; Ukranian feminist pioneer Halyna Chomiak Freeland; Cuban revolutionary Vilma Espin ; Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe; former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto; feminist icon and former Chatelaine editor Doris Anderson; first female Supreme Court Judge Bertha Wilson ; activist June Callwood; Elder and Warrior Harriet Nahanee

Offensive Quotes of the Year

MP Irene Mathyssen (NDP): Mr. Speaker, the government … does not have any intention of promoting equality. We will not rest until we have equality, pay equity and real child care. When can women finally achieve real equality in our country?
Minister Bev Oda (Status of Women): "Mr. Speaker, the women in Canada know that they will achieve full participation in Canadian society when they continue to support the government."
Excerpt, House of Commons Hansard, 14 February, 2007.

The member (Jacques Gourde) said:
Often, a father will give his son advice on how to select a heating system. That is not usually something a mother discusses with her daughter; a mother is more likely to advise her daughter on what curtains to pick. That is the reality. It may be sexist, but that is the reality.

"Status of Women is a make-work project for radical feminism,” said Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women"REAL women" complain: Hearings by Status of Women Committee a Hoax

Early in the campaign, Action democratique du Quebec Leader Mario Dumont is forced to fire two candidates, one for scoffing at violence against women and the other for suggesting Quebecers need to make more babies to avoid being overwhelmed by "ethnics."

"I was not aware until yesterday [Tuesday] that the President of Liberia (first woman elected as a head of state in Africa ) was here," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons. Mr. Harper met instead with Vladislav Tretiak, the famous Russian goalie who was in town trying to win support for another Canada-Russia hockey summit.

Hurst, a general manager with Industry Canada, is reported to have sent out 31 allegedly racist, sexist e-mails from his office. The e-mail messages are said to have depicted images of four naked women, one of whom was an older Aboriginal woman exposing her breasts. The attached message in the e-mail was "pick Miss Northwest Territories."

Reports from 2005 and 2006 say the SWC's own staff labelled the Status of Women office as "a relic of the past" and that its effectiveness was hobbled as gender equity slipped from being "a top-of-the-agenda issue" in Ottawa.

For the next 5 years, Canada is giving $500,000/yr to the Conference of Defence Associations, "the oldest and most influential advocacy group in Canada's defence community", to promote better understanding of defence issues and of the contributions of Canadian Forces. Harper Supports Advocacy, Just Not Women's

This video was old news but f-email fightback loves Lewis Black especially when he talks about Jerry Falwell blaming 9/11 on the Pagans and the Feminists