Celebrating Feminism: Feminist pioneer shaped Alberta law

Prominent members of Edmonton's Ukrainian and legal communities, feminist pioneers of the 1960s and '70s, human- rights campaigners and left- wing activists gathered yesterday for the funeral of a woman who changed the legal and social landscape of Alberta.

Halyna Chomiak Freeland also helped shape the legal code of modern-day Ukraine, her parents' homeland.

Born in 1946 in a displaced persons camp in Germany, Freeland became one of only seven women who earned law degrees from the University of Alberta in 1970 and the only one who brought her infant daughter to class - convention be damned.

In the early stages of her career, she practised in Peace River country and soon became involved with native issues while flying in and out of aboriginal communities.

In Edmonton, married to lawyer Donald Freeland, she practised criminal as well as family law. They had two daughters before divorcing.

As a single mother, Freeland helped found the Hromada (Community) Housing Co-op in Edmonton.

She lived there with her daughters for a number of years.

In 1979, Freeland played a pivotal role in lobbying the Alberta legislature to pass the Matrimonial Property Act, after a farm wife was denied a share of the family farm in a divorce. Under the laws at the time, the woman's homemaking and domestic duties were deemed to have contributed nothing to the value of the property. The new act changed that.

She was also a founder of a feminist book store and an activist in the New Democratic Party.

From 1981 to 1987, Freeland taught courses on Feminist Theory and Women and the Law at the University of Alberta.

From 1990 to 1992, she pursued a master's degree in Slavic and Eastern European Studies at the University of Alberta. In 1992, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk asked her to oversee an organization that would set up a legal structure to support his country's new democracy and market economy.

Last September, Freeland was diagnosed with cancer. She died on July 6 in New York City with her family at her side.

LINK: Obituary

LINK: Edmonton Journal

People still talk about about Halyna Chomiak Freeland -- "the little communist" and the bane of middle-class, Anglo conservative males -- and how she mentored young feminists or plotted to change the world.

Strong opinions and beliefs were discussed at rowdy, high-energy meetings, often conducted in Ms. Freeland's home amidst piles of food and drink and marked by argument, good-natured barbs, laughter and song.

"Some of us were anarchists," recalls local writer Myrna Kostash. "Some were poets, some were potheads -- all trying to build an alternative community in an alternative way."

In 1988, she campaigned as the federal NDP candidate in the Strathcona riding, but by party standards she was far out on the left wing. In 1992, she won another nomination but it was taken away by the NDP's national headquarters, which said the constituency hadn't waited for party guidelines promoting the nomination of women.

Ms. Freeland's leftist leanings were a matter of controversy and jest for years. When the Law Society of Alberta celebrated its centenary, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Jack Watson wrote an essay that described the attitude of prosecutors to "this very unusual person."

Caption This?

Alpha Male: Conrad Black - 'nuff said

The myth of the alpha male finally bit the dust last week. Conrad Black, the erstwhile media baron and master of the universe, faces up to 20 years in prison, having been convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice. In a classic tale of rampant, hubristic masculinity, Black stole millions from his shareholders to maintain the facade that he was a jet-setting corporate titan who belonged among the world's elite. The former Telegraph chairman now faces swapping power lunches for open-plan latrines.

Black might now be in disgrace, but his domineering swagger was vital to his success. He maintained a belligerent, self-assured persona, convincing himself of his divine right to rule, to ensure others fell for it too. Had Black ever displayed the beta male qualities of doubt and diffidence, he would never have got away with so much for so long.

LINK: The Guardian

Oda said it....the path to equality...

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.

Ontario: Women MPPs' exit raises issue

The names keep on coming: Shelley Martel, Marie Bountrogianni, Jennifer Mossop, Mary Anne Chambers, Judy Marsales.

They are all members of the Ontario Legislature who have announced in the past few weeks that they will not be seeking re-election in the fall. One (Martel) is a New Democrat, the others are all Liberals.

And, of course, they're all women.

To be sure, there are some men quitting the Legislature as well – Liberal MPPs Richard Patten and Ernie Parsons. However, the former is 65 and has grown disillusioned with the place, and the latter found his riding swallowed up in redistribution. These things happen.

But the five women are all in their 40s and 50s – the prime of their political lives. Indeed, two of them (Bountrogianni and Chambers) are in cabinet, and a third (Martel) is a former minister and a front-bench opposition critic.

Their departure raises this question: is Queen's Park a female-unfriendly environment?

With so many women now quitting the Legislature, there could be some backsliding in this fall's election, notwithstanding the pledges of all three party leaders to nominate more women than ever before.

In making the pledge last month with Premier Dalton McGuinty and Hampton, Conservative Leader John Tory suggested the Legislature is "too testosterone-injected" and needs more women.

To this end, the Liberals have nominated 30 women (with 13 ridings still to come), the NDP 25 (with 49 ridings still to come and a target of 54 women overall), and the Conservatives 21 (with about 15 ridings to come).

But many of these women are running in ridings where they have no hope of winning or where they are pitted against other women.

LINK: TorStar

Representing Yourself at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC)?

The Court Challenges Program has been cancelled by the Conservative minority government.

The Court Challenges Program (CCP) is a very important program that funds test-cases initiated by individuals and groups to challenge federal laws and policies that violate their constitutional equality rights. With the help of CCP funding, women’s organizations and other equality-seeking groups have been able to access the justice system, and present progressive interpretations of the law. This has resulted in more egalitarian outcomes for women, gays and lesbians, persons with a disability and other disadvantaged groups.

NOW WHAT?

Late June 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada launched a new portal for litigants wishing to represent themselves before Canada’s highest court. The “Representing Yourself” portal provides litigants with step-by-step guides to both bringing and responding to an application for leave to appeal.

Naturally, all this is provided with a much needed proviso:

We always recommend that you get a “lawyer”. Remember that this is a guide meant to give you helpful information, not legal advice. We always recommend that you get a “lawyer”. A lawyer is in the best position to give you advice about the process and the likelihood of success.

At times like this we are reminded of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin’s comments on the issue of unrepresented litigants in her address to the 2006 CBA Canadian Legal Conference & Expo (a video of which can be found at CPAC’s Podium Archives):

[Lack of representation in the courts] does create great problems, not only for the litigants who are struggling to put their case forward without the aid of a lawyer, but for the judge, who–in a system which is designed to function with an able and independent adversary on each side–finds themselves in the difficult position of trying to aid the unrepresented litigant to the extent possible…while maintaining the judge’s role of impartiality, of impartial arbiter…

The judiciary of Canada is trying to cope with this epidemic of lack of representation and we’re doing better I think. But these solutions are imperfect at best. People seeking justice need not only judges, they need lawyers: competent, independent and affordable lawyers.

Restoring the Court Challenges Program would be a good solution

LINK: The Court.ca

Around Nunavut - Ministers agree to aid women's shelters

Status of women ministers meeting in Iqaluit this week agreed to work on finding ways to better support women's shelters in the North.

The ministers, including Leona Aglukkaq, the Nunavut status of women minister, and her federal counterpart, Bev Oda. produced a statement called the "Iqaluit Declaration." The document calls for action to reduce poverty, violence and discrimination against aboriginal women.

In a press conference following the ministers' two-day meeting, Aglukkaq declined to comment specifically about Premier Paul Okalik's off-colour comments in Labrador recently about a Nunavut woman.

LINK: nunatsiaq.com

LIBS - Promoting Women’s Equality in Canada

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion (July 13) told a roundtable discussion with Canadian women’s groups the Conservative minority government must respect the rights of women and promote their equality in Canadian society.

A dozen representatives from women’s equality-seeking organizations attended the meeting, including members of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), AFEAS Femmes En Mouvement, and Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW). The discussion focused on issues surrounding women’s equality in Canadian society and ways to better allow women to become more engaged in the political process.

The meeting was part of a series of roundtable discussions Mr. Dion is holding over the summer to listen to Canadians’concerns and discuss ways that the Liberal Party can help to address the problems they face on a daily basis.

During the meeting, the participants praised the work of the Liberal Women’s Caucus and encouraged Mr. Dion to incorporate policy recommendations outlined in the Liberal Pink Book (hyperlink) into the Party’s platform in the next election campaign, including a national early learning and child care plan, greater income security and improved maternity and parental benefits.

LINK: LPC

Feminist Mags - Leading from the front page

Six feminist magazines have launched in the UK in the past 18 months. Proof, says Jess McCabe, that the movement is being rejuvenated by a new breed of activist

Young feminists have focused on creating an alternative that doesn't simply avoid everyday sexism, but actively confronts it. As Barnes says: "Seeing adverts every day that tell me I must look and act a certain way in order to be fully complete as a woman, well, it just annoys me. I feel I must produce something that can counteract these negative messages."

While these 6 new magazines currently operate on a fairly small scale, it's notable that many successful, international feminist magazines had a similar provenance. In 1996, Bitch magazine started with 300 copies, as a photocopied zine; 11 years later it has a worldwide distribution of around 47,000.

LINK: The Guardian
LINK: KnockBack "arguing against the notion that high heels are empowering"
LINK: Uplift! "a magazine for women that won't be put down"

LINK: Subtext

LINK: Desperate Living

INTERESTING NOTE : It's goodbye to Jane, the magazine for 20-somethings created a decade ago by editor Jane Pratt. Two other magazines for young audiences that recently stopped publishing print editions, Teen People and ELLEgirl

Michèle Roberts has doubts about 'me, me, me' feminism

Born in 1949 into a middle-class home, the daughter of a French mother and an English father, she rebelled against her Roman Catholic background and sought out a radical, bohemian existence which embraced communal living, free love and the socialist feminism of the 70s.

The life she went on to create for herself, chronicled in her new autobiography, Paper Houses, has been as consciously mould-breaking as her experiments in fiction. Born in 1949 into a middle-class home, the daughter of a French mother and an English father, she rebelled against her Roman Catholic background and sought out a radical, bohemian existence which embraced communal living, free love and the socialist feminism of the 70s.

Roberts feels ambivalent about what has happened to feminism in the past 30 years. "My sort of feminism was defeated in the Thatcher years, as socialism was. I feel that the feminism that triumphed is the sort I don't like: what I call shoulderpads feminism. It's all about being an individual in a capitalist society. Put on your suit, go to the City, make a lot of money: it's all me, me, me. My sort of feminism is about collectivity. I think this sort of feminism still exists quietly, in women's friendships, for example. When I was young I could see women's friendships weren't valued. It was common that if you were going to see a woman friend and you got a date with a boy you broke the date with the girl. I don't think that would happen now."

The final paragraph of her memoir: "Love goes on. The love of friends. Friendship is my oxygen. I've said that often and it's true. Writing goes on too: I keep on building my paper house; my chrysalis."

LINK: The Guardian

Media Misogyny Watch - Inside Fox's Latest Anti-Feminist Reality Show

Fox wonders if women with “axes to grind” can “effectively rule society.”

AlterNet's Jessica L. Pozner writes:

It's not like I can be shocked by anything reality TV-related anymore, but I can certainly predict exactly what new shows will be like as soon as I read the promo blurbs. And a new reality show called "When Women Rule the World," coming soon from Fox and Rocket Science Laboratories (which brought us such craptacular concoctions of misogyny including Joe Millionaire, Married By America, Temptation Island and Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy), promises to be overtly political, anti-feminist backlash fare:

What if it was "a woman's world"? What if women made ALL the decisions? If men were their obedient subjects?

LINK: Inside Fox's Latest Anti-Feminist Reality Show

Senator Elaine McCoy's newly launched blog, "Hullabaloos"

Senator Elaine McCoy's new website and blog are worth a visit from both a web design and senate infosource perspective.

The flash intro on Senator McCoy's background, http://albertasenator.ca/, is quite interesting. Other Senator's websites are quite standard by comparison.

The actual blog, Hullabaloos, is well laid out and user friendly and a useful bookmark for news junkies. There are sections like news, views, reading room and guest editorials.

Quoted Background on Senator McCoy:

"Sitting in the Canadian Senate as a PROGRESSIVE Conservative from Alberta, McCoy adopts neither the Liberal nor the Harper government's Conservative party line, and presents a unique insider's perspective on Senate debates and deliberation.

Recent blog entries include commentary on the Senate budget vote --including Senator McCoy's amendment regarding income trusts -- and Kyoto, as well as Senate and other activity on such topics as safe injection sites, RCMP reform, climate change, Senate reform, and much more.

Trained first as a lawyer, Senator McCoy came to politics when she was handpicked by Peter Lougheed to replace him as an MLA in his Calgary West riding. After a successful election, McCoy was quickly promoted from rookie MLA to Premier Don Getty's Cabinet, where, over the years, she held several different Cabinet positions, including Minister of Labour.

In recent years, she has been President of the Macleod Institute(http://www.macleodinstitute.com ), a think tank headquartered at theUniversity of Calgary, and the Chair of Alberta's Climate Change Central, a multi-stakeholder organization formed to address climate change in the province ( http://www.climatechangecentral.com).

She was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005"