The Pride Toronto Dyke March Committee invites all members of the
women's and trans' LGBTTIQQ2S communities to come hear from, and vote
for, this year's unstoppable Honoured Dyke and Honoured Group
nominees.
Presentations and voting will take place at the Pride Toronto General
Meeting:
TUESDAY, APRIL 3rd, 7pm, 519 COMMUNITY CENTRE
Additionally, voting will be open April 3rd from 4pm to 6pm at the
Pride Office 65 Wellesley Street East, Suite 501.
In the scheduling of the Honoured Dyke and Honoured Group voting,
Stephanie and I were late to recognize that April 3rd is a day of
celebration for the Jewish Community. We sincerely apologize for this
oversight, and hope that the additional afternoon voting period will
allow those who attend Seder an opportunity to participate in the selection
process. As always, please let us know if there any questions or concerns.
Both the Pride Office and the 519 Community Centre are accessible spaces
for people with mobility dis/abilities.
Child care will not be provided, but children are welcome to attend.
This is a trans positive space.
Don't have time to blog much right now, but I needed to post about this video. You must watch this video -- it's brilliant. Joy Nash, I love you.
I've never laughed so hard at a letter to the editor before in my life. I mean, you have to laugh right? Otherwise you start to remember that there really are people out there who believe this crap.I'm not sure which is funnier -- that this person actually uses the fact that our money mentions god as proof that we should all believe in this concept, or the fact that this person seems to think "
As the dust of the New Bedford raid's aftermath settles, of course, we would expect to see the requisite "he-said/she said" game about who said what to whom before the whole ugly thing went down. The fact is, what happened last week at the Michael Bianco sweatshop was police brutality and racial profiling in a new era of slave catchers. Read the opinion piece in the Boston Banner, Boston's black
There's just too much oppression going on. We need more liberation. Today, at the Trinity Church in Boston, just a little less than an hour from the site of a recent sweatshop raid in New Bedford, that has galvanized the attention of people, freed workers talked about what happened. Three women, all mothers, told their stories, which, of course, were horrible. They spoke of being shackled, yelled
At ReZoom.com, they are collecting votes for "A Better World" Awards. You can vote once a day (every day) until March 31, 2007. More than 20 charities will win $5,000, with the grand prize winner winning $100,000. You can check to see if your favorite charity is already nominated and vote for them. If it's not, you can nominate them by filling out the on-line submission form and writing an essay
The rally and march haven't happened in Toronto yet, but Internation Women's Day did bring some fun surprises.
The members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) who spent International Women's Day in Status of Women Minister Bev Oda's constituency office say it was a day well spent.
"Since Minister Oda didn't ask us to celebrate International Women's Day
with her, we decided to invite ourselves," says PSAC Regional Executive
Vice-President for Ontario Gerry Halabecki, one of the members installed in
the office. "We felt she needed to hear first hand how the Harper government
is failing women." - PSAC
One reporter called International Women's Day "Beat Up on Bev Oda Day."
International Women's Day became Beat Up On Bev Oda Day, as politicians and advocacy groups lined up to blast the Conservative cabinet minister for cuts and mandate changes at Status of Women Canada.
Oda's constituency office in Bowmanville, Ont. was occupied for several hours Thursday by members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada protesting the moves.
A day earlier, Oda had announced a $5-million increase in grants the agency distributes for women's projects. The money amounts to a redirection of a $5-million cut to Status of Women's administrative budget last September, resulting in the closure of 12 of 16 regional offices on April 1. - Canada.com
I somehow missed the news that Oda had given the $5 million back in a ideologically-based apology. "Equality" hasn't been added back into the language of women's programs and the grants still can't be used for advocacy. It must go to band-aid solutions, not sociological change. Nice.
In Iran, women were arrested in clash with police on IWD:
Iranian police and activists clash on women's day
I may not know all there is to know about immigration laws and what not, but I do know that it is wrong to criminalize and terrorize people who, like my own ancestors, risk their lives to make a better life for their kids and families. And this is exactly with what the US government is doing to immigrant families with these raids. This post is not a debate about policies and legalities. This is
I feel bad. I'm not doing anything remotely women-positive today: International Women's Day. And there's this curious thing called "Blog Against Sexism Day" which I don't quite understand. How does blogging one way or another do anything when you only do it on a specific day?
It's like telling people: "Today is talk all about your mother day." What does that mean? Why would I do it today and not tomorrow? Is this day at all useful?
Given that my blog is about blogging against sexism, I think I'll pass on the "celebration" of blogging against sexism.
As for IWD, that seems more understandable to me. It's not really every day that you get to rally.
In Toronto, though, today has no rally or march. It's on Saturday. I'm assuming that's so everyone can attend. Unless you work weekends, like many minimum wage earners do. Then, well, I guess you're not coming.
Interestingly, one of the platforms of this year's march is increasing the minimum wage to $10. Something Ontario should really be doing anyway.
For those looking to go to the march, here's the info:
The International Women's Day (IWD) Toronto Committee and Women Working with Immigrant Women are pleased to announce the 29th Annual International Women's Day March & Rally on Saturday, March 10, 2007. The day begins with the IWD 2007 Rally at 11:00 am (Toronto, OISE Auditorium, Bloor St. W. & St. George subway) proceeding with the IWD 2007 March at 1:00 pm through Toronto's downtown core and concluding with the IWD 2007 Fair at 1:30-4:30 pm (Ryerson's University Student Centre).
So, do we think that the march is going to send Harper back to the drawing board with the cuts to Status of Women Canada? Do we think the minimum wage is going to go up? Do we think peace will reign? Of course none of us do. But getting together to show our strength, size and commitment might just boost the morale. I think that's all that matters.
There's been a lot of good responses to Jessica's feminist sorority post. Upon reading it, my first impulse, frankly, was to laugh my ass off. Not because Jessica's post was funny, but because it reminded me so much of my own feminist writings and arguments from just 5-10 years ago (well, except for the "sex-positive" angle, that is). In fact, I was so committed to this fight at the time that I
