February 29, 2015
- Next Sunday is International Women’s Day, one of feminism’s highest of holidays! The GUTS team will be marching in Toronto’s IWD march on Saturday, March 7. Find us with the Fuck Austerity contingent during the march, or at our very own table at the post-march fair on Ryerson University campus.
- The Canadian Senate voted 6-4 to amend Bill C-279, a federal Bill that seeks to bring rights and equality to Trans* Canadians. Sophia Banks explains how those amendments would essentially render the Bill useless.
- A great piece on Ontario’s new sex-ed curriculum and the pedagogical challenges of implementing those changes. (I hope they keep those dolls with the velcro boobies!)
- A new study conducted by the Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women has found that hundreds of recommendations made to address the alarming rates of violence against Aboriginal girls and women in this country have never been implemented. The study reviews 58 recent reports and finds that they “show strong consensus about the root causes of this violence; it is a sociological issue […] the recommendations that are repeated time and again in so many of the reports highlight exactly why an inquiry is needed.”
- Sumaya Dalmar, a well-known member of Toronto’s trans* community was found dead last Sunday. We stand in grief and solidarity with Sumaya and so many other murdered and missing trans* people.
- This week the Daily Show’s Jessica Williams taught us that it’s really OK to Lean Out every now and then.
- After seven years of Palestine solidarity work in LGBTQ communities, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid has announced that it will officially retire at the end of the month. QuAIA was formed in 2008 to draw attention to “pinkwashing,” Israel’s use of gay rights to divert international attention away from the state’s violation of Palestinian human rights. The small activist group gained international notoriety after Pride Toronto’s funding was almost revoked in order to silence Palestine solidarity voices at the 2010 festival. QuAIA has been a trailblazer in building solidarity with Palestine in Canada. Its also pretty classy to retire instead of letting your organization fizzle into mediocrity.
- Vice is launching a women’s centered media channel. Your thoughts?
- Cansplaining: Drake for Dummies (aka Americans). This one’s low on the feminist content, but it’s hilariously self-serious and gives a decent cultural analysis. Torontonians, what do you think: will we call it “The 6”?
