Thanks to the amazing work being done by the activists leading this incredible and ongoing movement, Ontario has new labour law coming that will make things a bit fairer for workers, including at $15 minimum wage and stronger equal pay provisions
BREAKING: #Bill148 carries forward!! Despite corporate lobbyists’ best efforts, $15 #minimumwage (phased in by Jan 1, 2019), 10 emergency days for all (2 of which will be paid), fair schedules & #equalpay provisions all PASS. Let’s get it adopted & fight for more! #15andFairness pic.twitter.com/R1562CeauM
— $15 & Fairness! (@fairwagesnow) November 16, 2017
Ironically, however, the Wynne government is currently debating (and will likely pass) back-to-work legislation for Ontario’s college strike, an organizing effort addressing similar issues as Bill 148, like equal pay for contract workers. Learn more about why college faculty, librarians, and counsellors have been striking (and rejecting insufficient offers) here: Dear College Ontario Students, We Have Tried.
Members of the Secwepemc Nation are building ten tiny houses along the proposed path of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain Pipeline to “assert Secwepemc Law and jurisdiction and block access to this pipeline.” Learn more here.
“I think that this book is a call to arms of sorts. It is a manifesto, a prayer and an instruction manual for something like a queer Indigenous future.” Billy-Ray Belcourt on his new collection of poetry, The Wound is a World.
How Indigenous and black artists are using science fiction to imagine a better future
A guide to fantasy and science fiction made for Black people, by Black people
Follow these 16 trans creators who are changing the way their stories are told
Desmond Cole was arrested in July after speaking at a TPS board meeting about Dafonte Miller, 19, who was beaten by a Toronto Police Officer, Michael Theriault. Show your support by sharing this post from Cole and, if you can, coming out to Cole’s court hearing on Thursday.
Volunteer your computer’s spare power to get people out of jail using this new app from The New Inquiry.
The Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive (@LLTransArchive) needs our help to get it’s collection available to the public! If you have some spare change, consider giving some of it to them and help make trans history available: https://t.co/ZjrNK5VSxW
— Morgan M Page (@morganmpage) November 17, 2017
NYC strippers are organizing a strike in response to unfair and racially discriminatory labour practices in strip clubs.
Toronto police apologize for refusing to file a missing person report on behalf of Alloura Wells, a 27-year-old trans woman who was last seen four months ago. Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project has been coordinating community-led searches for Wells. Maggie’s chairperson Andrea Sterling, said, “We are fed up that police have really not cared for trans sex workers and they’ve written (them) off (and decided) that their lives are not valuable”
“The idea that Louis CK or any other man who has been accused of predatory behavior would spontaneously develop a healthy respect for boundaries in the context of hiring a sex worker is magical thinking in a world where sex workers remain dangerously stigmatized and frequent targets for violence.” Sex workers are not a life hack for ‘helping’ sexual predators.
How to stop predators that aren’t famous
How survivors of sexual assault find pleasure
“We’re still conditioned to worry for the men, but somehow to not afford the same compassion for women — their families, their feelings, their future prospects — even in a reckoning that is supposed to be about them, about us.” How we are all implicated in the post-Weinstein reckoning
An open letter by Latina farmworkers about Hollywood and sexual assault
“We treat the physical assault and the silencing after as two separate things, but they are the same, both bent on annihilation” Rebecca Solnit on fighting misogyny through stories.
“Are you a man who has sexually harassed, abused, or assaulted someone and you do not want to be that person anymore? Are you a man who wants to genuinely move past the wrong you’ve done? There is a path forward, past denial and scandal and shame.” Ijeoma Oluo provides some first steps.
“Laughter has the literal ability to physically heal us.” From Huda Hassan’s beautiful essay, “Through Suffering, We Laugh,” found in Ethnic Aisle’s new Joy issue.
Listen to Sarah Hunt’s incredible keynote lecture on decolonization and education, at the Anti-Racism Conference in Saskatoon.
“Stripping Indigenous peoples of our languages was a deliberate policy of the residential school system, and despite a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that acknowledges this, there is yet to be any concrete action to reverse this damage.” Chelsea Vowel on why Indigenous languages should be taught alongside French and English
“In some stories, they managed to create a world where there was no violence or war. I was really excited by that.” Bjork on the inspiration that produced, and restorative power of, her new album, Utopia.
“Is there a way that we can create a space, a language, around illness, that not only robs it of its stigma, but also positions it as a fact of life instead of merely an obstacle to be overcome on some imaginary road to “wellness”? That is a space I’d like to go to. That is a language I’d like to create.” On being an ill writer.
And last but not least: we’re looking for contributors! Check out our new call for submissions, on the topic of Weather. Pitches due December 3, 2017.
