October 4, 2015
by ned
This was published a while ago, but with the election only two weeks away, it’s worth reviewing (and denouncing) the Harper government’s serial abuse of power. The Tyee has compiled a list of seventy government assaults “on democracy and the law.” And in case you are still in denial about the Tories’ recent surge in the polls, here’s an article outlining Harper’s path to power in 2016.
Also, here are eighty-six conservative candidates who will vote against women’s reproductive rights.
NOW Toronto reviews the performance of the NDP, Liberal, and Green representatives at the Proud to Vote debate (and LGBTQ-focused debate). The big news of the evening? Each candidate pledges that their respective parties would repeal Bill C-36.
On the “deafening silence” of Aboriginal issues in the four televised leader debates. “In a typical eight-week period in Canada, more than 33,000 Indigenous people are violently victimized and 11 are murdered, more than 17 times the national average. Yet in the Maclean’s National Leaders Debate on Aug. 6, Indigenous issues earned only passing mentions.”
“Nova Scotia has a grim history of disproportionately locating dumps and toxic waste sites near populations of colour.” An interview with Dr. Ingrid Waldon about environmental racism and the ENRICH project, a research initiative designed to investigate the effects of the province’s toxic industries.
How Toronto’s diversity is actually a smokescreen for the racist bullshit that get says on Tinder.
9 Ways to Practice Self-Care When Dealing with Street Harassment. “Learning how to care for yourself in the face of public violence can add another resiliency tool to your toolkit and help make navigating the world just a little less draining.”
Pam Grier on influencing feminism as the original bad-ass female aciton hero.
Venus Envy, a wonderful sex-positive store in Ottawa specializing in sex toys, books, education and more, was fined by the city for selling a chest binder to a trans teenager. While the fine has since been waived (thanks to public support), the “dearth of resources available to youth who fall outside gender norms” persists in the city. As store owner Shelley Taylor observes, “Youth grappling with issues of gender identity don’t always have safe spaces to ask questions or gather information, and barring them from stores like Venus Envy limit their options even further.”
Fader profiles Rihanna, and there’s a pretty great part where the writer shares how she came up with the interview questions: “I enlisted a trusted group of women who are similarly sparkly-eyed about Rihanna and her place in the pantheon of pop-culture goddesses, and we came up with some bangers. We did want to know what was so special about R8 that it warranted such a lag. We nixed all questions of men. We decided we don’t care about Leo or whatever is going on with her and Travi$ Scott… We wanted to know if she was ever alone and how it felt. What she does for self-care.”
Some much needed fluff—A Linguist Explains The Grammar of Shipping. What’s your OTP?
Also did you read Dear BB this week? She speaks to dudes about rape culture (and it is everything).
So how should you undertake the work you want to do?
Burn down the notion that women are deserving of respect only insofar as they have relationships to other people. Burn down the notion that women are deserving of respect only insofar as they’re of value to capitalism’s machinations (“she was a young student, so full of promise, was planning to start a family, had just begun a new job…”) Even childless, parentless, siblingless, jobless, relationless women should not be raped.
