2019 International Women's Week!

I look forward to International Women's Day every year. There's always a ton of programming and this year did not disappoint! IWD 2019 was one for the ages! In fact it was a week full of celebration of women in so many ways.

Everywhere I went all week it was IWD - I saw 2 theatre shows (Come From Away and The Good Bride), attended an author reading at VPL which was a tribute to libraries (and will have its own blog post soon), participated in the annual CUPE Metro IWD community event in Richmond, went to the Westcoast LEAF Equality Breakfast where I met Dr. Willie Parker (!), celebrated the launch of Canada's first indigenous woman-owned airline (Iskwew Air), and the 4th annual Women in Entertainment Celebration and Fundraiser for the DTES Women's Centre put on by the entertainment unions (IATSE 891, UBCP-ACTRA, Teamsters 155, DGC and ICG 669).



Westcoast LEAF Equality Breakfast - Dr. Willie Parker (Keynote)

When I saw that Dr. Willie Parker was going to be the keynote speaker at the event this year I was so excited! I read his book Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice last year on the ferry. I was riveted and so grateful that people like him exist in the world. 

Our table was up front, next to the VIP table and when I turned around I saw Dr. Parker right behind me - I turned to my friend Sheryl and turned into a fangirl. I really wanted to meet him but was so nervous - I don't usually get weird like that but I was starstruck. Sheryl then pushed me out of my comfort zone and we went over to introduce ourselves. He was SO NICE! When I thanked him for his book he took out a sticker, signed it for me to put it inside my copy. He then talked about the plan to translate the book into Spanish to get the message out to Latin communities. He said, we can't shy away from moral language - that the language of morality is being weaponized to fight science. Amen. 

And then we took a photo with him. IT WAS SO COOL! That whole exchange made my year.

Onto the event - we had territorial welcome from Theresa and Rosalind Campbell from Musqueam. Then our Premier John Horgan was up to speak to us about the progress we've made and the miles we have to go as far as gender equality in the province. I'm proud that we have a government whose caucus is half men and half women. I'm proud that we have a government who commits to a gender lens on decision making everyday. I'm proud we have a Premier who acknowledges his mother in most speeches. I'm proud we have a government who cares.

The Executive Director of Westcoast LEAF came out strong with the theme of dismantling patriarchy (which feeds off of gender binaries) and she didn't shy away from using that strong language. She introduced her remarks in the context of the known quote that "the opposite of poverty isn't wealth, it's justice." And that the opposite of misogyny or colonization or violence, is JUSTICE. We heard of their great work on advocating for increased legal aid services for victims of family violence, for improved social assistance legislation for survivors of abuse, for participating in the Oger vs Whatcott case and for their work in the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls+ inquiry (focusing on child apprehension). Incredible - it was amazing to hear from a leader who's not afraid to challenge the status quo, to call out oppression and to call on us to join them in their fight for social justice.

Our good friend, President of the BCGEU Stephanie Smith, was up next to bring greetings and to introduce the keynote speaker. In her acknowledge of the territory she talked about how important it is for us as allies to ground ourselves in the places we live. She's highlighted many ways unions have been allies to many social justice movements over the years. Yes!

Dr. Willie Parker is an OBGYN who practices abortion care in Alabama and is a prolific reproductive justice advocate. His book Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice, recounts his life as a healthcare provider and physician as well as the tension he's learned to deal with - the tension between his faith and science. 

As someone who's always been staunchly pro-choice having these conversations has always been of interest. Abortion has always been an intensely personal topic for so many people for so many reasons. Even now I find it very different, speaking to friends from different generations about abortion. It's still very much a taboo subject even amongst my closest friends so I was really excited to hear from Dr. Parker and then to have conversations about what he said with the people who were in the room. 

Anyway, Dr. Parker's keynote was amazing. Immediately upon taking the stage, he thanked the Musqueam women for their invitation to the land. And then he went into his speech about the rights of women shouldn't just exist in principle but must exist in legislation, in justice and in action. He talked about the various circumstances the women he's treated have found themselves in, in needing an abortion. That abortion is often framed as a matter of convenience not as a matter of necessity. 

While Canada's laws for reproductive healthcare are seen as more progressive and accessible than those in the States, we still have a long way to go especially for women located in remote areas in Canada. For women to access the abortion pill, pharmacies must stock it and often it's only available in urban areas. One of the stats he cited from the US, was that 88% of women still live in a zip code where there is not provider of abortion. We need to democratize access to this life saving care so that all women, across both countries have equal access to the care they need.

Dr. Parker then talked to us about how the Moral Majority in the 1980s co-opted moral language in the claims around abortion, language in which choice advocates have capitulated to. So, about 12 years into his practice(where he did not practice abortion care) he found himself in a quandary - he listened to Dr. Martin Luther King's final sermon and the questions of flipping "if I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" and "If I do not stop to help him, what will happen to him?" He asked himself, what would happen to the women if he didn't help them. And that was the turning point. 

It became about safety and science. That morality that anti-abortion advocated where voicing was bullshit. They do not own moral language and morality cannot be used to fight evidence based science. Period. We should be able to handle the positive tension between science and religion and to remember that abortion policy and understanding needs to be based on science and mot morality. And that's on all of us -that we have to become more comfortable with moral language. And that's tough for a lot of reasons - if you're religious it's rejecting some of the tropes and teachings that clearly contradicts science. And if you're not religious, it's a foreign language.

He simply stated "I do abortions because of my religion not in spite of it." Powerful.

He called on us to once again to push back on abortion as a moral issue, to insist that consciences that matters most in these cases are the ones who need the procedures and the ones providing them, and we cannot allow conservative politics to trump science and medicine.

CUPE Metro IWD Community Event in Richmond

Each year the women of CUPE Metro put on a lunch event in one of our communities and this year we were in Richmond. I love being a part of this - it's just a lot of fun. We had Roberta Price come and give an incredible teaching on matriarchal leadership in indigenous communities, Natalie Drolet from the Migrant Workers Centre to speak about their work for migrant workers and temporary foreign workers, and entertainment from JB the First Lady - a local indigenous hip hop artist. The food was catered by Tayybeh, delicious Syrian cuisine - made by Syrian refugee women. 

CUPE Metro Sisters annual group selfie!

Theatre - Come From Away (QE) and The Good Bride (Firehall Arts Centre)

Trish invited me to go with her to see Come From Away, the musical about 9/11 and the planes landing in Gander, Newfoundland. It was amazing and incredibly moving. It was also appropriate for IWD because one of the main characters in the show, is Beverley Bass, the first female pilot for American Airlines. Her song. "Me and the Sky" tells the story how she became a pilot and the sexism she encountered. The musical also really shows the strength and power of women organizing and how Gander and the surrounding communities were able to look after an influx of 7000 people - all because the women got their shit together!

Then we saw The Good Bride at the Firehall Arts Centre. It was a one woman play about a young girl, waiting for her fiance to come and get her. It's set in the bedroom in the house where she's staying - family friends. She's from one of those christian sects where there are a million kids (think the Duggars) and girls marry men who are much too old for them. At first you think she's talking to God or Jesus, but she's rally talking to her mother who had abandoned their family 5 years prior. The actress was very good - quite charming. The play itself was a little long and could have used some editing. The ambiguous ending was genius and I quite enjoyed it.

Iskwew Air Launch

My friend Shelley invited Sarah and I to attend her friend Teara's launch of her company Iskwew Air, Canada's first indigenous woman owned airline. We got to sit in the plane and meet some very cool people to celebrate this amazing triumph. Her friends and family created a video that documented her path to the opening of the business and her vision moving forward. It was cool they chose IWD to launch the airline!

Iskwew (pronounced iss-kway-yoo) is the Cree word for woman and their tag line is "connecting people with each other and to the land." 

Women in Entertainment Celebration and Fundraiser for the DTES Women's Centre

My friend Natasha invited me to go to the entertainment industry unions' IWD fundraising event at the Imperial. I've heard that it's a fun party so I was excited to go. It was fancy! They had a red carpet and everything! We were treated to the musical styling of Dawn Pemberton all night - she was awesome, full of energy. They also had a caricature artist and a photo booth. 

The official program started with Dr. Jeanette Ashe, chair of Political Science at Douglas College. She spoke about women's and other equity seeking group's under representation in all levels of government - the "politics of presence." Then we heard from Tom Donahue, a filmmaker from CreativeChaos, who's made a couple of documentaries about women in film, Casting By and the soon to be released This Changes Everything (we saw a preview). He talked about the 4% challenge in Hollywood to increase the number of women directors on projects, and simply said it should be the 50% challenge. 

Then it was award time. Each of the local industry unions awarded one of their members for their contributions to the industry. IATSE 891 honoured Jane Still, a long service costume designer and the one responsible for the mandatory classroom training for all union members. The DGC honoured Amanda Tapping, Teamsters 155 honoured Lisa Pantages (where it seemed everyone knew her), ICG 669 honoured Tammy Jones who is one of the only female camera operators in BC, and UBCP-ACTRA honoured Valerie Sing Turner, who is a renaissance woman, committed to equity inclusion when it comes to indigenous and racialized workers in the entertainment industry. 

The event was a ton of fun - all for a great cause!