Hot Tubbin' For Justice

BCNDP Women's Rights Committee Convention We started our BCNDP convention experience off by attending the Women's Rights Committee (WRC) convention which occurs prior to the opening plenary.  We were fortunate to have Rhiannon Bennett, from Delta, give the territorial acknowledgement. She started off by holding up a purse and a scarf, and acknowledged that both of which belonged to Maurine Karagianis. She asked "is it enough to acknowledge these items of Maurine's if I have them, for her to access the economy ?" Nope. We, the NDP need to do better - it's not about shame or guilt, but about acknowledging the privilege of what we've been given. She talked to us about the resilience of indigenous peoples and how they've been able to save their languages in the face of being being jailed for speaking their languages, having needles poked into their tongues in residential school, and other horrific things. Rhiannon brought humour and heart to her te...

The three host nations open the Women Deliver Conference - thank you to the matriarchs of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh nations. The Power of Us: Opening Plenary Katja Iversen - Women Deliver After a moving and energetic welcome by the host nations - Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh, the President and CEO of Women Deliver, Katja Iversen, welcomed everyone to Vancouver at the opening of Women Deliver 2019. She told us that there were 8000 delegates (4000+ in the room) from 165 countries. The conference delegation included 1400 young leaders from around the world and an estimated 100k people participating in satellite events around the world!  She implored us to take advantage of all of the programming options - from plenary sessions, workshops, social events, 150 exhibitor booths, power talks, digital poster sessions, virtual reality films, short films and culture night! The program was bold and intense, with the goal of creating, fostering, and sustai...

I attended the 5th Annual Rosemary Brown Memorial Conference at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue at SFU this past weekend where the hot topic of Women in Politics: Risks and Opportunities was on point.  The Asia Pacific Hall at the Wosk Centre is really cool. It's in the shape of a circle, with the intent of fostering dialogue and discourse. My friend Michele and I got good seats and we sat down and nerded out whilst getting our respective notebooks out to take our requisite handwritten notes of the session.  Rosemary Brown is an incredible figure in Canadian history. She was the first black woman to be elected to the BC legislature in 1972. She was the first black woman to run for leadership of the NDP in 1975. From 1993-1996 she was the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Was bestowed the Order of BC in 1995 and the Order of Canada in 1996. She was known for her community service, her committee to equality and her compassion.  Dr. Marjorie Gr...

Scene from last years Women's March Seattle Last year's Women's March in Seattle was such an incredible experience. We stayed at Trish's parent' house and headed on the ferry to Seattle from Bainbridge with 2500 marchers. We handed out 40 pussyhats for folks and even had the Governor of Washington on our sailing. We marched up the street only to be told by the cops that the park was at capacity and we had to stay put (in front of union station). It ended up being a great option because we watched all the people march by us - and because we had little Canadian flags stuck in our hats, every Canadian ex-pat stopped to talk to us or people would just start singing "O Canada" to us. It was awesome to go from Union Station to Seattle Centre with 175k people - bigger than any Super Bowl Parade. The solidarity of that day will always be etched in my memory. That was the last time I crossed the border.  This year I stayed home to participate in March On Van...

Last week I had the fortune of attending two great community events that highlighted the resilience and community vibe of the Downtown East Side.  Herstory in Focus: Downtown Eastside Women's Centre (DEWC) The Downtown Eastside Women's Centre is an inclusive facility that is there to assist women and children on the DTES of Vancouver. Herstory in Focus was their second annual gala event where women from the DEWC starred in their own fashion show at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  We were treated to the Wildflower Women of Turtle Island drumming in with Women's Warrior Song. Cecilia Point, from Musqueam gave the territorial acknowledgment to open the event. There was also a live auction and greetings from City of Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson.  Carol Martin, a well-known activist and worker at the DEWC emceed the fashion show. She brought a sense of fun and empowerment as she described each woman who walked down the runway. She said that the DEWC helps builds th...