Hot Tubbin' For Justice

The Power of Breaking Barriers: Systemic Change, Individual Gains Dr. Natalia Kenem, the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund introduced and set the context for this panel. She said that women belong at the centre of development. Population isn't just about numbers it's about people's lives. As we take global stock of what's happening in the world, when everyone awakens, mountains will move.  And there is movement, and we'll hear from the following panelists on how we are moving toward progress and change. Panel: Shahira Amin - Independent Journalist (moderator) Dr. Alvaro Bermejo - International Planned Parenthood Waneek Horn-Miller - Indigenous Olympian Hina Jilani - Supreme Court of Pakistan Musola Catherine Kaseketi - Vilole Images Productions Nancy Northrup - Centre for Reproductive Rights Lina Abirafeh, PhD - The Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University Anoka Primrose - Social Entrepreneur Nancy Northrup from t...

The Power of Agency: Changemakers on Surviving and preventing gender-based violence Ok it was pretty cool to walk back into a plenary session at a conference to see a special video message from Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. She's so earnest. I became aware of her when she became the first woman in New Zealand to give birth in office and then like the rest of the world, was captivated by her leadership after the Christchurch massacre.  The thing that stuck with me the most (I was starving and wolfing down a burrito while she was talking) was her statement that women have the right to be themselves in politics. That we don't have to change who we are or how we play the game. That resonated with me and how I navigate union politics in all of the roles I have in the labour movement. Now it's time for the plenary to start. This time it's not a panel discussion but a series of speakers. I really am aware how intersectional and global the sessions at ...

The Power of Now: Taking stock of where we stand and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead  The morning started off with the Honourable Maryam Monsef, our Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality. She's the first Afghan-Canadian elected to parliament and the first Muslim to serve in the federal cabinet. She's relatively young too. I just wish as a speaker she was as interesting as her life story. That being said, she's new, and has time to grow. I will give her props for being accessible - every time I saw her around the conference she would stop and talk to people, danced with them at culture night and at no time did I ever see her not make the time for the people who wanted to talk to her. She had a very awkward intro for the PM - she said "achieving accelerated progress in for gender equity in the moment is because we have more men with us." Uh ok, yeah sure there are lots of male allies but it's ...

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 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 th...