I know that you needed something to be bummed out about this morning, so I thought I’d deliver these steaming heaps of crap from Canada’s national political stage.
First up: Canada’s auditor general, Sheila Fraser, has released a report indicating just how much lip service the federal government gives women. According to the Edmonton Sun, despite the fact that the feds have a 15-year-old committment to pay attention to how policy affects men and women differently, an array of departments are failing to do so. The Sun sez:
Fraser found few government departments actually conduct gender-based analysis, and those which do perform the work don’t actually use it to design programs. Fraser gave thumbs up to Indian and Northern Affairs as a “leader” and the only department that has fully implemented a sound gender-based analysis framework. Transport Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada, on the other hand, have no framework at all.
Great, ’cause the concerns of women riding in and driving cars, for example, has nothing to do with anything, right (oh, except things like airbags being the wrong height/size…)?
Second: Oh, BC. You’ve let us down. No, not with Gordon Campbell getting re-elected and all, but with your rejection of electoral reform. What do people have to do to ditch the first-past-the-post system and leave it behind as a 20th-century relic?
Third: Nobody has been proven guilty of anything, but wow, this she-said-she-said between Ruby Dhalla and her “alleged” caregivers is getting, as they say, curiouser and curiouser. This may all be some crazy mixup, as Dhalla suggested on Monday, but am I the only one inclined to think that the “alleged” caregivers don’t have much motive here except to tell the truth? If you were a Filipina nanny who had come into the country on the live-in caregiver program and were waiting for an employer to sponsor you, what motive would you possibly have to stir up political shit? Wouldn’t your primary fear be deportation? At the same time, I am getting really pissed at the media coverage that insists on making constant references to Dhalla’s beauty, as though that was at all relevant. Yes, Christie Blatchford, I’m talking about your shiteous piece in the Globe today.
Finally, how about a touch of schadenfreude from across the pond to make you feel a bit better? Doug Saunders’ story about the crisis facing the UK–to vote for the party of flagrant, porny spending or vote for the party of flagrant, moat-spending–had me gasping and laughing (and, um, you know, frowning at the, you know, wastefulness of it all) simultaneously.
Tagged as:
Politics,
women
Are you engaged in some fun, flashy, or otherwise fab feminist or womanist activity, event, or campaign? You are! Well, we want to know about it so we can help you share it with the world. Send us your PSAs, press releases, photos, whatever, and we’ll post an announcement to help big up you and your crew. Email us at anastasia [at] confabulous [dot] ca or sabine [at] confabulous [dot] ca to give us the news!
Tagged as:
activism,
Advocacy,
feminism,
Politics,
research
What with the whole swine flu is-it-or-isn’t-it-a-pandemic thing, Canadians have been seeing a lot of Minister Leona Aglukkaq on the tee-vee lately. I hate to admit it, but I was surprised to find that our health minister was a woman, and that we actually had an Inuit person in cabinet (really, how did I miss this?)
As it turns out, our health minister is actually the first Inuk to become a federal cabinet minister. Prior to becoming an MP, Alukkaq was an MLA in Nunavut. She served on the Executive Council (I’m assuming this is the territorial equivalent of a provincial cabinet) as finance minister and house leader, and then health minister and minister for the status of women. All that, plus she’s a mom to an 8-month old kidlet.
I’m not the only one to have been impressed with Aglukkaq during the swine flu outbreak. She seems to be completely devoid of the bullshit air that most politicians have floating around them; rather, she seems to be a steady, to-the-point, non-ego-driven kind of person who just wants to get shit done. She’s even phoned opposition health critic Carolyn Bennett to keep her apprised of the swine flu sitch (and maybe she’ll be coordinating efforts with her brand-new American counterpart, Kathleen Sebelius). Now, that’s a little bit of an Obama-style maneuvre that I really respect.
Tagged as:
Health,
Politics,
women
This past weekend, the final round of voting took place for the Canadian F-Word Blog Awards (winners to be announced on 25 April). Although Confabulous–still a babe in the woods–didn’t make it through to this last round, we’re pleased to have been invited to the party with a nomination.
I have to say, the best part about the awards has to be the publicity they generate for the many great feminist blogs Canadians have to brag about. I’ve encountered so much good stuff based on visits to the nominated sites, places I might never have known to go were it not for the nominations roll pointing the way.
Among my favourite new discoveries are two nominated in the “Reproductive Liberties Blog” category: Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome and Dammit Janet!. Few matters get me angrier than the anti-choice agenda, and it’s comforting to know our right to choose is being so staunchly (and entertainingly) defended.
The Pedgehog, Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome’s author, offers wise words underscoring how precarious our access to safe abortions can be in this country. Much appreciated is her diligence in helping women to physically get into the Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic where she works. Making her postings particularly entertaining are her dead-on amusing descriptions of the protesters who congregate near the entrance:
Tuesday’s clinic was a gong show outside, as is the norm these days. Pink Hat was agressive and awful, and the others were their usual zombie selves.
Especially of interest lately over at Dammit Janet! is their “Choice for Me, Not for Thee” series, a spirited discussion of the hypocrisy of anti-choice advocates who defend their right to abortion (or their choice not to have one) while at the same time working to deny other women the same freedoms.
If you haven’t already, visit the Canadian F-Word Blog Awards for links to more great sites–kudos to the awards’ organizers (the gang over at A Creative Revolution) for bigging up the web 2.0 sisterhood!
Tagged as:
blogs,
Politics
How sadly timely that we here at Confabulous have been discussing opinions on state funding of gender reassignment surgery: to save $700,000/year, the Alberta Government has now cut the procedure from its list of funded services. The estimated savings amount to about 19 cents per Albertan.
The decision may have dire consequences, highlights a Calgary Herald article:
“Ignorance is fuelling the decision,” said Kris Wells, a researcher at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services based at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
“This is a case of sacrificing people’s lives. … These medical transitions end up saving people’s lives. This is a community that has higher rates of suicide, depression, drug and alcohol abuse because there is so little understanding.
Opponents of the change plan to file a human rights complaint. For updates and to lend your support, check out the “Reinstate Gender Reassignment Surgery Funding in Alberta” Facebook group.
Tagged as:
Health,
Politics,
trans
Kudos to Penni Mitchell and the gang over at
Herizons, Canada’s magazine of feminism, for a great winter issue–definitely one of their best ever!
Highlights include
this feature on Serena Ryder, an article on homelessness in Canada’s North, and
this piece by Renée Bondy, exploring some of the sad and sorry reasons why some young women (among them, Women’s Studies’ students!) are reluctant to use “woman” or “women” to describe themselves and their friends (instead, many feel “ho” is more appropriate/affective nominclature). Outstanding–but not online–is
Kaj Hasselriis’ story on feminist MP and role model
Judy Wasylycia-Leis; any woman interested in getting in the political game should check it out.
Want a copy?
Herizons is available in better book and magazine stores everywhere. Better yet, why not
subscribe?
Tagged as:
feminism,
magazines,
Politics,
women,
writing
Toronto media outlets today were buzzing today over a revelation that Karen Stintz, a city councillor, spent $4,500 (USD) (reported here as $2,650 and here as $1,850) of the public’s money on public speaking lessons with an American trainer. Now, anytime someone starts banging on about someone wasting taxpayers’ dollars, my eyes tend to glaze over because I feel like I need to save up my political indignation for matters that I think are much more appalling, like war.
But when Andy Barrie and co. were discussing the issue on Metro Morning today, my ears pricked up. This is because, as the Toronto Star reported, Stintz enrolled for the public speaking lessons after some of her constituents “told her she spoke too fast and sounded ’shrill’”.
“Shrill,” of course, is a code word for “frightening woman that no one listens to.” And we’ve all been there, haven’t we? You’re in a meeting, and you start feeling pissed. You open your mouth to talk, and your emotions take over, and all of a sudden you realize oh, my god, they’ve totally stopped listening to me because you know that people are now only responding to the intensity of your feelings, rather than the content of your language.
When you’re on city council, you need people to listen to you–especially if you’re planning on taking a run against the still-popular mayor in the next civic election. So you sign up for public speaking lessons. And your office has a budget for that kinda thing, so it gets paid for.
The thing is, when you go to the Star website and click on the story about Stintz, you’ll find an embedded video giving samples of Stintz speaking in council before and after her Eliza Doolittle treatment. And what’s truly astonishing about the video is…there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her voice at all prior to those costly elocution lessons.
It’s galling for Stintz’s voice–voice being such an important marker of gender–to be criticized in the first place. Sure, male politicians’ voices are parodied and satirized frequently–but no one expects them to actually do anything about them. And what’s with the excessive media attention paid to Stintz, given the other councillors and their expense reports? Plus, the implication in some of these stories is that what’s really wrong with Stintz spending this dough is she’s grooming herself for the upcoming mayoralty race. To which I reply: so? Politicians and other professionals pay huge sums of money for this kind of professional development all the time. If we’re going to criticize Stintz, let’s let it be for meaningful things like her voting record in council.
Tagged as:
feelings,
labour,
Politics,
voice,
women
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