APR 1993 .ra\ GoUectAons Serial Special c:ou©aLxD9S osnai Storm over Circling Dawn...p.5 cmpa $2.25 «f« DAWN Hung* ti-NAFT Instdf - Note: Jul/ Aug and ' ■ issue Features and reviews: 10th News: 15th Letters and Bulletin Board: 18th Display advertising (camera ready): 1 (design required) 1 News A caravan to walk all over NAFTA 3 by Ellen Woodsworth Dusk for DAWN? 3 by Susan Briscoe Loss, win or draw for lesbian rights 4 by Shannon e. Ash Moge after marriage 4 by Lissa Geller Poster campaign against Circling Dawn strikes nerve 5 by Jackie Brown New refugee guidelines count women in 5 by Smita Patil Kinesis is produced c Doppler PC using Wordperfect 5.1, PageMaker 4.0 and an NEC laser printer. Camera work by The Peak. Printing by Web Press Graphics Kinesis is indexed in the Canadian Women's Periodicals Index, the Alternative Press Index and is a member of the Canadian Magazine PublishersAssociation. tion. 56426__ Features Mexico still says no to NAFTA 8 by Patricia Hume and Ellen Woodsworth Dialing pro-choice in Ireland 9 by Erin Mullan Detail of On To Ottawa Caravan route 3 IWD Speaking out at the International Women's Day rally 10 speeches by Jane Gottfriedsen, Raminder Dosangh, Miche Hill, Anju Gogia, Fatima Jaffer, Shelagh Day, Carmela Allevato Commentary Feminism and the politics of engagement.. by Mary Eaton Centrespread Immigrant and refugee Iranian women take action 12 by Fahahimeh, Sheida and Fatima Jaffer Arts Review of Sunnybroofc Trip through the mindfield 15 by Nancy Pollak Film review: Speak It! fights the power 16 by Nikola Maria De Marin Film review: Looking at lesbian images 16 by Alice Swift Book review: A Lotus of Another Color 17 by Archana Ghandi and Sur Mehat Book review: Wicked Verses 18 by Pam Fleming Review: The satire of April Narr 19 by Kathleen Oliver Regulars As Kinesis Goes to Press 2 Inside Kinesis 2 Movement Matters 6 by Faith Jones and Laiwan What's News 7 by Lynne Wanyeki Paging Women 18 by Luce Kannen Letters 20 Bulletin Board 21 compiled by Lynne Wanyeki Looking for volunteer women to teach PageMaker 4.0 and/or WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows Please leave message for Anne at 255*5499 Janey in Sunnybrook It's Spring time and we'd love to shake off the rainy day blues with some juicy gossip to start off with. We thought 'bout being really daring and telling the one about Martina Navratilova and kd lang, but someone beat us to it—and it's not true anyway. Everyone's talking about Gord and Judy but we switched off on that story ages ago and we're happy to be able to keep you in the dark too. How about Kim Campbell's constructed "affair" (?) with the entire country? Nah, that won't wash in Vancouver. Nobody cares! Actually, speaking of Kimmie, seems like the horrendous amendments to the Human Rights Act aren't going to go through after all 'cos Kim would have had to debate it in the House of Cormorans (sorry) and she jus' can't take the flak right now...what with upcoming conventions and elections and all.. Actually, thinking about Spring time doesn't exactly make our hearts bounce with pure, unadulterated joy (there's a cliche—we promise, no more!) Yeah, we'll admit we're faking our upbeatness... ...the BC budget's on its way in and it's not going to be good news for most of us. At a public meeting with finance minister Glen Clark last month, we got a taste of what it's going to be like. Bureaucrats point at chart after chart in their painstaking, efforts to explain why cuts are the way to go this year., .decade? Lifetime? You see, chart number one shows us why the deficit is squeezing provincial coffers...chart number two shows why federal cuts to provinces are squeezing provincial coffers...chart number three... What we learnt from the forum was that we're all going to be poorer and the NDP loves using charts, diagrams, and numbers. We were at an anti-N AFT A forum later in the month [see page 3] and the MC was Joan SmaUwood, minister of social services—she only spoke for a few minutes but she used a million charts to help her through it all...Well, we're smart and not easily fooled. It didn't take us long to figure out that the province can't afford increases to social services 'cos they're spending all the money on charts and projectors and things like that... Oh, before we forget, we received a press release as Kinesis goes to press announcing that Smallwood's demanding "a national review of...federal/provincial cost-sharing safety nets to help ensure the provinces...get a fair deal from Ottawa." What we think she's wondering is how provinces are going to continue paying for ever-rising welfare costs...they estimate over 10 percent of Brit. Columbians are on welfare...the press release has an awful lot of "because of changes to federal social policies..." and "recession and economic restructuring combined with federal policies..." and "due to federal off-loading of financial obligations..." Sounds like they're preparing us for the worst... Anyway, we're watching to see what happens in the next budget...to welfare rates, pay equity, funding for women's groups and disabled people and ...and lots more. Read our story next month. Looks Hke that's going to be the only (official) budget we're going to have to deal with this year...the feds aren't planning to have one 'till after the elections...speaking of which, the NDP have promised 50 percent of their candidates will be women, the Liberals promise us 25 percent, and the Tories are practically giving us Kim Campbell! Wow. Talk about making it hard for us...?!! Back to the feds, though. They finally made SecState Women's Programs permanent— which means it won't have to be reviewed and renewed every five years any more...(gosh, they do care) but they slashed funding by 10 percent—about one million dollars. There's no questionabout it. ..they don't give a (we can say it but we won't) about women in this country. The mainstream dailies make that clear too. When the disabled women's network (DAWN) decided to close down their national offices because SecState slashed its funding by almost two-thirds, we thought this was going to make the feds look real bad in the papers the following morn. But hey, surprise! It took us hours to find it in The Globe until...yes, there it is...a five-line blurb, barely an inch of text, buried deep inside the paper! We thought we'd better mention the Alberta Status of Women is also closing the doors—"at least until we receive our long-overdue cheque from SecState"—on both its Edmonton and Calgary offices. Heck, that probably received 0.2 mm of text in the Globe already and we missed it. Thank Bell for the telephone! Anyway, now that the staff's laid off, one of them's offered to write a story about what's happening to women (and lesbians) in Alberta—"it's incredible. Womenareunderattackfromalrnosteverysectorof this society.. .It's hard to explain. I'll write." We're holding her to it. Actually, this month is a juicy one for this column (by the way, hope you like it/hate it? nobody writes to say they care any more...) 'cos there's lots of things going on. Or, at least, coming up. The infamous Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women is supposed to come up with its report this month. The infamous-er Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies should be out by June—we didn't say it will...it should. Probably the biggest thing coming our way in terms of long-overdue, much-welcome direct action is the Anti-N AFT A caravan to Ottawa [see page 3]. We figure it's about time we all got together and swept the country up in a wave of socially progressive conscience., .think about it.. thousands of people descend upon Ottawa to protest the Tory government's trade agreement with themultinationals...it's the most powerful display of left-wing organization and action... and The Globe gives it 2 inches on page 9...!! Anyway, Women to Women Global Strategies dropped us a note to say women interested in joining the caravan, attending their next meeting or buying their new, improved anti-NAFTA T-shirts should call 430-0458. More on NAFTA. Or is it AFTA. That's the Southeast Asian equivalent to NAFTA, kind of—a large, homogenous market intended as a base for investment and a local market for products. Anyway, sounds like there's talk afoot (another cliche?) of combining NAFTA and AFTA (to make NAAFFTTAA??) to create a massive, trans-Pacific, free-trade zone. Hmm. You'll notice we indulged and went with a two-page spread on International Women's Day in this issue...that's 'cos we had some great photographs and transcripts of some powerful speeches we wanted to share...and 'cos we jus' knew you wouldn't read about it in the Globe and Mail. We've got a history of Press Gang Printers coming up in the next issue., oh yeah, don't forget to support their latest fundraising bash on April.../see ad, page 7]. Minutes to go before we hit the presses and the phone's silent, no one's rushing in the door with that last-minute notice...and we're going to go before they do... ^Thanks Our thanks to Vancouver Status of Women members who support us year 'round with memberships and donations. Our appreciation to the following supporters who became members, renewed their memberships or donated to VSW in February. Rita Chudnovsky • Barbara Curran • Frances Friesen • Jo Hinchliffe • Rita Kohli • Barbara Lebrasseur • Kathryn McCannnell • CA. McQuarrie • Monique Midgley • Kerrin Moore • A. Ali-Sa Nemesis • Neil Power • Kim Sorenson • Sheilah Thompson We would also like to express our appreciation to the following donors who have responded so generously to our recent fundraising appeals: Alexis Applin • Lois Eileen Arber • Barbara Bell • Margaret Birrell • Helga Bolleter • BC Federation of Labour • Carole Cameron • Lorraine Cameron • Canwest Pacific Television • P. Carlton • Jo Coffey • CS Resors Consulting Ltd. • Barbara Curran • Diana Davidson • Shelagh Day • Marie Delia Mattia • Barbara Der • Dexter, Wallace & Associates • Jean Elder • Gene Errington • Susan Griffin • Noma Horner • Dorothy Horton • Patricia Hughes • Evelyn Johnson ♦ Bernice Kirk • Bernadette Lalor-Morton • Louise Leclair • Heather Leighton • Jacqueline Levitin • Susan Lewis • Lidstone Young Anderson • Joy MacPhail • Rosemary Mallory • Darlene Marzari • Deborah Matheson • Margaret Mitchell • Susan Mitchell • Myrtle Mowatt • Leslie Muir • Melinda Munro • Karen Nordlinger • Audrey Paterson • Janet Patterson • Sue Penfold • Yannick Raymond • Susan Sanderson • Martha Sandor • Nancy Sheehan • Helen Shore • Glinda Sutherland • Edith Thomas • Hilda Thomas • Vicki Trerise • University of BC • VanCity Credit Union • Joanne Walton Sunrise, sunset TO SEE BOTH JOIN THE PRODUCTION TEAM at Kinesis Call 255 •5499 Well, the weather outside hasn't been the best this production—it's been pouring rain all through our production of this issue. Which does actually fit the "weather" inside—we're feeling pretty teary about saying goodbye to two terrific Kinesis gals. After "four International Women's Day issues at Kinesis," Birgit Schinke is leaving her position as advertising and distribution coordinator. She's been doing a great job sellingadsanddistributing Kinesis and we're sorry to see her leave. But with two kids, grad school, and two—or is it three?—part- time jobs, we knew she'd need a break from deadline fever at the paper sometime. Hope you get used to the new pace o' life, Birgit, and thanks for working to help keep us afloat all these years. We'll miss you. Also leaving is Ed Board member Ria Bleumer. Ria joined the Editorial Board at Kinesis last year, when she organized the Incredible Kinesis Writer's School. She's been here ever since, and kept us all on our toes with her latest idea for improving things around the place. Dream—to set up a permanent Kinesis writer's school, but got caught up in jus' trying to pay her rent. But not everyone's leaving! There's another new face around here, too. Shannon e. Ash sat in on our last few Ed Board meeting, "volunteered" to take the minutes, and decided that the Ed Board really did do some pretty wonderful things. We thought she did some pretty wonderful things too—no, Shannon, not just taking minutes. But seriously, she's been writing regularly for a while now, and we're glad tha t she's willing to volunteer even more time to devote to the bizness end of things. Welcome on [Ed] Board, Shannon. We have a few new writers this month: Sur Mehat, our invaluable typesetter, makes her debut, as does Mary Eaton, Sheida, Fahahimeh, and Alice Swift. Wielding blue pencil and exacto-knives for the first time: Linda Barnard. On another Kinesis topic, we've got our annual Kinesis Benefit coming up in June, and we'd like YOU to volunteer. Meet fun women! Enjoy incredible music & comedy! Sell lots of raffle tickets! (You knew that was coming up, didn't you?) Call Anne at 255- 5499, if you'd like to give us a hand organizing this one-in-a-year E-vent. We're still looking for volunteers who are familiar with WordPerfect 5.1 and PageMaker 4.0, which we use to produce Kinesis. We'd love it if you could volunteer time to help train other volunteers on these programs. Call Anne at 255-5499. And finally, we're always looking for newwritersand production volunteers. Call (604) 255-5499 if you've got a story idea, or if you're willing to endure the waxy hands and warm hearts of our production weekends (cookies provided). come to the next writers' meeting April 5 @ 7 pm #301-1720 Grant Street call 255-5499 for info all women welcome News On To Ottawa Caravan: Walking all over NAFTA by Ellen Woodsworth From BC to Newfoundland, from northern Quebec to southern Ontario, women, children and men will march into Ottawa for a mass demonstration on Parliament Hill on May 15th. The On To Ottawa Caravan was announced at a recent forum on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Vancouver last month to a crowd of about 2,000—the largest crowd at an anti-NAFTA rally so far in BC. It will be a mass cross-country action "against free trade and against the corporate agenda to send a message to the politicians that whoever is elected in Ottawa, our agenda is to put the people of this country first, not the corporations," says Judy Rebick of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. The caravan will start from Courtenay, BC on April 16, and ma ke its wa y to Vancouver by April 18 [see mapfor details]. There will be a rally in Vancouver at noon and many will then accompany the caravan to Hope. Everyone is welcome. Furious that we are losing hundreds of thousands of paid jobs and exhausted from picking up the cuts to social services in our homes, the message is simple: Women are saying, no more! No to more cuts. No to NAFTA. And no to governments that act as agents for the transnational corporations. There are plans to have a strong women's voice travelling in relays across this land, so that our needs and our politics are heard—and our politics are a clear part of the rising tide of Canadians turning against the corporate agenda. As Rebick said in her speech at the rally: "We need to unite all of the social move ments in this country: the labour movement, the women's movement, the nationalist movement, the anti-poverty movement, the anti-racist movement, disabled rights move- ment, seniors, the environmental movement...and we're going to hit every town and city in the country and organizeand mobilize and bring our message to Ottawa." Groups involved in the planning of the caravan include: NAC, Woman to Woman Global Strategies, the Action Canada Network, Greenpeace, the Canadian Labour Congress, farmers, fishermen and women, seniors, Canadian Child Care Advocacy, and hundreds of other organizations across Canada. To help get the word out to women across the country, NAC has hired a full time organizer, Teresa Walsh. She will also coordinate the involvement of women's groups for the caravan as it passes through towns and cities. Rebick will be joining the caravan in Winnipeg. Farmers are joining with their tractors, fishers with their boats, truckers with their trucks. Everyone is doing banners to send on to Ottawa. Woman to Woman Global Strategies will have t-shirts and literature available this month. NAC will provide "No to NAFTA" women's buttons, fact sheets, and flyers on women and NAFTA for the May 15th rally in Ottawa. Women who want to join, need speakers or information, or can contribute money, or plan a welcoming rally where they live in BC can call (604) 736-7678. If you need information on action in other provinces, call (604)522-7911. Ellen Woodsworth'is a member of Women to Women Global Strategies. DisAbled Women's Network: Cuts threaten dusk for DAWN by Susan Briscoe The national office of DAWN (Disabled Women's Network) Canada was forced to close its doors on March 31 due to federal government funding cuts. "We became a strong voice for disabled women across Canada and we have to shut down because...now they have not even given us enough funds to do projects," says Pat Israel, who made the grim announcement at a press conference in Ottawa on March 17. "We refuse to die a slow death as they cut back more and more each year. We'd rather die quickly right now," says Israel. "We have no choice but to send the money [from Women's Programs, Secretary of State] back." DAWN Canada applied to SecState for $325,000. The organization was told it would receive $132,000. When the cheque arrived, it was for $120,000, to finance two projects. No explanation was given for the additional cut. "Disabled women are the canaries of the women's movement and the closure of our national office shows what a profound effect cutbacks are having on women's groups," says Israel. (Canaries were taken into the mines to gauge the breathability of the air. If they died, the miners would evacuate the shafts before the air ran out.) DAWN Canada was set up in 1985 to address the particular issues that women with disabilities face, issues that were not on the agenda of disabilities rights groups or of women's groups. The organization has been responsible for increasing awareness of violence against women with disabilities and conducting research about parenting, employment, self image, and reproductive technologies. The national office of DAWN Canada has been DAWN's liaison with the federal government and has also worked on an international level. DAWN has been trying for years to get core funding to run its national office full time. But like other groups which represent "doubly disadvantaged" women, such as those for immigrant women and women of colour, they have been denied these essential funds year after year by the Tory government. Joan Meister of DAWN BC is a past chair of DAWN Canada. She calls the government cutback "stupid and senseless." Meister says that, while the government is happy to get good press from supporting a disabled women's organization, they are not willing to adequately fund the group. "The Tories have gotten lots of mileage out of us. They're always holding us up as an example of how wonderful they are. They "Disabled women are the canaries of the women's movement and the closure of our national office shows what a profound effect cutbacks are having on I women's groups." | -Pat Israel, DAWN I know how much money it takes to run an organization like this. They know what they're doing," she says. Meister says that for a long time DAWN was based in her bedroom because there were no funds for an office. "Hundredsand thousands of voluntary hours have gone into DAWN already...The government doesn't appreciate what a deal they're getting. They're just assuming DAWN will make do with whatever money it gets," she says. But Israel says they cannot run DAWN like that anymore. "I hope they don't think we're bluffing, because we're not," Israel adds. "We simply cannot continue with an impossible situation. It would take time and money that we simply don't have. It would be a half-assed job, and we're not willing to do that." She explains that even the cost of a meeting is beyond their means. Their last phone bill for a conference call board meeting was $1,400. "Getting the board together in one room would have cost much, much more," she says. While this funding cut does not directly affect local chapters of DAWN, which are, for the most part, provincially funded, it will seriously affect their work, as they rely on the national office as the centre of their crosscountry network. DAWN Canada is still hoping that, with support from women's groups and indi- vidualsand enough media attention, SecState will reverse its position. DAWN is asking women to phone, fax, or write in protest to Ottawa. Letters can be sent to: Monique Landry, Minister of Secretary of State, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, KlA 0M5. Her phone number is (819) 997-7788 and her fax number is (819) 994-5987. Susan Briscoe is a volunteer writer for Kinesis, who is leaving Vancouver for Montreal to have a baby and "forget" about SecState for a while. APRIL 1993 News Lesbian rights: Loss, win or draw by Shannon e. Ash It's a loss, but it's the closest lesbians have come to winning. "It" is a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Cana da on the Mossop case, which impacts on lesbian and gay rights, and it has left many in lesbian and feminist circles with mixed feelings. Whatever the verdict, now that a decision has been made on the case of Brian Mossop—a gay man who claimed discrimination on the basis of family status—at least one of a number of similar cases can proceed. Vancouver resident Carol Nielson began her human rights case three years ago when her employer refused to allow dental insurance coverage—part of Nielson's employment benefits—for her female partner and the biological daughter of her partner. Efforts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful, so she filed a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act. She claimed discrimination on four grounds: sex, marital status, family status, and sexual orientation. The Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is supporting Nielson's case. The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has the power to recommend the appointment of a tribunal in Nielson's case. However, the CHRC refused to determine whether to appoint a tribunal or not, pending the outcome of the Mossop litigation. Nielson's lawyer, Gwen Brodsky, and LEAF argue that the Mossop situation is "substantively different" from Nielson's,and Nielson's case would not necessarily be decided in the same way. However, a federal court judge upheld the CHRC's decision, and Nielson's case has been held in abeyance for two years. On February 25, the Supreme Court of Canada finally ruled on Mossop's case. Mossop, an employee of the federal government, was denied bereavement leave to attend the funeral of his male partner's father in 1985. He filed a complaint with the CHRC, and a tribunal ruled in Mossop's favour. The Attorney-General—minister of justice Kim Campbell—appealed the ruling to the federal court of appeal and won. The CHRC appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled against Mossop's appeal by a slim 4-3 majority. The majority decision, delivered by Chief Justice Lamer, is based on technical reasoning— specifically, on what was judged to be the intent of Parliament at the time the case began. Parliament had amended the Human Rights Act in 1983 to include family status, but sexual orientation was not listed as a prohibited ground for discrimination. Therefore, Lamer writes, Parliament did not intend to include lesbians and gays under the definition of family status and, therefore, Mossop's claim was not valid at the time it was filed. While the Supreme Court judgement is based on old law and not current judgements and events, the court decision gives a nod to developments on the lesbian and gay rights front that have occurred in the time since they heard Mossop's case. These include an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling on Haig last year. The ruling drew on the equality section in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to say that courts are required to "read in" sexual orientation as protected grounds under human rights acts. Also, in December last year, former justice minister Kim Campbell introduced amendments to the Human Rights Act which, while including sexual orientation as protected grounds, limited the definition of marital status to heterosexual couples. The amendments drew criticism from gay and lesbian rights activists and have since been shelved, at least for the time being. The Supreme Court decision notes that the situation might have been different had Mossop's lawyers launched a Charter challenge of the law's consti tutionality. They say they had to rely on parliamentary intent because a Charter challenge was not made. However, the dissenting judgement, delivered byJusticeClaireL'Heureux-Dube, supports a more liberal interpretation of human rights legislation: "Concepts of equality and liberty which appear in human rights documents are not bounded by the precise understanding of those who drafted them." Furthermore, "the traditional conception of family is not the only conception., .the law has evolved and continues to evolve to recognize an increasingly broad range of relationships... Given the range of human preferences and possibilities, it is not unreasonable to conclude that families may take many forms." Following the decision on Mossop, Brodsky sent a letter to the CHRC to request Nielson's case now be allowed to proceed. As we go to press with this story, the commission still hasn't responded. EastsidE DataGrapLhcs fSsP^ 1460 CommercIaL DmvE S^^" teL: 255^9559 Fax: 255^075 OfficE Supplies Art Supplies Unjon Shop Decorate your T-shirts Fabric markers, Fabric paint and white cotton T-shirts children's and adult sizes CaU or Fax anc) we'U sencI you our Momhly flyER of qREAr officE supply spEckls. Free NExr-dAy dslivERy. However, Nielson says she is disappointed with the Mossop decision because it was made primarily on technical grounds, not on the merits of the case. "It skirted the main issue, which is whether or not lesbians and gays can have families," she says. But her lawyer, Brodsky, sees some positive signs in the Supreme Court decision. She notes that none of the judges found the behaviour of the government appropriate, and they ruled against Mossop by a slim majority on a highly technical ground. Only the minority judges ruled on the substantive issues, and they ruled in favour of lesbians and gays. Brodsky notes that Nielson's case is significantly different from Mossop's case in that it is more comprehensive—claiming four grounds of discrimination and addressing the dynamic between sex and sexual orientation. It also raises a different set of facts, such as the parent-child relationship. "The case provides the opportunity to advance evidence and arguments regarding the unique circumstances of women who are lesbians," says Brodsky. The issues being raised are not necessarily the same as those for gay men, she adds. Lesbians, more than gay men, have particular equality concerns arising from their lower economic status and the fact that les bians are more likely to be caring for children than gay men. Under grounds of sex discrimination, one issue is freedom of choice in relationships. Brodsky argues this is central to the goal of equality for all women, and includes freedom from compulsory heterosexuality. Nielsen will go ahead with all four grounds in her case, although she fears the CHRC may choose not to look at family status in the wake of the Mossop decision, while marital status may be threatened by Campbell's proposed human rights act amendments. One major difference she sees between Mossop's case and her own is that children are involved. The fact that she and her partner are two women with a dependent child may cause their case to be looked at differently than that of two men with no dependents. Although this may have a good effect—children are often seen as reinforcing a family—"it would be bad if those lesbian and gay couples without children are deemed not family. But any victory we can get is worth pursuing," she says. Shannon e. Ash is a lesbian with no employment benefits—and not much (paid) employment either. She thanks Agnes Huang for her help with the material for this story. Moge vs Moge after divorce: A better break by Lissa Geller A recent court decision recognizing the sexist division of labour for women within marriage may give divorced women who are dependent on spousal support payments a better break, says a women's legal group. Helena Orton of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) says the Supreme Court decision on Moge versus Moge recognizes "that it is primarily women who are economically disadvantaged during marriage and its breakdown, because generally it is women who take primary responsibility for childcare and other household work at the expense of their employment opportunities." LEAF intervened in the case because of "its critical importance for women." Following 18 years of marriage, during which Mrs. Moge worked part-time as a cleaner in the evenings and looked after her three children in the daytime, the couple divorced. Mr. Moge was ordered by a Manitoba court to pay $150 a month in spousal support as well as child support for the couple's three children. After the separation in 1973, Mrs. Moge took a full-time job as a cleaner. She is 55, speaks little English, has a grade 7 education, and has suffered disabling injuries. The case was brought to the Supreme Court when Mr. Moge's attempts to end his spousal support obligations on the grounds that his ex-wife had ample time to gain financial self-sufficiency were turned down by a Manitoba court. The Supreme Court upheld the Manitoba ruling and said Mr. Moge must continue to pay his wife spousal benefits. The majority decision is a significant move away from the courts' traditional emphasis on awarding support on a "sink or swim" basis and sets a legal precedent for courts to take into consideration women's economic inequality following divorce. Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dube writes in the majority decision that "judges must be more aware of the social reality of divorce— that women almost always emerge as the poorer partner." Orton concludes that the decision "should be helpful in making the legal system and spousal support awards more accessible and responsive to women." In its intervention, LEAF argued that the continued gender-based division of labour means that women often leave a marriage with less opportunities for outside employment and more responsibilities for home and children. This translates into economic hardship for women and their children. The Supreme Court decision accepts that argument. "There is no doubt that divorce and its economic effects are playing a role in the feminization of poverty..." writes L'Heureux-Dube. She cites a 1988 study that shows two-thirds of divorced women have incomes below the poverty line compared with only ten percent of divorced men. In addition to recognizing the poverty faced by many women when leaving the marriage, the Court also stressed the need for support well after the divorce. According to Orton, the Court said " long term support or its equivalent is often necessary due to the broad scope and long term nature of women's economic disadvantages." Lissa Geller is a lesbian mother and a volunteer writer for Kinesis. News Circling Dawn: Posters strike nerve by Jackie Brown Last month, posters warning women to beware of Circling Dawn and calling for a boycott of the organic food store and restaurant appeared on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Describing the store as "dangerous" to women, the posters accuse Circling Dawn of widespread economic and sexual exploitation and abuse. The posters say several women have been raped by members of the Circling Dawn collective and others associated with the store, and that women have been forced to take part in circle discussions of the sexual assaults with their abusers present. Other accusations include: that Circling Dawn has conned women out of thousands of dollars; pressures staff to work long hours and for food, not money; is anti-choice; discourages the use of birth control; and advocates polygamy. Circling Dawn responded to the charges with its own poster entitled, "From the Women of Circling Dawn," denying the allegations. The poster claims that the accusations of rape are unsubstantiated. "To the best of our knowledge, no woman has ever been raped by any collective members." It asks the people involved in the postering campaign "to come forward with the names of the rapists and any specific substantiating information or to contact the appropriate authorities." Circling Dawn says no-one has talked to them personally about any of the charges, including the rapes. Spokesperson Mojave says that, while they believe women who say they have been sexually abused, in this case no woman has approached the collective with their stories. But women working with survivors of rape say that asking women to come forward and name their rapists does not acknowledge women's fear of retaliation, or their right to decide how they will deal with an abuser. "No one should expect any woman to confront her rapist under any circumstances," says Sarah Leavitt of Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW.) Immigration and Refugee Board: Rules count women in by Smita Patil Women may beeligible to stay inCanada if they are fleeing countries where the government "is unwilling or unable" to protect them from sexual or domestic violence, according to new Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) guidelines ongender-based persecution. The guidelines came after intense pressure from women's organisations, which have supported severa 1 cases of women refugees fighting deportation. Eighty percent of the world's refugees are women, yet two-thirds of refugee claimants accepted into Canada are men. The IRB guidelines broaden the interpretationof refugee to include gender-based persecution. Neither Canadian Immigration law nor the United Nations Convention on Refugees, on which the law is based, include gender as a grounds of persecution. Under the guidelines, a refugee claimant is required to convince the IRB officer that a policy or law in her home country is inherently persecutory towards women, that she fears how the law is administered, and that punishment for non-compliance is persecution. There is also no requirement that the guidelines be followed by IRB officers, and interpretation, for example, of "domestic violence" will be left to their discretion. (IRB officers are federal patronage appointments rather than career officers hired for their skills and, while they are accountable to a federal court, their decisions can only be appealed on the narrowest legal grounds). "The guidelines are just that—guidelines," says Beverly Bain of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC). "Itis important thatgender persecution be part of the legal definition [of a refugee]. It should not be left up to the discretion of IRB officers," she says. Bain says NAC, refugee and other women's groups are pushing the government to go further and change the Immigration law. "There is no need to sit down and debate with them whether gender persecution should be grounds for refugee claims, but consultations should be liad on how it should be legislated," she says. "We just have to push them to make it law." Minister of immigration, Bernard Valcourt, has said that extension of the Immigration law to include gender-based persecution is unlikely. His reasons include: Canada should not be imposing its values on other countries; Canada cannot afford to take the flood of women claimants that would follow; and, it is up to the United Nations, not Canada, to broaden the definition of refugee. In the meantime, NAC is demanding a moratorium on deportations of women survivors of violence or sexist persecution until the law is changed. "It's not fair to deport these women to possible death and certain violence when we've changed the IRB guidelines," said NAC's Judy Rebick. She says the IRB should review the women's cases based on the new guidelines. However, while Valcourt has granted temporary stays of deportation orders in several cases, he says a moratorium is out of the question. To demand that gender-based persecution be legislated, write, call or fax: Bernard Valcourt, House of Commons, Ottawa, Kl A 0A6; (phone) 819-994-2482; (fax) 819-994- 0448. For more information about the nationwide campaign by women's and refugee groups, call Flora Fernandez at 514-270-8291. Smita Patil is a volunteer writer for Kinesis. ...women working with survivors of rape say that asking women to come forward and name their rapists does not acknowledge women's fear of retaliation... Kinesis spoke to some women who say they have experienced various forms of abuse at Circling Dawn, but they have requested that no details of their stories be revealed in any context at this time. The women say they been through a great deal of emotional pain and stress, and fear repercussions if they are identified. Otherwomen,notdirectlyinvolvedwith Circling Dawn, but associated with the boycott action/agreed to speak on condition of anonymity or on a first-name basis. The poster action came out of a series of meetings that began in February. A large number of women showed up for the first meeting. Some were former Circling Dawn members, others were friends of women who had been involved, and others had heard stories and were concerned about Circling Dawn's treatment of women in particular. The women decided on an anonymous poster campaign to alert other women to what had happened to some women associated with the Circling Dawn community. The women say they felt this might be the best vehicle, since women were not ready to publicly confront Circling Dawn. Public responsewasimmediateand supportive. The women say more women who had survived abusive involvements with Circling Dawn came forward with similar stories. Stephanie—one of the women who put up the "Beware of Circling Dawn" posters— says she and other women have decided to break anonymity and come forward to stop the targeting of individual women. She told Kinesis the accusations are based on "first-hand accounts of abuse. The information [for the accusations] was given either by a woman or women to whom it happened, both in person and in writing." According to Stephanie, women who attended the meetings talked of the pressure, coercion and sexual assault of women involved with Circling Dawn. Store owner Tom Evans was described as a "powerful leader" who used rhetoric to manipulate and dominate members of the group. Since the postering action, some women say they, as well as friends and supporters not involved in the action, have been harassed and intimidated. One Black woman says she was confronted at a Black History Month event by three women from Circling Dawn. She says she then confronted the women after the event. A couple of weeks later, she said, a woman of colour who had supported her during the Black History month confrontations received a threatening message on her answering machine. And, she says, two other friends, also women of colour, were confronted by men from the Circling Dawn community a few days after the Lesbian Visibility March, during which a group of women of colour shouted, "Circling Dawn is racist scum." Hopi, a spokesperson for Circling Dawn, acknowledges tha t she and two other women from Circling Dawn individually approached a woman they had been told was involved in the postering at a Black History month event, to talk about the postering. Things got heated, she says, and they dropped it. Another conversation took place after the event during which, Hopi says, the Black woman and her friends accused Hopi and the other Circling Dawn women of harassment. Two women involved in the postering campaign—Wilma and Emily [not their real names]—also say they have been harassed. They say they have been followed and their home has been watched since their involvement in the postering campaign. "We're outraged at the attempts to silence us. We speak about the violence that happened to us, and harassment is the response," says Emily. They say they initially joined the campaign because they had been verbally and physically abused by two men from Circling Dawn. Emily and Wilma have filed a. formal complaint regarding the harassment with police. Hopi insists no one in the collective has "followed or harassed anyone." Meanwhile, the women involved in the boycott say they are concerned that women are being set up against each other. The women of Circling Dawn have been responsible for defending the store. "By speaking as the only organized voice, the women of Circling Dawn are bearing the brunt of criticism and this can too easily be deflected into a pitting of women against women," say Emily and Wilma. "Either way, one group of women must be lying." Bonnie Agnew of Rape Relief says she is concerned that men at Circling Dawn are abdicating their responsibility. "I'd like to hear the men make some honest statements," says Agnew. "If there is this much anger, then I know from experience there is something to it, and it seems like the men are getting out of the public heat. And it's the women and the kids who are in economic jeopardy." Meanwhile, the women at Circling Dawn say there is a need for an open meeting between all concerned with a professional facilitator. "We've sought this with them several times and they've blocked it every time," says Hopi. The women acknowledge that they've been asked to step forward, but say they believe it's their prerogative to decide how to deal with their concerns about Circling Dawn. "If we don't feel safe, we don't," says Wilma. In the meantime, WAVAW has sent a press release to local media saying, "WAVAW believes all women who say they have been sexuallyassaulted...We know that a woman who is sexually assaulted is usually faced with disbelief from the police, doctors or family and friends." WAVAW says its policy is to "disclose no information that would identify women who call our line. "We refuse to say whether or not women have called our line about assaults at Circling Dawn." Jackie Brown is a freelance writer living in Vancouver. APRIL 1993 Movement Matters listings information Movement Matters is designed to be a network of news, updates and information of special interest to the women's movement. Submissions to Movement Matters should be no more than 500 words, typed, double spaced and may be edited for length. Deadline is the 18th of the month preceding publication. by Faith Jones and Laiwan Conference on stalking The Victoria Status of Women Action Group and the University of Victoria's Faculty of Law are co-sponsoring a conference on stalking, threatening and intimidation. The conference, called "A Step Behind— Who Is There?", will be structured to reflect a three level analysis of issues of men stalking women as follows: the nature of the problem and its extent, current responses by the system, solutions and strategies. The conference will be held in the Begbie Building at the University of Victoria, May 14 and 15. For more information, call SWAG at (604) 381-1012. Alternative healing for survivors VISAC, The Vancouver Incest and Sexual Abuse Centre has started a committee to address the issues of: creating an alternative to a psychiatric ward for treatment of adult survivors who need a safe place to heal from the trauma of sexual abuse; and to implement a concept of residential treatment centres as an alternative to hospitalization and the high cost of hospital care. This will provide services that are desperately needed by survivors and are presently not available in this province, and will save money. The first committee meeting was held in March. If you're interested in becoming involved with this committee call Lyn Martens atVTSAC874-2938.Address:1193Kingsway, Vancouver. A healthy voice for all women The provincial government ha s rejected a proposal by the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC) whichdemanded a voice for all women in the restructuring of health care inBC. The VWHC's brief proposed government fund a representative group of women to canvass opinions on how the restructur ing should take place to ensure v health. The VWHC stress it is necessary for a broad spectrum of women, not just the privileged, to have input into the process. The Provincial Women's Health Lobby, which supported the VWHC initiative, is a group of women dedicated to developing a platform from which all women can speak about health care issues. The Health Lobby believes public consultation must be educational about the impact public policy on women's health has on each woman's life. Women can then make educated choices about what a public policy on women's health should be. PWHL is urging women to send letters in support of a public consultation process, by April 1, to: Elizabeth Cull, Minister of Health, Rm. 310, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4; and to: Penny Priddy, Minister for Women's Equality, Rm. 342, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V1X4. Economic theory and feminism Mainstream economic theories have tended to exclude women. A group of women economists in The Netherlands are planning a conference to "contribute to the development of a more gender balanced economic theory." "Out of the Margin: Feminist Perspectives on Economic Theory" will be held in Amsterdam, June 2 to 5,1993 and will be the first conference of its kind in Europe. It will include public debates and a large 'Ideas Exchange Market,' as well as the closed scientific session where participation would be limited. Early registration is advised. For more information, contact: Out of the Margin Stichring, P.O. Box 16625, NL-1001 RC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands or fax (31)(0) 20.6384608. Fourth women's world conference The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will hold the fourth in its series of world conferences in Beijing, China, September 4 to 15, 1995. Previous conferences were held in 1975,1980 and 1985. The 1985 NGO conference in Nairobi, Kenya, drew 13,000 women from around the world. The mandate of "The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace" is to define a platform of action for the commission. The commission says this platform will be concise and action-oriented, and will concentrate on a few issues identified as representing fundamental obstacles to the advancement of the majority of women in the world. It would include elements related to awareness- raising, decision-making, literacy, poverty, health, violence, national machinery, refugees, and technology. A non-governmental organization (NGO) forum will be organized parallel to the Fourth World Conference. The commission will attempt to foster close cooperation between the United Nations system, governments and NGOs during the preparatory process leading up to the conferences. The commission says it recognizes the importance of the extensive contribution of non-governmental organizations to the success of previous world conferences on women. The commission also will attempt to promote the participation of Third World NGOs. Handbook on sexual assault A new, comprehensive handbook on sexual assault has just been published by the Montreal Health Press. The book, Sexual Assault, is divided into two sections. The first is a guide to preventing, fighting and dealing with sexual assaults. The second is an analysis of the social context of sexual assault. Sexual Assault provides definitions of different kinds of sexual assault, and information designed to help those who have been sexually assaulted decide whether to report the assault to the police. It also explains both the progressive and regressive aspects of Canada's new sexual assault law, passed in June 1992. Sexual Assault is available from Montreal Health Press, Inc., CP 1000, Station Place du Pare, Montreal, P.Q., H2W 2N1. Cost is $4 for a single copy; bulk discounts are available. It is available in French or English. For women who are stretching boundaries And think broadest maybe describes them best And wonder if women's clothes in size 0 Isn't really some very bad jest Fotwomen out there who are larger And realize this is their fate I carry clothes that are bigger I know, isn't that great! Quality consignment clothing Size 14... plus Amplesize Park 5766 Fraser Street Vancouver, BC V5W2Z5 Sarah-Jane (604)322-0107 Lesbian mothers network MOMAZONS is a newly formed national US organization for lesbian mothers and for lesbians who want children in their lives. "We've been organizing here in Central Ohio for more than five years, and over 100 local women and their children have been participating in Momazon meetings," says founder Kelly McCormide. "Momazons is all about lesbians creating families, mothering and raising children." It is Momazons' vision that lesbians interested in raising children should not feel isolated, suffer homophobic reactions in silence, or search in vain for lesbian-family supportive professionals in their quest to create or nurture their families. Momazons' produces a bimonthly newsletter to facilitate dialogue about lesbians experiences and opinions about considering children, creating family, blending families, child rearing, and other issues of significance to lesbian mothers and their families. They also have an extensive directory of supportive resources and a member directory that organizes a "mom to mom" referral program to connect lesbian matters dealing with similar issues. A one-year membership costs $15-20 US sliding scale. Add US $8 in Canada to cover mailing costs. This includes a subscription to the newsletter, which encourages interactive dialogue among lesbian mothers. Individuals contributing US $100 or more become "founding mothers" and lifetime members. Write to: Momazons, P.O. Box 02069, Columbia, Ohio 43202. Telephone (614) 267-0193. © Vancouver's sixth annual A Festival of Working People & the Arts \JliMAYW«RKS X^TX from April 29 thru May 8, vaS"/^\ various d/t & eastside venues! V \ MayWorks Film & Video Festival Pacific Cinematheque, May 4-8, Five nights of new independent media about workers & their communities, from motherhood to wage labour, by Paper Tiger TV, Inuit Broadcasting Corp, Pratibha Parmar, Sara Diamond, & more. Karen Knights, Programmer. Censored In B.C. - Art Exhibit, opening 7:30 pm Apr. 29, IWA Hall, Commercial & 13th: local art previously censored for sexual & political reasons. Artists incl: Kiss & Tell, Melva Forsberg, Kati Campbell. Curated by Jeannie Kamins. Censored Performance Cabarets - Apr. 30, 7:30 pm & May 1, 8 pm IWA Hall. Veda Hille & Her Band, music, poetry, & ....by Deirdre Walker, Evelyn Lau, Heidi Archibald, Dana Claxton, Ingrid Percy. Fiction, Fantasy and Fragmentation - May 6, 8 pm Video In, 1102 Homer. Lecture & screening by Alberta video artist Leila Sujir. Dish Pigs & Wage Slaves - May Day youth afternoon at the IWA Hall, bands & videos. Co-sponsor ARTEST. Visions of Clayoquot - slide show, speakers & discussion May 3 7:30 pm, IWA Hall. Valerie Langer, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, IWA rep. & PPWC Environmental Officer. Yellowknife Miners Solidarity Cabaret - May 7, 7:30 pm WISE Hall, Adanac & Victoria. Speaker June Roberts - CLASS. Groupe Du Jour, Van. Industrial Writers Union & more. *Call 874-2906 for Festival info. Volunteers appreciated! What's News by Lynne Wanyeki NDP and unions agree on health Almost five thousand hospital employees will lose their jobs under a deal negotiated between BC's three health care unions and the provincial government last month. The deal guarantees job security, a shorter work week, and a greater role in hospital decision-making. Under the deal, hospital employees, most of whom are women, will be transferred to community health care facilities. The promise of transferral stemmed from union fears of job losses under the provincial government's planned re-structuring of the BC health care system. The provincial government, acting on recommendations in the 1991 Royal Commission on Health Care, aims to make health care more community-oriented. There-structuring plans include the establishment of 100 regional councils to set health care priorities, as well as increased funding to community health care facilities. The increased funding will allow for the hiring of hospital employees whose jobs are being cut in the process of re-structuring. The deal "means that our people can move with the switch from acute care to community care," says Carmela Allevato of the Hospital Employees Union. "The traditional way to close hospital beds has been wholesale layoffs and service cuts. The agreement really provides us with an opportunity in BC to ensure that the switch to community health care is progressive rather than regressive and oppressive." The deal was negotiated by the Hospital Employees Union, the BC Nurses Union and the Health Sciences Association. It must still be ratified by the union members and the province hospitals. Child care council formed Early in February, Penny Priddy, BC Women's Equality Minister announced the appointment of a 17-member Provincial Child Care Council. The Council is intended to give communities input into childcare in BC. The formation of the Council is part of the NDP initiative on childcare announced by Priddy at the conference on childcare held in Vancouver in April last year. The NDP initiative is a 5-year plan, which does not address the immediate, critical lack of child care spaces in BC. "Despite the best efforts of municipalities and the provincial government, the cri- sishas grown because of federal cuts in some basic programs that aided families," says Penny Coates. Coates is the civic child care coordinator for the City of Vancouver. "Vancouver has just 4500 day care spaces and needs a minimum of 11000 more just to cope with basic needs of residents," Coates stated early this month. "The situation provincially is no better, with statistics showing 280,000 children needing child care and only about 28,000 spaces existing," said Peter Ashmore of the West Coast Childcare Resource Centre. TheCouncil'smandatewill include giving advice to the provincial government on the development and evaluation of child care programs, as well as establishing links FEATURI NG... SAWAGI TAIKO, CUB AND SHE Friday, April 23,1993 Maritime Labour Centre 1880 Triumph Street (3 blocks north on Victoria at Hastings) 8 pm (doors open at 7 pm) $15 $20 $25 Tickets at Ticketmaster or call 253-7905 Wheelchair Accessible Childcare subsidy available (call 253-1224) Licensed with complimentary dessert table ^ BENf |&f£feANG PRINTERS between families, the child care community and the Ministry of Women's Equality. The initiative also includes funding for: existing licensed infant and toddler day care centres; spaces for school-aged children and children from low-income families; more family day care spaces; setting up new child care centres throughout BC; and the establishment of an Aboriginal Child Care Working Committee to meet the specific needs of Aboriginal families. Review of adoption laws A review of the 36-year old adoption law in BC is being reviewed to reflect changing social values around adoption, says BC's Minister of Social Services. The government's review of the Adoption Act will include consultation with communities and organizations that have indicated a wish to see the legislation change. Changes to the Adoption Act were recommended by the Community Panel Report into Family and Child Services, which was received by the provincial government in December 1992. Some of the ideas up for discussion during the review are the regulation of private adoptions, and allowing a continuing bond between the adopted child and the birth family. So far, no mention has been made of adoptions by lesbian or gay families. The review is expected to be completed by November of this year. For more information, call 1-800-663-1251. Ten bucks more for welfare recipients Effective February 1, social assistance rates have been increased minimally in BC. The increase, made by the provincial NDP government, gives single employable people as well as single "unemployable" people $10/month more. Single parents with one child also get $17/month more. The increase amounts to less than 2 percent of the old social assistance rates. This means that people receiving social assistance will remain below the poverty line. However, the increase has been slated for the support portion of the social assistance cheques, rather than the shelter portion. This means that everyone receiving social assistance will be eligible to receive the money, regardless of whether or not their rent necessitates it. Effective April 1, the minimum wage will also be increased to $6/hour. But, says a spokesperson at End Legislated Poverty, the minimum wage has to go up to at least $9.05/hour in order for it to have the same value it had in 1975. call us cheap ads! 255*5499 1716 Charles St Vancouver BC VSL2TS 3& (604)253-3142 smoke fice cappuccino bar (Jf light vegetarian meals <§■ art&crafts <£ gifts&music £ pooltablc Open Tuesday ■* Sunday Womyn's Open Stage Qh Saturday, April 24th ^ Book your Special Event with Us Also effective April 1 is an increased wage for live-in domestic workers. The new ratewillbe$48/day. This rate will be higher for domestic workers in families of more than 4 people. Maiya house workers on strike Newly unionized workers at Maiya House in Nanaimo voted 90 percent in favour of taking strike action in mid-March. Maiya House is one of only two residential treatment programs in BC run exclusively for chemically-dependent women. The union is seeking a decrease in work hours and an increase in wages to bring their wages to the same level as union staff at both the Columbia House in Nanaimo and the ADAPT drug and alcohol program in Victoria. The 13 women who work at Maiya House joined the Health Sciences Association in June last year. At that time, working conditions included 51 -hour weeks, with no overtime and salaries of $1750/month. Since that time, they have been trying to negotiate an agreement with their employer, Maiya House Society. The Society, which receives funding through the BC Ministry of Hea lth's Alcohol and Drug Programs, has offered wage increases which would leave the Maiya House workers from 9 percent to 44 percent behind workers doing substantially the same kind of work. Its last offer was rejected five days before the strike began. Pro-choicers call for more security Abortionclinics throughout the US have tightened their securityand women's groups are urging Congress to approve legislation making the blocking of abortion clinics a federal crime. At the same time, many groups are pushing for an FBI investigation of "anti- choice violence." These moves come after investigators found no evidence of conspiracy in the shooting death of a doctor outside his abortion clinic in Florida. "This is clearly not an isolated act by one crazy individual," says Joy Thompson of the BC Coalition for Abortion Clinics. "The anti-choice movement has not been able to win legislation and is now resorting to terrorism." The US shooting "is religious intolerance to the nth degree," stated Dr. Mary Conley, a Victoria physician who is a member of Physicians for Choice. "For years, we've been saying that pro-life is not pro- life, it is anti-choice. This particular case certainly brings it out." Pro-choice activists in BC feel that the violent tactics of the US anti-abortionists are spreading into Canada. There has been an increase in harassment against BC doctors who perform abortion. The harassment ranges from picketing to threats, at doctors' homes as well as their workplaces. The BC Coalition for Abortion Clinics currently has a survey underway to determine the extent of harassment experienced by doctors who perform abortions in BC. 1988 W 4th & Maple Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1M5 733-3511 APRIL 1993 Feature NAFTA: Mexican women say no by Patricia Hume translated by Gabriella Moro These are excerpts of presentations made before a crowd of about 900 at a public forum in Vancouver on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) last month. The forum was co-sponsored by the Action Canada Network, the National Action Committee on the Status ofWomen (NAC)andthe Vancouver and Dis trict Labour Cou ncil and Trade Un ion group. Everybody who has concerns about NAFTA knows that it has a lot of implications and not only in the area of trade. It's impact will be felt in our daily lives. One of the most serious problems is that this trade agreement has no limits, neither social ones, nor to do with the environment. In the social area, it is anti-democratic. improving the quality of life for people, and even less to take care of the environment. The only thing they're really interested in is obtaining maximum profits with maximum productivity, and giving back in exchange the minimum—minimum salaries—and nothing, in terms of the environment. In my country, 20 years ago, the transnationals installed themselves in the industrial parts of the state of Morales, where I live. They are mostly pharmaceuticals, like DuPont. The working conditions for the people include minimum safety standards or security, and people working there are exposed to toxic substances like hormones. There are chronic illnesses because of the workplace. For example, there are problems in women's reproductive systems, spontaneous abortions, sterility in some of the For us, it has been really really difficult to even know what kinds of terms have been negotiated in this agreement. The government has not taken the time to inform the population. So what we had to do really was kind of work as "spies" in order to figure out how this treaty is going to affect us. Unfortunately, what we found has told us we have really run into some tough times. There are other treaties that are affected by NAFTA, for example, really important environmental treaties like the ones we negotiated and signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero. We signed them because humanity is in danger. There are a number of international conventions and agreements that address for example, climate change. All of this is in order to achieve the objective—that this planet continues to be habitable for future generations. But for this, we need sustainable development and NAFTA is totally against this kind of development. This is because NAFTA's philosophy is to take whatever transnationals want with no limits, whether it's in the workforce or in natural resources. Because what the transnationals are interested in is not the well-being of people nor men, and more and more children are being born all the time with genetic problems— there have been recent cases of children being born without a brain. It's a very serious problem that neither the government nor the transnationals will face up to. What they say to the workers is, "it's your personal problem and this has got nothing to do with the workplace." The state of the environment has also deteriorated. The water is so polluted with heavy metals, that for a year and a half now, the peasants are prohibited from planting seeds, especially rice that they used to grow, which was of the best quality. This was rice for export in addition to the cultivation and gardens and corn for local use. Right now, the peasants are without work, without food, because what they used to grow helped them sustain a better quality of life. At least they could eat the corn and beans they grew in their own property and their own land and at least survive the low salaries they were getting. But now, they are not allowed to plant seeds. And the government, instead of blaming the transnationals, blames the peasants All natural ingredients Hot Cross Buns available through Easter 1697 Venables at Commercial 254-5635 Mon-Fri 8am-5:30pm Sat 9am-5:30pm as told to Ellen Woodsworth Kinesis got the chance to talk to Patricia Humeforafew minutes after her presentation at the NAFTA forum. Ellen Woodsworth: Why are women in Mexico City fighting against the free trade agreement? Patricia Hume: Because NAFTA is against women's rights and women's daily life. When the price of food goes up, you have to find other ways of finding food, and it's always the women's work. I mean, you don't have to work for an hour like before. You have to work four hours in order to have food for your family. Andit'sthesamewithhealth—you don't have health services. You have to do it yourself. Women have all the burden of health and food and other responsibilities of the whole family. So women are the poorest of the poor. Woodsworth: Women in Canada and in the US are afraid of fighting against the free trade agreement because they think it will mean they are fighting against Mexican women. Hume: That's why we're here. Because women in Canada really don't know the conditions of Mexican women. The conditions here are a lotbetterand Mexican women are in much worse conditions. We want you to fight the free trade agreement with us. Woodsworth: What's been happening to human rights, say, for gay people, for immigrants, for Mexican people, for indigenous people? Hume: I belong to a network for human rights. Every day in my state, people disappear, women get raped, or they poison your water so no one knows you're being poisoned. But it's especially bad for indigenous people, they are charged for being on drugs, for dealing...and they have nothing to do with drugs. And because most of them don't speak the language—in Mexico, we have more than 100 dialects—they can't defend them- and say they are irresponsible because they continue to try and plant seeds in these conditions. So the peasants are forced to sell their land. The government changed the law that forbid the sale of communal land so the peasants now sell their land. The campasinos [farmers] go to work in factories where there are really bad conditions, in terms of nutrition, health and so on. All of this has happened before the implementation of the North AmericanFreeTrade Agreement. These transnationals have shown us they're not going to be nice with us. So what do you think is going to happen with the signing of the agreement? We're definitely opposed to this agreement. We don't-want them to sign parallel or sidebar agreements either. What we want is a democratic process in order to have trade agreements that are equitable, that seek an acceptable quality of life for people that comes before the profit motive, and that speaks out for sustainable development. To achieve this, we are trying to establish a network of citizens, because we know that this agreement is not good for us, not for the Mexicans and not for the Americans and not for the Canadians. What we have to do is unite, and form a social force that takes back the power of the people, that takes back the power of local governments and that comes before this trade agreement—an agreement that is against things like equality and freedom. We have to work together even beyond the agreement. Canadians should do something to oppose this thing just as we, in Mexico, are trying to do. mmemmim Patricia Hume is a Mexican biologist and environmentalist who has spent the last few years working with the Indigenous people of Mexico. ...NAFTA is against women's rights and women's daily life. -Patricia Hume mm************** selves. And because the communication system is so bad, nobody knows when you just disappear, or are shot. Other people take their land and nobody knows. There's just silence. Woodsworth: In Canada, Aboriginal peoples are fighting with the provincial governments to have recognition that they never signed the lands over to the i mperialist powers. Now, with the free trade agreement, they will lose many of freedoms that have been fought for. The commission under the NAFTA agreement will physically remove these things. Has something like that happen to the communal land in Mexico? Hume: Yes. One of the things was that the campasinos could have their own land, a communal land. And nobody could have it—people would come and give you a lot of money, but it was not allowed to sell the land. Now, the government has changed the law so that campasinos can sell the land. It is not that they want to sell, but they have been forced to sell—like I said, if the land is polluted, we cannot use the land. So now campasinos go to the cities to work for very low wages, and they have to pa y for the land, so they'd rather sell it. And all these big realtors come and buy the land for peanuts. They give them nothing. So the campasinos are left without a land. The realtors make tourist resorts, and hordes of people come. And after the campasinos have been forced to sell for nothing, they are put to work in the hotels, made to live in houses with no water and no electricity. They're not allowed to fish any more. Woodsworth: What's happening in terms of women mobilizing against the NAFTA? Hume: In the cities, where women are more aware, we're building women's groups. Outside the cities, it's more difficult. The campasinos don't talk about NAFTA as much as they talk about human rights. And the women think it's natural for them to be where they are—that god made them be there, that you have to be born into a place where you are more wealthy, like white people. What also makes it difficult is the ecologist perspective in the cities is against the indigenous perspective. Ecologists say "save the land! Save the land!" But they don't realize that a lot of indigenous people live on that land. We're now working together to find, to invent, to make up ways of thinking Feature Abortion in Ireland: Dialing for pro-choice by Erin Mullan In a small, unheated room somewhere in central Dublin, a woman unlocks a cupboard and pulls out a telephone. It's 7 pm and time for the Women's Information Network to go into operation. For the next two hours, the phone won't stop ringing, as women from all over Ireland call to get abortion information. The location of the helpline is a well- kept secret, known only to the members of the Women's Information Network. Giving women information about abortion and the telephone numbers of abortion clinics in Britain, was until very recently illegal in Ireland. Any information about abortion is hard to come by in the 26 counties making up the Irish republic. (Abortion information is easier to come by in the north of Ireland, although, like in the south, abortion itself is illegal.) Following the passage of an anti-abortion constitutional referendum in 1983, Irish anti-choice groups, like the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC), have used the courts to shut down any counselling service that provides non-directive pregnancy counselling, which included abortion information as an option. (Non-directive counselling is counselling that does not tell the client what to do, but helps her to make the choice that she wants.) Abortion information went underground. A group of feminists set up the Women's Information Network (WIN) in the aftermath of the court injunctions against the counselling services. The injunctions didn't stop Irish women from travelling to Britain to have abortions, but they did make it very difficult to get information before they went. Imagine yourself faced with an unplanned pregnancy, forced to travel by boat or plane to another country, often for the first time, and making that journey with no information about what services are available when you arrive. Most of the thousands of Irish women who go to Britain for abortions each year travel with no information, and they often have to hide the reason for their trip from family and friends. In Canada, there is also a great deal of silence surrounding the issue of abortion. Most women regard the decision to have an abortion as something private and personal, partly because it is a very personal matter, and partly because in Canada there isa small but very vocal anti-abortion lobby. In Ireland, the anti-choice forces are far from small, and they dominate the most powerful institutions. The silence on abortion in Ireland was broken by some women's groups, students organizations and a few brave individuals. Until the pro-choice referendum victories at the end of last year [see Kinesis, Feb. 93] these people made up the underground movement that tried to keep abortion information available in Ireland, in spite of the threat of heavy fines being imposed by the courts. Last year, when I was travelling in rural Ireland, the first place I saw the WIN phone number was on the wall of a toilet stall in a pub in Donegal. This is not unusual. WIN statistics show that, in addition to information from friends and student handbooks, stickers put in pub toilets and other public places are the main ways women get the helpline phone number. June Kelly, a WIN member, says the helpline exists to help break down the isolation Irish women feel when faced with an unwanted pregnancy. "We're here because of the women in, say, Galway, bunging 50 pence pieces into the phone box, maybe with two or three kids banging on the door, terrified the neighbours will come by and say 'Mary, why are you using the phone box when you've got a phone at home?'" says Kelly. "Often women want to talk a bit, because this is often the first time they've talked with anyone about their situation," she says. "We reassure women that there's nothing illegal or backstreet about the abortion clinics in Britain. We also tell them about cheap travel etc. We try and give them as much information as possible so as to save women long-distance charges when they phone the clinic to book an appointment." Kelly says the helpline workcanbe hard for the volunteers because of the lack of face- to-face contact with callers who are often very upset. "It can be quite traumatic because we're talking through the telephone line and, if she's in severe stress, you can't hold her hand and say Tm not a machine, I'm a friend and I'm not going to judge you'." While the majority of helpline callers have already decided to have an abortion, some women want help with decision-making. If the caller wants further counselling, the volunteer can refer her to thelrishFamily Planning Association (IFPA). As of October 1992, the IFPA has a contract with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which is a non-profit abortion service with clinics throughout Britain. The IFPA now provides non-directive counselling and, when requested, referral to a BPAS clinic. Despite the passing of a constitutional referendum last November, which guarantees the right to information, the referral service is still technically illegal, according to the IFPA. June Kelly says that while WIN faces a constant threatof being targeted in the courts by SPUC, so far there is no court injunction against the helpline. She says, on several occasions, phone volunteers have had a bad scare when Irish policehaveactually phoned the line, but they were in fact calling to get information about shelters where they could take battered women. Most of the women who volunteer on the helpline have a counselling or social work background. There are about twenty volunteers who range in age from mid-20s to mid-40s. Kelly says they reflect a cross-section of Irish society, but they are all women's rights campaigners. "The majority of the women were active in the 1983 referendum campaign and have been plodding along "We're here because of the women... bunging 50 pence pieces into the phone box... terrified the neighbor will come by..."-June Kelly, WIN since that time, trying to improve the position of women in this country." Irish student organizations have also been campaigning for women's rights, with serious consequences. Student unions have been publishing abortion information, including the WIN helpline number in student handbooks In 1989, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child got a court injunction to stop the student unions from distributing theabortioninformation,an injunction which the students continue to defy. SPUC has been granted court costs to the tune of over $40,000 each for 14 individual student leaders who were named in the court action. Louise Tierney of Trinity Student Union in Dublin says, if SPUC goes after the student unions for the money, it would bankrupt and thereby destroy the student movement in Ireland. Tierney and other student union members have been active in building a broad pro-choice campaign in Ireland, as well as providing abortion information. The Dublin Abortion In formation Campaign is demanding access to abortion, contraception and sex education throughout Ireland. The campaign organized the massive pro-choice demonstrations last year that garnered headlines worldwide, and regularly takes to the streets to distribute abortion information like the WIN phone number. "The reason I think this particular campaign is important is that it's action-based. The best way—the only way—is to talk to people on the ground," says Tierney. "I don't think you win campaigns through the media or by talking to politicians because, at the end of the day, the only thing that convinces politicians is votes or mass action—a threat to their jobs." One of the campaign's main action's is to get the WIN number out to as many womenas possible. Justdisplaying679-4700, the helpline number, is a political act in Ireland. Louise Tierney wears a button with the number on it. Pro-choice campaigners carry banners and signs and distribute leaflets, posters and stickers with the number on them. Often they have to contend with the always disruptive, and sometimes violent tactics of the neo-fascist bullyboys of the anti-choice movement who call themselves Youth Defense. The nasty young men of Youth Defense frequently harass pro- choicers, sometimes picketing their homes. They are seen on Irish streets waving grisly full-colour posters of third trimester fetuses and shouting abuse at anyone who challenges them. Media coverage of pro-choice events always carefully omits knowing the WIN phone number, although there is no specific injunction or legal ban against its display. As is often the case, the Irish media self-censors itself to a far greater extent than is legally necessary. Media conservatism is one indicator of how much change is still needed in Ireland. The November abortion referendum result was a major victory for the Irish pro- choice movement, but the fight for reproductive rights in Ireland is far from over. The injunctions remain against the student and counselling organizations, and the government shows no sign of enacting legislation which reflects the referendum results. June Kelly says that the pro-choice movement will continue to press for change. "The shared wish of the WIN volunteers is for abortion to be legalized in Ireland and made available throughout the country. Women should not have to be suicidal to be provided with such a service. Officially, the WIN is calling on the politicians to legislate immediately for the provision of abortion services in Ireland." If courage and determination on the part of pro-choicers in Ireland was all that was needed to win reproductive freedom for women, the fight would already be won. Erin Mullan recently returned from Ireland with this report. APRIL 1993 TWD International Women's Day: Speaking out! International Women's Day (March 8) was celebrated in Vancouver on Saturday, March 6, with a march and rally organized by the 15-year- old IWD Committee. About 600 women took to the streets, marchingdown to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the rally, where women spoke on the theme: Women and the Economy. The following are edited transcripts of some of those speeches. Jane Gottfriedsen The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) The NWAC has won its case [for Native women's right to equal funding from the government and a seat at future constitutional amendment talks on Native self-government], but the battle is still in front of us. We still have to apply what we have won, and we're doing everything that we can in our mandate to reach these goals. It was through your support and your efforts that we were able to [win our case]. We did not have resources and funding available to us. People supported us in this manner and we were able to carry this forth to the end. But we've also informed the federal government that if they do not follow with our victory, we are prepared to sue them. In our Provincial Territorial Member Organizations (PMTOs) across the country, very important struggles that lie ahead of us. It is also a very special day for me today because it happens to be the twentieth anniversary of the India Mahila Association. Today marks 20 years of volunteer commitment and dedication on the part of many of my sisters to organizing against sexism and racism, and fighting the social, political and economic barriers that face the women of South Asian origin living in Canada. Poverty...is becominga global phenomenon. We're going through some tough times and, for the immigrant women living in Canada, it is no different—we struggle in our new homeland to make both ends meet and deal with the specific issues that confront us in our daily lives. The government of today continues to pay lip. service to issues confronting immigrant women and women of colour. Even as the Tories claim their commitment to improve the plight of the doubly and triply disadvantaged, their actions have proven the contrary. We have seen various attempts to bring about legislation that are discriminatory and pose an impediment to the progress of the immigrant women and the women of colour, for example, the new immigration act. This act restricts immigration into Canada under both the family sponsorship and the refugee categories. This piece of legislation will severely restrict the rights of immigrants to freedom of association, to family reunification, and take away the right to appeal of the refugee claimants. Immigrant women of colour will be affected very directly—their opportunities for emigrating to Canada will be reduced due to the restrictions in the family sponsorship category, and through changes to legislation related to domestic workers, as examples. So, while on the one hand this government talks about wanting immigrants to become integrated into Canadian society as equal members of society, we continually Anju Gogia, Burcu Ozdemir, and Nadine Chambers of the Not Just Another Page Collective arrival here. The allowance for childcare for women attending LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers) classes has also been cut. That is making it very difficult for women in lower-paying jobs and with childcare needs to access LINC classes. Again, we haven't yet been able to effectively deal with the layoffs that resulted from the Free Trade Agreement and we are already faced with the proposed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). If this agreement goes through, as well as the changes being proposed to UI benefits, we are going to see these have a direct impact on Miche Hill of VSW we're all endeavouring to better the lives of our people in the community. What we're striving for is community-driven mandates. What we're finding is that we have to look at everything in a holistic manner—for our people to be successful in economic development or in education or training, they need to be healthy, physically and mentally. We are striving to do all this, keeping in mind the direction given to us from our people at home. There are many times, when you are in a position of leadership, that you look back and there's no one there. So when our elders or people reach out and encourage us and tell us we're on the right track, tell us not to give up but to keep going, it makes our work easier. I thank you all. Raminder Dosangh India Mahila Association (IMA) A very happy IWD to all of you that are here and to all of my sisters who are not able to be with us here today. Today is a day to celebrate our achievements and make a commitment toward the see policies being put into place that discriminate against women of colour and immigrant women. LINC, the new language training policy announced by the federal government last June, discriminates against immigrant women who have acquired Canadian citizenship. Many women are paying the price for choosing to participate in the economy, rather than being dependent on the state during the first few years of their lower income and more marginalized sections of our society. I see a great need for us to unite to develop a strategy to fight back. I also see an urgent need for issues, such as those being discussed here and talked about today, to be discussed at the grassroots level amongst the various ethnic communities. Most of the services that exist are basically band-aid services, providing little or no information or empowerment to women who are isolated due to discriminatory laws, lack of facility with the English language, or the pressures of double or triple work loads. Governments at all levels need to take a serious look at the services available to the more marginalized sections of immigrant women, and should be enabling women's groups to identify issues and long term planning. Rather than cutting funds that go to the most-needed sections of the community, the government has to act on its promises and provide core funding to these groups so they can continue to define the issues from a feminist, grassroots perspective. And only then can we start working towards achieving equality in the true sense of the word. And to my sisters in the broader feminist movement, I say we need to be more inclusive, and not exclusive, when we define women's needs and lobby on issues of concern to the women of Canada. The needs of the women working on the farms, or of the thousands of women with university degrees who continue to be underemployed and work for peanuts as restaurant workers and janitorial workers, should be of concern to all of us and be included in our agenda. Let us pledge to work together to make this country a better place for all of us. Thank you. Miche Hill Vancouver Status of Women (VSW) Hello, and Happy International Women's Day to all of you! I say happy International Women's Day because that's what it's supposed to be—a day when we are supposed to be able to celebrate our achievements, to remember the women who have gone before us, the struggles they have fought. It's time to join in solidarity with our sisters all over the world and to recognize and celebrate the struggles that we are fighting and winning today as well. There is a lot to celebrate, but there is also still a lot to be angry about—very angry. Thewaragainstwomenisstillgoingon. The crimes against women are many—we are still being raped; we are still being brutalized and beaten; we are still being mur- 10 APRIL 1993 IWP IWD marchers along Georgia Street dered; we are still being pushed into low paying, low-status jobs; we are still the last hired and first fired; we are still being sexually abused by our fathers and uncles and brothers; we are still forced to live in poverty; we still do not have a right to proper housing, to be able to feed our children; we are still doubly discriminated against if we arewomen of colouror First Nations women, lesbians and women with disabilities. Sometimes I think it isn't getting better, it's getting worse. Why? I think its getting worse when I see the changes in the immigration act—one of the most inhuman pieces of legislation introduced by the Tory government yet. Instead of being acknowledged and respected for their contributions to Canadian society, immigrantwomenhaveagain become targets of a racist, sexist society and government. And it's the same for First Nations women. We are still fighting for basic rights in this country, the right to self determination, our right to our own lands, our own languages, our own ways, to our right to live without the fear of being murdered on the streets of this city, or any city of this country. The Tories and their corporate agenda aren't stopping with the immigration law. Their right-wing agenda is very clear—just look at the cutbacks to women's programs. They've been pretty sneaky about that one— cutting a little here, a little there, until the next thing yo u know, there's no more money, there's no more women's programs. And what does that mean to us? It means the Tories are trying to silence us. It means they are trying their very best to make sure there is no one to speak for us on a national, regional or local level. Ask the woman who's been raped, the woman who has been abused by her partner, the woman who can't get any decent, affordable childcare, the woman who is discriminated against or sexually harassed at work. Ask the immigrant women who are And most of all we must support each other in our struggles for justice—we must stop NAFTA, we must stop the erosion of our social services such as UIC and Medicare, we must stop the cutbacks to women's programs and say we will not tolerate racist and sexist immigration laws. We must let them know once and for all, that we will stand together, that we are not afraid and that we will not be silenced! The following are excerpts of some longer speeches made at the same rally. | Anju Gogia -f South Asian Women's Action | Network (SAWAN) "- Existing services and agencies do not ■£ satisfy the needs of South Asian women in ]l Canada, and specifically in the lower main- °" land. What we need as South Asian women is a space to call our own—a centre run by South Asian womenforSouth Asian women. We are tired of hearing the empty rhetoric of Multiculturalism from the Tory government. The current Tory agenda is one of dividing and ruling us. The groups and organizations that work for different women of colour are being forced to fight each other for the smaller and smaller pieces of the same pie. Funding is being cut and we are Ulryke Weissgerber with daughter Aella and friend Margaret Grassunder Celebrating IWD being threatened with deportation. Ask the woman who is being forced to live in poverty because there are no decent jobs out there and no way to get any training or education. Ask the woman who's caught in the quagmire of the legal system. And ask yourself what women are losing when they try to call for help and no one answers the phone because they had to close the women's centre down—because the Tories say, "sorry, no more money." Well what are we going to do about it? I think we have to say "enough is enough." We need to get angry, and we have to stay angry—angry enough to act. The reality is that they ha ve us so pinned against the wall, there is no way to go but forward.We need to use whatever tool or methods we have to make this government stop what they are doing. Do anything you feel is necessary to get what is your right—write your Member of Parliament and Member of Legislative Assembly, use civil disobedience, do whatever your conscience tells you to do. Just make sure you get your message across, loud and clear—hold these governments accountable, and make this government stop doing what it is doing to us. being forced to fight each other to get core funding. We demand a real financial commitment from this government for their so- called "celebration of diversity." It is time that the Tory government lived up to its promises. We need more than words to work towards providing services for South Asian women in this province. Fatima Jaffer IWD Committee This year's IWD march and rally nearly didn't happen, but at the last minute, a bunch of women came together and did the work. Women of colour and First Nations women were crucial in this process and, as you can see from today's rally, we are here in good faith to make this movement stronger. We expect nothing but the same from our white sisters. Tough times can do two things: they can bring out the worst in us—and we can easily reproduce the classism, racism and homophobia that's pressing in on us on all sides—or we can commit ourselves to our best—move beyond guilt and fear and recreate a movement of women with the political will and consciousness that no right-wing, Anju Gogia of SAWAN with Raminder Dosangh of IMA racist, misogynist, or homophobic backlash can break. International Women's Day has always been a hopeful time. Let's use it well in our work together in the coming year. Shelagh Day National Action Committee on the Status of Women Lesbians face a hostile and dishonest government prepared to spend whatever public dollars are necessary to beat off our claims for justice and recognition. They've opposed in court every human rights and Charter claim made by lesbians and gay men over the last eight years using our dollars to do it. Let us also not forget that this year we lost the Court Challenges program, and this means that the equality rights that women fought so hard for now belong to the rich and not to all of us. Let us not forget that this has all been brought to us by Canada's own madonna, our lady of the fair shoulders. This is the woman who is now touted as Canada's next prime minister, perhaps because she has been so enthusiastic about pursuing the male agenda. Let us not forget however, that all women are fighting extraordinary battles now, to bring all of our injustices against us out of the closet whether we're lesbians, women of colour, aboriginal women, whether we have a disability, whether we live below the poverty line, whether we're victims of violence, we refuse silence and we refuse invisibility...and we are absolutely committed to the struggle for justice for women. Carmela Allevato Hospital Employees Union What we have to do today is to look at what is happening to the social fabric, the social safety net in Canada, in British Columbia, we have to look at what's happening to the women in this country and this province, and commit ourselves to working together to fight those that would put us down, those that would hold us back. My union, the Hospital Employees Union, represents 38,000 people. Eighty-five percent of those people are women and our members are the lowest-paid women in the unionized work force in health care. What is happening in that industry, as changes to health care delivery are instituted, is that the work of providing care is being taken out of unionized workplaces and put back onto families, onto individuals within those communities. And it will be women who will be expected to pick up that load—underpaid, overworked, unrecognized. That is not acceptable. This is what our movement in British Columbia at this time will be committed to fighting. APRIL 1993 11 5- The following are excerpts of a joint presentation made by an immigrant woman and refugee woman from Iran last November at Making the Links: An ti-Racism and Feminism, the 16th annual conference of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women. The women have chosen not to use their real names for security reasons. From Iran to n . by Fahahimeh I We're here to speak our experiences as refugees. We don't feel comfortable doing this, because we are three women from Iran—many different people come here as refugees but they come from many different backgrounds. We cannot even claim to represent all Iranian women refugees, because a Kurdish Iranian refugee experiences her life and her social, political and ethnic struggle differently from, say, a Persian Iranian woman. So, when we are talking about refugee women, imagine how different the experiences of women from Guatemala or from Sri Lanka are. We are also not academics. We are here simply to share our experiences and make more visible how refugees feel about being typed as refugees, and how they view this phenomenon of being "refugees" from within the category of refugee, and not from the outside. There are about 17 million refugees in the world. The majority of them are women and children. My understanding is that this figure doesn't include those people who have been displaced inside their own countries, and who are not protected but are persecuted by their own governments. According to the United Nations, a refugee is an individual who, owing to "his" founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of "his" nationality and is unable, or owing to such fears, unwilling to avail "himself" of the protection of that country. What is "persecution"? In countries known as "refugee-producing countries," sometimes the police or the security will knock at your door, come in, look through your house, search through everything, read your journals or your diary, violate your private life and take everything—take you, your sister, your mother, your brother, your father, whomever they want and have targeted. Sometimes they take all the family. Sometimes they take only the children, because they want to use them, to torture them, to make the adults talk and to give information. When we talk about persecution, we should first understand what we are talking about, and the fear of that persecution. And sometimes, we don't flee our countries to protect ourselves but to protect others—if you know they are after you and there are other people involved, it may put their lives in danger. By the way, you may have noticed, the definition doesn't refer to refugee as "she" or "her," but as "he," "him" or "his." It shows how the consequences women pay for political, racial and religious activities are undermined globally. So even when women manage to escape persecution and come to other countries and talk about their political activities, nobody believes them. They do not believe these women can be political activists or social activists. I remember whenl first came here being told: "don't say anything about your political background. Say that you didn't like wearing Chador [the black veil]." It was true but it wasn't my main issue. "Or say you couldn't have beer or you couldn't have a boyfriend. These are more acceptable." At the same time as our political and social activities are undermined, our oppression due to domestic violence, or physical, psychological and cultural intolerance is not recognised as legitimate ground for seeking protection and safety. Yet, when we talk about these things, they are real. If we believe everything we do is a political statement, then what about the woman walking on the streets of Tehran who gets picked up by the police because her hair is uncovered? Is that not a political activity? If you are persecuted just because your hair is uncovered, that is a political activity, a social activity. When women are arrested, they go to jail and pay a penalty to get out, like being flogged. These are serious issues yetnobody cares about them. Instead, they say: "we hear this is the rule in your country, so you have to obey it." Another thing is, Canada cannot discourage refugees from seeking refuge without referring to international politics. The refugee crisis is rooted in the unjust distribution of power globally. Refugee are not produced merely by their local governments. This is a big lie. Refugee women have been forced out of our homes and this is something we can never forget. When we come here—women from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America—we all are hurt in the same way and by the same people. It creates a bond between us. It unifies us. We have the same feelings. When a woman from El Salvador talks about her persecution, I can understand what she says. When she talks about her fears, I understand what she says. It would be really good if it could also unify our efforts to do something for other women who are in camps. It's interesting to note that, despite the public myth, only a small number of war refugees come to Western countries. And these are the very countries that are responsible for our homelessness. The majority of refugees remain in countries neighbouring their own under the most inhumane conditions—facing starvation, illness, violence, rape, sexual harassment, prostitution and any other hardship you can possibly imagine. We acknowledge their existence but we cannot hear them. In fact the pain is so great, most of us don't want to hear them, because we can't bear the pain, we can't bear thinking that, at this moment when we are sitting here safe and sound talking about refugees, there are refugees living in Sri Lanka, there are refugees living in other countries, people from Ethiopia and Somalia, people from Yugoslavia, and that these women are concerned about their children's lives, about their own lives— that they are in danger of losing their lives at this very moment. Yet, when this small number of refugees make it to Western, developed, wealthy countries in the name of humanitarianism and compassion, they will face further discrimination, violence, isolation and loneliness. Not only are our life experiences and struggles for freedom not recognised in the West, but neither are our work experiences, professional skills and education. This is double hardship. You finally come here, and you have all these abilities but you can't practice what you know, and you can't contribute it to this society. Refugees also get blamed for any social shortcomings in this society—if the unemployment rate goes up, refugees get blamed; if there is an increase in taxes, refugees get blamed; if there's a cut in social services, refugees get blamed. Because ii "they" are the ones who abuse the system and make government to do these things. j: But refugees are not victims—they are survivors. They have a lot to contribute. KING ACTION j. by Sheida Thank you for accepting me as an "honorary" refugee [for the purposes of this panel]. I don't feel I have any right to talkabout the refugee woman's experience. We sometimes tend to think of immigrant and refugee women as being interchangeable, but the experiences are not the same. I also have to acknowledge that I come here as a privileged woman from a middle- class background. When I came here, I was not "declassed," like a lot of refugees who come here who may be from middle or upper-class backgrounds, have a little bit of money, and yet become "declassed " when they arrive here. This is not what happened to me—I had my class privilege allowed me, to enable me to go to university quite easily and to study and all the kinds of things that come with class privilege. So I speak from that position. I have also worked with immigrant women's organisations, with mainstream white women's organisations, and also with government organizations. But what I have to say today was written in collaboration with everybody else on the panel, as well as being based on my experience. Basically, we have categorized the barriers to Iranian refugee women organising for change. One is the problems we face within our own community. While we are part of our communities, we consider ourselves part of the global community of women who suffer from patriarchal systems that are dominant everywhere. When we come here to Canada, we also face the patriarchal legal system that a lot of refugee women have to go through. As part of our survival strategy, we know we need to organise. But we are faced with many problems. There is the limitation of our time, finances, skills and day-today struggle to survive the economic and emotional hardship. Another barrier is, once we struggle to organise, we are barely supported by men in our community. We are often accused of being Westernised—which means allying with imperialists and betrayal of our unified class struggle for democracy—and all kinds of other things...being sexually promiscuous, whatever, because we are coming together as women, and we want to organise something for ourselves. And we are further accused of denying our culture and of challenging patriarchal values of family systems. Yet another regards government policies. Often ethnic community groups which subscribe to patriarchal non-political values are funded by the government and this perpetuates the silencing of women who want to make some changes within our community. With regards to our relationship with other women's groups, often white women's groups inCanada are unawareof howlranian women are oppressed in Iran. In fact, they are largely unaware of refugee and immigrant women's issues in general. Also, even immigrant or refugee women's groups who want to help us are involved with issues of funding and understaffing, or find it difficult to share skills with the Iranian community, for example, which is more new and recent than any other community. A lot of other immigrant communities are well organised and can react to situations much faster than we can. Another barrier is that many Iranian women have the experience and skills of political and community activity in Iran, but these skills are not recognised when they come here, and are often ignored by women's groups in Canada. We have a bunch of suggestions here, and we think that, in order to fight for social change for refugee women, you need to recognise and understand the problems that newly arrived refugee women have, such as shortage of time, lack of resources, and ideological differences with a lot of women's groups here, as well as their concern for democracy and freedom back home. And all that takes time, and you are going through turmoil, you're going through a lot of thinking, and a lot of adjusting. The first step has to be a learning process for, I think, both sides. You have to become aware of the stereotypical, unrealistic portrayal of women of other countries in your media. In order to understand this process of misinformation, we need to put this process of misinformation in a global context of international politics, of imperialism and capitalism. For example, there are a lot of things now being said about Iran, and about how much reform is taking place. You see the Amnesty International report and it says that the killing has been slowed down over the last year. That's because of Iran's relationship with other countries, economically, which has expanded—they have to buy their concerns in some ways. So you put it into a political context. Unless you do that, you won't know why that they don't want to have Iranian refugees in Canada now more than ever. They think the situation's getting better now, right? And, as far as discrimination against refugee women in Canadian society, you need to support the progressive struggle of women abroad and here in Canada in different communities. There are a lot of progressive women's groups in different communities, and it's important to find the most progressive ones that you can work with, not the ones that feed into the stereotypical idea of what Iranian women do or are or what their culture is all about. If you say, for example, as [minister for immigration] Valcourt says, that flogging of women in the country is a cultural issue, these are the rules and laws of that country and they have to be obeyed by women, then you are feeding into a stereotypical racist attitude about women in Iran. Violence against oneself is not accepted anywhere on this planet by any woman. Also, if women want to advocate for refugee women, they have to take guidance from them—you cannot just do it on your own because you have the resources and you have the organisations. You can't just help them. It's important to recognize that refugee women know their issues better than anybody else. Here maybe I will refer to an incident that made us really angry last year, to illustrate to you the kind of problems that we usually face in terms of organising. Shortly before International Women's Day in 1992, we were heavily involved in organizing our efforts to gain support from other so-called progressive groups, in by Fatima Jaffer While immigrant, women's and human rights groups are demanding gender persecution be included in the legal definition of a refugee in this country, two Iranian women, whose refugee claims were rejected by the ministry of immigration, took action last month to protest their imminent deportations to Iran. Zahra Zarnoush and Kobra Gho- poghlou made the sidewalk outside immigration offices in downtown Vancouver their home, and went on a hunger strike for 22 days, awaiting a response from the minister of immigration, Bernard Valcourt. Ghopoghlou says going on the hunger strike was her last resort. "We have heard nothing from the Canadian government. [My family has] been [in Canada] for three years. My daughter [is] now...five years old and speaks more English than she does Farsi," says Gopoghlou. "The government knows better than us what will happen if we go back." Zarnoush's story is a little different. More than three years ago, she left Iran with her six-month-old child, without "permission" from her husband,because he was abusive. She says her husband went to the Canadian embassy in Iran to complain. Zarnoush elaborates, "When I went for my hearing here in Vancouver, the judge said, 'you have kidnapped the child. He belongs to your husband and you have to go back. But don't worry, nothing will happen to you'." "Can they guarantee that? Even if my husband does not kill me, I will not have a life if I return because they will say I 'stole' my child away from his father. That's what they're already saying." The two women were not alone in their protest. Zarnoush's four-year-old son and Ghopoghlou's five-year-old daughter, both of whom who were staying with friends, visited daily. Sharing the mattress on the sidewalk were five Iranian men, whose claims had also been rejected. Many from Vancouver's Iranian community and human rights groups in Vancouver came out to support the action. The strike was also aimed at bringing attention to the cases of about 90 refugee claimants in BC who are facing deportation to Iran because they have been refused refugee status. Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) statistics show the IRB in Vancouver is considered to have one of the highest rejection rates of refugee claimants in Canada. About a third of all rejected Iranian refugee claims in Canada were in BC. Ten days later after the protest began, the hunger strikers totalled 14—ten refugees, and four landed immigrants who had joined the strike to protest "the assault on all our human rights." Representatives from local women's groups and from the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) also attended the almost-daily rallies that took place. However, by then, both Zarnoush and Gopoghlou were sick with the flu. A volunteer doctor, who examined the strikers daily, warned they we're in danger of contracting pneumonia if they didn't stop. A number of times, strikers were rushed to hospital for emergency treatment for various degrees of stomach problems, internal bleeding and problems with hearing. Zahra Zarnoush, Kobra Ghopoghlou and her daughter (r-l) outside the downtown immigration offices zt~h a order to put pressure on the immigration authorities to free an Iranian refugee woman from custody. She was to be deported because her husband's claim had been rejected. We had no financial resources, limited time and no skills to deal with the media. We had some language barriers and we had day-to-day responsibilities, like going to work, eating, stuff like that. So we reached out for support. We contacted labour women, immigrant and other women's organisations. It is sad that the only effective support came from number of immigrant women's organisations and community activists. On International Women's Day, we brought a petition in support of stopping the deportation of the Iranian woman in custody, and we provided an information sheet on the situation of Iranian women in Iran. To our dismay and anger, many refused to sign the petition. This was even as we were providing them with information about the law of retribution in Iran. This shows us we have long way to go until Western women fully understand the plight of many women abroad, or even here as immigrant women. Almost everybody I know in our community is a community worker! And they don't get paid for it. They spend a lot of time helping other women to settle, and dealing with other people's problems. We do not have time to come and talk to mainstream white women's organisations about what our problems are. You have to ... go ahead and educate yourselves about it. This is primarily on your shoulders, as y ' white feminist activists and fighters for social justice, to enhance public awareness of specific women, to see some common ground on which we can all fight together. 0 12 " ° t^^ *cb^ u Mahshid, a crisis worker from Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), who had been supporting Zarnoush's case and translating for her throughout, told Kinesis "we are afraid Zahra cannot take much more. She has developed a terrible cough. It's getting worse every day and she could even die, if she doesn't stop." But Zarnoush didn't stop. On March 6, at a rally to celebrate International Women's Day in Vancouver, she and Gopoghlou asked the women's movement to advocate on their behalf. Two days later, on International Women's Day, a number of grassroots women's organisations flooded Valcourt's fax machine with letters demanding a response to the plight of the refugees. That same day, NAC and the Canadian Council of Refugees released the case summaries of 14 refugee women at simultaneous news conferences in Montreal and Toronto. All the women face deportation. All 14 women face death or torture upon their return to their respective countries—by the state, their husbands, or both. NAC has since been asked to increase the number of cases they are monitoring to 23, including Zarnoush's case. So far, they have received word that Valcourt has intervened in four of the cases. "But these are just temporary stays, and there is nothing that says the women will not be deported," says Beverly Bain of NAC. NAC and advocates for women refugees are also calling for a moratorium on deportations of women facing gender-based violence and lobbying the government for legislation that will make gender-based violence grounds for a refugee claim, [see page 5.] Despite the national and international outcry and hundreds of testimonials regarding human rights violations inlran which have flooded the minister's office, Valcourt remained silent. "He could return a phone call," the lawyer for one of the men on the strike told participantsata rally outside Immigration Canada. The only response the refugees and their supporters received from ministry officials was that the Iranian hunger-strikers do not face imminent deportation because "avenues of appeal" were still open, and thus, the strike was unnecessary. One even went so far as to say he was not too concerned because, for muslims, this was the month of Ramadlian—fasting from sunrise to sunset. The refugees say the Canadian government knows that simply leaving Iran illegally and asking for refugee status in another country is considered grounds for arrest, torture and possibly execution, for being a traitor to the state of Iran. It wasn't until Day 22 of the protest that the government responded. The lawyer for one of the hunger strikers received a letter from the ministry "promising" that the refugee claims will be reviewed, but only if the hunger strikers end their strike. Upon the advice of the lawyer, thirteen of the hunger strikers officially broke their strike with soup and salad at a nearby restaurant—the fourteenth, Ghopoghlou, was at home, too ill to attend. "We have not seen the letter [from the ministry]," says Saeed Parto of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees and Immigrants Council, "but we know they have promised to review each of the cases individually, both in BC and in Ottawa. We are also waiting for a time frame for those reviews." The government also said they will review Canada's position on human rights in Iran and the criteria for returning people to Iran, and will hold consultations with the Iranian community on this matter. Parto is not as optimistic as others about the ministry's response. "These are just 'promises.' There has been nothing definite. And deportation is still open. The larger issue hasn't disappeared at all." Parto says, "The thing is, the refugees ended the hunger strike in good faith that the government will look at their cases. But we will continue the struggle every day. It's not just about ten refugees getting accepted. There are many more. My understanding is the Canadian government has softened its stance on human rights violations in Iran in the last two years." Parto says he believes Canada's change of policy regarding sending back refugees to Iran is integrally connected to new economic opportunities with Iran. He is referring to Mulroney's investment of two billion dollars in trade credits to Iran, following a campaign by Iran to improve its human rights image last year. However, Parto notes that, in 1991, 113,000 women were arrested for minor dress violations, and 770 persons were executed for political differences with the government, and the situation hasn't substantially changed. "Women are the very immediate victims of the Iranian system and Canada has to recognise that." says community activist Yassaman Bayani. "And it's not like the government doesn't know what will happen to these people," says Bayani. "They know, but they don't give a shit and the only thing that's going to change things is pressure from the grassroots." Referring to the decision to end the hunger strike, Bayani says she believes "there's a bit of an impasse there because of the strategy being used. This thing is not over at all. The strike is over because the government doesn't want us to disgrace them anymore, not because we got any guarantee that the deportations will stop. "We know the only language the Tories understand is pressure and we need to continue to apply that." Bayani says it was "the presence of women's groups—NAC, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter, WAVAW and Vancouver Status of Women—that made a huge difference. It's true they were late getting in on the action, but now we know we should have called the women's groups from the start. They don't play 'nice' with the Tory government, which is what we're being asked to do, and they don't look at things case by case, which is what the government is asking us to do. "The pressure must not stop. We need the direct action to continue and I hope we will continue to work with the women's movement to achieve that." Fatima jaffer is a first-generation Canadian from Kenya. r APRIL 1993 KINESIS Commentary "Healing" feminism: Politics of engagement by Mary Eaton This speech was delivered at the opening plenary of the National Association of Women andtheLaw'slOthbiennialconference,Healmg the Past, Forming the Future. The plenary was titled "Healing the Feminist Movement." When I was asked to be on this panel, I started thinking about the theme of this conference—healing the feminist movement. I tried to fathom what was meant to be conveyed by this word "healing." My initial reaction was kind of hostile, but after some reflection, my feelings about the use of the term are more mixed. As a lesbian—and that's the way I first responded to the term healing—the language really gave me the willies. I had this image of tweedy psychiatrists, nice trim beards, pipes and couches and all, talking abouthealing. And inmydream, they would say, "why don't you tell us all about why you like girls so much? Why don't you tell us what exactly it is you do with those girls? And we would really like the details, if you don't mind." And I would resist this question. And they would say, "we have ways to help you." I would say, "well, I feel quite fine, thank you. I don't think I need any help." This conversation would go on and on, but the end would be that I would be healed whether I wanted to be healed or not. That's part of the reason why I went "eek!" when I heard the word "healing." On the other hand, 1 had an image of when I was a little kid. My mom worked as a bartender at a country club and, when I was sick, I'd be at home by myself watching TV. When my mother would get home, I'd be upset. I'd whine and moan and complain about how come everyone on TV had mothers who would stay at home and, when they were sick, bring them chicken soup and that kind of thing, while all I got was to watch the Brady Bunch and eat Kraft dinner. It's a nice word in that sense to me, because it appeals to my middle-class aspirations. My sense is that neither image is what conference organizers are trying to convey by the use of the word healing, that what they really have in mind is the broader political context of the feminist movement. When I consider the language on that level, I still end up having mixed feelings, for a couple of reasons. In dominant culture, healing has become a popular and even commercialized concept. You can see that in the growth in circulation of self-help books, the absolute explosion of 12-step programs, the prevalence of therapy, and so on. While I recognize healing is an authentic and liberating concept for some political movements—especially within aboriginal circles—my difficulty, in thinking about the feminist movement, is that "healing" conveys and further privatized the harms of systemic oppression. It excludes the realities that these injuries arise from structuralized, institutionalized imbalances of social, economic and political power. Feminists know our real enemy is male supremacy and that, for years, male supremacists have declared our movement dead. The privatizing and therapizing image of feminism is one way of deeming us politically dead—self-absorbed, inward- turned, no longer a political challenge. Viewed from inside the movement, when one tries to imagine what we are recovering from, it is hard to avoid suspicion that 'we' refers to white, middle-class privileged feminists, whose theorizing and practice for so long have been exclusionary and self-referential. And the criticisms that are articulated by women of colour, lesbians, working class women are legitimate, and labelling white feminism's racist and classist and heterosexist assumptions is just. So to bring internal division around the notion that the movement has been wounded is to me profoundly troubling, in two respects. First, I think it misapprehends the political intentions of criticisms from the margins, particularly from those whose politics is centred on ending other forms of inequality. I don't think their intent has been to wound the feminist movement. Rather, it's been to improve it, to breathe new life into it, Healing looks a lot like doing nothing to me and not engaging in real problems... ss to make it relevant to and respectful to more women. But intentions aside, I think the metaphor of healing provides no useful blueprint of how we must reform. In the old days, these criticisms were met by responses like this: "that can't be so because some of my best friends are gay, or black, or whatever," a kind of response that implied that there was no problem at all. Another thing I heard often was, "when you point out my privilege, it makes me feel bad." It's not quite the same thing as simple denial, but it deflects attention from the problem at hand and suggests that the problem resides with the critic and not the privileged. Another thing that we did, I think, is a lot of finger pointing, trying to find out who were the worst offenders, for instance, among white women, as if we were somehow better, and never got to the substance of critiques of the racist ideas and practices within feminism. More commonly now, I think, the response to criticisms is simple silence. We say nothing and do nothing. It's as if, when we were told that we shouldn't speak for people who have historically been denied the opportunity to speak, we took that to its furthest extreme and decided to say nothing at all. Some recent examples of this are first of all, the lack of response to the criticisms of Butler [the .Supreme Court decision that changed the basis of the obscenity law in Canada] that have been made in the press lately. Ithascomeas quite a surprise to me that feminism hasn't stood up and defended what it did in the name of women to get that case. The other example is that, after the federal government announced it was prepared to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation and some lesbians were articulating what I consider to be feminist concerns about what the government was up to and how it was being received within 'the community,' again feminists had nothing to say. So in this context, resorting to the metaphor of healing seems a response that's actually consistent with old strategies of denial. Healing looks a lot like doing nothing to me and not engaging in real problems, having a period of convalescence and, again, not dealing with the substance of what is now our biggest problem. I actually can't think of another metaphor, which is kind of a shame, but there are metaphors which I think are very useful, thatgalvanize political movements—likethe personal is political; though, while I think tha t has been useful, there are problems with that metaphor too. I do have some ideas about what needs to be done, so what I thought I would do is set out some principles instead that we can use to get us closer to what I call, the politics of engagement. I think we should recognize that feminism is a politics—it's not a club for people with certain anatomical morphology. It's not a haven or a home, so it's not necessarily a safe place to be. What makes it a politics is that it makes a stand on women's inequality—relations of dominance and subordination that are institutionalized in this society along gender lines. It doesn't mean that other forms of systemic oppression are irrelevant or secondary. It doesn't mean that all women are oppressed all the time every place. And it doesn't mean that all women are oppressed in precisely the same way, every time, and in every place. This makes it all very hard and complicated. I don't think any of the people, in my reading, who have made these internal critiques have actually come to some kind of definitive conclusion to what all the implications are for the questions of intersectionality [the relationship between race, class, gender, and other sites of oppression]. We haven't figured it out. If you choose to engage in a politics that acknowledges these things, you're going to make mistakes because we don't have all the answers—it's a risky business. The critical question is not whether you're going to make mistakes, but what you're going to do about it. I don't think saying it is risky or that we're bound to screw up occasionally means you can be cavalier about making mistakes. It does mean we can take steps to minimize the kinds of mistakes that we make—we have to get down to doing our homework, understanding thatotherissuesarenot separate from feminist issues and it's our responsibility to go out and learn about them. And we have to change the way our organizations are structured and our decisions are made. We have to share power. Once you do that, you actually expose yourself more to risk because you are in contact with people who are going to challenge you more that way. Finally when you do make a mistake, you have choices about how you are going to respond, how to learn from that mistake and do it better next time. I realize this all sounds very platitudinous and nice, so I thought I would try to apply these principles to the two examples that I mentioned earlier on. That is, what's happening around the Butler decision and what's happening around the Canadian Human Rights amendments. What happened with the Canadian Human Rights amendments is that it exposed a division in the lesbian and gay community about what was important. The lesbian feminists who have difficulty with the proposals aren't suggesting that sexual orientation should not be added to the Code but that problems about multiple inequalities need to be addressed. One problem was the addition of yet another general abstract term. We've seen how race protection in human rights instruments works to protect not only people of colour but white people too. That's a problem. We also recognize, drawing on the experience of women of colour, that unless something is done, these guarantees will continue to be interpreted in a watertight way—that is, when women of colour try to articulate a legal claim that proceeds from a position of being women of colour, they often ended up getting no protection because the courts and the adjudicators say, "this is not what race discrimination looks like, or what sex discrimination looks like, so you get nothing." We have to share power. Once you do that, you actually expose yourself more to risk... There are many more problems. Why have feminists not responded to the attacks that have been made against the lesbian feminists who articulated what I've tried to show are clearly feminist concerns? It seems to me, people are more uncomfortable with being seen as having backtracked on what they thought was the progressive stance to take, that is, to back the addition of sexual orientation to the Human Rights Act. I think it also has something to with a studied reluctance to take a stand on what are ostensibly other people's issues. A politics of engagement requires that heterosexual feminists admit these are feminist concerns, and offer the lesbian feminists who articulate them some support. I'm going to add, the worst thing that will happen if heterosexual feminists decide to do this is that some lesbians and gays are going to call you homophobic—that is the worst that will happen. The other example I have is Butler. Butler is a feminist argument about the real harms of pornography to women, in the context of a culture of normalized sexual violence against women. Nowhere in the argument was a stand taken on whether lesbian and gay erotica is different from heterosexual pornography. I think that's a very contentious issue—people are divided on it. We should continue to talk about it. But what has been said in the press by the anti-Butler contingent, composed largely of lesbian and gay liberationists, is that lesbian and gay erotica is different just because it's different, and feminists are anti-gay because they support a judicial decision which actually protects some women. This is wrong- handed. It doesn't take into account what was actually done in Butler. Again, the failure to respond to attacks on feminism has much more to do with the fact that these criticisms have come from the lesbian and gay community, and people are so afraid of standing up for a feminist victory for fear of being called homophobic or anti-gay that again nothing has been said. In the failure to stand up for feminism, the worst thing that could happen is that feminism could self-destruct and that will be the end. Mary Eaton is working towards her doctorate in law at Columbia University in Neiv York City. She is while, lesbian, able- bodied and considers herself to be in a state of class transition. Thanks to Agnes Huang for transcribing. 14 APRIL 1993 Arts Persimmon Blackbridge's Sunnybrook; Trip through a mindfield by Nancy Pollak SUNNYBROOK Sculpture by Persimmon Blackbridge March 19-April 25,1993 Charles H. Scott Gallery Emily Carr College of Art & Design Vancouver, BC Whenever sculptor Persimmon Black- bridge mounts a new show, you can be sure of walking into something big, something whole. She's a world-maker, as much storyteller as visual artist and, in Sunnybrook, she walks us through a discordant tale of life and labour in an institute for the 'mentally handicapped.' This isn't the first time Blackbridge has drawn us into an institutional nightmare. StUl Sane (1984) and Doing Time (1989) focused on psychiatric hospitals and prisons. Both were intensely political and personal collaborations between Blackbridge and women who have been incarcerated. In Sunnybrook, the story is more her own. (It's about collaboration, too, but of a different sort.) And while her earlier shows followed clear paths of pain and resistance, this show is more complex and clever. Staring down the length of the gallery, you become aware of standing inside an exploded city, whose people and buildings hang on the walls like torn seeds. .; Janey and our imaginations? As adults with 'mental handicaps,' or teenagers with 'learning disabilities,' are we helped by the systems provided, or simply made more manageable? Sunnybrook is about dissonance and the sham of surface truths. Here, 'retarded' people possess extraordinary insights; deaf people hear; helpers do not help; adults are 'kids;'inmatesappearashappypeopleabout town (but not really)... This dissonance extends to how the show can be experienced. For all the heaviness of its subject matter, Sunnybrook can be a light ride. Many of the images are delightful, exuberant. There is playfulness in the chaotic angles; in the miniature furniture, books, and art work (the shrink's office is ringed with tiny Van Goghs; Diane's home has a tiny Jo Cook and a Debbie Bryant—two local Sunnybrook is like good political theatre, with a cast of complex characters, visual spectacle, a surprising range of emotions—the pieces are anguished and whimsical, raw and analytical—and reflections on power, identity and personal morality. Sunnybrook explores another of society's literal lock-ups, but it's also a trip through the mindfield (pun intended) of communication and text, of personal and public codes, and the strain between pictures and words. Theshowisvast.Staringdownthelength of the gallery, you becomeawareof standing inside an exploded city, whose people and buildings hang on the walls like torn seeds. Sunnybrook consists of 25 separate pieces— three-dimensional scenes and characters constructed of painted plywood, metal plates, photographs, wire mesh, plexiglass, book covers, doll furniture and miniatures (computers, books, picture frames etc). Hanging beside each piece are copies of the accompanying text. The type is large enough to be read off the wall, but a viewer can collect their own sheet, which is also helpful to people with sight impairments (audio tapes are available). By the end of the show, you will have a substantial sheath of papers—there's a lot of reading material here. The story tracks a couple of months in the life of Diane—Persimmon's nom dewaged ivork—who gets a job as a one-to-one counsellor at the Sunnybrook Institution for the Mentally Handicapped. Diane is a fraud. She lied on her application about having worked in a child guidance clinic—in fact, she was a patient there, a 'learning disabled' teen. Having convinced the head psychiatrist she understands behaviour modifica tion techniques—she does, on the receiving end—Diane is assigned to three inmates. Her task is to improve their communication skills. Stuart is 29, white and blind. He has been at Sunnybrook all his life. Gentle and profoundly neglected, Stuart spends most days rocking in front of a television. Janey, another lifer, is frequently strait-jacketed and tossed into solitary confinement for breaking things or biting people [see photo]. She's young, white and selectively articulate; like Stuart, she easily repeats words and phrases she hears, and she sings. Mary is a 36 year-old Native woman who came to Sunnybrook at seven. She has a stringof labels—"borderline retarded, non- communicative, anti-social and deaf." Mary is defiant, knowledgeable and, as Diane learns, not completely deaf. Shirley, another inmate, also looms large. She's a lesbian and knows exactly how to push Diane's buttons. For two months, Diane treads through the Sunnybrook system. It's a world of repression, boredom, violence and small joys. She collaborates—Diane fakes it with her boss in order to keep the job; she fantasizes about pursuing this as a career—and she subverts the system, too, by trying to pay attention to what Stuart, Janey and Mary want. She also dips in and out of the world of Harlequin romance, via a paperback she discovers stuffed behind a toilet in the basement washroom. (Diane is a lesbian, but escape is escape.) The journey through Sunnybrook is a familiar Blackbridge tour. Once again, she exposes the brutalities of institutional life and the politics of social control in a style that is non-rhetorical and often wry. Sunnybrook is like good political theatre, with a cast of complex characters, visual spectacle, a surprising range of emotions—the pieces are anguished and whimsical, raw and analytical—and reflections on power, identity and personal morality. But Sunnybrook also vibrates with a tension between its text and its images. They hang side-by-side on the wall, but often tug the viewer in different directions. You see and feel one thing (the energy of the image, the emotional tones of colour, texture) then read and think another. Do they tell the same story? Which is the more authoritative version of Sunnybrook? Can the mind really hold these two ways of knowing at the sa me time? These aren't just abstract philosophical questions. At the heart of Sunnybrook is an inquiry into the politics of communication and reality. Whose code, whose version comes out on top? Woven throughout the show is Diane's owndif ficult story of learning to speak, learning to write. Her difficulty, in fact, was in learning to conform. Sunnybrook asks: are we taught to communicate in order to relate, or to be controlled? When we learn language, are we merely learning to echo acceptable meanings, acceptable renditions of reality? As kids, are we forced to colonize ourselves artists); in the romancenovel cut-outs (nurse- doctor images ad nausea); and in the sheer fun Blackbridge has with herself—Diane is often represented with photos from Drawing the Line, the lesbian sexuality show Blackbridge collaborated on in 1988. The text also shifts between pain and play: it's full of ironies, comic asides, mutterings and sarcasm. With all these complexities, Sunnybrook isn't as easy to 'get' as Blackbridge's earlier shows. And the long, intricate storyline makes it possible to almost overlook her artistry. Again, Sunnybrook is likegood theatre: there is so much happening, you are undistracted by the technical skill behind the drama. In particular, Blackbridge's painting is deceptively simple. While the show uses three-dimensional materials (plywood, plastics, metal) in three-dimensional settings, it is Blackbridge's colourful brush that gives shape, shadow and a lively depth to Sunnybrook. It's an interesting trick: the flatness of 3- D meets the roundness of paint. Like the name itself—Sunnybrook—and like the world within and beyond its walls, things are not necessarily what we are lead to be- lieve. Nancy Pollak usually reads the caption before looking at the picture. Pity. For more information on Sunnybrook, call 844-3809. The gallery is wheelchair accessible and the text is available in audio tape. APRIL 1993 Arts Film review: Speak it!; Fight the power by Nikola Maria De Marin SPEAK IT! directed by Sylvia Hamilton National Film Board, 1993 International Women's Week Film and Video Series Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver "You don't have to be from Scotland to have a history," says Shingai Njajeha, the hipyoungcommentatoroffilmmakerSylvia Hamilton's latest video, Speak it!, from the heart of Black Nova Scotia. The rap group Public Enemy gave out the call in their hit, Fight the Power: "most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp." Shingai speaks to this absence of Black history, both in the mainstream and at St. Patrick's High, a school in Nova Scotia, when he notes in a 380-page history text that "only one and a half pages are about us...it's like we've been erased." Not only does Shingai and his classmates of colour bear witness to the institutionalized racism that obscures and in- visibilizes the 300-year old history of Nova Scotia's Black community, they must also contend with the racist violence, discrimination and name calling that makes school a hostile and harassing environment. What is surprising about this video is the effort and commitment of the 30 or 40 "St. Pat's" kids who go where most school boards fear to tread. In empowering themselves to explore questions of identity and culture, they have to contend with obstacles that range from accessing materials and finding someone qualified to teach them, to the daunting pedagogical prospect of teaching themselves and their peers stuff they are in the midst of learning. When I look at the fact that the students formed a group, participated in a conference, put on a play, held protests, made presentations in class...it confirms my own feeling that students of colour display comparatively intense commitment to their education when they are called to be so much more resourceful, resilient and original than their white counterparts. As a university student, I have had to reckon with the feeling that I was subtly putting nails in my own coffin by internalizing so much of European thought and ideas. Thus, the process documented in Hamilton's video, of finding personal integrity in a white-chin chauvinist environment, is one I can relate to on so many levels. Nikola Maria De Marin is a volunteer writer for Kinesis. Review: Imagining Lesbian images; Looking like lesbians by Alice Swift IMAGINING LESBIAN IMAGES Videos and presentation by Myriam Fougere Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver March 18 What would the world look like if we could create it from a lesbian point of view? What kind of reality could we create if we didn't need to continually devote our energies to fighting the one that men have made, the one that wants to destroy us? These are some of the questions at the heartofMyriamFougere's presentation, "Imagining Lesbian Images," the second event in the Looking Like Dykes lecture and film/ video series taking place this spring at the Cinematheque. The series provides an opportunity to discuss the ways that lesbians "look"—both as spectators and as images— and to consider whether there is such a thing as a specifically lesbian aesthetic. Fougere came to video making from sculpture, where she had first encountered her desire to represent women ina new way. She fell into the practice of "cunt art" by chance, when she was sculpting a face and noticed that it resembled a vulva. Soon, she was using clay, and later, porcelain to make beautiful sculptures of vulvas in the shapes of flowers, seashells, and other natural objects. Fougere's video from 1984 documents some of her sculptural work, from which she later turned to making jewellery in the shapes of women and their bodies. Fougere talked about the importance of having women-only spaces in which to exhibit her work—in a heterosexual context, she says, her work would be, at best, unappreciated and, at worst, reviled or ridiculed. Women-only spaces are the subject of another Fougere video, Sacred Space. In the video, a number of women speak about the importanceofcreatinga space wherewomen can be the centre of the experience, free from the demanding presence of men. According to Fougere, the video grew out of her experiences in producing the East Coast Lesbian Festival, an event she has been involved with for the past four years. Finding herself unable to single-handedly answer all the questions raised by the issue of male children at the festival, Fougere created the video. As was pointed out in the discussion period following the screening, Sacred Space includes a fairly narrow range of perspec- See FOUGERE page 18-^H^ ^ FROM THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY The Federal Women's Film Program presents two new videos from its WOMEN AND WORK series that call for change, stimulate debate and challenge traditional attitudes about work and family. THE GLASS CEILING A BALANCING ACT Sophie Bissonn er: Chantal Bo Director: Helena O 27 minutes Orde 9192 094 23 minutes Order number: 9192 098 i de verre Available in French: Question d'equilibn To rent or purchase, call toll-free: Atlantic Canada 1-800-561-7104 • Quebec 1-800-363-0328 • Ontario 1-800-267-7710 Western Canada, Yukon and Northwest Territories 1-800-661-9867 _.. — ^^^ National Office :. VpJl JJ Film Board national duf _ Kft?4 of Canada du Canada Arts Lotus of Another Color; A few journeys in one by Archana Gandhi and Sur Mehat Lotus of Another Color is an anthology of poetry, short fiction, critical essays and interviews by and about South Asian lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The anthology is divided into three sections: Uncovering Our Pasts—InventingOur Present; Awakenings; and Many Journeys In One. Some of the issues explored are AIDS, global networking of Asian lesbians, ...the common thread of the work is "a sense of isolation"... that takes the form of racism in the West and homophobia in the South Asian communities. feminism and men, bisexuality, and hijras (the term used for hermaphrodites, trans- vestites and drag queens). Lotus of Another Color is the first anthology devoted solely to the lives and experi- Temple carving of four women having sex from the city of Khajuraho, India ences of South Asian lesbians and gay men. Its editor, Rakesh Ratti, was born in northern India, and now works with the Gay SB new and gently used books JS^IfeJM Feminist Philosophy - Poetry Native - General if v.lg| no GST |v jl Open daily 11am-7pm Coffee Bar 1020 Commercial Drive Vancouver BC V5L 3W9 (604) 253-1099 Bonnie Murray Cynthia Brooke OCTOPUS BOOKS 1146 Commercial Drive Vancouver 604 253.0913 tidfati.. Western Canada's Lesbian & Gay Bookstore Open Daily 10am to 11pm The Night Audrey's Vibrator Spoke A Stonewall Riots Collection by Andrea Natalie From lesbians on Jeaopardy! ("Ok, Alex! Personal Ads for $1000, please') to safe sex for small mammals ("I swear, Ethel! She said you use it to protect your beaver!), Andrea Natalie takes a deadpan, dead-on look at lesbian life and culture in the 90s. A zany.clever colletion of cartoons. $13.99 1221 ThurlowCat Davie), Vancouver, B.C. Tel:(<504)<5<59-1 753 or Fax:(604)685-0252 and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in the US. The anthology breaks new ground in recognizing the presence of a South Asian lesbian and gay community in North America. Before continuing with our review of Lotus, we feel it is important to acknowledge the place from which we speak. We are first-generation Canadians, one middle class and the other working class. One of us is out to her family and the other isn't. We are both South Asian lesbians, active in the lesbian of colour community in Vancouver. According to Ratti, the common thread of the work is "a sense of isolation" experienced by South Asian lesbians and gay men tha t takes the form of racism in the West and homophobia in the South Asian communities. As Ratti states in his introduction: "the benefit of coming together has been tremendous, yet we gay and lesbian South Asians still continue to be an invisible group. We are relatively unknown in the gay and lesbian communities, and we are similarly overlooked in the mainstream South Asian communities. Whether because of benign neglect or a conscious desire to deny our existence, evidenced by myriad rationales, we too often go unacknowledged in both groups." The voices in Lotus are diverse in several ways. The authors are: lesbian, gay and bisexual; originate from different regions of South Asia; have different vocations; and live in different parts of the world, some in Canada, the US and England while others live in South Asian countries. The diversity, however, does not extend to class—many of the writers are professionals in mainstream occupations, and only a few appear to be working class. There are half as many pieces by women as there are by men. Also, while the voices themselves are somewhat diverse, the content of the pieces all tend to deal with similar issues—community, love and finding "home". This gives Lotus a certain homogeneity and excludes discussions of issues such as class, caste, ableism and motherhood. It is also surprising that the anthology does not explore the experience of South Asians settling in places other than Europe and North America, even though South Asian peoples have a long history of migration to Africa, the Caribbean and Fiji. The anthology does provide a very useful directory of resources for South Asian lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Lotus is particularly important for South Asian lesbians and gays who live in isolation, and are not supported by a community. The writing is quite accessible and we i both found it to be an easy read. It is a powerful acknowledgement that South Asian women have always had sex with each other. WOMEN'S WORK SCREEN PRINT, We give to the Commun. that supports u: • Women Positive • Earth Friendly • Community Economi Development • Equality Right! Itwasdisappointingforboth of us therefore that, after reading the anthology, most of the poetry and prose didn't have a lasting effect on us. What did stand out for us? It was the historic representations of lesbians in India, as well as the interviews of some of those presently living in India. Photographs in the book of cave sculptures depict sex between women and historically place lesbianism in South Asian culture. It is a powerful acknowledgement that South Asian women have always had sex with each other. Ratti's statement that "just as our culture and our gayness or lesbianism sets us apart from others, so they serve to bring us together with one another," rings true, particularly given this historical context. Overall, Lotus of Another Color is politically important because it makes a strong statement about our existence and survival as South Asian lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Many of the authors in this book don't use their real names, even as they take evident pride in their sexual and cultural identities. One of us (Archana Gandhi) chooses to do the same. It is an act that serves as a reminder of the many real dangers that exist in a racist, homophobic and sexist world. Archana Gandhi is a South Asian lesbian living and studying in Vancouver. Sur Mehat is South Asian dyke living in the spraivling working class suburb of Burnaby, BC. VANCOUVER WOMEN'S BOOKSTORE Monday-Saturday 10:00 am-6:00 pm 315 Cambie Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2N4 (604)684-0523 Arts Review and interview: Being wicked by Pam Fleming VIRAGO BOOK OF WICKED VERSE Edited by Jill Dawson Virago Press, London, 1993 I met Jill Dawson (alias Ruby) when we were mutual strangers on our way to Fiddlehead Farm last August. Fiddlehead is an organic oasis on the northernmost tip of the Sunshine coast in BC. It is reachable only by boat—the Irish Mist. Fiddlehead, like Avalon, is mythical, magical and for dreamers only. Ruby sat on the hull of the Irish Mist. With her short black curls, rhinestone cat's- eye sunglasses, and black and white shorts, she looked like she would be more at home in a London nightclub than in the backwoods of British Columbia—and more like Madonna than the mother she is to three- year-old son Lewis. Later, as we gathered on the porch of the cookhouse, I learned that Ruby is not just a pretty face but an editor, poet and writer. She is author of How Do I Look?, a bookabout adolescent women's self-imagery. Dawson had just won the prestigious Eric Gregory award for poetry for Britons under 30. Her family's holiday to North America was partially funded by the award, which is intended to be used to broaden one's experience through travel. "I've never been so rich in my life!" Ruby said, in herSouth-Londonaccent,about the 8000-pound award. Ruby sounds like she might be middle class, but she is from a working class background. "I got my accent educated out of me," she said. Dawson's working-class background certainly comes through in her editing of the Virago Book of Wicked Verse that was just released this winter. "One way to widen the scope of an anthology such as this is to include, as we have, folk poems, rhythm ballads and songs," Dawson writes in the introduction. "Oh my name is Diamond Lily I'm a whore in Piccadilly And my father runs a brothel in the Strand. My brother sells his arsehole To the guards at Windsor Castle We're the finest fucking family in the land." -from "Diamond Lily" "Wicked has so many meanings," Dawson confided as we sat getting our feet wet in the bubbly creek the next day. "Like humourous, subversive, spirited, sexy, unacceptable, and wick-ed as in awesome. 'Wicked' is what women are often categorized as, but being wicked, as we define it, is generallydenied us.It's the whore/madonna syndrome." In order to get a broad range of wickedness, Dawson sought out poems: from Sappho of AncientLesbos, to Chrystos of the Menominee Nation, and Adjoah Ando of Ghana/England; from ancient China to modern-day Poland, Canada, Japan, India, and more. Lesbians, straights, autoerotics, bisexuals, libertines, celibates—anarchists, rebels and revolutionaries—will find much to titillate their fancies in this jam-packed trade paperback that's a deal by its size alone. "The government official speaks in English with friends, in Hindi with servants s his mother tongue FOUGERE from page 16 tives on the issue—none of the women interviewed is the mother of a male baby who ha s chosen not to bring him to the space, for instance. In addition, the question of how women with male children are expected to afford to be a part of woman-only spaces is not raised, nor is the fact that a few women's festivals do provide separate childcare areas for boys. One of the women in the video expresses her surprise that some women think we shouldn't have any women's spaces, given that there are so few to begin with. A Black woman talks about this type of "sacred" space in terms of political power— that is, women having the right to determine who does and who does not come into their space. For similar reasons, she says, the need exists for women of colour only spaces within women-only spaces. While Sacred Space addresses some important issues, the interviews tend to become somewhat repetitious, with several women making the same points. As a result, the video loses momentum. It is also flawed by what Fougere admits is an intentional bias—the video could have been more powerful had it presented a wider range of experience among the women interviewed. Fougere's video, Lesbian Art, marks the bridge between her careers as sculptor and video artist. This is a quietly "arty" video that shows sculptures of women's bodies being built in the sand, then washed away by the tide. The shapes of the sand-women constantly change as they are gradually eroded. Fougere shot the video in a lesbian community in Florida—it was a space where she felt safe making sculptures of vulvas on the beach. Considering how recent and how rare it is, still, for women to be in control of the way our bodies are represented, Lesbian Art is at once very simple and very remarkable^ Alice Swift is a first-time Kinesis writer and dyed in the wool dyke. for his 2 Alsatian dogs." - from "Contemporary" by Suniti Namjoshi "I am made of rock harder than diamond it cuts through your conventions and your sticky, sticky lies." - from "Lesbian" by Caroline Claxton "I had to include Atwood. I adore Atwood," Dawson confesses. "There aresep- eral Canadian poets actually," she is quick to add, when she notes my there's-more-to- Canada-than-Atwood look. "Like CM. Donald, Winona Baker, and others." Baker gives us a glimpse into the every day wickedness of many women's lives. "The couple married a long time lives in uneasy truce waiting neither cares for the way the house looks if he were gone she'd sell his tools burn bits of lumber if she goes first he'll throw out books and pictures won't ask the family if they want them solicitously inquire How do you feel today?" - from "Waiting" by Win Baker Dawson has chosen poetry for Wicked Verse with care and clarity, humour and thoughtfulness. Over 100 women croon, swoon, scold, seduce and scorn in the pages of the five sections—^Clitoris in my throat; Listen if you dare; The bush catches fire; Queens of the underworld; and If they can't take a joke". Wickedness is clearly timeless; transcending cultural boundaries. "I like sleeping with somebody different It's nicest when my husband is in a foreign country and there's rain in the streets at night and wind and nobody" - Anon, 12 c. AD Wicked Verse is not one more eulogy to the dead poets' society, but rather very much alive notes from the underground: "I'm rappin it up in a real tight squeeze I don't cross my eyes I don't dot my teas Shakespeare Milton Poe and Dryden Woodsworth Eliot Great Traditions all you poets I don't give a fuck coz you're dead I am PA an'i am RAPPIN IT UP" - from "Rappin' it up" by Patience Agbabi "I want it to be the kind of book that women will come across while browsing in bookshops, nudge each other, smile and say, 'Oh! Look at this! This is funny, or lovely, or wicked'," Dawson explains while dipping her big toe in the cold stream. "You know how women get together and get into taboo subjects and the kind of hilarity that comes of that." The Virago Book of Wicked Verse is guaranteed to make you "nudge, nudge wink, wink know what I mean? Know what I mean?" in many ways and places. Buy it and share it with someone you want to get wet with in a cold stream on a hot day. Pam Fleming is a volunteer Kinesis writer. by Luce Kannen Attention book lovers! Paging Women is a regular preview of titles recently received at Kinesis. If you are interested in writing an in-depth review of any of the following books, please call us at 255-5499 or drop us a line. Circles of Strength: Community Alternatives to Alienation edited by Helen Forsey, with a foreword by Judith Plant. This collection of essays deals with the need for community by sharing the experience and reflections of over 20 members of collectivities as diverse as First Nations, religious orders, activist camps and urban neighbourhoods. Contributors offer practical advice about ways to construct circles of mutual caring and support. This is the fifth volume of the New Catalyst Bioregional Series. Contributors include Sonia Johnson, Marge Piercy, Rachel Bagby, Laird Sandhill, JoanNewmanKuyekandMargoAdair.(NewSocietyPublishers,Gabriola Island 1993) Sheepish Beauty, Civilian Love Poems by Erin Moure. This latest collection by the Montreal-based poet is described as an extended outcry on the will to tenderness, even in the face of itsabsence. Moure's 1988book,'Furious,won the Governor-General's Award for Poetry: (Vehicule, Montreal 1993) The Goddess in the Office: A Personal Energy Guide for the Spiritual Warrior at Work by Z. Budapest. No kidding. A book at once playful and serious (dedicated to two celebrity figures of sexual harassment, Anita Hill and Francis Conley and the millions of women who tell the tru th). Budapest comes from a long line of witches, feminists and herbalists and, in this volume, she offers spells and meditations to: purify the office; get a raise; repel sexual harassment; protect computer data; and give a speech, not necessarily in that order. (Harper Collins, San Francisco 1993) The Telling by EM. Broner (including The Women's Haggadah by E.M. Boner with Naomi Nimrod). For over 15 years, a group of Jewish feminists gathered to celebrate a more inclusive Passover, and to create community and ceremony for and by women. Tlie women include Gloria Steinem, Michele Landsberg, Phyllis Chesler, Bella Abzug and Grace Paley, among others. This is the story of their celebration of a woman-positive Pesach (Passover), of women's presence in Jewish history and exploration of their matrilineage. (Harper Collins, San Francisco 1993) Terrorist Letters by Ann Diamond. Diamondliasauthoredshort stories, a novel andnow this collection of poems, fragments. Her previous workhas been describedas "outrageous, blasphemous, painful, hilarious, touching." She's a provocative and funny writer. (Signal Editions, Montreal 1993) Arts Commentary Reviewing April Nam A compelling read Kathleen Oliver WELL WORN GENES by April Narr Pre-noon Press, Vancouver, 1993 Claire is not having an easy spring. It's either her "semi-annual mid-life crisis" or just another cycle in her Saturn Return, but somehow, life seems to have lost its focus. Things have gotten so bad that, at the peak of her ennui, Claire lets a friend talk her into accompanying him to a market research group. Between samples of donut holes, she notices that the session leader is staring at her labyris (the one she wears around her neck). This is to be the first and most innocuous of her encounters with Dr. Herbert Troggle, a molecular biologist determined to prove that lesbianism has a genetic basis. Through a little research of her own, Claire discovers that Dr. Troggle is so obsessed with proving his theories that he has been extracting urine samples from the sewer systems serving the homes of prominent lesbians in the community. Questionable research methods, to be sure, but when Claire catches Dr. Troggle snooping around her sump pump, she finds herself caught up in a web of intrigue, adventure, and truly hair-raising, not to mention hilarious, plot twists. All in all, it makes for compelling reading. To tell any more would be to give away too many of the surprises... Despite its too-clever title, Well Worn Genes is a smart, stylish, and very funny take on contemporary dyke life. It's rare to find a lesbian novel that is so shamelessly satirical. At the same time, Genes manages to incorporate elements of the mystery genre that has become so popular with dyke writers in recent years, along with the requisite dose of eroticism and rich character development. A first-time novelist, April Narr manages simultaneously to explore and explode many of the straight world's myths about lesbians. But she's clearly not above poking fun at her own community. The characters who populate Claire's world range from earnest academics to playful video artists like Lucy and Miranda, who are working on a 50s pulp parody informed by 90s S/M (lesbian sadomasochism) sensibilities, called Satan Licked My Cunt, and who frequently prevail upon Claire for advice and small loans. Narr's playful style has a more serious edge, though, particularly in her characterize tionofTroggle'ssupporters,a group working toward the genetic "extinction" of lesbians. The range of personalities is a continual surprise to Claire, as she seeks to expose their motives. There are the moneyed and powerful corporation owners, the sermonizing "family values" types, and even grassroots activists who spraypaint slogans like "It's in her piss" in lesbian neighbourhoods. It becomes impossible to know who to trust. And politics makes strange bedfellows: Troggle's research is also endorsed by the "Dykes in Diapers Campaign," a group of lesbians seeking to fit into the mainstream by insisting that they were born as lesbians and therefore cannot help the way they are. The Dykes in Diapers stance is vehemently rejected by Claire's radical friends. As Miranda puts it, "What? We're supposed to apologize for being this thing that's so awful that no one could possibly want to choose it? 'Sorry, we can't help it?' I don't think so. Whatever happened to pride? We're supposed to be proud of an accident of birth?" Stumbling into the convoluted world of Dr. Troggle and his backers provides exactly the distraction from her own life that Claire needs—particularly when she approaches the local feminist newspaper about doing a story on Troggle, and develops a hopeless crush on the editor. At the same time, Claire's involvement in her community and her faith both in herself and in other dykes get a much-needed boost. A particularly powerful scene comes in the form of a confrontation between a group of dykes and Troggle's female assistant, Penny, who has been sent to collect samples from the washroom ata lesbiandance. When she is caught and her connection to Troggle established, a group of dykes coaxes her out onto the dance floor and gets her dancing to Madonna's "Express Yourself." Penny is swept away: "It was clear now that she was enjoying herself, her hips swaying, her eyes half -closed, though every no w and then she'd take a shy peek over in Claire's direction. She started swinging her arms, and vials were falling out of her pockets, smashing and spilling all over the dance floor. Women were stepping back, not wanting to slip, but Penny kept on dancing, heedless of the lost samples and not giving a moment's thought to how she was going to explain this to Dr. Troggle." The scene is at once hilarious and empowering: a vivid and inventive example of the power of collective resistance. It also marks the beginning of an unlikely—but ultimately delightful—romance between Claire and Penny. To tell any more would be to give away too many of the surprises that make Genes such a consistently enjoyable read but, believe me, you will neither predict nor be disappointed by the ending. Narr is an exciting new voice on the lesbian literary scene and, whether or not my desire is genetically induced, I look forward to reading her next creation. Actually, I look forward to reading her first creation—or my first creation, since there's no such person as April Narr, and there's no such book as Well Worn Genes. That's right, folks, I made the whole thing up. Why, you ask? I've been writing reviews for Kinesis for close to a year now, without ever really stopping to think muchabout whatthe whole process entails. This exercise—besides being my dutiful fulfilment of my promise of bringing in a story when all the other things I was going to review fell through—helped to raise some valuable questions. For one thing, Well Worn Genes is the sort of lesbian novel I would like to write— if only because it's the sort of book I'd like to read, and I haven't found it on the shelves yet. There seems to be a real shortage of satire among the lesbian-feminist titles out there. It's not that there's any lack of serious issues to ridicule and seek to correct, which is what satire is all about. One of the challenges in imagining Well Worn Genes was coming up with scenarios that sounded so much more ridiculous than real life that they were obviously satirical. The genetic research idea came from a very recent news clipping, and whether or not there are sew- Well Worn Genes a novel by age-obsessed scientists like Dr. Troggle, I'm sure there are plenty of researchers who would just love the opportunity to get inside our pants, one way or another. None of this is all that far-fetched: some would even suggest that living in North America in the latter part of the 20th century is like living in a satire. The other thing i s humour of any kind is reliant for its success on a delicate balance of inclusion and exclusion: it includes those who are going to get the joke and excludes those who either don't get it or are the butt of Reviewing.-.hinges on creating a sense (or illusion) of community... it. Any of us who have less power—whether we're lesbians, women, people of colour, people with disabilities in hetero-patriar- chal-racist-ableist mainstream society, have felt the exclusion of being ridiculed for what we are. But hopefully we've also felt the inclusion of being able to share certain codes, vocabulary, and understanding among ourselves—jokes that those who try to deny or suppress our existence simply wouldn't "get" because they are not part of our communities. Reviewing is similar, in that it hinges on creating a sense (or illusion) of community, if only for a moment, of those engaged with the work being reviewed. You were either there, and, that's what you thought, too; or you totally disagree with what I think and how could we have been at the same show?; or you wanted to go, but didn't make it, and you're either very sorry or very relieved; or you're hearing about it now for the first time April Narr and hmn, that sounds kind of interesting; or you wonder if it would be possible to bring that show up to your town or city; or, or, or... I have to have a bigger set of eyes, ears, tastes than just my own when I'm seeing a play, film, reading a book, or whatever that I'm going to review (I also have to take notes!), so that I can take you along too, and bring you back some of what we saw there. And yet at the same time, I'm still just little ol' me with my peculiar set of assumptions, likes and dislikes, etcetera. It's no wonder so many reviewers (feminists too) get arrogant. Often, one of the hallmarks of "great" mainstream reviewing is a tone of unrelieved snottiness—you really know whether you're "in" or "out" based on how well you can decode the reviewer's obscure references to little-known works, esoteric philosophies, and so on. Obviously, this sort of thing won't do at Kinesis—though, as a recovering English major, I'm always having to check my tendency to throw in obscure references; it's possible to be academically trained into a certain type of affection for them, y'know. But a feminist newspaper isn't about making women feel excluded, nor is it about trashing anybody. That's why I also have a difficult time reviewing anything that I really didn't like—you know, if you can't say something nice... So it was a treat to have the freedom that came with reviewing something that didn't exist—no feelings to hurt but my own. And, as it turned out, I had nothing but nice things to say! I hope I'm not the only person who'd like to read a book like Well Worn Genes, one that doesn't so much make fun o/lesbians as have fun with them. (Remember that old distinction between laughing at someone and laughing ivith them?) In fact, I hope lots of you would like to read it—because I think I just might write it. Kathleen Oliver is a regular Kinesis contributor and aspiring novelist. APRIL 1993 Letters reader Kinesis\oves receiving mail. Please get your letter to us by the 18th of the month. If you can, keep the length to about 500 words. (If you go way over, we might edit for space.) Hope to hear from you very soon. Love, Kinesis Happy subscriber Kinesis: I'm happy to renew my subscription early and get the regular ten issues plus one free issue. Good deal! I've been a subscriber since my daughter was in grade one, and now she is in her fourth year of university. Long time, eh? Thanks for your good work, Joy I. Lennox Terrace, BC Thank you sisters Kinesis: This letter is to thank women who wrote letters and supported some of our daily survivals. Ma ria Verghina s of Montrea l, thank you for remembering the anniversary of the assaults on myself, my child, and friends by women at the Flygirls event on December 31, 1991. Your letter [see Kinesis, Feb. 93] offered support to many women victims/survivors like myself, Karin Mladenovic and Diane Atkinson, in and out of the women's many "movements". This has validated me, not just as a casualty but also as a warrior. Thank you, sister, for walking with me and honouring me by including me in this walk. This has eased my nightmares of women's fists and boots on mothers' backs while children wail on this anniversary. Although I did weep and drink until I couldn't remember or dream, I also had a "community" of friends with me who wept, ate, and validated our pains of surviving woman-to- woman violence. One friend was assaulted on that evening with me and we have been supportive of each other in our nightmares and harsh realizations. I thank them too. To my knowledge, there has been at least one other attack on another lesbian of colour by women involved with the organi zation Flygirls. She too is a survivor and a warrior, and not just a casualty. I would also like to acknowledge a local woman's business who has taken a stand by refusing to sell tickets or advertise Flygirl events until an exchange and accountability toward an acceptable resolution has taken place. I and my children thank you too. Another local lesbian space has contacted Flygirls by writing letters and attempting to organize meetings (this ongoing effort has not yet resulted in any significant exchange between Flygirls and "the community"). I thank them as well. So, Maria, these are some of the actions taken in Vancouver to support and educate our communities about anti-mother, anti- children and anti-woman attitudes since the bashing at the Flygirls' event in 1991. I must say that Karin's and Diane's letters also pulled raw strings in my spirit, and I too "had a sense of having failed them." Their words spoke volumes to me and befriended me. I thank them. I also thank Susan from Toronto who gave me her support in her letter to Kinesis a few months ago. To the women involved with Flygirls, I only have the following to say: I do not have your privilege to ignore hatred as I survive daily. I will not go away now, as I didn't on the night that you wanted me to go away enough that you beat me up, in front of my son. I had a right to take up some space then, and I still have this right. I take pleasure in remembering that I was the very last person to walk out the doors. As Maria says, "you cannot ignore us.. I am right there, in front of you...there are fewer and fewer places to hide from our anger." And I am not alone. Burcu Ozdemir, Vancouver, BC Montreal Androgyny Bookstore Alternative Bookshop Le Dernier Mot Ontario Blue Leaf Bookshop, Kitchener K-W Book Store, Kitchener The Daily Planet, Whitby The Ginger Press Bookstore, Owen Sound Lakehead University Alumni Bookstore, Thunder Bay Northern Woman's Bookstore, Thunder Bay A defence of appropriation If any gallery accepts and mounts an exhibition of an artist's work, there follows a mandate that it therefore supports the artist and the work. To do otherwise is to undermine, sometimes even destroy an artist's credibility publicly and possibly personally. Simply put, support is the responsibility of the exhibit staff. (It does not preclude or deny critical discourse or intelligent feedback around the work). What happened to the artist, Diana Kemble following the quagmire at Women In Focus gallery [see Kinesis, Nov. 92]? I contend that she and her work have been trampled on. I also suggest that the internal chaos in the organizational skills of that gallery rendered them ineffectual and close Queen's University Campus Bookstore, Kingston The Book Tree, Peterborough Trent University Bookstore, Peterborough Womansline Books, London Women's Bookstop, Hamilton Hi-Land News, Barrie Toronto A&S Smoke Shop Another Story Book City DEC Bookstore Glad Day Bookshop Lichtman's News & Books Longhouse Book Shop Maison de la Presse Pages Readers Den Ottawa Britton's Smoke Shop Globe mags and Cigars Mags & Fags Ottawa Women's Bookstore Winnipeg Bold Print Co-op Bookshop McNally Robinson Booksellers to hysteria. For example, a promise was made part way through the exhibition's run to at least open the gallery on Saturdays. Even this didn't pan out because of a two- hour mid-day lock-up lunch-break which altered that schedule. With such spasmodic hours, many many potential viewers could not get in to see the paintings, think for themselves, engage in some dialogue, read some pertaining literature—in short, become involved. In essence, Diana Kemble's works were banned from public viewing. One co-curator is quoted as saying, "...it doesn't matter what culture she's drawing from. This fascination with borrowing from other cultures and mythologies indiscriminately hurts." The artist has written that "these paintings call attention to cavity/cave, birth/bear, woman/emergence." Apropos of what culture she is drawing from, what if a white woman borrowed from ea rly Celtic imagery yet herself was only 25% pure Celtic? Would this be acceptable borrowing? Another: what if an artist were part-Japanese, part-English, part-French and part-Jamaican? A blend takes only a few generations of many races living in one country; this is happening in Canada. Now, what will the board members and committee at Women In Focus gallery do about this mix? Mixed up? I am. Agnes Huang's article "Women Out of Focus" in the November issue of Kinesis read as very balanced reporting around this very controversial issue—in part, the gallery's board members' response to an exhibition going up on their own walls which they didn't know enough about until it was up and ondisplay.Whata mess they then found themselves in. Curious that the focus has been on the political dynamics and not on the aesthetics of the work. No informed reviews, no critical thought, no public attention. And almost all Kemble has said is "I am working out of my dreams." One irony is that Kemble was indeed tentative, but for totally different reasons, about displaying this particular series from her life's work: the very graphic portrayals of female sexuality, the dramatic brutality of the torn vagina in childbirth, the intriguing yet unutterable fear of giving birth to another species, the stories of animal and human copulation. This is all highly charged imagery and found in the legends and mythologies of most every society. It is archetypal and no one single culture holds the copyright to any of these experiences. Moreso, when these stories are shared between cultures, they often provide the catalyst towards the following sort of exchange... "Yeah, well, in our family (read culture), we had a similar story but it went like this..."It is this mode of sharing, this sort of dialogue and interaction for decades held around kitchen tables, perhaps centuries around woodstoves or f irepits that brings us closer together. To articulate why the leaves of a tree have been painted purple may have some- Alberta Daily Globe Inc, Calgary A Woman's Place Bookstore, Calgary The Fourth Street Bookshop, Edmonton Hub Cigar & Newstand, Edmonton Nova Scotia Atlantic News, Halifax Blowers Street Paperchase, Halifax Red Herring Co-op Books Ltd, Halifax The Inside Story, Greenwood Newfoundland Books for a Change, St John's Wordplay, St John's British Columbia Nelson Women's Centre, Nelson Tanners-A Bookstore and More, Sidney Everywoman's, Victoria Yates News & Books Ltd, Victoria Vancouver Agora Co-op Ariel Books Banyen Books Book Mantel East End Food Co-op Hearts Little Sister's Manhattan Books Mayfair News Octopus Books Pages and Pages People's Co-op Books Peregrine Books R2B2 Books Spartacus Books SFU Bookstore Vancouver Women's Bookstore Vancouver Lesbian Connection Women's Health Collective West Coast Books UBC Bookstore USA Red and Black, Seattle thing to do with the French Impressionists' theory of light, or a particular purple-leaf tree of South Asia, or maybe with an emotional level the artist wants to convey, or it might even relate to the fact that the artist has run out of green paint. But the adult artist will take the artistic freedom to paint a sky red or a tree purple whenever, much as the child artist will also insist that sky can be red, that it doesn't really have to be blue. And really, who is to argue any of this? This is the explicit freedom of choice with regard to the color range on the artist's palette. Currently however, a conundrum is facing the artist with regard to the color rendering on the figure. The white artist, it seems by the logic of some, can color the figure white. The black artist can color the figure black. The brown-skinned artist paints brown-skinned figures. All of the above is artistically inane and obviously ludicrous. What sort of political censorship will be issued on the creative act and by whom? Have the 15th Century Italian paintings of Madonna and Child been examined to determined if the color of flesh on the palette was not appropriated from another culture? Who is Diana Kemble? Does she "work (only) out of her dreams"? Why have these been her only words with regard to her paintings? How should this be considered? For decades she has been an outspoken, precise and witty proponent of womens' issues, in particular inher support of women artists. Her commitment to the arts spans a real proficiency of literature and music, as well as visual arts. She does respect her subject matter. And what is important to me is her sense of humanity. Since money is a big part of race discourse (that is, funding agencies), let's make it public: she is not federally funded, a remittance woman nor is she a pampered aristocrat. For decades, she has supported herself as a part-time librarian. She has lived in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for about 20 years (long before it was a fashionable and arty pa rt of town). She shares the history of repression and resistance; she is of a disenfranchised minority already (lack of recognition and lack of financial support for her art) and these restrictions are all too familiar to women artists. My grave concerns are this: how easily her art and her creative process have been dismissed, how dialogue within the Women In Focus gallery has been a 'no win' situation, how that communication may remain suspect, impossible and closed. That the willingness to celebrate imagination ("I am working out of my dreams") and freedom (the palette and its colours) of the artist has been abolished. Carole Itter Vancouver, BC No apology from WIV? Kinesis: I found the response by Women In View, to the feed back from Adonica Huggins on racism at Women In View sadly lacking in substance [see Letters, Kinesis, Mar. 93.] Rather than reacting with that barrage of statistics, a simple apology would have been a good start. We need less to deny and more to acknowledge how we have been influenced and sometimes repeat patriarchal/imperialist attitudes toward race and class. Politics between women is going through a painful but necessary process. We are in the throes of hard labour. Let's be proud of our stretchmarks. Renee Rodin Vancouver, BC Bulletin Board read this Bulletin Board listings have a maximum of 50 words. Groups, organizations and individuals eligible for free space in the Bulletin Board must be, or have, non-profit objectives. Other free notices will be items of general public interest and will appear at the discretion of Kinesis. Classifieds are $8 (+$0.56 GST) forthe first 50 words or portion thereof, $4 (+$0.28 GST) for each additional 25 words or portion thereof and must be prepaid. Deadline for all submissions is the 18th of the month preceding publication. Note: Kinesis is published ten times a year. Jul/Aug and Dec/ Jan are double issues. All submissions should include a contact name and telephone number for any clarification that may be required. Listings will not be accepted over the telephone. Kinesis encourages readers to research the goods and services advertised in Bulletin Board. Kinesis cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided or the safety and effectiveness of the services and products listed. Send submissions to Bulletin Board, Kinesis, #301-1720 Grant Street, Vancouver, BC.V5L2Y6. For more information call 255-5499. EVENTS WANNA GET INVOLVED? With Kinesis'? We want to get involved with you too. Help plan our next issue. Come to the Writers' meeting on Tues, Apr 6 (for the May issue) and Tues, May 1 (for the June issue) at 7 pm at our office, #301-1720 Grant St. If you can't make the meeting, call 255-5499. No experience necessary, all women welcome. NOT JUST ANOTHER PAGE The Not Just Another Page Collective welcomes all First Nations women and women of colourwho are past,present and possibly future Kinesis volunteers to our next meeting on Thurs, Apr 8 at 7:30 pm. For info on location and to arrange childcare subsidies, please contact Agnes Huang at 875-1640. VSW WANTS YOU! Want to get more involved but not sure where to begin? Join us—become a volunteer at Vancouver Status of Women. VSW volunteers plan events, lead groups, raise funds, answer the phone lines and help to connect women with the community resources they need, organize the library and other exciting tasks! Come to Committee meetings: Finance/Fundraising Tues, Apr 20, 5:30 pm; Publicity, Wed, Apr 21, 5:30 pm; Programming, Thurs, Apr22,5:30 pm. The next volunteer potluck and orientation will be on Thur, Apr 22,7 pm at VSW, #301- 1720 Grant St. For more info, call Jennifer at 255-5511. ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING Are you interested in leading Assertiveness Training Workshops for women? VSW is offering free training for women with some experience in group work in exchange for leading an AT group at VSW. Training will take place in the evening on Fri, Apr 2, and 9 I March 31 -April 24 Directed by -John Cooper starring Brenda Robins Leslie Carlson • Bill Dow Set & Costume Design: Ken MacDonald Lighting Design: Gerald King Sound Design: Greg Ruddell Advice: Mature Subject Matter Ticketmaster 280-3311 Playhouse 873-3311 MEDIA SPONSOR ®ie1(ktDUPerSun EVENTS EVENTS all day Sat and Sun, Apr 3 and 4, followed by a six week AT group to be held one evening per week. Please call Miche at 255- 5511 if you are interested. Assistance with child care costs is available. WRITERS' RETREAT The North Pacific Women Writers' Society will be holding its third annual creative writing retreat for women May 30 -Jun 6 at the Rockwood Centre, Sechelt, BC. The focus of this retreat is individual writing time, but optional activities include guided writing exercises, an afternoon physical exercise class and evening group critique sessions. To apply, send a 5-page sample of recent work and a short description of your writing history to the North Pacific Women Writers' Retreat, 3091 W 15th, Vancouver, BC V6K 3A5 by Apr 1. For info, call 734-9816 (weekdays) or 943-6888 (weekends). AIDS IN THE FAMILY Women, children and youth are the focus of the BC Pediatric AIDS Conference, Apr 22- 24. If you are a pregnant woman, shouldyou be tested for HIV? If you are an HI V-positive mother, what resources exist for your children? If you have teenagers, what practical strategies exist to help them learn about sex, love and STDs. For info, call 822-2626 or 1-800-663-0348. DAY-LONG POETRY WORKSHOP Daphne Marlatt will be giving a day-long poetry workshop on Fri, May 7,9 amto4 pm at SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W Hastings. The workshop will explore the relationship between music and thought in writing, paying close attention to how sound conducts meaning in language. It will be limited to 10 participants. If you are interested, submit 5 pages of recent work to Daphne Marlatt, Lang Road C-22, RR 4, Ganges, BC VOS 1E0 by Apr 20. For info, call 537-4732. ELP RALLY AND MARCH End Legislated Poverty will be holding a rally and march for Hunger Awareness Week on Thur, Apr 15,5:30 pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The rally and march will protest the lack of jobs, the low minimum wage, the low welfare rate, the increasing need for charity, the UI cuts, the North American "Free" Trade deal, federal cuts to Social Services, the high taxes on low and middle-income people, the too-lowtaxes on the wealthy and profitable corporations, federal cuts to housing and other manifestations of the corporate agenda. For info, call 879-1209. SFU WOMEN'S STUDIES The SFU Women's Studies Department will offertwo courses, Issues in Women's Health and Health Care; and Women and Films: Films and Theories over the summer. For info, call the Women's Studies General Office, 291-3333. WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP BC Canadian Congressf or Learning Opportunities for Women presents a workshop on Women's Ways of Leadership, with speaker Jean Cockell on Wed, Apr 28, 7:30 pm at #2-1121 Harwood. Cockell will discuss women's concepts of power and leadership and how they compare with traditional concepts in the bureaucratic system. For info, call Kate Dauphinee at 682-1343. SPRING READINGS The Kootenay School of Writing will present Spring Readings on Apr 17, May 1, May 22, Jun 12 and Jun 26,8 pm at 152 W Hastings (third floor). Readers include Catriona Strang, Larissa Lai, Catherine Bennett, V Lesbian and Gay Counselling and Consulting Services presents: A talk open to everyone.. Will Therapy Make Me Sick? Take advantage of this opportunity to meet with us as we investigate the historical hurdles and present day potential of therapy in our communities. No charge, two dates & venues. April 13, 7:00-9:00 pm West End Community Centre -.«£*• 870 Denman Street r^ Tel: 685-8379 April 15, 7:30 - 9:00 pm Josephine's (Doors open at 7:00) 1716 Charles St Tel: 733-2601 A Series of 3 Workshops... Coming Out and Staying Out April 17, 9:30 am - 4:00 pm, Fee: $95 Communication, Self Esteem and Fulfillment May 15 & 16, 9:30 am. - 4:00 pm, Fee: $ 195 Communication for Couples April 24, 9:30 am - 4:00 pm, Fee: $125 per couple The LGCCS Team... Lesbian and Gay Counselling arid Consulting Services offers on-going workshops and individual/couples counselling. For further information and registration, phone 733-2601. Jamie Powers, MA., M.Ed, R.C.C. Julia Young, MA. Gail Farmer, M.B.A., Kathryn Templeton, M.Sc, M.Ed., R.C.C. J Bulletin Board EVENTS EVENTS EVENTS Dorothy Trujillo Lusk,JudiMaclnnes, Kathryn Macleod, Phinder Dulai, Susan Clark and Renee Rodin. For info, call 688-6001. MARIA LUISA MENDONCA The Video In presents two screenings and talks by Maria Luisa Mendonca on Apr 15, 8 pm and Apr 17,9pm at the Video In, 1102 Homer. The first presentation, Environment and Experimental Forms: Video Works and Artist Talk, explores the influence of popular culture and politics on the arts in Latin America. The second presentation, Broadcast Feminism in Brazil: Screening and Artist Talk will present two of the works of the Lilith Video Collective, the group which produced the first feminist series broadcast on Brazilian Television. Tix $4/3. For info, call Jennifer Abbott, 688-4336. JUNETABOR The Rogue Folk Club presents England's finest traditional singer, June Tabor, Sun, Apr 4,8 pm at the WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac. She will be accompanied on violin, viola and accordion by Mark Emerson. Tix $13/10. FULL MOON POTLUCK Wimmin's full moon potluck & ritual. Bring potluck dish, pillow, drums, rattles on Wed, Apr 7. Pre-registration necessary; limited to 30 wimmin. $2-5 donations 253-3142 at Josephine's, 1716 Charles, 6:15 pm. JENNIFER BEREZAN Jennifer Berezan and Nina Gerber will be in concert atthe Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Sat, Apr 10. Advance tix are $12-16 and are available at Josephine's or the VECC. This is a Sounds & Furies Production. OUT ON SCREEN VANCOUVER'S FIFTH ANNUAL LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL MAY 26-30 1993 CALL 684-ARTS THERAPY IN OUR COMMUNITY "Will therapy make me sick?" Free discussion led by staff of the Lesbian and Gay Counselling Services. An opportunity to investigate the historical hurdles and present day potential of therapy in our community on Thurs, Apr 15 at Josephine's, 1716 Charles. For more info, call 733-2601. WOMYN'S OPEN STAGE "Womyn's Open Stage", a monthly event for women where poets, singers, dancers and performers strut their stuff. Sat, Apr 24 at Josephine's, 1716 Charles. Tix are $2-5 donation at door. Doors open at 7:15. SUE MILLER The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents a reading by Sue Miller, May 9, 2 pm at the Arts Club Theatre Mainstage. Miller is the best-selling author of The Good Mother and Family Pictures. She will be reading from her new novel For Love. Tix $12. NATIONAL BOOK WEEK "Words to Share" will include Vancouver writers Anne Jew, Larissa Lai, and Lydia Kwa. The reading will be at the Burnaby Public Library in Metrotown, on Sun, Apr 25, 1:30-3:30 pm. POETRY READING R2B2 Books presents a poetry reading by Sharon Thesen on Fri, Apr 23, 8 pm at R2B2 Books, 2742 W 4th. For info, call 732- 5087. PROSE READING R2B2 Books presents a prose reading by Susan Crean on Fri, Apr 30,8 pm. For info, call 732-5087. HEALTH COLLECTIVE The Vancouver Women's Health Collective will host an Open House on Apr 15, 11 am to 1 pm at #219, 1675 W 8th in celebration of its new location. Refreshments will be served and BC Health minister Elizabeth Cull, and Vancouver Centre NDP candidate Betty Baxter will be present. Everyone is welcome. LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL The Sixth Northwest International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will be held Apr 30 to May 2 at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It will feature a presentation by filmmaker PratibhaParmar, creator of Khush and director of A Place of Rage. Scheduled works include Double the Trouble (Pratibha Parmar), Two Spirit People, Non, je ne regrette rien (Marlon Riggs) and more. For info, call (206) 866-6000 ext 6542 or write to the Evergreen State College, Library 1302, Olympia, WA 98505. EQUALITY DAY West Coast LEAF is holding its annual equality day celebration Thursday, Apr 15 at 7 pm. Lawyer Gwen Brodsky will speak about equality for lesbians and the Neilson case. The event will be held atthe Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr College, where the work of Persimmon Blackbridge is currently being shown. Tickets are $10 or by donation. Childcare subsidies are available. For tickets or info, call 684-8772. SPRING CONCERT The Vancouver Women's Chorus presents its Spring Concert "Circle of Friends" with guest artists Jeanette Gallant, Lianne Stennes, Gwen Chapman and M.E. Kish on Sat, Apr 17, 8 pm at Heritage Hall, 3102 Main. Tix $12 available at Little Sister's. PARADISE AND THE WASTELAND Tamahnous Theatre presents the world premiere of Paradise and the Wasteland, a 2- part epic re-telling of the King Arthur Legends by Elizabeth Dancoes, Apr 20 to May 9 at Performance Works, Granville Island. Vancouver playwright Elizabeth Dancoes creates a theatrical collage of movement, music, video and visual metaphor. For info, call Denise Golemblaski, 254-4699. Tix available from 254-4699 or TicketMaster, 280-4444. VICTORIA PRIDE PICNIC The Victoria Gay/Lesbian Pride Society will be holding its third annual Bring-Your-Own Picnic on Sun, Jul 18 at Beacon Hill Park, Victoria. Plans are in the works for a raffle as well as a goods-and-services auction priortothe picnic. Volunteers are still needed to help at the various events. For info, call 598-4617 or write 1228 McKenzie St, Victoria, BC V8V 2W5. WELFARE RIGHTS WORKSHOP The Vancouver Lesbian Connection is holding a Welfare Rights Workshop on Fri, Apr 9, 1-4 pm. Informative, empowering and necessary to those using the system. Childcare reimbursed as required at $3/hr and bus fare will be reimbursed. For info, call 254-8458. JOB OPENINGS Advertising Co-ordinator Kinesis is looking for a part-time Advertising co-ordinator who is creative, energetic, well organized, responsible, and has good person-to-person skills and is aware of feminist issues and values. Duties include: • soliciting new advertising accounts • maintaining current advertising base, correspondence, contracts and generalfiles • invoicing all accounts and following up on unpaid accounts •consulting with Production co-ordinator and Editor respecting ad design • preparing ad reports for the Editorial Board each month The position is paid on a minimum commission basis of 20 percent of the base advertising revenues per month, including solicited or unsolicited advertising. The commission increases in stages to a maximum of 35 percent of total advertising revenues. Deadline: Apr 5 Job starts: Apr 12 Distribution Co-ordinator Kinesis is looking for a part-time Distribution co-ordinator who is energetic, well organized, responsible, has good person-to person skills, is aware of feminist issues and owns or has access to vehicular transportation. Duties include: • preparing statements & records relevant to in-town and out-of-town distribution • picking up Kinesis from the printers and delivering papers to the mailing house • distributing Kinesisto in-town retailers • collecting payments from all retailers and maintain sales records andcorrespond- ence with them and the national distributor, Canadian Magazine Publishers Association • relaying information to the Editorial Board The Distribution co-ordinator is paid for 10 hours per issue ($13.85/hour as of Apr). She alsocollects a mileage fee based on the current VSW payment per mile. Deadline: Apr 8 Job starts: Apr 22 Women of colour and First Nations women are encouragedtoapplyfor both positions. Send applications to Kinesis Hiring, #301-1720 Grant Street, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 2L6. For more information call 255-5499. GROUPS RACISM SUPPORT GROUP The BC Human Rights Coalition is sponsoring a Victims of Racism Support Group. It is often debilitating and hard to confront racism when people are isolated in their jobs or other situations. Often, there is not the support and safety to challenge these attitudes. Come and share your experiences, your ideas and your support with others. Bring your lunch. Meetings will be at noon and/or at 5:15 pm on the first Tuesday of every month at #718-714 W Hastings. For info, call 689-8474. VLC The Vancouver Lesbian Connection thanks all the women who have donated books to its library. If you still havebooks out,yourname could possibly be on the list on the wall atthe VLC, so please bring the books back. The VLC is also preparing for the next sessions of Coming Out Groups. Please call to sign up for this informative group, as well as for the Women of Colour Coming Out Group. Free body massage with Jo and Louisa can be had at the VLC Mon from 3-5 pm. Survivors of Incest Anonymous, a 12-step program for survivors of sexual abuse is held Mondays at 7 pm atthe VLC. The VLC has Body Piercing on Tue evenings. Appointments can be made through the Book Mantel. The Women's Writing Group is held on the Istandthe 3rd Sat of the month atthe VLC. For info, call 254-8458. FIRST NATIONS ADOPTEES There are so many ways to define the four directions, depending on your cultural perspective. However, when that perspective has been obscured or re-rooted, it can be very difficult to define anything. If you are an adopted First Nations person or a person of colour and are interested in exploring these questions of identity and other adoption- related issues with other adoptees, join our informal friendship circle. For info, contact LucindaPik, 739-7145. THERAPY GROUP FOR LESBIANS Explore yourself in relation to others. This ongoing group provides a supportive atmosphere to explore interpersonal issues, experiment with new ways of being, recieve feedback from others and share experiences. Groups provide the opportunity to workon issues of trust, intimacy, and boundaries. For more info, call Delyse 733-8660. Temporary Position Available at the Vancouver Women's Health Collective for an Administrative Support Worker 10 hours per week for 6 months This is an affirmative action HIRING ~ Please call 736-4234 for details B. Cecill 254-5824 PJ Construction Additions, decks, doors, fences, garages, painting, stairs, walls, windows & more Call for free estimate £J5 A Book About Menopause | 50 pages of complete and factual information on menopause, including body changes, health issues, sexuality in women's middle years. Deals clearly with hormone therapy, pros and cons. * All for only Hm h Published by The Montreal Health Press, a women's collective producing quality books on health and sexuality for 20 years! Send s400 to The Montreal Health Press, C.P. 1000, Station Place du Pare, Montreal, QC, Canada H2W" 2N1, or call 514-282-1171 for bulk rates. El 10% DISCOUNT WITH COPY OF THIS AD | Bulletin Board SUBMISSIONS SUBMISSIONS I CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS NEW INITIATIVES IN FILM New Initiatives in Film is a program by Studio D. It's designed as one response to the under-representation and mis-representation of Women of the First Nations and Women of Colour in Canadian film. NIF's Professional Development Program is a 12- month program based in Montreal that will lead to the production of a film with the support of Studio D. Two individuals working on two separate projects or one team working on a single project together will be selected for the program. The program is designed for intermediate and senior level film and video makers from the independent production community. To be eligible, applicants must have completed a body of work (several film or video productions) in a key creative role, not including works produced through university and college training courses. For more info or to apply, call Fabienne Pierre-Jacques, (514) 283-9534 or write NIF Coordinator, Studio D, Box 6100, Stn A, Montreal, Que H3C 3H5. WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS Currently reviewing slides of recent work by women photographers from the ages of 20 to 30 for publication in an upcoming book. There are no limitations on subject matter for this book, the purpose of which is to highlight the strength and diversity of work by young female photographers. The final book will include 10 to 12 artists, each represented by 3 images. Submit 10-20 slides, an artist's statement, a $10 submission fee and SASE to Anna Gaskell and Lorelei Stewart, PO Box 4711, Lexington, VA 24450. For info, call Anna at (703) 463- 5984 or Lorelei at (703) 464-6589. VISUAL ARTIST'S ARCHIVE FILE North Carolina Central University has established an African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American National Visual Artist's File. The file will be actively maintained in the form of slides, videos, catalogues, books, resumes and bibliographies. We are requesting any of the above materials for inclusion in our National Visual Artists File. Materials will be limited to 20th century artists. Mail materials to Rosie Thompson, NCCU National Visual Artists File, PO Box 19555 Durham, NC 27707. For info, call (919)560-6391. LESBIAN MOTHERHOOD Gynergy Books will be publishing a book in the Fall of 1994 on lesbian motherhood/ parenthood. The book will provide resources, information, inspiration and support to lesbians considering parenthood, to women involved with lesbian mothers and to lesbians with children. Theoretical and experiential articles both welcome. A broad representation of experiences is also sought, and submissions from Native lesbians and two- spirited women, lesbians of colour, lesbians from diverse ethnic and cultural communi- DR. PAULETTE ROSCOE NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN HOMEOPATHY COUNSELLING DETOXIFICATION HYCROFT MEDICAL CENTER 108-3195 GRANVILLE ST. VANCOUVER, B.C. V6H 3K2 731-4183 ties and disabled lesbians are particularly encouraged. Submissions should be no longer than 20 pages (approx 5000 words). Possible topics include: lesbian mothers and the law in Canada; lesbians choosing children; raising children; our many experiences of motherhood. Send proposals by Jun 30to Professor Katherine Arnup, School of Canadian Studies, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ont K1S 5B6. NON-FICTION ANTHOLOGY The Women's Press Canada is developing a non-fiction anthology on lesbian and bisexual women's experiences of and resistance to heterosexism and homophobia/ lesbophobia. The original submission deadline has been extended to Jul 1. We are looking for essays and articles theorizing heterosexism and homophobia/lesbophobia by lesbians. Essays should include a race, class and cultural analysis. We would be interested in material which addresses homophobia and heterosexism within the feminist movement. Send your double- spaced typed material to Resist, Women's Press, #233-517 College St, Toronto, Ont M6G 4A2. CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS This is a call for conference papers and workshop proposals for a conference sponsored by the Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations and the School of Social work at the University of British Columbia to take place Nov 18-20. Poverty is a woman's issue which, like so many others, also raises questions of other forms of discrimination and privilege. The Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations and the School for Social Work believe that feminist perspectives on poverty help us to recognize and confrontthese issues. This conference aims to bring together anti-poverty and community groups with interested researchers in an investigation of what feminist perspectives mean for understanding poverty from childhood to old age. For the Saturday sessions we are inviting community and academic researchers to propose papers and workshops. Presentations may draw on completed studies or research in progress. We are especially interested in work drawing on new feminist scholarship, which recognizes female diversity. The conference will close late Sat afternoon with a 'Working Together" panel, where invited researchers and community activists will explore, with the audience, the implications of feminist research for a social justice policy agenda. Proposals for Sat, including title, summary, and type of presentation, together with mailing address and telephone number should be sent, by Apr 19 to: Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations, University of British Columbia, 314-2206 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3. Tel (604) 822-9171, Fax 822-9169. CITIZENSHIP, COMMUNITY Citizenship, community, identity; Feminists (re)present the political is a graduate student conference to be held at York University, Oct 1-3. Please submit proposals for papers to: Catherine Kellogg, Department of Political Science, 6th Floor Ross South, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ont, M3J 1P3, Canada. Deadline: Apr 30. CELEBRATE YOUR SEXUALITY Rubyfruit Erotica is a Canadian mailorder company operated by women for women. Our catalogue offers an exciting range of erotic accessories including massage oils, vibrators, dildos, condoms, and sensual lubes. Rubyfruit arises out of the conviction that we are the best experts concerning our own sexuality and by discovering it first on our own terms. For your plain-wrapped full colour catalogue send $4 to: Martin Enterprises, Postal Station P, Box 386 K, Toronto, Ont M5S 2S9. JOSEPHINE'S An eastside women's cappucino bar, craft shop and venue is seekingfinancial/working partners now'm orderto continue and grow. Open to new ideas, arrangements and possibilities. Business experience an asset. Call 253-7189, or write to Josephine's at 1716 Charles St., Van., V5L 2T5 LESBIAN ROOMMATE WANTED Three-bedroom house near Trout Lake, Skytrain and the Drive to share with two other lesbians, 1 small dog and two cats for $320 plus utilities. Call 874-2329. FRESH COUNTRY AIR Rural woman wishes house partner on women's land. $165 a month and one half propane. Must be smoke tolerant and cat- friendly. One room available and own transportation preferred. Coombs, Vancouver Island. Call Iris at 248-5951 or 248-8809. SEXUAL ABUSE COUNSELLING I work with sexual abuse, incest, and the effects of abuse including: depression, anger, rage, low self-esteem, addictions, anxiety, panic attacks, confusion, dissociation, multiple personalities, flashbacks, and repressed memories. I use cognitive therapy, hypnosis, guided visualization, journal writing, breath work and inner child connection. All in a safe, confidential, nurturing environment. Call Alice Fraser, BA, Feminist/Survivor at 737-0531. INCOME TAX PREPARATION Income tax preparation available to individuals, self employed, small businesses and partnerships. Electronic filing available. Evenings and weekends o.k. Sliding scale. Call Yvonne at 879-9167. SEX ADDICTION Affordable counselling for exploring your family issues and relationship conflicts and concerns. As a registered professional counsellor I work with women overcoming abuse, co-dependency, sex and relationship addiction and increasing their self-esteem. For a brochure or information call Carol Vialogos, 731-0758. First session free. LEGAL ADVOCATE POSITION The Downtown Eastside Women's Centre has applied for a Challenge '93 grant to be able to employ a summer student. Must have experience working with women, working collectively, legal research skills and experience with delivery of legal advocacy services on issues such as welfare rights,UIC, child apprehension, tenency disputes and criminal law matters. Apply to hiring committee at DEWC, 44 E Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC, V6A1K7. The position starts May 3 for 18 weeks at $15/hour lr=Jr=Jr=Jr=Jr=Jr=Jr=JrSJT^Jr= r=Jr=Jr=Jr=Jr= | [jf]] ROBIN GOLDFARB » Registered Massage Therapist Appro.cH^^a.n.c m Vancouver. B.C. V6R 1M6 731-7838 | r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J r=J I'ATRICIA DUBBERLEY Counsellor Telephone: (604) 733-4523 #201 -2515 Burrard Street Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3J6 • Healing Issues ol Dysfunctional Families and Abase • Enhancing Relationships and Sell-Esteem • Individual, Couples. Family and Group Therapy for 35 hours/week. Deadline for application: Mon, Apr 12. The availability of this position is dependent upon the receipt of funding from the federal Challenge '93 program. ARTIST STUDIO OPEN HOUSE Lesbian feminist artist and recovering nice girl Sheila Norgate proudly announces the opening of her new Vancouver studio. Offered for view and sale will be paintings, limited edition block prints, and t-shirts— including the near-famous "Bad Girls Drive Fast and Kiss Slow". Everyone welcome. Sat, Apr 17,10am-4pm at 204-119 W Pender (at Abbott). For more info, call 689-4099. A WOMAN'S PLACE Emotional Fitness Centre Counselling, educational and consulting service on the North Shore. Offers feminist and lesbian affirmative counselling, workshops, support groups. Areas of specialization: low-self esteem, depression, anxiety, communication, relationship difficulties, emotional, physical, sexual abuse recovery, coming out. Call Lou Moreau at 924-2424 RCC. COUNSELLING NOW Experiencing difficulties? Feminist counselling in a supportive, confidential atmosphere. For crises, personal growth, parent/teen issues, coming out, and life passage. Individuals, couples, families. Sliding-scale fees. For free consultations call Eleanor Brockenshire, BHEc, MSW at 669-0197. EATING DISORDER CLINIC "Fourth Annual Eating Disorder Symposium 1993" Public Forum on Friday, May 14 in the Robson Square Conference Centre. Film "The Famine Within," 6:15-8:15 pm. Forum at 8:30-10:00 pm. Principal speaker is Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and writer. Tix $9 /students $5. A two-day symposium for Health Care providers runs May 14 & 15. Call 264-0212 for more information. SITKA CO-OP Sitka Housing Co-operative is a 26-unit housing complex which was built six years ago. Our purpose is to provide housing for sole-support women, single mothers, women of colour, women over 55 years of age and women with environmental allergies. Located in the East End of Vancouver, we are near shopping, schools andcommunity centres. Participation in the operation of the coop is required of all members, as well as a share purchase. We are presently accepting applications from women who require one, two, three or four-bedroom units. For application forms please write: Membership Commitee, Sitka Housing Co-op, 1550 Woodland Dr., Vancouver, BC, V5L 5A5. VILLA DE HERMANAS All-women's Caribbean beachfront guest house: beautiful, spacious LF-owned guesthouse on long secluded beach in the Dominican Republic. Tropical gardens, pool, large private guestrooms, sumptuous meals, massages & crystal healings. Room rates:$330 single; $440 double per week. Call our Toronto friend, Susan at (416) 463- 6138 between 9am-10pm. NUCLEAR DANGER Joanne Young's Nuclear Family: One Woman's Confrontation with Atomic Power. A shocking, moving account of how family tragedy bred activism for peace and environmental safety. $10 from Sykes Press, 90 Cambridge Ave., Toronto, Ont., M3K 2L4. FACULTY OF MIDWIFERY McMasters University, Laurentian University, and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute will jointly offer a program leading to the degree Bachelor of Health Sciences in Midwifery and invite applications for contractually limited faculty positions beginning in May. The deadline for application is Mar 31. put a smile on their faces.,,| runic , ,"" LIB1Z8SRL 4/93 mDIE LIBRARY PROCESSING CTR - SERIALS 22% EAST MALL, U.B.C. VANCOUVER, BC V6T 1Z8 Get a sub...or two! $1.40 GST no years J$36 + $2.52 GST Institutions/Groups □$45+ $3.15 GST Name Address- Country _ □Cheque enclosed If you can't al □Bill me □New □Renewal □Gift □Donation Published ten times a year by the Vancouver Statu #301-1720 Grant Street Vancouver, BC V5L Kinesis subsc: Free to prisoners Orders outside Canada add $8 Vancouver Status of Women Mc (includes Kinesis subscription) □$30+ $1.40 GST Postal cod< Fax