ABORTION CAVALCADE
II PEOESTM
VANCOUVER  WOMEN'S CAUCUS
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MARCH ON
MOTHERS DAY
IN OTTAWA:
11:30am SAT MAY 9
assemble supreme ct.
bldg., Wellington St.
for march to Plmt.
Bldgs.
IN TORONTO:
7:30 AM SAT MAY 9
assemble Queen's Pk.
for trip to Ottawa
IN WINNIPEG:
2:00 pm SUN MAY 10
assemble city hall for
march to leg. bldgs.
IN  EDMONTON:
1:00 SAT MAY 9
assemble leg. bldgs for
march to court house
IN VANCOUVER:
1:30 SUN MAY 10
assemble Lost Lagoon,
,   Stanley Park, for march
to St. Paul's Hospital
for more information on your area, see contacts page 2 the pedestal/may 1970/page two
the pedestal/may 1970/page three
Helena Rose Gutteridge, a young tailoress, left Londonan
1911 to move to Vancouver. She immediately began work in the
labour movement by helping to organize laundry workers,
garment workers, and other trades where women were
concentrated. She talked about her early days of organizing in
a 1957 interview (Pacific Tribune, March 8,1957): 'The
struggles I remember are part of our history now - the
conscription fight in 1919, the shooting of "Ginger" Goodwin,
and the vigilante raid on the old Labour Temple on Dunsmuir
Street, the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, and a long list of
other strikes and occasions when violence was used against the
workers."
In 1912, Helena Gutteridge was elected to the local Trades
and Labour Council and held this office for eleven years. The
situation in the female labour force during the war was of
particular concern for her: "Timid, anxious for work, ignorant
of industrial ways, these women were an easy mark for
unscrupulous employers. I brought these questions before the
unions and the men endorsed our demands. I saw to it that
they did!" She also took the question to the University
Women's Club and with the aid of Judge McGill (first woman
lawyer in Vancouver) a proposal on government regulations on
minimum wages for women was drawn up. In 1917, the bill
was passed by the Conservative government largely through
Helena Gutteridge's efforts.
Another campaign in which Helena participated was the
struggle for women's suffrage. Both as a founding member of
the B.C. Women's Suffrage League, as well as a Labour
representative on the Local Council of Women, she continually
raised the demand to extend the franchise to women on the
provincial level. Mary Norton (a participant in the suffrage
'struggle who is now living in Vancouver) recalls that Helena
Gutteridge held suffrage meetings at the Labour Temple at
night, rather than following the generally accepted form of
Helena Gutteridge
Women   in   History
parlour meetings during the afternoon. In addition, Helena
Gutteridge used a tactic employed by the British Suffragettes,
but which was looked down upon by the British Columbia
women: she set up 'soap-boxes' on the street corners to
further the cause of women's suffrage. Mary Norton also
points out that at this time Helena Gutteridge was not a
socialist, and in fact often became upset when socialist men,
also meeting at the Labour Temple, came to'her meetings and
attempted to lin suffrage with a socialist analysis of society.
The following year, Helena Gutteridge continued to agitate
about the plight of workers when she organized around the
principle that injury or death on the job must be compensated
by the industry. Previously, the lack of hospital insurance for
workers had often left families penniless when industrial
accidents occurred. Many bills of social legislation were passed
within the next few years.
In 1921, Helena Gutteridge moved to the Fraser Valley
where she married and began.a poultry farm. She returned to
Vancouver in 1932 to continue her struggle against
exploitation. She immediately, became involved in the
founding of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (the
precursor to the NDP) and headed the CCF Economic
Planning Committee.
In 1937, the second stage of her life began. She was the first
woman to be elected for the Vancouver City Council. In this
capacity, she is remembered as one who continuously raised in
the council the need for city-assisted low-cost housing
schemes. She was re-elected for a two-year term of office in
1939 and through this period, she was renowned for raising
demands to aid the workers and the large numbers of
unemployed men and women in Vancouver.
In 1960, Helena Gutteridge died of cancer in Vancouver at
the age of eighty. DODIE WEPPLER
Sask women demonstrate  for safe abortion
Monro Agrees to Talk-    j§   ff_   /.;::..
Health Minister John Munro's reception in Saskatoon was part of the Canada-wide campaign to repeal all abortion laws. As we go to press, the
women's liberation cavalcade has just left for Ottawa to demand free abortion on request for all women. They were sent on their way at noon, April 27,
by over 100 women and men who gathered at the Vancouver court house, singing women's liberation songs, with banners waving.
The cavalcade will be met with rallies, guerrilla theater, public meetings and marches in every major center in Canada, and more women will join them
along the way. The women will arrive in Ottawa May 9 to demand the immediate repeal of Canada 's inhuman abortion laws. Thousands of women across
Canada will demonstrate Mother's Day weekend in solidarity with the Ottawa action.
When Federal Health and Welfare Minister,
John Munro, came to Saskatoon April , he
was met at the Bessborough Hotel by some
one hundred very angry women and men. •
The issue was the freedom for women to
be able to control their own bodies, by
immediate repeal of all Canadian abortion
laws.
The occasion for Mr. Munro, was a
banquet given in his honor by the Saskatoon
Press Club. The press club is the
"establishment" journalists' organization.
Women from all around the province, most
of them members of women's liberation
groups in Saskatchewan, came to Saskatoon
to show Mr. Munro that they demand the
repeal of all Canadian abortion laws.
A brief arguing for free choice in abortion
was read to Mr. Munro as he entered the
Bessborough to attend the press club dinner. '
Picketing had been taking place in front of
the hotel for about an hour before the health
minister arrived. The sixty or so women were
joined by many men, some of them doctors at
Saskatoon's community clinic.
During the picketing, leaflets, copies of
The Prairie Fire (Regina community
newspaper) and copies of the Saskatoon
women's brief were passed out to elegantly
dressed press club guests as well as to
passers-by.
Not only do the women demand that
abortion be legalized, but they also demand
that "the federal government begin to take
some responsibility for a whole range of
maternal health facilities, both for women
who seek safe abortions and for those women
who require assistance in bearing and keeping
their children.
The main point the brief raised is the fact
that somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000
women in Canada die each year from illegal
and medically unsafe abortions. However, in
failing to consider any abortion reform in
Canada, the federal government is completely
ignoring this barbaric situation. Many women
are   subjected   to   butchery   because   they
cannot afford safe abortions, either in
England or Japan, or expensive safe illegal
abortions in Canada.
"Death from illegal, non-medical abortion
is wholly preventable," said Joan Stevens of
Saskatoon in reading the brief to Mr. Munro
in front of the Hotel. "There is no indication
that recent changes in the abortion laws will
in any way rectify the situation which these
statistics indicate," she said.
"These laws deny women the most basic of
human and personal rights, that of control
over their own bodies and the choice of
motherhood. They discriminate against poor
and working class women.
" They deny the basic right of children to be
wanted, condemning them, more often than
not, to lives of loneliness and abuse."
The brief severely criticized the present
set-up of hospital abortion committees, which
subject women to endless, time-consuming
red tape, sometimes even resulting in abortion
becoming medically unsafe, because of the
length of time a pregnancy has existed.
"Canada's abortion laws are man-made.
They follow no universal or divine laws," the
brief states.
The brief sums up its demands with .the
following:
Repeal of all laws which coerce a woman
to terminate or to continue a pregnancy,
The provision of counselling, safe abortion
and birth control services available to all
women,
The creation of a social consciousness
which fully accepts women's right to make
those choices and decisions which most
intimately affect their lives as human beings.
Mr. Munro spoke briefly following the
presentation  of the  brief, stating explicitly
: his
that abortion reform was "frankly i
priority at the moment."
"I have a lot of responsibilities and this
isn't one of my high priorities at the
moment," he said. "One of our prime
concerns is about four or five million
Canadians many of whom are living in
poverty level and below. I'm particularly
concerned at the moment with the poverty
question."
Mr. Munro failed to agree to the suggestion
that the abortion question was intimately
connected with the whole question of
poverty, and that one could not be considered
without the other.
"Why can't the government consider both
health and poverty; they are not separate,"
one demonstrator pointed out to Munro.
"That is only your view. I am not
convinced of that," he replied.
He spoke for a few more minutes to the
group and then left to attend the press club
dinner. He did, however, promise to meet
with women in Ottawa, in May, when a
cross-Canada cavalcade will be demonstrating
to the federal government for repeal of all
abortion laws.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
ON THE ABORTION CAMPAIGN
IN YOUR AREA, CONTACT:
EDMONTON      Lynn Curry, 1
433-6625
SASKATOON
REGINA
WINNIPEG
LAKEHEAD
TORONTO
OTTAWA
Sally Mahood, 2218 Angus, 522-0207
Sue Wood, 55 Queenston, 489-2890
Uurie Wcndt, 119 College St.
Peggy Morton, 52 Elgin St., 922-8121
Heather Prittie, 35 Woodlawn,
237-5133
then Chickens Out
B.C. Doctors Call Cops
On Women
On Friday April 10, Vancouver Women's Caucus confronted the College of Physicians
and Surgeons with a statement
which contained a series of demands relating to the role of the
College in the administration of
the abortion law:
that all medical students be required to learn abortion procedures,
that the College of Physicians
and Surgeons define health as
the complete physical, mental
and social well-being of the person as stated by the World
Health Organization,
that the College and the B.C.
Medical Association, in the interests of the health of women
patients, appeal to Ottawa to remove abortion from the criminal
code,
and that the College recommend
to the Provincial Health Minister
that he approve additional facilities for doing abortions, as he is
empowered to do under the federal law.
The brief also demanded that
the Medical Act be amended to
make the medical profession
more responsible to the public.
The women arrived at the
College building at 8:00am with
banners and leaflets. Before they
even had a chance to present
their statement to the College
Council    meeting,    they   were
stopped at the
Registrar of the College,
McClure. He told the women:
"You cannot enter the building.
I have already consulted with
the police and have been informed that if you enter you
will be trespassing on private
property."
The women insisted that they
had a right to present their position to the medical profession.
They moved together to the
front door only to find it was
locked. Two Women's Caucus
members went to the back door,
found it was not locked, entered
the building and proceeded past
the officials to open the front
door  for  the  women  outside.
41
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it1*!
CARAVAN SCHEDULE
FOR MAY
May 1 Regina
May 2 Winnipeg
May 3 Lakehead
May 4 Sault Ste. Marie
May 5 Sudbury
May 6/7 Toronto
May 9 Ottawa
NOW AVAILABLE!
ABORTION
women's caucus booklet
24 pages on
"abortion and women's liberati
"how many die?
*the law
*birth control
*the medical establishment
*why women want abortions
"case histories
"practical advice
"possible solutions
ORDER NOW!
single copies
orders of 10 or more
orders Of 50 or more
orders of 100 or more
Make cheques or money orders payable to Women's Caucus,
307 West Broadway, Van
25 cents each
20 cents each
15 cents each
10 cents each
by the One Caucus member reported:
"We opened the front door, and
the officials tried to shove us out
of the way. We argued that we
were victims of an official
silence. We said we had come uninvited after being refused a
meeting by both the Medical
Association and the College, and
after we had been referred to the
medical profession by Prime
Minister Trudeau and Health
Minister Loffmark."
At this point an official announced that the College would
meet with two women for ten
minutes. The women demanded
a meeting of at least 11 women
to equal the number of men on
the council. This was refused,
and the women entered the lobby with their sleeping bags, insisting they would remain until
they were heard.
However, two cops, who had
been informed by the College
that the women were 'creating a
disturbance' announced that the
women would have to leave. One
participant said: "We felt we had
the right to present our case.
However, we had made our
point. After a discussion, we decided to leave the building — but
we knew we were not finished
fighting the College."
The women left and gathered
in front of the building singing
women's liberation songs.
NEWS BRIEFS
The Michigan Organization to Repeal Abortion Laws
presented some important information at a conference they
held recently. In a study done in Sweden of children who were
born only because of their mother's inability to secure an
abortion, a high degree of mental illness was discovered. As to
the psychological effects on women who receive abortions, Dr.
Heln Anis, psychiatrists at Detroit's Lafayette clinic, cited
many studies showing them to be nil.
NEW YORK — Under pressure of the growing abortion law
repeal movement, the New York State Senate has approved
the most liberal abortion law in the country, legalizing all
abortions performed by licensed doctors. The bill must now go
to the House, where approval is anticipated.
VANCOUVER - On April 18th Women's Caucus participated
in the anti-Vietnam War demonstration and rally sponsored by
the Vancouver Vietnam Action Committee. The women were
part of the "Women Against the War" contingent.
SEATTLE — The Stewardess Emeritus Association of Seattle
sent the following statement, signed by 23 representatives, to
Vancouver Women's Caucus: "We the undersigned being
representatives of the Stewardess Emeritus Association do
hereby endorse the efforts being taken by Vancouver Women's
Caucus to liberalize the existing abortion laws."
MONTREAL — McGill University has set up one of its Senate
committees, this time to investigate discrimination against
women at McGill in such matters as student admissions, hiring,
promotion, salary and benefits for staff, and use of facilities.
TORONTO — Two hundred women and men demonstrated in
Toronto April 28 in support of a private member's bill to the
Ontario legislature to amend the provincial Human Rights Act
to include "sex". As it stands, the Act does nothing to prevent
discrimination in hiring, promotion etc. on the basis of sex.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to
hear a test case on abortion from the District of Columbia, thus
establishing whether constitutional guarantees of individual
liberty supercede state laws regulating abortion. The case will
be heard in the fall session, and a decision will be handed down
immediately.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The Tupamaro urban guerrillas
liberated 13 women from jail on March 8, International
Women's Day.
Ministers Refuse Meeting
The Minister of Justice will not
be available to meet your group
May 9th in spite of ultimatums,
demands and threats as set out
in your letter of March 19th.
Turner's assistant
... Due to a heavy schedule my
your request for
Munro's assistant
...and Trudeau will be too busy preparing for a European
tour to meet the women!
Labour Supports
Abor tto n   Campaign
TO ALL AFFILIATED LOCALS
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
The Executive Board of the Federation has, in line with
Federation policy, endorsed the campaign by the Women's
Caucus to have the present federal laws governing abortion
repealed. We urge all affiliated unions to support actively
this campaign. Letters to Prime Minister Trudeau and a
series of demonstrations will lead up to a mass demonstration on Parliament Hill on May 10th. Please contact the
Women's Caucus for further information and details as to
how you can lend your support. . . Fraternally yours,
R.C. Haynes
Secretary-Treasurer
B.C. FEDERATION OF LABOR
meeting,  every  Sunday,   ] plan ftjture educationals
Friday, May 1
Work night to prepare for May 10 March
Drop by to the offi
your way
Saturday, May 2
Pedestal sales 1:00 - 3:00pm
Library (Robson & Burrard)
Sunday, May 3
Pedestal meeting 11:00am, a
For all those interested
circulation etc.
Sunday, May 4
SFU Women's Caucus meeting, 7:00 pm
Apt. 416, Louis Riel House
Tuesday, May 5
Abortion Information Service, 7:30, office
Wednesday, May 6
Guerrilla Theatre — for all those interested ir
planning guerrilla theatre for May 10 march
8:00,137B Water St.
Thursday, May 7
Abortion campaign planning meeting — final
plans for May 10 march, plans for Makaroff
trial, 8:00, office
Friday, May 8 \«^4'
Work night for May 10 march, office
Saturday, May 9
Pedestal sales 1:00-3:00, Library
Sunday, May 10
Pedestal meeting 11:00 am office
MARCH AGAINST ABORTION LAWS!
1:00 assemble Lost Lagoon, Stanley Park
Monday, May 11
Co-ordinating committee meeting 8:00, office
All active groups should be represented
Tuesday, May 12
Working women's workshop, 8:00, community
educational & research centre (CERC) 434 W.
Pender
Abortion Information Service, 7:30, office
Wednesday, May 13
Educationals workshop, t
8:00 office
Thursday, May 14 ij?^t$*£i.
GENERAL MEETING 8:00 office
Friday, May 15
Work night for Makaroff trial, office
Saturday, May 16
Pedestal sales 1:00-3:00, Library
Sunday, May 17
Pedestal meeting 11:00am office
Tuesday, May 19
MAKAROFF TRIAL 9:30 Public Safety
Building, Main & Hastings, Courtroom 1
Abortion Information Service, 7:30 office
Wednesday, May 20
Night off I — Write a paper for the strategy
conference for June.
Thursday, May 21
Abortion campaign meeting, 8:00 office
Plans for June 10 meeting of College of
Physicians & Surgeons (Makaroff?)
Teachers' meeting, 8:00pm, 3892 Burke,
S. Bby
Saturday, May 23
Pedestal sales 1:00-3:00, Library
Sunday, May 24
Pedestal meeting 11:00 am office
Monday, May 25
Co-ordinating committee meeting 8:00, office
Tuesday, May 26
Working Women's workshop, CERC, 434 W.
Pender, 8:00pm
Abortion Information Service, 7:30, office
Thursday, May 28
GENERAL MEETING 8:00 off ice
Friday, May 29
Work night for demo at College of Physicians
& Surgeons June 10
Saturday, May 30
Pedestal sales 1:00-3:00, Library
Sunday, May 31
Pedestal meeting — likely at SFU working on
paste-up etc.
A pie
events will then t
will make necessa
satisfaction that t
for trial,
detern ine
"crime",;
Womer
which det
The Medical
Establishment
On April 23 and 24 obstetricians and gynecologists held a
conference on Marriage, the family and human sexuality. The
conference washeldbehindclosed
doors at UBC. Among the topics
discussed were "The Role of the
physician in marriage counselling," "How t
afterwards,"
of marriage :
"Hidden Games between Doctors
and Patients," (one of the speakers was the author of "Games
People Play") and "The teenager  and  the  Pill."
Women's Caucus felt that since
the conference was dealing specifically with pre
) bear children —
"The   relationship
i should be present to c
.  their problems with th
the doctors was refused, a
were given the alternative of ta
ing to doctors in the lobby on
their VShour coffee break, with
the added comment that doctors
would not appreciate our wasting their precious time.
Two women who quietly sat
in for one session were strongly
reprimanded afterwards for daring to break through the "expert-
Their request for a panel with
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