March 7th

On the occasion of the 100^th International Women’s Day (IWD), we spoke with Christina from the campaign for Shelter, Sanctuary and Status for All as well as with Jenn and Cara from Maggie’s Toronto.

Christina talked about the historical and current trends within the immigration system; the deep-rooted racism and legacy of imperialism in the immigration system as well as its gendered impacts. Shelter, Sanctuary and Status for All is in response to the raids on women’s shelters and other safe spaces (anti-VAW spaces) by the CBSA. Women without status are targeted in these raids. Although they are often fleeing violence in their home countries, these women are further recriminated, re-traumatized and further victimized by Canadian law enforcement and the immigration system. Often, if these women are sent back to their home country, they are killed. There is also an adverse impact on children. In sharp contrast, dominant mainstream discourse paints Canada as this welcoming safe-haven, with one of the world’s most generous refugee systems (even as the quota for accepting refugees was slashed 60%). The Shelter, Sanctuary and Status campaign is looking to put an immediate stop to further raids on women’s shelters and is also attempting to develop a protocol for service-providers and agencies to deal with this threat. They are hosting a community meeting and press conference at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre (17 Pheobe Street) on Monday, March 8 at 10AM to come together and draft a joint response to this crisis. All are welcome to the community gathering. Christina felt that yesterdayès IWD celebration could have delved into the issues of non-status women more; although there was some mention of these issues and that the issues (like child-care and EI) which were covered are bigger concerns for non-status women. For more info visit http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/sss

We talked with Jenn and Cara from Maggie’s Toronto. Maggie’s works with women, men and trans people employed in the sex trade. It has been active in the community since 1986, providing a range of services, supports and advocacy for individuals as well as working on policy change and legal reforms. Maggie’s works to empower sex workers and views sex work as a legitimate and socially valued form of work. Maggie’s advocates that sex workers should be allowed to work with dignity and in safe conditions. They pointed out that although sex work itself is legal in Canada, the accompanying activities are criminalized. This forces sex work underground and the very laws put in place to protect sex workers contribute to their further marginalization and repression. They talked about the less than favourable response from mainstream feminists who often advocate sex work as a form of violence and as an outcome of patriarchy, rather than looking at it as a means of livelihood and as empowering for those engaged in it. (Sex workers can choose sex work just as any of us choose a particular profession). This discourse of sex work was altogether absent from the IWD celebrations. They stressed that sex workers face a multitude of accompanying oppressions depending on their social location, with racialized women, disabled women and poor women facing additional oppression. Maggie’s is part of an international network of organizers for sex work rights. Cara maintains that the women employed in sex work in the global south are far more organized than the North American context. For more information about Maggies, visit www.maggies.com.

Although we have a long way to go in terms of including all voices in mainstream feminisms and in the IWD celebrations, FF-WPR was nevertheless out there for the IWD March. Listeners heard clips from an event,- Celebrating Women’s Resistance, organized on Friday, March 5 by the Migrant Women’s Coordinating Body featuring Faith Nolan and the CUPE Freedom Singers, spoken word artists and other local performers that gave life to women’s struggles and resistance. We also heard a talk by Angela Davis towards the end of what turned out to be another 2 hour show.

We apoligize for technical difficulties during the show. We were unable to get Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith on air as promised and were unable to play the show originally planned by the programmers at Radio Cliteracy. We will attempt to have Dr. Bellegarde-Smith at a future show. Please stay tuned and don’t forget to leave questions or comments on our blog or call in to the station.