Indigenous perspectives on the 8th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, Call for an End to Violence

On December 17^th 2010, sex workers and their allies across the globe will mark the 8th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This day draws attention to acts of violence that continue to be committed against sex workers worldwide, and to the stigma and discrimination perpetuated by prohibitionist laws and views against sex work, which endanger our lives and work.

In Canada, although the recent decriminalization decision from the Ontario Superior Court has given much hope to the sex worker rights movement, police harassment and brutality are ongoing, and discrimination remains unabated. This is particularly true for Indigenous communities and communities of color.

On this day it is also remembered that the criminal legal system along with the police are creations of the colonial state. The criminal legal system in the United States and Canada disproportionately targets Indigenous communities. Sex work is no different. Indigenous sex workers are vastly more likely to be subjected to repeated arrests, police and prison violence including sexual assault, incarceration, longer sentences, to have their children removed and lack of access to culturally relevant services within or outside of prisons. They are also the most likely group of sex workers to be murdered or disappeared. These realities are not only limited to Canada or the United States, but are reflective of Indigenous experiences the world over.

This year, the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and Maggie’s: the Toronto Sex Worker’s Action Project are working together in order to centralize the experiences of Indigenous sex workers, who face disproportionate amounts of violence due to ongoing colonization, legacies of Residential Schools, and systemic racism in addition to the stigma associated with sex and sex work. Jessica Yee, Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and a board member at Maggie’s says that, “We recognize that violence and patriarchy have long been used as tools to subjugate, disempower and undermine Indigenous people’s autonomy over our own bodies. The very creation of Canada and the United States was achieved through state sanctioned sexual violence and the imposition of heteropatriarchy. Responses to violence against Indigenous sex workers today must be aware of these histories and, as such, should be led by Indigenous people themselves. Further, such responses must be aware of the recolonizing effect of so-called ‘helping’ Indigenous people and ‘rescuing’ sex workers. Most importantly, non- Indigenous peoples and organizations must respect and learn from the many ways in which Indigenous communities have already been and continue to work to end violence.”

Friends, supporters, allies and everyone interested in ending violence against Indigenous sex workers is invited to an event this Saturday, December 18^th at the Native Canadian Centre in Toronto entitled: “Sharing, Celebrating, Decolonizing: Indigenous Sex Work”. Starting at 6pm, this event will feature performances from Brenda MacIntyre, Red Slam Collective as well as a roundtable discussion with various Indigenous sex worker rights activists, community members and community service organizations about the right to work with safety and dignity and how to end violence. There will also be a traditional feast and giveaway to celebrate the lives of those who continue to survive and thrive in the face of racism and discrimination – including Indigenous sex workers – as well as those fighting for the right of self determination over their bodies and spaces.

The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN) is a North-America wide organization working on issues of healthy sexuality, cultural competency, youth empowerment, reproductive justice, and sex positivity by and for Native youth. The reclamation and revitalization of traditional knowledge about people's fundamental human rights over their bodies and spaces, intersected with present-day realities is fundamental to our work. We work within the full spectrum of reproductive and sexual health for Indigenous peoples.

Maggie's (Toronto) is an organization run for and by sex workers. Our mission is to assist sex workers in our efforts to live and work with safety and dignity. We are founded on the belief that in order to improve our circumstances, sex workers must control our own lives and destinies.

Media Contact:

Jessica Yee, Executive Director, Native Youth Sexual Health Network

Canada and United States

Board Member, Maggie’s

(416) 419 6937

jyee@nativeyouthsexualhealth.com

www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com

Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP). Ten Demands For Action On Poverty

Welfare Policies
...
1. Toronto City Council must immediately refuse to implement the Provincial Social Assistance Memo on the Special Diet that has allowed for staff at Ontario Works offices (City of Toronto workers) to deny people access to the vital benefit. Under this provincial directive, the rates of people accessing the Special Diet Allowance will be dramatically reduced. Essentially – this directive is being as a provincial cut to welfare rates.

2. Freeze the Police budget, eliminate Community Action Policing and put the freed up resources into meeting the real needs of communities. Mayor-elect Ford has already promised to hire 100 more officers. Every year, their budget demands go up, and every year, the City gives them what they want. The violent crime rate has been declining for years. In an economic crisis, where more people are without jobs and housing, City money needs to go to housing and social services and not police.

Housing as a Right not an Empty Promise
3. Ensure that enough social, supportive and accessible housing is built to eliminate the waiting list.

71,000 families and individuals are on a 13-year waiting list in Toronto for social housing. Those thousands of people are spending almost all their income on trying to get some form of housing, going hungry, struggling to survive on market rents that are ridiculously unaffordable and living in rotten conditions while they wait.
On top of this, an estimated 10 000 people in this city are homeless. Thousands of homeless people pack into shelters every night because no supportive housing is open. Accessible housing is needed dearly for those with disabilities.

4. Inject money into shelters immediately, including shelters for abused women and children. End all seasonal closing of shelter space. Bring the spaces up to decent, liveable standards.
The solution to homelessness lies in proving housing as a right and not in putting people into shelters. However, this must not become a cover for cynical politicians who cram people into overcrowded shelters or leave them on the street while making empty promises about providing housing. Until the right to housing is won, shelters must provide enough beds and the inhuman conditions that presently exist in them must be changed. Abused women and children presently have to wait for months to get into a shelter. No waiting list for people at risk is acceptable. The practice of closing beds in the Spring that forces people out onto the streets to face police harassment has to be stopped. The right to safety and dignity must be respected with no delay.

5. Repeal all municipal by-laws that are used for 'social cleansing' of neighbourhoods and the persecution of homeless people, such as 'camp in park without a permit'.

Homeless people, especially in the downtown core, face a relentless drive to push them out. Low income housing stock is blocked or destroyed, hostels and drop-ins are closed or prevented from opening, and the police and private security companies commonly harass and terrorize those on the streets to move them out of tourist districts and downtown.

6. Freeze all condo development in neighbourhoods where low income housing stock is threatened with displacement.
An Anti-Condo By-Law would work like this: in any community in the city where the vacancy rate was less than 3% - as it is in all poor communities in Toronto - development of condos would be outlawed. Similar laws have been passed in many cities in Quebec and have helped to stop poor neighbourhoods from being overrun by expensive rental housing. In downtown neighbourhoods like Regent Park, we see condos being built everywhere on top of the destruction of social housing and re-location of poor residents. They cause rents to go up and bars, restaurants, and supermarkets to raise their prices. This is forcing poor people out of their neighbourhoods and into the periphery of the city, where there is less access to community centres and other services. An Anti-Condo By-Law could slow this process down and give us time to organize to stop the destruction of our neighbourhoods.

Community Needs and Access
7.Affordable, Quality Childcare
Subsidized daycare spots are being eliminated across the city. 17,000 Toronto children are currently waiting for childcare subsidies and many non-subsidy parents line up for years to secure a full-fee spot for their children. An infant space costs on average $70 dollars a day without subsidy and this fee will only continue to rise given the instability of the current daycare system. Instead of responding to a crisis in quality, affordable and accessible childcare by investing in the creation of spaces to meet the needs of low income families, daycares are being closed and parents are being told to fend for themselves and to find alternatives. There are no alternatives. Low income families and communities need equitable access to public subsidized spaces that meet their children's needs.

8.Immigrant Rights Demand

9. No Fare is Fair: Towards a Free and Accessible TTC. Last year the Toronto City Council voted to raise transit fares to $3.00. For poor and working people in this city transit costs were already too high and often unaffordable even before the fare hike. The TTC deficit should not be loaded on the backs of poor and working people in this city who rely on transit as a necessity. Public transit in this city should be federally funded and affordable and accessible to all! Transit systems in other cities get more government funding to cover their costs. Free public transit will help create the healthier, cleaner and better connected neighbourhoods that we all want. It will strengthen public ownership and create more, decent paying, unionized jobs. It will open up freedom of movement in this city for thousands of people who, currently, simply cannot afford the fares or are in isolated and poorly serviced neighborhoods.

SIGN ON TO TEN DEMANDS FOR MUNICIPAL ACTION ON POVERTY

The City of Toronto government is currently contemplating its budget options, with powerful forces weighing in on where the money should best be spent. The poor and working people of this City must silence the usual chorus of business and police interests, starting now and ending only when we get what has long been so badly needed to make our lives decent.Therefore, we have begun to band together around clear and simple demands for action on poverty in Toronto. These demands cover basic issues poor people face in Toronto and focus on the measures that Ford and the municipal government he heads have the power and ability to act upon.

ACTION ALERT: Contact your MP to urge them to reject Bill C-42 (Secure Flight)

(Ottawa, Canada – December 3, 2010) The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) is today urging supporters and all Canadians of conscience to call on their Member of Parliament to oppose the passage of Bill C-42: An Act to Amend the Aeronautics Act. Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities are on the verge of possibly recommending passage of a new law that will, potentially, have huge impacts on Canada’s sovereignty and our privacy and Charter rights.

Bill C-42 would amend the Aeronautics Act thereby legally permitting Canadian airlines to provide passenger information to foreign states – an action which is currently prohibited under Canadian privacy laws – in order to satisfy the U.S. Secure Flight program. Secure Flight has been roundly criticized by international civil society groups because it requires that a hodgepodge of Canadians’ personal information be transmitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) even if the flight is only passing through U.S. airspace.

Canada has already taken many steps to harmonize its airline security with U.S. programs but to no avail as ever more severe demands are made. The purported purpose of the Passenger Protect Program (PPP), a made-in-Canada "No-Fly" list, was to prevent the imposition of the U.S. list on Canada. Yet again the benchmark has been moved.

Due our geographic location, Canadians have the most to lose from the imposition of Secure Flight rules on Canadian travel. It's only right that Canada takes a stand now, before it’s too late.

ACTION REQUESTED

Write or email your Member of Parliament today to urge them to vote against C-42 as an unnecessary violation of Canadian sovereignty, the rule of law, privacy and due process, and ask that, in the least, steps be taken to mitigate its impact on Canadian citizens.

You can find out who your member of Parliament is with your postal code here:

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx

REMINDER: Please cc CAIR-CAN on all correspondence at info(AT)caircan(DOT)ca

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honourable __________,

I'm writing to ask you to vote against Bill C-42: An Act to Amend the Aeronautics Act, as it is currently written. C-42 would permit Canadian airlines overflying a foreign states’ airspace to share passenger information with that foreign state – in this case the United States’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - an action which is currently prohibited under Canadian privacy laws.

This bill raises serious concerns around Canada’s sovereignty and the privacy and civil liberties of Canadian citizens. If enacted Bill C-42 would, in effect, cede de facto right to the United States to decide, based on its own “No Fly” lists, who can travel to or from Canada to many destinations - even when those travellers are not heading to a U.S. destination.

Many Canadian Muslims share concerns regarding how the introduction of new security regimes seems to have had a disproportionate impact on members of the Muslim community and the possibility that this new bill could potentially introduce the racial or religious profiling of passengers. One obvious example would be the case Maher Arar.

I urge you to vote against Bill C-42 or, in the least, Parliament should take the following actions to minimize the impact of Secure Flight on Canadians:

(i) To limit the amount of personal information disclosed to US authorities;

(ii) To work with the Canada’s other international partners to negotiate accessible and robust mechanisms of redress with

American authorities for Canadians who find themselves prevented from flying as a result of Secure Flight;

(iii) To implement a national education campaign to inform Canadians about the Secure Flight Program and Canada’s own

Passenger Protect Program; and

(iv) To question the length of the retention periods of information and implement agreements to stipulate that clearly

defined protections be set on any information that may be shared.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

NOTE: Your full name and address are required if you wish an official response.

The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations is a federally incorporated, non-profit organization working to empower Canadian Muslims in the fields of the media, human rights, and public advocacy. Its board members include Kashif Ahmed JD, Dr. Jamal Badawi, Selma Djukic, Khalid Elgazzar LL.B., Dr. Wael Haddara, Khadija Haffajee, Aftab Sabir and Shahina Siddiqui

Donate today to ensure our rights are protected and Canadian Muslims are accurately portrayed in the media. Our Monthly Givers Club makes it easy to contribute to CAIR-CAN's projects and initiatives. One time donations are also always welcome.

For more information on how you can get involved and make a difference visit:

http://www.caircan.ca/support.pp_php

To SUBSCRIBE, click here: http://caircan.biglist.com/sub/caircan-infolist/

Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa ON, K2K 1X4
T: 1-866-524-0004
F: 1-613-254-9810
www.caircan.ca

Who is Indian Affairs helping in England?

UOI OFFICES (December 3, 2010) – Anishinabek Nation Deputy Grand Council Chief Glen Hare wonders why the federal bureaucracy responsible for improving the lives of First Nations people in Canada is spending exorbitant amounts on overseas travel.

Published reports include thousands of dollars in overseas trips by Indian Affairs bureaucrats to places like Russia, Belgium and Great Britain in a list of $125 million worth of extravagant expenses by federal civil servants.

“They’re supposed to be representing our interests – we’re not aware of any First Nations in England,” said Hare. “We have plenty of funding problems in our own back yard – we don’t need INAC dollars spent in Europe.”

The Deputy Grand Council Chief called the expenses “jaw-dropping” at a time when First Nations education funding has been capped at two per cent for the past 13 years.

“Just keeping up with inflation and our growing population would require annual funding increases of 6.5 per cent,” said Hare. “This is discrimination against our young people,” he said, noting that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – which Canada recently endorsed – says Indigenous peoples have the right to all levels and forms of education without discrimination.

He called on the federal government to demonstrate more responsibility and transparency in spending taxpayers’ dollars.

The Anishinabek Nation established the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 people. The Union of Ontario Indians is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.

Immigration Enforcement Pushed Out of Anti-Violence Against Women Spaces across the GTA

Check out the video and share with friends, colleagues, on facebook, email http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0I6YOofI8

The Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre (GTEC) of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), GTA Region, has issued a directive to all its officers, stating:

1. When conducting a road investigation, officers will not enter shelters or other spaces designated as resources for women fleeing/experiencing violence.
2. Officers are not to wait outside or approach the above-noted spaces and will maintain a reasonable distance.
3. Officers are not to approach the above-noted spaces to make any inquiries into the identity of women who may be the subject of an immigration investigation. This includes inquiries made to the staff, volunteers and other residents.

After 2 years of grassroots organizing with migrant women and trans activists, residents and users of anti-violence against women agencies and anti-violence against women service providers the Shelter|Sanctuary|Status campaign has successfully pushed immigration officers out of spaces for women surviving violence and abuse. To see video of the April 2010 SSS delegation to GTEC, click here. To see the chronology of the campaign, click here.

According to the directive above, Immigration Enforcement cannot enter or approach women’s shelters, drop-ins, child protection services, counseling services, community health and legal clinics, neighborhood centres with violence against women programs, rape crisis centers, second stage housing and transitional support programs, and other agencies that provide violence against women supports and programs.

Over the years, we have seen women and transpeople denied refugee status and deported to death. We have seen migrant women forced to work in exploitative and vulnerable conditions, denied workplace protections. For too long undocumented women, particularly survivors of violence, have been unable to access support in the GTA for fear of being arrested, detained and deported. Far too many times, undocumented women have been targeted and arrested in places they gathered for support and strength.

This policy is part of the process of creating safety, justice and dignity for undocumented communities, particularly women, transpeople and children surviving and fighting back against abuse and violence. This is part of the campaign to make all social services in the GTA accessible to undocumented women, particularly survivors of violence.

To ensure that Immigration Enforcement complies with their directive, please paste the directive below prominently at the entrances to your agency. If Immigration Enforcement appears, remind them of their obligation to respect this directive and ask them to leave. We are encouraging all social services in the city to implement a full 'Access Without Fear' policy. Download the draft policy of the directive here.

No One Is Illegal-Toronto will be tracking the effectiveness of this directive. Please email nooneisillegal@riseup.net if CBSA shows up at your service to report how the interaction went.

While this directive has improved access to services for undocumented women, we wish to reiterate that our work and organizing has never been about gaining concessions from Immigration Enforcement. Our struggle is about justice and dignity for migrants, irrespective of immigration status - and that struggle continues. We will continue to fight for a stay on all deportations, particularly for women, children and trans-people who are survivors of violence and a full and inclusive regularization program.

On March 8th, 2010, members of the Shelter|Sanctuary|Status campaign declared “It is our responsibility to ensure that women, transpeople and children in our communities do not live in daily fear of detention and deportation, especially when seeking support”. We stand by our declaration and remind ourselves and our communities that though policies may come and go, real protection and strength comes from within us.

We will continue to organize for a city that is safe and just for all its residents, irrespective of immigration status. As we We commit again today to continue organizing until racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist and exclusionary immigration enforcement cannot function in our city.

JOIN US!

www.nooneisillegal.org
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/sss

FORWARD THIS VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0I6YOofI8