The Dominion - gender

Pinkwashing, Incorporated

Moira Peters — Wed, 30 May 2012 10:34:08 +0000

NFB film delves into depoliticization of breast cancer epidemic

LONDON—I remember the first time it really hit me. It was at the third World Conference on Breast Cancer held in Victoria, BC, in 2002. I walked out onto the balcony overlooking the exhibition hall and there it was, a sea of pink.

This conference wasn’t like the first World Conference on Breast Cancer in Kingston, Ontario in 1997. In Kingston, it was all about environmental and occupational causes of breast cancer, primary prevention and cutting edge science.

The speakers were iconic in their work on prevention, and the conference was attended by campaigners whose names were recognizable from the radical campaign material we in the UK eagerly received from Canada and the US.

The Kingston conference was initiated by Janet Collins, who features in the film Pink Ribbons, Inc., produced by Ravida Din and directed by Lea Pool for the National Film Board of Canada (2011).

“The whole pink ribbon culture drain[ed] and deflect[ed] the kind of militancy we had as women who were appalled to have a disease that is epidemic and yet that we don’t even know the cause of,” said Barbara Ehrenreich, author and activist, who is featured in the film.

“We found sisterhood from other women and [from] looking critically at what was going on with our health care," she said. "I mean, what a change; we used to march in the streets, now you’re supposed to run for a cure or walk for a cure...”

At the third world conference in Victoria, with its pharmaceutical funding sources, many of the previous speakers from the scientific community weren’t invited, and many campaigners stayed away.

Nevertheless, those of us committed to prevention and environmental exposure met together and drafted a resolution.

The resolution urged governments to ban proven and suspected carcinogens, and to take a precautionary approach to those chemicals and substances implicated in breast cancer causation. This would entail that even in the absence of scientific consensus, exposure should be eliminated until proof of no harm can be determined and agreed.

In other words, better safe than sorry.

Although initially hesitant, conference organizers used the resolution as a basis for the conference press release. But we were branded. It was the last time I was invited to speak at the World Conference on Breast Cancer, and I was dropped with no explanation from the international advisory group. I felt like a troublemaker.

But at least I was in good company.

On that balcony, looking at the festival of pink, I first imagined pink ribbons used like blindfolds to prevent women from seeing the harsh realities of the disease, and like gags to silence dissent about the the lack of acknowledgement that exposures in our homes, workplaces and in the wider environment could contribute to our breast cancers. But as Judy Brady, author and activist, points out in the film, “If it were a conspiracy then we could expose it and people would be aware; but it’s not, it’s business as usual”.

In less than a decade, women seem to have gone from challenging organizations like the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition and the Women’s Community Cancer project, first shown in the film marching with banners reading "Draw The Line At 1 In 8," then as women running in pink feather boas and wearing t-shirts with pharmaceutical company logos on the back, embodying that infamous slogan: running for the cure, sponsored by the cause.

What the hell happened?

Samantha King, author of the book Pink Ribbons, Inc., suggests that the big players in the cancer establishment have boards of directors with representatives from the pharmaceutical, chemical and energy industries. It is thus almost impossible to separate the people who might be responsible for the perpetuation of this disease from those who are responsible for trying to find a way to cure or, even better, to prevent it.

It is obvious, then, that emotions like anger, dissent or disbelief and questions about exposures at work, home or in the wider environment don’t sit well with this festival of pink.

We could say that the pink ribbon industry has identified its audience well: the premise being that breast cancer only affects middle-class ultra-feminine white women, because this is the demographic industry wants to sell pink products to.

While millions of dollars have been spent studying the same populations—white, largely middle-class women—this research does not translate to the many African, Asian, African American and racially diverse women contracting the disease. We know their outcomes aren’t as good as those of their white counterparts. Yet so little is spent finding out why.

Is it because they are not the "right" demographic the pink ribbon industry wants to reach out to?

Along with the socio-economic considerations around breast cancer, the racial, cultural, environmental and occupational inequalities are at best not addressed; at worst, neglected, unfunded and largely ignored.

In the film, King reflects: “It wasn’t until Reagan came to power that we saw explicit policies designed to shift responsibility for health and welfare from the government towards private entities, philanthropic organizations, along with the encouragement specifically for corporations to participate in that.”

Or as Reagan himself said, “A buck for business if it helps to solve our social ills.”

The term pinkwashing is used to describe companies associating with a cause that people care about in order to increase their sales and to market pink products. Breast cancer is the poster child of cause marketing.

The irony is that many of the products sold, specifically cosmetics, perfumes, plastics and petrochemical-based products, contain ingredients linked to breast cancer.

“It is hypocrisy to use carcinogens in products and at the same time be advocating for a cure in another way,” says Jane Houlihan from the Environmental Working Group, speaking in the film.

When looked at skeptically, research requires investment and the end product has to be profitable and marketable. There is no profit in prevention or removing carcinogens from the environment, home or workplace.

One of the women attending the Plastics Automotive Industry focus group in Windsor, Ontario, led by Dr. Jim Brophy and Dr. Margaret Keith, said it was the first time she had ever heard that ingredients in plastics are mimicking the female hormone estrogen. She felt that this message needed to be publicly articulated, loud and clear.

Despite all the information out there on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), that information is still not reaching those who need it most. Women who have been working in the plastics industry for decades were given no health and safety training and no safety data sheets.

“The evidence is overwhelming on the impact environmental and occupational exposures have on this disease,” says Brophy. “Very little of the resources are going to looking at pesticides, combustion products, plastics, petrochemicals and solvents, many of the things that millions of women are being exposed to every day, either in the general ambient environment or their workplaces.”

And yet “women die from breast cancer just because they are women,” Dr. Olufunmilayoi Olopade reminds the film’s viewers.

While Pink Ribbons, Inc. doesn’t seek to undermine those who gain hope, strength and a sense of community from pink ribbon fundraising, it does ask critical questions about the industry and the pink ribbon brand.

Helen Lynn has campaigned on cancer prevention since 1995 with Putting Breast Cancer on the Map and the No More Breast Cancer campaign. She is currently a freelance campaigner and facilitates the Alliance for Cancer Prevention in the UK. This review was originally published on Alliance for Cancer Prevention's website.

What can you do?

•Go and see the film.

•If you raise pink ribbon money, follow the money and ask questions about how it is spent.

•Follow the example of the Toxic Links Coalition in San Francisco, which each year in October organizes a toxic tour and visits the branches of the worst polluters in their financial district.

•Organize a workplace group to examine what you are exposed to at work.

•Pay attention to what is in the products you buy—to check out cosmetics ingredients visit Skin Deep, a project of the Environmental Working Group.

•Don’t accept the blame. If 50 per cent of breast cancer cases have no known cause then it ain’t your fault.

•Read the book Pink Ribbons, Inc. by Samantha King.

•Check out the Tools for Action on Pink Ribbon Blues Blog.

•Remember: we can’t shop our way out of this epidemic.

The Big See

Scoring for Information

stephlaw — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:32:45 +0000

Police infiltration tactics viewed as a violation of women's bodies and rights

TORONTO—With the rise of modern technologies, most of us are at least peripherally aware that our lives are becoming increasingly monitored. We casually brush away the uncanny feelings conjured by Google ads culling search terms from our emails, and gently ignore the bubble cameras that watch the perimeters of offices, schools and public spaces in metropolitan areas. But state surveillance penetrates even more intimate aspects of life than your email inbox and your child’s schoolyard.

The use of sexual deception in intelligence gathering is neither new nor uncommon, said Gary T. Marx, professor emeritus from MIT, Harvard University and University of Colorado, and author of Protest and Prejudice and Undercover: Police Surveillance in America.

While agencies generally have rules against sexual deception in intelligence gathering, and will be careful not to document instances of it, supervisors will imply that agents should use sex in order to gain intelligence. The secretive nature of undercover operations presents a roadblock to any kind of future accountability, he said.

“What's the difference between having sex through threat or coercion and having sex through lies?”

Recent stories of police infiltration appearing in the news have drawn this scenario out of the realm of James Bond fantasies and into public discourse.

Eight women in the United Kingdom are currently pursuing a human rights lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police, after they discovered that five of their former romantic partners were undercover agents. These cops were assigned to spy on environmental activists starting in the mid-1980's. At least two of these police spies have fathered children with an activist while undercover, and one of them, Jim Boyling, even married the mother, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

In Canada, allegations have arisen against a police officer who had sexual relations with women in the community he infiltrated during the lead-up to the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, activists in southern Ontario told The Dominion.

Shailagh Keaney, an activist and independent journalist in Ontario who knew the G20 infiltrators, said that gendered biases were at play in the tactics used by infiltrators, as well as in the actions of uniformed police during the protests.

“Women's bodies are perceived as less violent but more violate-able," she said. "Men were generally beaten more brutally [during the G20] but women were routinely strip searched without even having their pockets checked.”

For marginalized women whose communities have historically been harmed by governmental powers, the thought of having been intimate with someone who represents state authority is profoundly violating, said Jen Meunier, who identifies as Algonquin and a womyn of mixed descents. “Sexual consent means being fully aware of the circumstances, being aware of everything that is necessary for your safety.”

Indigenous communities in Canada have understood surveillance and infiltration to be a concrete reality for many decades now, Meunier said.

Rachelle Sauve, a cook and community organizer in Peterborough, Ontario, who knew people who were affected by direct interactions with infiltrators, believes undercover agents strategically take advantage of characteristics that are traditionally stereotyped as being feminine, such as compassion, nurturing and emotional receptivity.

“That, in itself, is gendered violence,” she said. “This is coercion, this is manipulation, and this is rape—the criminalization of dissent is the only reason it is seen as acceptable.”

Like in any war, the women of subordinate groups—such as Muslims, Arabs, activists and Indigenous peoples—find the oppression they already face on the basis of gender exacerbated by their status as targets of state repression.

Sauve views the use of sex in intelligence gathering as part of the broader historical picture of gender violence, often used as a tool of control and domination.

“This contains a certain depth of psychological warfare that is particularly pernicious,” she said. “You can destroy an entire culture by raping its women.”

According to Professor Marx, the role of secrecy is the key structural enabler of sexual misconduct in undercover operations. In addition, cases of infiltration are rarely made public if they do not succeed in gaining grounds for arrests. Most of the people who have had interactions with infiltrators may never find out the individual's true identity.

The best devices for preventing sexual misconduct by police are transparency, pluralism of powers in the state and continual institutional review, Professor Marx said.

Human rights law may be an excellent emerging tool for seeking redress in cases like these, which have no clear precedent. Judiciary law also contains tools for pursuing accountability, such as suing perpetrators for mental harm.

For Meunier and Sauve, the solution for activist communities involves a stronger acknowledgement of the gendered aspects of state repression.

“We need to collectively address gender issues and heal our vulnerabilities all the time—not just when something bad happens."

Kelly Pflug-Back is a poet, writer, student and activist. You can find her newest stuff in upcoming issues of Goblin Fruit, Ideomancer Speculative Fiction and Iconoclast.

Questions? Comments? Drop us a line: info@mediacoop.ca.

Spooks using sex

Fight the Fires that Be

Martin Lukacs — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:42:29 +0000

Women struggle to make fire-fighting profession more inclusive

LONDON, ON—Chelsea Merkt-Kit leans back casually in her chair. Her surroundings are calm. For the moment, she’s without her team, a group of men she calls her “brothers.” Her long blonde hair is pulled back into a neat and tidy ponytail. Her navy blue uniform is oversized and engulfs her petite frame.

The crest on her uniform reads the same as every man’s in the building: “Be caring, be safe, and prevent harm.” At 400 Horton Street, London, Ontario’s central fire house, these are words by which men and women alike live and die.

But Merkt-Kit isn’t who you would usually picture climbing a ladder into a burning building. The 27-year-old Waterloo native is 5’7 and 125 pounds.

“People are always surprised when they hear what I do,” she says. “Especially when I’m in a dress and heels.”

She’s one of only eight women currently working as a professional firefighter in London, a city that boasts a force of almost 400.

“Of course, it’s a male dominated profession,” Merkt-Kit admits. She cautiously explains that you need to be a certain type of woman to survive as a firefighter.

“You have to get along well with men, and allow them to be themselves,” she says.

Yet the small number of female firefighters in Canada paints a picture of a service still dictated not simply by personality, but by the sturdy persistence of gendered labour roles.

Women account for only three per cent of professional firefighters in Canada, says Paul Laffin, a data dissemination officer at Statistics Canada. In Ontario, women in firefighting are paid on average $13,500 less than their male counterparts.

Nevertheless, Merkt-Kit is among the first generation of female firefighters to benefit from earlier steps toward equality in the workplace, says Karen Simpson, an International Trustee with the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services (also known as I-Women), in a phone interview from Chatham-Kent. She’s been a professional firefighter in Ontario for seven years.

She hopes that women like herself, and Merkt-Kit, can create another wave of change in the service, one which will make firefighting increasingly open and safe for women.

Over the last decade, Simpson says, training to become a firefighter in Canada has become more accessible and standardized. Women are entering the workforce with more confidence, having proved themselves physically and mentally against the men in school.

And while these systemic changes speak volumes, it’s the women who blazed the trail for the “new generation” who know best how far firefighting has come.

Women such as Kim Harrison. The team captain of the Medical Response Unit at the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department in Kearney, Ontario, Harrison has been fighting fires for 26 years.

Forty per cent of Harrison’s team are women.

“A lot of women assume they can’t join, that they don’t have enough strength,” Harrison said over the phone from Kearney. “We are trying to open doors for them.”

She does so by serving as a role model herself. Harrison gives tours of the fire station to women interested in the service, and often speaks at local schools. She urges children to use the word “firefighter” rather than “fireman.” For almost three decades, she’s been slowly working to change people’s attitudes.

“This is not a male place anymore,” Harrison says proudly.

Fire Chief Rick Phillip is thankful for her presence. For Phillip, whose wife and grand-daughter are also firefighters, women in firefighting is only natural. “They are far more compassionate,” he adds.

Overcoming the systemic difficulties that prevent women from joining the service is also necessary if Ontario hopes to keep both professional and volunteer fire squads full, says Carl G. Pearson, president of the Fire Fighters Association of Ontario.

“Half the population is female,” he said in a phone interview, adding that the assumption that female firefighters are less capable than their male counterparts is simply incorrect.

A department such as Chief Phillip’s in Kearney is a glimpse into a promising future, says I-Women’s Simpson. Yet, she says, there is much more work to be done.

“It doesn’t matter if women are as fit or better trained. If the administration is not prepared to accept women, there is going to be a struggle,” says Simpson.

Only a few weeks ago, Simpson and the I-Women organization demanded that the concerns of women in firefighting be heard at the US National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s 2nd Annual Research Symposium.

Right now, Simpson explained, there is no data exploring the relationship between fighting fire and reproductive health, and specifically how chemicals produced in a fire can affect a woman’s ability to have healthy babies.

I-Women managed, for the first time, to get the questions of reproductive health discussed as stand-alone issues at the conference.

Simpson hopes that within the next three to five years, with adequate funding and research, the fire service will start to properly address these concerns. While the spark of change has been ignited, it’s going to be up to the “next generation” to keep “pounding their fists and stomping their feet.”

It’s probably going to depend on women like Merkt-Kit, who was married last year. Her husband is a professional firefighter in Waterloo. And while she is a face for how far the service has come, she may soon be affected by where firefighting, for women, has not yet gone.

When asked if the two had yet started a family, she smiled.

“No, not yet, but soon.”

Lisa Laventure is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Western Ontario.

Firefighter illustration

The Self-Determination We Deserve

Maya Rolbin-Ghanie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:15:03 +0000

Landmark charter challenge launched as Bill C-389 raises debate

MONTREAL—“Remember Stonewall?” read a banner dropped by two young people before they were arrested at this year's Trans-* Day of Remembrance in Ottawa. They were asking the community to remember a landmark riot against state repression and police brutality, led by Sylvia Rivera, a trans- woman of colour. The event is commonly known as “the hairpin drop heard around the world,” and remembered as having catalyzed North American trans- organizing.

In 1969, the year of the Stonewall Uprising in New York, it was hard to believe that a politician would ever seek to better the lives of trans- people; however, NDP MP Bill Siksay of Burnaby-Douglas hopes to do just that. Bill C-389, introduced by Siksay, would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of protected classes in the hate crimes section of the Criminal Code of Canada, and also to the Canada Human Rights Act, which protects against discrimination in housing and employment. On February 9, 2011, the bill passed the House of Commons and and now awaits Senate approval.

When asked about Bill C-389, Matt McLauchlin, Co-chair of the NDP LGBT Committee said, “A clear law banning discrimination based on gender identity or expression would make it clear...that discrimination on these specific grounds is not to be tolerated. This would help not only with litigation but also with public education and similar initiatives to stop transphobia.”

Conservative MP LaVar Payne, of Medicine Hat, Alberta, wrote in a letter to a concerned constituent that broadening identifiable groups in the Criminal Code “will further infringe on Canadians’ right to free speech.” Other right-wing opponents have deemed it “The Bathroom Bill,” suggesting that it would facilitate sexual assault in public washrooms. This attitude demonstrates the current lack of popular education surrounding gender, as well as the portrayal of trans- people as deceptive and suspicious.

However, not all critics of the bill are right-wing. Some trans- organizers argue that C-389 is limited in its analysis of systemic barriers facing the community, while others suggest that it may be more harmful than helpful.

“In a culture that penalizes transgression, legal recognition of gender identity and expression can be important in order to access benefits including housing, legal rights, healthcare and some sense of safety,” says Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, prominent queer anti-war activist and editor of the anthology That’s Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation. “But I don’t think we should be lulled into thinking that legal changes will give us the self-determination that we all deserve.”

“I think that an interesting question to ask might be, ‘Whose lives will it impact?’” says Jackson Ezra of l'Action Sante Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Quebec. ASTTeQ is a group that works to encourage the health and well-being of trans- people through access to resources and support.

“While I think that this bill opens up some really interesting discussions and debates, I [question] the impact that it [would] have on the lives of trans- sex workers, migrant and non-status people, poor people, people who use drugs, people who are homeless and turned away from shelters, people who struggle every day just to get by [and] access basic services, and [those] whose lives and realities are criminalized,” he said.

In 2009, a similar bill—named the Gender Employment Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA)—was proposed and passed in the New York State Assembly, and awaits Senate approval. While garnering the support of many LGBT groups, a coalition of five organizations (The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, The Peter Cicchino Youth Project and The Audre Lorde Project) wrote a letter to the GENDA coalition voicing their non-support of the bill, arguing that “[r]ather than serving as protection for oppressed people, the hate crimes portion of this law may expose our communities to more danger—from prejudiced institutions far more powerful and pervasive than individual bigots."

The letter continues:

Hate crime laws are an easy way for the government to act like it is on our communities’ side while continuing to discriminate against us. Institutions can claim 'anti-oppression' legitimacy and win points with communities affected by prejudice, while simultaneously using 'sentencing enhancement' to justify building more prisons to lock us up in. Hate crime laws foreground a single accused individual as the 'cause' of racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, or any number of other oppressive prejudices. They encourage us to lay blame and focus our vengeful hostility on one person instead of paying attention to institutional prejudice that fuels police violence, encourages bureaucratic systems to ignore trans- people’s needs or actively discriminate against us, and denies our communities health care, identification, and so much more.

Seeking to address barriers regarding sex designation and identity for trans- citizens, a challenge has recently been launched against the Directeur de l'Etat Civil du Quebec (DECQ) by Elias Dean. “If this case makes it to court,” Dean told The Dominion, “it will be the first time in this province that the bodily autonomy of trans- people is addressed in a court of law.”

Dean explained, “I am a transsexual man whose demand for a change of legal sex designation was recently turned down. It was denied to me because even though I've received a GID diagnosis [trans- people are considered to experience Gender Identity Disorder, a diagnosis within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] and have undergone chest reconstruction and hormone therapy, I have not had a hysterectomy. Sterilization is mandatory to access a legal change of sex in Quebec. In the case of trans- women, vaginoplasty is required, and for trans- men, it's a hysterectomy.”

Requirements for changing one's sex marker—that is, the "M" or "F" designated by the state on one's identification—vary from province to province. While Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is not needed for one to change one's legal name, it is consistently required to change the sex marker on provincial identification. The same set of laws are applicable nation-wide, but are inconsistently interpreted provincially.

In June 2010, trans- people and their allies rallied at the the office of the DECQ demanding access to name changes without excessive delay, sex marker changes without forced sterilization, sex marker changes for those without citizenship status (after living within the province for one year), the removal of sex indication on birth certificates, and clear guidelines available online regarding name and sex marker changes. PolitiQ: Queers Solidaires, a queer and trans- collective working towards creating spaces for the open discussion of sexuality and gender, organized the rally, which was endorsed by Stella, the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, l'Association des Transsexuels et Transsexuelles du Quebec (ATQ), Project 10 and ASTTeQ.

Swan Kennedy, a speaker at the rally, expressed the need for identification congruent with one's chosen identity, saying, “We need the DECQ to recognize that our livelihoods and lives are put at risk when we have identification that does not reflect our gender...The DECQ requires that an applicant have a "serious reason" to change their name on identity documents. Surely, discrimination against us [is a] serious reason.”

Dean expands on this, saying, “Having mismatched paperwork jeopardizes our chances of obtaining jobs, housing and health care, [often pushing] us into committing survival crimes, which often results in jail time, with trans- women getting incarcerated in male prisons where they face serious violence, et cetera.”

Whether or not one supports Bill C-389, the right to self-identify is central to ongoing trans- struggles. Trans- movements have been largely grassroots, mobilizing outside of government institutions. With Canada's history of institutional repression of trans- organizing, many question whether or not a representative or a piece of legislation could ever truly address the needs of such a diverse community.

“There are so many ways that trans-, genderqueer, gender defiant and gender nonconforming people continuously challenge the violence of state control of our lives, and [we] need to continue to build our own cultures, values, norms, institutions, and families while challenging all the violence around us," says Sycamore. "[This is] not just a state that asks us to submit to the prying and spying of medical professionals in order to grant us a basic need, but the state that continues all other forms of oppression as well, from oil drilling on Indigenous lands to a continuous crackdown on free speech and freedom of assembly."

“Not all trans- people experience the same kinds of violence, and not all trans- people’s needs are the same. As [allies], we need to understand trans- rights as the fight against police brutality, racist immigration policies, and the struggles against the criminalization of sex work, homelessness and drug use,” says Ezra.

“Even though my being trans- is sometimes a source of grief for me, I am thankful to be part of a resilient community that has found its voice after having our lives narrated through medical discourse for so long—[a community] that is actively organizing and fighting back," adds Dean. "It is thanks to those who have walked this path before me that I can go ahead with this challenge.”

*In this article we use the term "trans-" as an umbrella term to be inclusive of all transsexual, transgendered, gender-variant, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming individuals. While it is not our intention to conflate these identities, we seek to be inclusive.

Jesse Grass is a genderqueer, working-class fuck-up. Nat Gray is a poet, a dumpster skid, and an intern with The Dominion.

GenderIdentity

Universal Access?

hillarybain — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:33:25 +0000

Barriers to accessing health care persist for transgender people in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX—For Chris,* going to see a doctor can be a frightening experience.

Chris, who lives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, first came out as a trans person two and a half years ago. Even though he was assigned female at birth, he identifies as trans and presents as a male. Going for a check-up, getting a prescription, or even trying to fill out a general intake form can turn into a huge production, often without any sympathy from hospital or clinical staff.

"I’m always scared. There’s always an element of fear going to visit a health professional. I can’t help thinking ‘am I going to have a bad experience?’” he says.

For Chris and other transgender people, it is difficult to access health care services that many of us take for granted.

Last year, Chris had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and the paramedics didn’t know what pronoun to use to refer to him. He was almost forced to go for a psychological evaluation because he was identified as not “gender normative.” More recently, he decided against getting jaw surgery because of concerns of how he will be treated.

“There’s no place for a preferred name on forms,” says Chris. Hospital and clinic staff, he explains, often refer to you by your legal name, and by the pronoun associated with your sex, regardless of your gender presentation.

Dr. Suzanne Zinck, a childhood psychiatrist who is part of the two-person Transgender Health Team at the IWK Hospital in Halifax, agrees that there continue to be challenges to accessing care for transgender people. But she says she remains optimistic: that with education and training, these can be overcome.

Zinck notes that many transgender people might struggle with dealing with the health risks associated with the sex they were born in. For example, trans men who do not get hysterectomies are still required to get pap smears.

The Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto, which administers hormone therapy for transgender people, recently launched a public health campaign to promote transgender men getting pap smears.

Zinck says these types of campaigns do more than provide public health information to transgender people.

"Making it into a public health campaign shows that this is as valid a part of the community as anything else," she says.

The IWK Transgender Health Team, which includes Zinck and a social worker, was formed four years ago, when the IWK identified a need for more specialized care for transgender youth. The team is mostly responsible for clinical work related to gender-questioning and transgender youth, but is also involved in educational programming on trans issues, and in consulting with doctors in different disciplines related to specific cases involving transgender or gender-questioning youth.

According to Zinck, the Capital District Health Authority has also been doing advocacy and policy work with Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Program (NSRAP) to better serve transgender patients.

“There are many barriers that have come down in the past four years, not only due to our work, but due to all the educational work being done,” says Zinck.

However, she adds, there is still significant room for improvement.

While hormone treatments are fully covered by Nova Scotia health insurance, access is limited because the endocrinology clinic that administers the hormones is in Halifax. This can make it difficult and costly for patients who have to travel into the city for treatment. The clinic also will only see people who are 18 and over, meaning youth who wish to transition earlier have difficulty accessing hormones.

Other services remain “completely off the radar for most people,” says Zinck. For example, there is no coverage for trans women who need to access voice training. For trans women such training can be essential to their ability to present as female.

The opinion of medical professionals on covering these services “run the gamut,” but for Zinck these are essential services.

“If someone looks gender ambiguous or mismatched in terms of who they present as and what they look like, that can lead to lifelong problems of discrimination, not to mention mental health and self-esteem issues,” says Zinck. She adds that transgender people continue to be underemployed based on their education levels and have lower educational attainment than their non-transgender peers. This, for Zinck, is closely tied to “whether or not a person can pass [for the gender they present as].”

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS), which is the largest cost related to transitioning is not covered by public health insurance in any of the Maritime province. SRS was also recently de-listed by the Alberta government as a service covered by provincial health insurance. Last year, Manitoba rejected a proposal that would fully cover SRS surgeries.

Many provinces require people who are interested in having SRS to travel to the Canadian Association of Mental Health Gender Clinic in Toronto in order for it to be covered by health insurance. Most provinces, however, do not cover the associated travel costs.

In December 2009, Chris traveled to Ontario get chest surgery related to his transitioning. While he received some help from friends, he covered the bulk of the cost out of his own pocket. This experience is not uncommon.

Two years ago, Sandra Bornemann helped start the TransAction Society of Nova Scotia, after organising a fundraiser to raise money for chest surgery of a friend. It was the first fundraiser of its kind in Nova Scotia, and raised about one third of the surgery’s $6300 price-tag.

After that first fundraiser, Bornemann says TransAction re-evaluated its priorities, realizing they could make more of an impact helping with the everyday costs transgender people face for things like chest bindings; gaffs, which help trans women hide their genitals; breast forms; and packers, penis forms sometimes worn by trans men.

The decision not to raise money for surgery was also a political one, says Bornemann.

“We believe surgery should be covered [by provincial health insurance], so we’re not going to give the government an out by paying for that service,” says Bornemann. She says that the members of the society also realize that many transgender people don’t want to have sex reassignment surgery.

Over the past two years, the TransAction Society has provided chest bindings and gaffs free of charge to dozens of people in Nova Scotia. They are hoping that through additional fundraising, they will also be able to provide breast forms and packers in the near future.

“It’s little things,” says Bornemann, “but they are expensive.”

For Chris, social and structural changes are necessary if access to health services are going to improve. He says there needs to be more education, better training for health professionals on transgender issues, and more visibly trans-positive spaces to access care.

Until then, small improvements, like better access to hormones and more accessible information forms, could go a long way.

“I’m really frustrated by the lack of people able to administer hormones. It’s possible to get [better access to hormones], but its not happening.”

Bornemann says she hears the same thing from transgender people—that small improvements make a big difference.

“We’ve had so much support. People have come to us and say they are supporting of the fact that we’re filling these everyday needs,” she says.

*Name has been changed.

Kaley Kennedy is a feminist activist living in Halifax. She is a member of the Halifax Media Co-op, where this article was originally published.

Universal Access?

RebELLEs Give Oppression the Boot

Moira Peters — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:19:02 +0000

New Brunswick gumbooters troupe give feminist education a kick

FREDERICTON—There are many uses for rubber boots. The obvious ones are to keep your feet dry when it rains or to keep them clean while doing yard work. Some people use them as flower pots. But the Fredericton-based NB RebELLEs are using their boots to challenge capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and all other oppression that plagues our society. They are feminist; they are synchronized; and—oppressors beware!—they will call you out to the catchy rhythm of stomping and boot-slapping.

As any of the gumbooting RebELLEs would explain, gumbooting as a dance is only a fraction of what they do.

“If you wanted a sterile description of gumbooting, it is stomping, slapping and clapping; but it is so much more than those mechanics. The richness comes from the symbolic value of its history, and its use as a tool of communication and resistance,” stated Carolyn*, one of the troupe’s gumbooters.

Gumbooting started in the mines of South Africa when slaves were given rubber boots because it was cheaper than draining water out of the mines. The slaves, working in the dark, were forbidden to talk to each other. In defiance of the slave-owners they developed a language by stomping and slapping their boots. The practice evolved out of the mines, and is now used in a spirit of celebration. The RebELLEs have appropriated the medium—originally a resistance to oppression, now an art form—to further the feminist struggle.

The NB RebELLEs were born out of the national "Waves of Resistance" Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering in Montreal in 2008. They weave parts of the gathering's manifesto between bursts of percussive dance to make a stance on issues of oppression, such as the historical and ongoing colonial policies Canada embraces.

Rise against colonialism!
Down with governments that use force and intimidation to impose conformity, limit choice and reinforce the status quo.
We resist the discrimination against Muslims and Middle Eastern people, and all forms of racial profiling.
We stand in solidarity with families and communities of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
All over Canada, stolen native land continues to be developed illegally and for profit while the government fails to uphold treaty rights.

The RebELLEs' performances outline their vision of communities committed to eradicating violence, building solidarity and developing institutions that promote justice, peace and equality.

These are big ideas, but by using the dance as a vehicle for their message, they are able to reach a wide audience.

“Gumbooting is so accessible and draws people in. We’ve been at events where everyone seemed hostile and we weren’t even sure if they were going to clap,” said Carolyn. “But we've had people come to us at the end and tell us that they had never thought of these issues. We once had a man tell us: ‘I can’t believe you managed to slip in such a feminist message.' We’re making people aware that there is still a women's movement and [women] are still not equal.”

“[The gumboot troupe] is a visible part of the feminist movement, and blatant visibility is often lacking,” said Keri, another RebELLE gumbooter.

The NB RebELLEs do not preach to the converted, nor do they soften their message to avoid offending the audience. They performed at two ”Women in Business” conferences on International Women's Day this year. Many of the women in attendance worked in a corporate environment.

“Capitalism hurts women,” said the RebELLEs during the performance. “Pay inequity, insufficient parental leave, unacceptable childcare, unaffordable childcare, double standards, sexual harassment, glass ceiling, sweatshops. Rise against capitalism!”

“We felt that it was important to speak specifically about how capitalism hurts women, so we adapted our message for it. That was the only time that I’ve actually noticed people walking out of our performance,” said Keri, laughing. “It was antithetical to their conference and provocative, but we wanted to show up and challenge people, their assumptions, and the way they exist in the world.”

Keri explained that most performances have been well received. “I’ve had an intergenerational spectrum of people come to me and tell me, ‘That was amazing!’ I even had a lady ask, ‘Can I gumboot with my cane?’"

Keri reflected on a RebELLEs performance at a memorial vigil in Miramichi for the victims of the Montreal Massacre. "Right before we took the stage, some of the troupe met a survivor of domestic abuse who had just recently started talking openly about her experience. During our performance, there is a part when I talk about feminism and give our definition of it while the rest of the gumbooters stand with their fists in the air. At that point, the woman was sitting in the audience and she raised her fist with us, which then prompted the majority of the crowd to do the same. It was such a powerful moment."

*The gumbooters requested that only their first names be used in this article.

The RebELLEs are recruiting in the fall! Check out their blog for the full manifesto and more information.

Marie-Christine Allard is a member of the New Brunswick Media Co-op. An original version of this story was published by the New Brunswick Media Co-op.

Rebelles Panorama

Don't Rape, Part 3

Kaley — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:31:39 +0000

Believe me

Disclaimer: Some scenes in this story may be triggering for people who have experienced sexual assault. Names in this story have been changed to protect the identities of sexual assault survivors.

HALIFAX—After his first day of grade 12, Jason and his two buddies picked up a couple eight-packs from the cold beer store in his Nova Scotian hometown and drank them behind the hockey rink. Since junior high, Jason had averaged between a pint and a quart of hard liquor per day. When they left for a friend’s house, Jason trailed behind the rest of the guys. He had drunk more than usual. A Kids Help Phone poster grabbed his attention. Lately he had thought about calling the hotline. He took out his phone and dialed the 1-800 number.

“I need help,” he said when the woman answered. He began to sob and couldn’t stop. She asked if he was in danger. He said no; it had happened 10 years ago.

His friends saw his tears and asked what was wrong. They pushed him until he told his story out loud for the first time.

When Jason was eight, his parents paid a babysitter to take care of him over a period of a year and a half. The touching started with innocent games of tag, which turned into wrestling and eventually into groping, each time with less and less clothing, “encroaching on boundaries until they started to disappear.”

The babysitter—an older boy in high school—said no one would believe Jason if he told, and that his parents would be mad at him, so Jason stayed quiet.

“I shut down. I was like a shell and I kind of hung out inside that shell. I stopped using ‘feeling’ words. Anytime someone asked me what was going on I said ‘regular’ or ‘neutral’ or ‘average.’ I stopped being expressive at all.”

His parents took him to a therapist. There was a book in the therapist’s office about a kid who had a secret but couldn’t tell anyone.

“I was screaming inside myself that I recognized exactly what that was about.” But he couldn’t say it out loud.

When he was 13, Jason began drinking to deal with his trauma, which manifested into night terrors. Nearly every night for five years he was scared to fall asleep. Sometimes he woke up paralyzed, able to open his eyes but unable to move his body. Other times, as he drifted off, he hallucinated scenes of torture and death. Often he couldn’t wake up from vivid nightmares. To cope, he began taking shots of vodka each night before bed. Jason coaxed cab drivers to buy him liquor with the money he saved from his paper routes and computer cleaning business.

Jason, now 26, has been sober for two years. “I’m by no means past it, but it’s two years since it’s controlled everything I do. It was live or die because I ended up in hospital trying not to live anymore. It was either get on with living, or choose the other...” he says, trailing off.

His problem had peaked in his 20s when he downed a bottle of pills with a quart of vodka and called in sick to work. He vaguely remembers the police in his apartment. He woke up in hospital.

One in six boys and one in four girls are sexually assaulted before the age of 16 according to Statistics Canada.

Though males make up the smaller side of rape statistics for any demographic, Jackie Stevens of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre says the root cause is still the power dynamic of one person exerting control over another.

“Predominantly males who are sexually abused are sexually abused by other males, and statistically people who are committing sexual violence mostly are men,” she says.

“Particularly if it’s a male assaulting another male, that is the ultimate way—how do you control another man? By reducing him to the equivalent of a woman, who is not your equal. How do you do that? Through sexual domination. The flip side, for women who are sexually abusing, [is that] they don’t have power or control, so how do you get power and control? By violently dominating someone else. I would see sexual violence as a tool for that power control.”

Anyone can be sexually assaulted and anyone can sexually assault, Stevens says. The epidemic surpasses all societal barriers. However, layers of oppression contribute to the initial problem, and make it harder for vulnerable people to get help.

When Jason told his mom he was sexually abused, she said it didn’t happen, that he made it up.

“As a symptom, you learn to manipulate and that involves a lot of lies and storytelling and that kind of stuff, which I used to do habitually,” Jason said. “So she wasn’t willing to go down that road at all.”

“That’s one of the most common things that we hear from people,” Stevens says. “That they’re not believed, or that they’re afraid they’re not going to be believed, or they’re going to be blamed in some way for it.”

She says because our society still subscribes to myths and stereotypes surrounding who gets sexually assaulted and why, it is easier for us to doubt a person who says they were raped. If someone has previously lied to their parents or friends, or if they are mentally ill, we are sometimes quicker to blame or disbelieve that person than to immediately accept that they were raped.

Jason stayed quiet for 10 years because society perceives sexual assault as “something different, and by calling attention to that, it makes you different.”

Even today, he doesn’t talk openly about it.

“You don’t want that to be the only label you have... By broadcasting that you just get terrified that it’s all people are going to see.”

At the time, Jason partially blamed himself. His babysitter told him he had wanted, and started, the abuse.

“Initially you get terrified that it was you who did something wrong, it was you who was in trouble, it was you who would be punished. There’s a panic that you’re not in control of your own body anyway. So losing that control to someone else gives you such a fear that it makes irrational thoughts rational. Terror supercedes what your rational course of actions would be.”

“For a lot of people there’s still that shame and fear attached to being sexually violated that would certainly keep them from wanting to come forward because they’re not sure how people will perceive them,” Stevens says.

The Avalon Centre says believing and supporting a friend or family member who tells you they were sexually abused are the most important things you can do.

A step-by-step website, advises the following actions if someone tells you he or she has been sexually abused:

Believe her (or him) without condition.

Speak to her (or him) without blame or judgment.

Do not judge her (or his) response to the assault.

Allow her (or him) to make the decision about what happens next.

Take care of yourself.

This story is Part 3 of a three-part series.
read Part 1
read Part 2.

Hilary Beaumont is a freelance journalist and editor in Halifax, and a contributing member of the Halifax Media Co-op.

Don't Rape, Part 2

Kaley — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:17:25 +0000

Why women don't report sexual assault

Disclaimer: Some scenes in this story may be triggering for people who have experienced sexual assault. Names in this story have been changed to protect the identities of sexual assault survivors.

“How does it feel to be a Monday?” he yelled across the street to a group of black people.

When Laura didn’t laugh, he turned to her and clarified: “You know, Monday—the worst day of the week.”

That was when Laura knew something was off about him.

“That’s not OK,” she said. “It’s not funny to be racist.”

He hastily apologized. She called him an asshole. Laura's roommate walked on ahead, furious.

He said he was nervous because he really liked her.

“Don’t say that shit. It’s not funny,” she said.

Laura met him in grade seven, through a close friend, at a party. They chatted over MSN on and off. In her second year at Dalhousie, he messaged her on Facebook. He was at Dal too! Did she want to meet for coffee? They met, once. She ran into him that night at the Alehouse. The place was packed with people she didn’t know. She was there with her female roommate. He bought drink after drink for Laura. He wanted to take her on a date sometime. She said, “We’ll see.” When the girls were drunk and it was time to go home, he offered to walk them. They gratefully said yes.

It was mild for mid-October. They walked up Sackville Street, took a right, and walked past the graveyard where Alexander Keith is buried. Laura’s roommate kept her distance. A few minutes later they came to her front door.

“Can I come inside for a minute?” he asked. “I just want to talk to you. I feel like shit about what happened.”

“Fine,” she said. “Fine.”

She let him in. Her roommate was already inside with her bedroom door locked. They walked to Laura’s room on the main floor and she went into the ensuite bathroom, brushed her teeth, took out her contacts and changed into sweatpants. When she opened the door, her room was dark.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m right here,” he said from the bed.

She sat on the bed. He was under the blankets.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just being really comfortable.”

“This isn’t a sleepover party. You said you wanted to talk."

“Whatever. It’s cool. You know me.”

She had the spins so she lay down under the covers. He was naked.

“This isn’t cool,” she said. “I don’t really like this.”

He ripped off her sweatpants.

“This isn’t OK. I’m really pissed off at you. I don’t want to sleep with you. Stop. Don’t do that.”

She started to cry. He was taller and stronger than her. What was she supposed to do?

Laura woke up the next morning to a note on her desk. Her attacker had written: “Get Plan B. We didn’t use a condom."

According to a 2004 Juristat report, in 64 per cent of sexual assault cases the survivor knew his or her attacker.

Laura didn’t report her rape.

A few days later, when she couldn’t handle her feelings by herself anymore, she called her mom.

“I got sexually abused,” she said, sobbing, and told the whole story.

“Well you’re fucking stupid,” her mom said. “What do you expect, letting a boy into your house. What, do you think you’re a slut?”

“We often tend to look for, ‘What did you do?’ or, ‘What was it about you that caused [your rape]?’” says Jackie Stevens, co-ordinator of community education for the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre. “We still do that as a society. We tend to do that more than, ‘What causes this person to commit a sexual offence?’ or, ‘What’s wrong with that person?’ We still put the blame on the victim as to what caused the sexual assault."

Rather than report what happened, rather than deal with blame or disbelief from authorities, Laura wrote a poem called “Tattoo.”

...This violence you’re playing
Is far too intense
So in my defence I’m saying
Stop.
Because men like you have had me tattooed,
Stripped me nude on the first date;
You’d wait for my last sip of the grape to drain
Then rape.
Soon you’d be out on to my sisters;
Blaming our bushes for begging,
Claiming our cunts couldn’t come,
So you’d just keep on banging
‘Til we bled, soaked the bed,
And you’d leave us to rot...

“Ideally”—Stevens lets out a soft, skeptical "Heh"—“because we have a crime-and-punishment kind of culture, because we have a legal system, [rape is] supposed to go through the legal process, but in reality, sexual assault is one of the lowest reported crimes.”

A 2005 statistical profile of Nova Scotia by Juristat found that only eight per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police.

Over the last decade, acquittal rates for sexual assaults have risen in this province while remaining stable for other violent offences, according to a 2009 report by the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Over the same period, the proportion of prison sentences handed to adults convicted of sexual assault has significantly declined, again remaining stable for other violent offences.

“The high incidence of sexual assault in Nova Scotia, combined with a declining police and court response to sexual offences, leaves women in this province in a position of vulnerability,” according to the report.

“Even when someone has been convicted of a sexual crime, they might serve their time, whatever that is,” Stevens says. “But the impact on the victim is never going to change, is never going to go away. Regardless of what happens to the perpetrator, the trauma and the stigma attached to the person who has experienced victimization is never going to change—because of our perceptions.”

When a woman comes to her for help, Jane Doe* of the Dalhousie Women's Centre tells her not to report the rape.

“I say to women: ‘Don’t bother.’”

The local activist says the legal system is a bandage solution that doesn’t prevent sexual assault.

“I don’t have to get them to report. All I have to do is empower them, to let them know that they’re loved, to let them know that they did nothing wrong, that every anger, every hate, every feeling that they have is completely justifiable. If there’s any way that you want me to help you express those feelings, I’m here for you," she says.

She says creative expression, such as writing a letter to the newspaper, helps a woman grow past her negative experience; the court system does just the opposite.

“If a woman chooses to use the justice system to redress the crime that has befallen her, she had better be prepared to absolutely have no human dignity at all when it’s over. You better be prepared that everything you screwed, licked, ate, puked, shat, for the last 25 years, is now fair game.”

Many sexual assault cases rely on a man’s DNA evidence. If the victim cannot prove there wasn’t consent, or if the defence can establish reasonable doubt about lack of consent, that DNA evidence often won’t matter. All it proves is that they had sex.

Doe says the defence will often try to undermine a woman’s credibility to show she is making up the rape because then it is one person’s word against another’s.

“That’s a big barter: 'I will give you my human dignity in exchange for justice for this crime.' We don’t do that to other so-called victims. That’s why women don’t report it, because, ‘I can handle the rape; I can’t handle the loss of human dignity.’”

Women tell her all the time: “The worst thing that happened to me is not that I got raped.”

Laura’s poem didn’t help her get over her experience, but it did help empower her.

...But this time I’m on top
Tattooing you.
How does it feel
Being used just for the skin you’re stuck in?
Like my needle slowly stretching your outsides thin?  
When you’re red I’ll spread you out
So I can slowly
Fuck you instead.
But me, I won’t leave you chewing
Your swollen cheek, doing nothing,
Soul stolen and weak.
I would wait until morning and tell you
Why.

El Jones doesn’t censor herself. She speaks the raw truth regardless of criticism or praise, both of which she’s garnered as a black spoken word poet and professor at King’s College.

In her poem “If I Had a Penis,” Jones points to inequalities between the sexes, such as men earning 30 per cent more than women in the same jobs with the same skills. She says these inequalities are at the root of rape.

“If I had a penis, I’d be on the right side of rape statistics, and my reproductive system would never be used for politics."

“I’d go out at night wearing short skirts without getting blamed for being raped, and I wouldn’t even need to wear short skirts because, hey, I’d have a penis, and when you have a penis you don’t need to put yourself on display.”

We see sexual assault as accidental, she says, or as acted out by men who are sociopaths. However, a 1993 StatsCan survey showed half of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence.

“We still tend to phrase rape as abnormal—‘What is it that made this man rape?’—as if it’s an oddity, not part of society."

Jones says sexual assault is systematically deployed against women worldwide.

“I think we have to consider it an act of terror that’s upon women in our society. It’s so endemic to our society and so many women suffer from it.”

Sexual assault by men is the same rape for all women, she says, but it takes on different forms depending on race, class and cultural background.

“When it comes to women of colour, it’s who’s considered ‘rapeable,’ and that’s where the difference is." Like sex workers and women living in poverty, Jones says women of colour are more vulnerable because they are not considered ‘real’ women. “So raping that woman isn’t the same as raping a white woman, a white middle-class woman, in many cases.”

When black women were considered property, slave owners would often rape them, sometimes to produce more slaves. Jones says labouring women were not considered real women because of their muscular bodies, and they weren’t considered vulnerable because the assumption was they could protect themselves: “She could have fought him off, so she must have wanted it.”

Even today, Jones says black women aren’t considered human in a lot of ways. In fashion ads, black women are presented as backdrops to white women. Dark black women are considered threatening and non-human, she says.

“Black women aren’t in the position where people see them as fully human, as receptive of any kind of generosity. So that makes you rapeable.”

White women don’t often report rape because they fear blame or disbelief from authorities due to sexism, but the Avalon Centre and Jones agree women of colour are at increased risk because of racism.

Jones says police are less likely to believe women of colour when they report sexual assault. On the other hand, black women are less likely to trust white authorities because of Nova Scotia’s history and reputation of unfair law enforcement.

“It’s not your people who are coming to take the report,” Jones says. “It’s going to be a bunch of white male cops—or white females—not necessarily people who understand you.”

As a result, the sexual assaults of black women go unreported.

Because the African Nova Scotian community is so close-knit, and because the majority of sexual assaults are by acquaintances, a black woman may not report rape by a neighbour or relative. The same is true within immigrant populations, according to Jones and Avalon: due to the small populations of immigrant communities, women risk social isolation if they report sexual assault to police.

There are fewer reports of sexual assault in Aboriginal communities as well, according to Avalon, and Aboriginal women are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted than non-Aboriginal women.

An Amnesty International report from 2004 showed that racist and sexist attitudes toward Canadian Aboriginal women made them more vulnerable to sexual assaults. Several studies over the last decade showed Aboriginal women had less access to justice in Canada because of racist and sexist stereotypes.

“The portrayal of the squaw is one of the most degraded, most despised and most dehumanized anywhere in the world,” wrote Metis professor of Native Studies Emma LaRoque in 1994. “The ‘squaw’ is the female counterpart to the Indian male ‘savage’ and as such she has no human face, she is lustful, immoral, unfeeling and dirty.”

According to a Canadian research paper from 1998, “Aboriginal Women: Invisible Victims of Violence,” up to 75 per cent of sexual assault survivors in Aboriginal communities are young women under 18. Half of those are under 14. One-quarter are younger than seven.

“Such a grotesque dehumanization has rendered all Native women and girls vulnerable to gross physical, psychological and sexual violence,” LaRoque wrote. “I believe that there is a direct relationship between these horrible racist/sexist stereotypes and violence against women and girls.”

As a result of these lingering stereotypes, and distrust between communities, Jones says silence surrounds the sexual assault of coloured women.

“You don’t hear black women speaking out,” she says. “If you go to something like Take Back The Night, there’s three or four black women total."

On a wall just inside the Dalhousie Women’s Centre, flash photos from last year’s Take Back The Night protest show white women marching Halifax’s dark streets together.

“It’s not old news that mainstream feminism has tended to focus on issues relevant to middle-class white women and ignored women of colour, poor women. I think there’s a lot of distrust. Affirmative action has tended to benefit white women. White women have been co-oppressors in a lot of cases. So on the one hand white women suffered patriarchy, but at the same time when white women allied themselves with white men*, they helped put down women of colour as well. It’s not like women of colour aren’t aware of that.”

* White women also allied with white men against black men. Historically, white men carried out a lynching when a white woman claimed to be sexually assaulted by a black man. When lynching was common, consensual interracial sex was also common, but white women often feared social isolation for having sex with black men.

*Name has been changed.

This story is Part 2 of a three-part series originally by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Hilary Beaumont is a freelance journalist and editor in Halifax, and a contributing member of the Halifax Media Co-op.

Don't Rape, Part I

Kaley — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:28:54 +0000

Society teaches 'Don’t get raped' rather than 'Don’t rape'

Disclaimer: Some scenes in this story may be triggering for people who have experienced sexual assault. Names in this story have been changed to protect the identities of sexual assault survivors.

HALIFAX—Jenna never wants to see her purple semi-formal dress again. She loves it, but she is reminded of that night in early April when someone slipped what she suspects was Ketamine into her drink.

When she finished class at 4 pm that day, Jenna rushed to her friend’s place to get ready. She wore her mom’s sparkly earrings and bracelet, black kitten heels and the silky, knee-length dress. It was the end-of-the-year celebration she’d been waiting for—a chance to blow off some steam with her friends and classmates at Dalhousie.

She remembers everything about that night—feeling happy, dancing to bad music with her friends at The Palace—up to a point. It’s as if the rest of the evening didn’t happen. She woke up in her bed feeling nauseous and hung over. She stepped into the shower and felt bruises on her chest. It took her the rest of the day to piece together what happened. When she did, she felt embarrassed. She recalled blurry flashbacks of a man in her room, on the third floor of her house. He was white, but she doesn’t remember anything else about him, only that he sat there in her computer chair, looking at her from across the room. Jenna asked him to leave, but he wouldn’t.

At the hospital, nurses confirmed her suspicions with a rape kit. They gave her a list of side effects associated with Ketamine, a “date rape” drug. Her symptoms fit perfectly. The police took her pretty purple dress for DNA evidence.

We tell women to cover their drinks, to dress conservatively, and to walk home in groups—never alone at night. While Jenna still thinks those are great ideas, she says they didn’t work for her. She covered her drink as often as she could that night, and she stuck with her friends. Jenna worries no-one is looking at the big picture. It’s not her fault she was raped; she doesn’t take responsibility. Instead, she blames the man who raped her. Too often the media, the police, our parents and even our friends are quicker to point out flaws in sexual assault survivors’ actions.

"Don’t get raped"

Section 271(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada defines “simple sexual assault” as: Any attack of a sexual nature in which force is used. No physical injury is necessary to prove that an offence has occurred. When prosecuted as an indictable offence, this form of sexual assault carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Nova Scotia has the highest rate of sexual assaults in the country—double the national average, according to a 2009 report by the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. A 2006 Halifax Regional Police report shows that on average one sexual offence is reported per day in Halifax. However, a 2005 Juristat report showed only eight per cent of sexual assaults are reported in Nova Scotia.

This year in Halifax the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre declared May Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On May 20, at Province House, politicians and community members spoke out publicly against sexual assault.

Avalon’s mission is to shift responsibility from the survivor to the attacker by educating the public.

The centre defines sexual assault as: “Any form of sexual activity that has been forced by one person upon another. Without consent, it is sexual assault. Sexual assault can happen between people of the same or opposite sex. It includes any unwanted act of a sexual nature such as kissing, fondling, oral sex, intercourse or other forms of penetration, either vaginal or anal.”

Before we begin our interview, Jackie Stevens, the Avalon Co-ordinator of Community Education, closes her door, as she usually does when someone comes into her office. When a woman, or sometimes a man, sits in the comfy chair beside her desk, Stevens—wearing electric-blue cat-eye glasses—doesn’t judge or offer advice. Instead she gives the person plenty of information so he or she can make an educated decision.

Too often the people who sit in that chair blame themselves.

“If I hadn’t trusted that person, if I hadn’t gone out drinking with my friends, this wouldn’t have happened to me,” the sexual assault survivors tell Stevens.

Rather than automatically thinking that way, she says society needs to see that an attacker has chosen to take advantage of someone who is vulnerable.

When Stevens reads articles about drunk driving, the police are quoted telling people to stop drinking and driving. But when she reads articles about sexual assault, there is no warning telling would-be attackers not to rape. Instead, the authorities tell potential victims to take precautions.

She doesn’t claim to see every article, but yellowing copies of the Chronicle Herald are piled alongside today’s issue in a bin behind her.

In a Metro News article from March 19, 2010, Dalhousie University spokesperson Billy Comeau told students to “be aware of their surroundings and to take all precautions when they are out travelling” in response to a man grabbing a 19-year-old female student from behind in Halifax’s South End. In a Chronicle Herald article from May 14, 2010, a prosecutor told parents to “watch what their children are doing, both online and within the proximity of their house and outside the house,” in response to a Halifax woman allegedly luring a girl over the Internet and sexually assaulting her.

“Rather than always putting out the messages of ‘don’t walk alone’ or ‘don’t drink’ or ‘don’t talk to strangers’—all of those things—we need to say ‘don’t sexually assault,’” Stevens declares.

As a result of these misplaced messages, we say, "She shouldn’t have been walking home alone late at night," or, "She shouldn’t have worn a short skirt," rather than, "He shouldn’t have raped her."

The way a woman dresses or acts does not cause or prevent sexual assault; an attacker rapes someone because they want to exert power and control over him or her. The attacker is solely responsible for the crime. However, this responsibility is lost in translation through the police, the courts and the media.

Eighty-four per cent of people over the age of 15 who are sexually assaulted are women, according to the 2009 Status of Women Canada report. More than 90 per cent of those accused are men.

Sexual assault is a social problem, Stevens says, with lingering patriarchal structures* at the root of offenses by men toward women.

“There’s a lot of perception of sexual assault as an isolated incident that happens to certain people and it’s perceived as a very individual issue. The Avalon Centre takes the approach that sexual assault is a social issue and that the root causes are based in patriarchy, violence, oppression and inequality. Sexual violence is just one form of how that inequality and power imbalance is played out.”

Stevens says sexual assault and violence against women is interconnected with sexism and other forms of oppression such as racism, homophobia, and discrimination based on disability, gender identity, cultural background and lifestyle choices.

“Often times people who do experience sexual violence may be targeted for very specific reasons because of their vulnerability,” she says.

Jane Doe*, a local activist who also works at the Dalhousie Women’s Centre, wouldn’t be considered pushy if she were a man. Her voice is louder than the average woman’s. Her tone is aggressive.

“If I’m too confident, I’m a bitch,” she says.

Doe agrees that the root causes of male to female sexual assault are male privilege and the imbalance of power.

“Women weren’t legally human beings until 1920. If you’re property up until 1920, what role did sexual assault play in the world? Zero. There’s no such thing as rape—only for women. The pressure was on women to not allow men to ‘ruin’ them because women’s value and worth was placed in their virginity, their purity, so they could sell their sexuality to a man as property.”

As a result of historical imbalances, she says young men often feel entitled to “get drunk and get laid,” especially in a university atmosphere.

One in five male university students surveyed in a 2006 StatsCan study said forced intercourse was alright “if he spends money on her,” “if he’s stoned or drunk,” or “if they have been dating for a long time.”

One in five Canadian women surveyed in a Juristat report said they had unwanted sex with a man because they were overwhelmed by the man’s continued arguments and pressure.

“If we can change the response and how we think about sexual assault then we will change the rates of sexual assaults because it becomes less natural, less normalized; there’s more public scrutiny and judgment around it,” Doe says. “The problem is, it’s very much a part of male culture.”

*According to Avalon, “patriarchy” refers to “the current societal framework, the structure of which has historically kept men in positions of power and authority in society, and has encouraged the domination of other nations, races and cultures of people for economic and political gain.” In the not-so-distant past, women were placed in inferior roles and their sexual, financial and personal autonomy were suppressed. That framework still lingers today; women are still not equal to men.

*Name has been changed.

Hilary Beaumont is a freelance journalist and editor in Halifax, and a contributing member of the Halifax Media Co-op. This story was produced by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Reproductive Rights STILL an Election Issue

Anna Carastathis — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:23:57 +0000

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"Focus on the Born": Image from a demonstration against Bill C-484, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act

When it became clear that an imminent election was in the stars, Harper distanced himself from the widely opposed Bill C-484, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act.

Now infamous, Bill C-484 was a private member bill introduced by Ken Epp (MP for Edmonton Sherwood Park, Alberta). It assigned legal personhood to unborn fetuses (in contravention of the Criminal Code). It was denounced by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC), and other feminist organizations, as "an unconstitutional infringement on women’s rights." Similar laws are used in the United States to criminalize pregnant women who use drugs or alcohol for endangering the fetus, or to prosecute those who help them seek abortions.

While Epp refused to drop the Bill, which had passed its second reading, Harper vowed not to reopen the "debate" on abortion. (A promise, incidentally, that he has made before, during the 2004 election, and again in January 2005.)

But does that mean that reproductive rights are no longer an election issue?

Quite the opposite, according to the ARCC. Harper has said that he would not block private member bills about abortion (like C-484) in future.

In fact, on this issue, he has said he would lift tight party discipline and allow a free vote. Considering that the vast majority (74%) of current Conservative MPs are anti-choice, a majority Conservative Government could easily pass an anti-abortion bill into law.

Consider the following facts, largely culled from yesterday's press release issued by the ARCC:

3000 women missing. They're saying we should do something.

dru — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:34:52 +0000

A dedicated group is walking across the country to demand an inquiry into the 3000 women, mostly Indigenous, who have gone missing.

Québec Native Women's Association responds to Harper's apology for residential schools

Anna Carastathis — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:34:47 +0000

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The Québec Native Women's Association has called upon the Canadian government to acknowledge that residential schools were an act of genocide.

Statement by Quebec Native Women's Association/Femmes Autochtones du Québec

Re : Government of Canada's Residential School Apology
June 11, 2008, Kahnawake

Quebec Native Women recognizes the Prime Minister's official apology concerning the genocidal experience of Aboriginal people in the history of the Residential School system. While the apology to Aboriginal peoples is long overdue it is contradicted by the oppressive policies of the Indian
Act.

The heinous crimes committed against Aboriginal children who were victims and survivors of the Residential School experience must be dealt with beyond mere apologies and monetary compensation.

Equal Porn for All

Stuart Neatby — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:54:11 +0000

The 2007 Feminist Porn Awards

This past June, the second annual Feminist Porn Awards took place at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, reminding the public that the porn industry has a creative side beyond mainstream expectations. Chanelle Gallant, the manager of Good For Her, a feminist and trans-friendly Toronto workshop centre and sex boutique, spearheaded The Emmas (named after iconic feminist-anarchist Emma Goldman). “We created [the awards] in response to the difficulty we had communicating to our distributors what we wanted when requesting videos that represented actors of color,” explains Gallant. They weren’t looking for films that portrayed minority actors as sexually fetishized objects of desire, which is what they were getting. Contemporary feminism works to privilege the agency and, in this case, the viable and nuanced sexualities of marginalized groups. The staff members at Good For Her were frustrated over their inability to point their customers to a decent variety of “sensitive” queer, transgender, ethnic and even mainstream porn. So in an effort to track down and promote the pornography with positive representations of sexuality, gender, body type and ethnicity that they knew must be out there, they inaugurated the Feminist Porn Awards.

By holding pornography up to certain standards of artistic and representational integrity, The Emmas spotlight it as a form of contemporary cultural production. Because the porn industry is usually an invisible and unpublicized system—that nevertheless fulfils the demand of a large, generally un-polled audience—feedback between producers and viewers is difficult. If an enterprising viewer wants to research made-by-women-for-women porn on her own, for example, productive information is hard to come by. Just try googling "good porn." A viewer has little choice but to muddle through the publicly available options, which tend to be an education in restriction and subjugated gender roles rather than a representation of creative, sensitive, joyful, or empowering sexuality.

Fuelled by the need to establish a standard of ethical representations of women and other minorities in porn, Gallant came up with three criteria for feminist pornography. A film has to meet at least two to be eligible for The Emmas. One: women have to be substantially involved behind the scenes. Two: the film must promote and represent genuine female pleasure. Three: the film must expand on the traditionally accepted range of women’s sexual expression.

As for the opposite of feminist pornography, “any film made with female coercion” would qualify, says Gallant. She stresses that feminist porn is not a genre. You can’t identify it by pointing to certain aspects of storyline, sexual content, or its status as soft or hardcore. Feminist porn does not look like something in particular; it acts like something in particular. Because of this, there really is no “feminist porn community,” and the filmmakers met each other for the first time during the award ceremonies. Gallant hopes the annual event will help foster such a community, or at least collaborations between filmmakers.

For the second annual Emmas, the selections came mainly from Good for Her’s stock, since the store actively seeks pornography that represents minorities without exoticizing them. Gallant says they may post an open call for submissions in the future. The members of Good For Her’s staff, from the cashiers to the manager, served as the judges.

The store’s holistic approach to sexuality also extends beyond its selection of pornography. Not only does it offer transgender and women-only shopping hours, but Good For Her also hosts the largest number of sexuality workshops in Canada. Besides expected topics like “Muff Diving for Men: The Art of Cunnilingus,” you can also find “From Swinging to Polyamory: Guidelines for Open Relationships,” and “Sex for Survivors: Sensuality and Pleasure,” all on a sliding pay scale. Like the crews responsible for the films featured in The Emmas, the staff members at Good For Her make it their business to arm the public in its quest for healthy sexuality.

A Sampling of the Winners:

Hottest Group Sex Scene:
Under the Covers.
Candida Royalle; Femme Productions, USA.

Royalle is the founder of Femme Productions, a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), a founding board member of Feminists for Free Expression (FFE), and also works as a mentor for emerging female directors. Under the Covers is a comedy about women who work and inhabit the sex industry.

Hottest Trans Sex Scene:
In Search of the Wild Kingdom
Shine Louise Houston; Blowfish Video, USA.

Houston is a lesbian porn producer, the founder of Pink and White Productions, and the only queer woman of color currently with a distribution deal. She made her first film in 2005 in response to the difficulty she had recommending hot women-on-women sex to lesbian customers that wasn't made for or directed by men while she worked as a sex shop clerk. In Search of the Wild Kingdom is a humorous mockumentary about lesbian sex, complete with a dysfunctional film crew, spoofs on typical “lesbian” porn and “behind the scenes” footage.

Hottest Bisexual Sex Scene:
The Bi Apple
Audacia Ray; Adam and Eve Pictures, USA.

Audacia Ray is a sex-worker-rights advocate, the executive editor of $pread magazine, an art curator, a sex worker, and an academic. The movie’s official tag line is “New York girls like boys doing boys who like to do girls,” and includes a scene that illustrates Gallant’s mandate to expand the range of women’s sexual expression, in which a woman clearly derives voyeuristic pleasure from watching two men together in a shower. Both the depiction of male homoeroticism in a film not specifically meant for gay men and the portrayal of a woman being aroused by male homosexual activity while not physically participating are rare in mainstream pornography.

Hottest Gonzo Sex Scene and Hottest Diverse Cast:
Chemistry 1
Tristan Taormino; Adam and Eve Pictures, USA.

Taormino has a degree in American Studies, co-edited A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World, and wrote The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and Pucker Up: A Hands-on Guide to Ecstatic Sex. Chemistry 1 is another genre-bender, this time in the vein of reality TV. The scenario: seven porn stars have a house to themselves for 36 hours. No script, no stunts and no bad “porn acting.” There are even confessionals.

For more information and for a full list of winners, you can visit Good For Her online at www.goodforher.com

Feminist Porn Awards 2007

"Reasonable Accommodation": A Feminist Response

Anna Carastathis — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:40:02 +0000

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Photograph: Women's studies student Lily Tandel presenting the statement (below) to the Commission's Citizens' Forum on November 20, at the Bibliothèque Interculturelle in Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal. Also pictured, Nada Fadol, a member of the statement-writing committee. Photo credit: Tanya Déry-Obin.

"Reasonable Accommodation": A Feminist Response /
Les « accommodements raisonnables » : Une réponse féministe

Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Montréal

[version française à suivre]

As anti-racist, anti-colonial feminists in Québec, we have serious misgivings about the Commission de Consultation sur les pratiques d'accommodement reliées aux différences culturelles. The Conseil du statut de la femme du Québec (CSF) has proposed that the Québec Charter be changed so as to accord the right of gender equality relative priority over the right to religious expression and to ban the wearing of "ostentatious" religious symbols in public institutions by public employees. Our concern is that the Commission and the CSF's subsequent intervention pave the way for legislation that will restrict rather than enhance the rights of women. We invite you to join us in questioning the exclusionary structure of the Commission, the assumptions it supports, and the negative impact it is likely to have on women's lives.

So, why call into question the legitimacy and the effects of the Commission?

Roughneck, Bruised Head

dru — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:15:55 +0000

A tale of women, toughness and safety in Alberta's gas fields

Chantal Desharnais is no stranger to the outdoors or manual labour. Still, the 24-year-old Quebecker, who had previously worked in construction and spent a summer living on the banks of a B.C. river picking fruit for income had reservations about going to Calgary to work in the natural gas industry for the summer. But it was the moral dilemma of working in an industry she has ethical disagreements with, not the physical labour, she was concerned with, says the student in international relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal. As many before her, though, the lucrative work provided an opportunity to make enough money over the summer to cover her tuition fees and help with student loan debts.

But while she says she was prepared for the physical rigour of the work, she never expected the sexism she would face–or the serious injuries she would sustain. After one month on the job, Desharnais would need to be transferred to an office job in Calgary after suffering a concussion, receiving five stitches to the back of her head, and a severely spraining her shoulder.

Despite what seems to be an ample need for workers in the Alberta oil and natural gas fields (the natural gas industry in Canada alone employed 151,327 people in 2006 and is growing), Desharnais found it difficult to get hired once she hitchhiked her way out to Calgary. Company after company refused to grant her an interview. While most companies were coy about the reasons why, she says it was clear that they weren’t interested in hiring women. Eventually, however, she started asking companies outright if they had a policy of not hiring women. While she says she sensed hesitation when she first contacted Geokinetics, her eventual employer, their human resources and personnel manager claims the company never refuses to hire women.

“We never refuse to hire someone if they are a woman–we’re an equal opportunity employer,” says Stephen Menchuk, who hired Desharnais and is familiar with her case. “We have so many positions to fill, sometimes we even hire 50, 60-year-old men. They don’t necessarily work out in the field, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done at the base-camp that isn’t as physically demanding.”

Interviewed at the end of June, Desharnais was at work by the beginning of July, flown out to the base-camp in Grand Cache, Alberta, where the company, which specialises in geological exploration, was checking the area for natural gas deposits. She was one of only two women on the crew, and says she felt it right away. Beyond what she saw as a culture of “only the tough survive,” the fact she is a woman seemed to make it all that more thrilling for others to see her fail.

“As people get off the bus, you can tell they’re judging how long they’ll last. Once you’re there for a while, you start to hear the comments too. It’s especially hard for women.”

The challenges started almost immediately, she says. For the first two days she worked with all the new employees on the line crew–the regular work for rookies in the field, following the machines clearing brush to lay the explosive line behind it. But on the third day she was sent out as a trouble-shooter alongside a 15-year company veteran known for taking few breaks and working long hours. While line crew follow tracks already cleared by machine, trouble-shooters clear their own path, going from one trouble spot in a detonation line to another. By the end of the day she was exhausted and demoralised. Upon returning to the camp, two of the older colleagues asked how her day was.

“When I told them I was out with Paddy, they burst out laughing, like it was some inside joke,” she says. None of the other new employees were sent out as trouble-shooters.

Despite the tough day, Desharnais stuck with it and was eventually transferred to work with someone a little more easy-going. Then, towards the end of the month, she was transferred back to line crew. While the work atmosphere was still far from comfortable, she felt the worst had passed. But after only three more days on line crew, she was once again unexpectedly reassigned, this time as a shooter’s helper.

But according to Menchuk, there was another reason for her constant reassignment. “I didn’t want to tell Chantal this to her face, but I’ve been told that she just couldn’t handle the work out in the field. She isn’t very big and it’s tough work carrying 30 pounds of equipment through the field and up mountains. I was told she just couldn’t keep up. Transferring her to shooter’s helper was to give her a chance; she would just need to follow behind and clean up after him.”

According to Desharnais, however, she was constantly at the head of her group and was in fact told, along with one other colleague, to slow down so the others in her group could keep pace. And while working as a troubleshooter or a shooter’s helper meant carrying less equipment, it definitely wasn’t easier when it came either to cardio or to the safety issues involved. “It was clear that they wanted to put me in a difficult position,” she said.

The job of a shooter is to detonate underground explosives sending out seismic waves to see if there are gas or oil deposits; a shooter’s helper is a kind of a sidekick, helping to set up the area, and clear away the wires after the explosion. Desharnais was assigned as a shooter’s helper in the morning, and, according to her, not given proper training except for one colleague who offered her some advice on what equipment to bring. According to Menchuk all employees receive internationally recognised training at the beginning of their employment and are updated in the field. While he wasn’t on the ground in Grand Cache, he says he couldn’t imagine someone being sent out without proper training.

“We always ensure our employees wear the proper safety equipment. Safety equipment doesn’t eliminate hazards, but it reduces them as much as possible.” Attempts were made to contact Desharnais’ on-site supervisor, but Menchuk said he is currently out of the country and not available for comment.

According to Desharnais, upon arriving on site her partner, the shooter, had no time to show her the ropes. After being dropped off by helicopter they walked half an hour into the bush to the site where they would be detonating explosives. When one of their two walkie-talkies died, the functioning one was given to her partner. She stayed back while he went to lay and detonate the explosives. All along, however, she assumed she would receive some kind of warning that the detonation was about to go.

“All of a sudden the explosion went off, with debris in the air. All I remember was being hit in the head and the shoulder,” she says. While Menchuk says he was informed she was 30 m from the explosion (the required distance) and behind a tree, Desharnais says she can’t really be sure how far she was because she was never signaled where the explosion was coming from. Upon returning to find her, her colleague radioed in that she had been injured. “But he would only say I had hurt my shoulder, and not that I thought I was hit in the head. He told me the blood on my neck was just from scratching it on branches when I fell,” she says.

“Even I didn’t really know the extent of my injuries until I got into the helicopter, but I knew I had hurt my head,” she continues. “It was only once I saw the look of the pilot when I took off my helmet in the helicopter and the blood started going everywhere.” The impact of the collision with the rock had cracked part of her helmet and cut her head badly enough that she would need five stitches once back at the base-camp, and would eventually be diagnosed with a severe concussion. “When we got back to base-camp, the medic even said that if he knew I had injured my head he would have flown out to get me instead of waiting back at the camp.”

According to Menchuk, the type of injury sustained by Desharnais is rare in general, and a first for a shooter’s helper (Desharnais disputes this, saying she was told on several occasions of shooters and shooter’s helpers being seriously injured on the job). “We do everything we can to ensure our employees’ safety,” he explained over the phone from Calgary. “But as I tell everyone, in the end you need to be aware of your surroundings. No one wanted Chantal to get hurt, and we’re sorry that she did.”

Desharnais sees something more troubling. “There was a constant diminishing of my concerns,” she says. Desharnais feels that if she was a man perhaps her co-worker would have paid more attention when she said she had injured her head and not just her shoulder. “They just seem to think you complain for nothing.”

Menchuk agrees that it is not always easy for women in the oil industry. “It’s both the work and the atmosphere,” he says. “You’re sending out a woman with a crew of 50 other guys. Issues come up, things like separate bathrooms and you need to share with the cooking crew because there are only three toilets on site.”

Diagnosed with a sprained shoulder and receiving five stiches to the back of her head, it was unclear for three days, before she was able to return to Calgary, whether she had a concussion. While she was X-rayed in Grand Cache, there wasn’t a head trauma expert at the hospital who could tell her the extent of her injuries.

Desharnais’ troubles didn’t end with the injuries. According to Menchuk, Desharnais “declined” to go back out to the site when safety personnel went with her partner to examine the area in order to file an incident report. Desharnais remembers it differently. “They asked if I wanted to go with them, and I said yes. I wasn’t feeling well [from her injuries] and went to lie down. I found out later that they had gone without me.” The ensuing reports, except for the one she wrote herself, were based mostly on the shooter’s account of the incident and downplayed the lack of training she received and the lack of communication on site. She still has copies of the reports she refused to sign because of her disagreement on the facts.

It is clear that many may think that Desharnais’s complaints are simply sour grapes because she was hurt on the job. Menchuk claims he isn’t sure why Desharnais is still pursuing the matter. “We treated her the way we would treat any employee. She decided to quit her modified work load [an office job in Calgary given to her at full pay after her injury] and go back to Grand Cache to try and convince her supervisors to change their reports. We’re sorry for what happened, but there isn’t much we can do now.”

But in an industry that is continuing to grow in Canada, Desharnais feels stories like hers need to get out. It isn’t about the fact that the work is hard, she says, or even so much that she got hurt–even though she still suffers from headaches and concentration problems from her concussion and has mobility problems with her right shoulder. It’s about the fact she wasn’t properly trained and her safety wasn’t ensured in the field, and that in large part she believes this was because she is a woman. “I may keep looking into this and talk to lawyers. But really I just don’t want to see this happening to anyone else,” she says.

Roughneck