Gendering the Political Landscape
Event Details
For the first time in Canadian history we have a self-identified “feminist” Prime Minister, as well as a federal cabinet made up of 50% women. Yet the realities of gender inequality and sexist exploitation continue to be a daily lived reality. The global pandemic has brought with it an increase in domestic violence, massive job losses for women, an increased domestic workload. In an era of isolation, intensified neo-liberalism, sexism, systemic racism, ageism, ableism and government and corporate co-optation of feminism, this panel seeks to critically engage with the past, present and future of feminism and feminist organizing in Canada. Panelists will share their views on the state of modern feminism, the barriers to broad based mobilization, and the ongoing challenges involved in building an organized and intersectional movement against patriarchy.
It is hoped that this event will be one of a series of dialogues among community activists, thinkers, labour organizers and artists on feminism past, present and future.
Date: October 29, 2020
Time: 2:00 PM EDT – 3:30 PM EDT
Location: Online Platform – Zoom
Speakers: Beverly Bain, Nora Loreto & Harsha Walia
Moderator: Vicky Mochama
Beverly Bain
Beverly Bain is a Black queer feminist, anti-racism, anti-capitalist scholar who has devoted 40 years of her life to organizing and activism in Toronto. She teaches in Women and Gender Studies in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto (Mississauga Campus). She currently teaches and researches in the areas of Caribbean and Black diasporic sexualities, Black and Caribbean queer feminist organizing, sexual assault and violence against women, gender, colonialism, transnationalism and anti-capitalism. She was awarded the 2005 Inaugural Steinert and Ferreiro Award of Excellence – Community One Foundation of Toronto for her teaching and activism in the women of colour and LGBT Communities in Toronto.
Nora Loreto
Nora Loreto is an activist based in Quebec City. She is the author of Take Back The Fight, Organizing Feminism In The Digital Age, and From Demonized To Organized: Building The New Union Movement. Nora is the editor of the Canadian Association of Labour Media and a sought after facilitator. She presents regularly on media relations, writing, editing, social media and online security and privacy. Nora writes regularly for magazines, newspapers and online outlets. She speaks about social movement organizing, activism, the far right and many other topics. She co-hosts Sandy and Nora Talk Politics with Sandy Hudson. Locally, Nora is involved in many solidarity and anti- Islamophobia movements.
Harsha Walia
Harsha Walia has organized in migrant justice, anti-capitalist, feminist, abolitionist, and anti-imperialist movements for the past two decades on unceded Coast Salish territories. She has been involved in grassroots movements including No One Is Illegal and the Feb 14 Women’s Memorial March. She is also the award-winning author of Undoing Border Imperialism, co-author of Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration as well as Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Trained in law, Harsha is the Executive Director of the BC Liberties Association. She wants a world without borders, bitumen, bombs, and bros.
Vicky Mochama
Vicky Mochama is a writer whose work has been published in the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, the Walrus and the Toronto Star. Her journalism focuses on issues of race, gender, immigration and politics. She has been the host of Canadaland Commons, Safe Space and No Little Plans, and co-founded podcast company Vocal Fry Studios. She was an editor of the national best-selling humor book, The Canadaland Guide To Canada. She has terrible taste in movies and is on Twitter @vmochama.
