December 6th. Just a date. Maybe an early Christmas party or a school play. Perhaps a time to start putting out decorations or maybe – a time to purchase candles and roses. A purchase not made in anticipation of a celebration but one made in memorial of 14 women who were gunned down simply because they were women and they were there.

December 6th, 1989 at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Maria Klucznik
Maryse Leclair
Annie St.-Arneault
Michèle Richard
Maryse Laganière
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Annie Turcotte

became victims of hatred. Victims of misogyny. Lights shining on the ugly truth that women had not yet been fully accepted as equals.

Twenty years on can we really say that much has changed?

In 1982 MP Margaret Mitchell rose to educate the house on domestic violence, she told them how one in 10 Canadian women were victims of domestic assault the response by the male MPs was laughing and shouting.

In 2009 during the height of the H1N1 Flu scare MP Carolyn Bennett rose to ask a question on behalf of a troubled constituent. The woman in question was pregnant and had received conflicting advice as to the safety of the H1N1 vaccine, she was looking to her government for help. The response? Laughter, derision, hooting and hollering. 27 years later women’s concerns are still seen as a joke.

When Margaret Mitchell was elected in 1979 [30 years ago] women accounted for approximately 10% of elected MPs. Today that number has risen to approximately 21% that is an abysmal amount of representation and a sad commentary on the last 30 years.

This year as you remember and mourn the loss of 14 of our sisters remember also the words of Joe Hill; Don’t Mourn, Organize!

Help Equal Voice to get more women elected, fight for strong gun control, support women’s reproductive choice, donate to a local shelter, help a woman or a young girl learn tech skills or use those skills to help others.

In the words of Emma Goldman;
“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.”

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

Hailed as new programming lineup designed for the woman with enough life under her belt to know what’s good. Viva Tv brings such stellar programming as Psychic Investigators, The Shopping Bags, West Wing reruns and well pretty much just loops on a few shows with some movies the youngens won’t watch thrown in.

Note to TV execs women with enough life under her belt to know what’s good also know when they are being patronized.

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now Day) is a new international holiday that
celebrates women artists. It will be an annual event taking place on the last Saturday of Women’s History Month (March). The first SWAN Day will take place on Saturday, March 29, 2008

As a symbol of international solidarity, over 100 SWAN Day events have been scheduled
around the world.

SWAN Day is an opportunity to bring attention, support and with any luck lucre, to female artists.

In this video Sandra Oh talks about being inspired by Björk.[video]dg54XU8b1Uc[/video]

Sandra’s words capture the true spirit of SWAN Day. We believe that women artists have always inspired and helped each other, and we want to celebrate the power of that mutual support on SWAN Day and every day.

Merchandise with SWAN related art is also available at Cafè Press, such as this one titled Tune in to Women.

Of course we have a tendency to think of art as something one sees at museums and in galleries. Women’s art is important in historical perspectives not necessarily because you are likely to find it hanging the Louvre, but because of the importance it played in daily life.

Arts such as quilting, pot throwing,bread making, may seem to some lowly in comparison. These were the arts, however, that kept people fed, and clothed and warm and at the same time provided comfort and beauty.

Here is a website (background makes it a little hard to read) which has various links to fair trade options to buy women’s art and support families and communities.

Happy SWAN Day!

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

Every year it breaks my heart to watch as 14 roses pile up in remembrance of the horror of December 6, 1989.

In the face of such an atrocity one can only hope that lessons will be learned. Unfortunately, it seems that few have paid attention.

Women are still being killed simply for being women, for asserting their rights, or simply for being there. Women’s shelters are still full and daily women face abuses and the possibility of death.

It is often difficult, especially in light of such tragedies, to make those privileged enough not to have to deal with the daily issues see how ‘small’ things contribute to the larger picture.

When you allow words as weapons (calling women cunts, throw like a girl, etc), when you excuse sexist behaviour, when you smear an MP because she calls someone on an act that would not be allowed in any other workplace, when commercials that talk about how “boys are just built different” no icky girls allowed, when these things passed unremarked the message that girls are somehow ‘less than’ is ingrained.

The women cut down in the act of terror committed that day deserve better.

Lest we forget

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

In times of war we are called upon to honour our glorious dead.

Indeed the memory of the fallen is used to raise our collective patriotic ire at anyone who does not support any military action. This has become known colloquially as “not supporting the troops.”

It does not matter if the cause they were fighting is just. If the people they killed were innocent. If the war they fought a sham. Honour must be paid.

Compare this to the all too common occurrence of women being killed by partners or strangers. Too often in both courts of justice and courts of opinion these women’s memories are not honoured but desecrated.

Excuses are made, she provoked him, she was dressed or acted provocatively or was a sex worker, she was out alone at night, she was the violent one.

On December 6th we mourn most especially for the 14 women who died at the hands of Marc Lepine. On this day we come together to honour the memories of “our glorious dead”. And there are others who come together also. Those who find comfort in the actions of Lepine, those who desecrate the memory of the fallen and who carry hatred toward all women.

Where are the political speeches and rhetoric for this war? Why are there no calls to support the troops of women daily fighting abuse, sexual assault, incest, rape, and a culture that stills places the macho as something just that little bit better?

Why is it that my daughter and others of her cohort can expect to fight the same battles against sexism and for reproductive rights that my generation did? Why is that she can expect to make less over her lifetime, have assaults against her be turned around to be her fault and have to jump through hoops should she at any time decide to exercise her right to control her reproduction?

Feminists are called man haters simply for wanting to ensure that they and the women after them will have the same rights as men. Yes there will be different rights such as those around pregnancy and childcare. Sadly childcare still being seen as a women’s issue and not a children’s rights issue. And yet the men who actually do hate women, who see rights around reproduction, childcare and other female specific realities, as women wanting greater rights than men, are given a pass. They are just good old boys, old fashioned, traditional. In fact such behaviour is often glorified.

The link is easily established since patriarchy openly advocates the natural inferiority of women and conversely the natural right of the male to rule the female. This powerdifferential, maintained by various social, political, legal and religious institutions renders women powerless globally. As a result women continue to be loyal to individual men in their lives, and to blame themselves when any trouble emerges. The patriarchy endeavours to command and dictate total conformity of women to the statusquo, glorifying it along with an implicit doubleedged message: ‘Be loyal, chaste … or else’. It is therefore not surprising that men continue to beat women as a function of the domination they exercise over women, a domination that is inherent in the very structure of societies that men have created in their own image. Violence against women, be it in the form of sexual harassment, violent pornography, rape, sexual abuse, incest or battering, is nothing but a manifestation of the sexist and patriarchal system of social control of women. {link}

In any war there are those who stand with the ‘enemy’ who think that by capitulating to their demands they will meet a kinder fate. However, studies of religious, ‘traditional’ homes do not bear that out;

Criminology studies have well documented, including a 1995 study appearing in the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, that the patriarchal conception of the family is the single best predictor of violence against both women and children.

Studies of battered women regularly show that the women who are most likely to continue staying in violent home situations themselves are the women who accept, in the words of the Baptist creed, “to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.” {link}

Soon we will honour our dead with roses and candles. And just as the Westboro Baptist Church pickets funerals, there will be those who will say enough already, who will opine that this was the work of one crazed individual, that it had nothing to do with feminism or that he didn’t kill enough women. People like this

Was surfin the tube tonight and i decided to look for feminazis to victimize. you looked like a particularily virulent one, so i dropped down to say the following.

Women in Canada, as in America, have all kinds of special rights, thanks to your constant troublemaking. You have special powers, you can say magic words to the system, like “I’m scared”, or straight up lie about something, and the man loses all his rights. So i dont know where you come off with all this bullshit that women are so persecuted, we both know thats only a tactic to gain all kinds of special rights, as if you dykes really need any more special rights.
now if you wanna talk about places where women have no rights, try just about any Muslim hellhole. but i see rather than go there, youd rather defend those subhumans with “Get out of Iraq” campaigns that only encourage the Muslim Terrorists, whether they be Al Qaeda ragheads or Iranian hezbollah camelfuckers.
Its fools like you that cause the problems between the sexes by trying to be something youll never be, no matter how many strap ons you shove up your sex partners hole.

tell me, whats the mortality rate for Dyke batterers of their sex partners, we know how violent bulldykes can be, dont we? Ive knocked out more than one in my lifetime, girl. and I’m proud of it too- if they wanna fight like a man, then theyre gonna get their jaw broke like a man.
Whats the chances of a young girl being targeted for recrutiment by dyke perverts?
Theres only one way to “feel like a woman”, you gotta be fucked by a man…maybe youve heard of it… I heartlily recommend it..its called heterosexual sex, but you deviants like to call it “rape”.you “guys” constantly confuse the two.
Anyways, i thought id just let you know whats up… ill be visiting a lot more of you feminazi beasts..today was your lucky day, next time it could be one of your beastmates.
DTQ. VIVE MARC LEPINE!

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

The Star carried this article yesterday about The War on Women: Elly Armour, Jane Hursham, and Criminal Domestic Violence in Canadian Homes, by Brian Vallée.

Stephen Lewis wrote an impassioned foreword for the book, urging the creation of a fully funded United Nations international agency for women that would provide “a tremendous force for advocacy and intervention” and would “inevitably move toward the recognition that domestic violence is its own holocaust….We’re not just fighting for women’s human rights; we’re fighting for women’s lives.”

The title quote is speaking to the current climate of right wing insistence that men are just as often abused as women. Such a claim is pure fallacy of course and far too much credence is being given to this ridiculous position.

here are some stats from METRAC;

From the Star

In Ontario, between 1995 and 2005, 231 women were murdered by their partners or former partners. From January to November 2006, 24 women and 12 children in Ontario were murdered in acts of violence against women.

Until we recognize the degree of violence that we turn a blind eye to on a daily basis; until we stop giving things silly names like Domestic Violence; until we accept that free speech, and fair play does not require us to listen to or give credence to those who down play or indeed back the use of violence in the home, we will continue to see women being murdered by those they trusted most.

November is Woman Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario a great reminder to send what you can to those working on women’s behalf or to write letters, or to volunteer at a help phone or shelter. Or maybe just to listen to a neighbour who may be in danger.

title quote from Eileen Morrow

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

As we near the end of Women’s History Month it is time to pause and reflect on the way our ignoble PM celebrated with us.

Red Jenny tells us of a new bill

The Harper government yesterday introduced legislation requiring all voters – including veiled Muslim women – to show their faces before being allowed to cast ballots in federal elections.

A Creative Revolution informs us of his support for women in the north

The Status of Women cuts that the UnReal women of Canada so lauded and cheered about like a bunch of mindless maroons, the ones that killed NAWL funding, have had an even harsher effect in the real great white north.

Women in the Yukon are 2.9 times more likely to experience sexual abuse, or be killed by a spouse than women in other parts of Canada. The Organizations that seek to help them are being forced to scramble for alternate funds through bake sales and garage sales.

Mere days before WHM we saw the passing of National Association of Women and the Law

Close Harper friend and advisor Tom Flanagan speaks;

Flanagan calls funding cuts to Status of Women Canada and the elimination of the Court Challenges Program a “nice step,” asserting without equivocation that Conservatives will “defund” all equality-seeking groups – with feminists at the top of the list. He goes further, clarifying that Conservatives also plan to choke-off these groups’ supposedly privileged access to government by, for example, denying “meetings with ministers.” But for strategic reasons, Flanagan notes, this will all happen incrementally. To avoid the perception of mean-spirited retribution, he says, “incrementalism is the way to go.”

Avoid the perception yet not the reality.

And the PM Statement section? Still reads, “forthcoming”.

Of course Harper is proving that actions do speak louder than words.

That’s ok Stevie we’re not waiting for your call…we’re just not that into you.

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

If you are, or were, a Dr. Suess fan you may remember this book. Written about the glorious things you could do on the First of Octember such as stay up all night to drink “66 six packs of Doodle Delight.”

October is Women’s History month. A current look at the SWC site shows this statement from our Prime Minister;

“forthcoming”

Mid way through October Canada’s New Government™ has yet to issue a statement. Perhaps the script from Gwen was delayed….indefinitely?

One imagines that Harper et al would far rather Women’s History month, and indeed all matters pertaining to women’s equality, be relegated to the First of Octember.

Think of the glorious things he could do like ignore the child care issue, roll back programs that most especially help women, place tax cuts above health care, child poverty, employment issues….mmm seems he is already doing that.

Perhaps our ignoble PM lives in the land of Octember.

October 18th is Person’s Day. This is a day to commemorate the Person’s Case.

On October 18, 1929, the five Lords of the Judicial Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that “the word ‘persons’ in Section 24 includes both the male and female sex.…” According to them, the exclusion of women from public office was “a relic of days more barbarous than ours.

It is a sad and sobering thought that there are those who would joyously lead us back to those “barbaric” times. Those who see women not as persons in their own right but simply as wombs from which issue the cannon fodder needed to perpetuate war. War against other countries and war against the marginalized.

As we reflect upon Women’s History let us not forget the struggles that we are free not to face. The struggle for education, for our own name, for our own property, to not be included as property, the right to be paid a decent wage, to fight against sexual impropriety in the workplace, the right to control our reproduction, the right to say no in marriage and so much more.

Our fight to keep our rights, to move forward in our struggle, to ensure our daughters’ never have to fight to be recognized as persons in their own right, is one that must not be relegated to the First of Octember.

( cross posted @ Rose’s Place )

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

One might have hoped that after the Ipswich murders the media would have learned a thing or two about treating sex workers as different, disposable, and authors of their own misfortune.

Sadly reading the CTV report on the death of an Edmonton sex worker it would seem no lesson has been learned at all.

We begin by reading;

Police have identified a missing woman as a dead Edmonton sex trade worker and have launched a homicide investigation.

Really?! So if we were all to get together and purchase a head stone it should say dead Edmonton sex trade worker?

At least in the next paragraph they deign to identify Leanne Lori Benwell, by name.

Next in the portion involving the grieving mother, they write;

The last time Connie saw her drug-addicted daughter, Leanne had a bruised and bloodied face.

Is that what she said? Her drug addicted daughter. I doubt it. While she probably knew of her daughters’ struggle with drugs, while she may have feared what the outcome of that struggle would be, she would no doubt have thought of her daughter as her child. Not her drug addicted child.

What is the point of injecting her drug dependency into that portion of the story? Two strikes now, a sex worker and a drug addict, nothing to see here folks just another drug addled whore bites the dust.

In an effort perhaps to redeem the article Project Kare is invoked, however, Ms. Benwell’s case isn’t currently being dealt with by Project Kare.

What would have been wrong with wording the article in a similar fashion to the way they worded the caption under the accompanying picture?

Police say Leanne Lori Benwell, 27, was last seen March 12 after visiting her mother in Edmonton and was reported missing in April.

This acknowledges her as a human being first and foremost as she should be acknowledged.
The media need to stop incorporating the idea of women as either Madonna or whore into their stories. Leanne Lori Benwell is every bit as deserving of a story treating her, her family and her life with respect as anyone else.

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.

Scrolling through Facebook groups I came across one called End Abortion Now!!! Your Mom Made A Choice!

What an interesting thought. My birth mother didn’t in fact make a choice. I am sure at fifteen years of age in a time when “unwed mothers” were sent “away” she may well have made the choice to abort.

Does that make me weep and moan and gnash my teeth? No! I do regret for her sake that there were people who made the choice to deny her the right to choose motherhood or not.

Lisa (not her real name) didn’t make a choice either. Her abusive boyfriend isolated her away from family and friends and forced pregnancy upon her keeping her housebound, she had little prenatal care. Shortly after the birth he began abusing the baby viciously until the CAS were finally called in by neighbours.

I remember as a child my parents discussing a co-workers family. A new baby had just been born but the mother died. The doctors presented the father with the choice to save one or the other, he had been taught as a good catholic that the baby must live and so he sentenced his wife to death.

Even as a young child I could see there was no choice on the part of the mother.

Mary was 18 and a virgin when she was date raped. Too afraid to tell her very religious catholic parents. She ignored her lack of periods and swelling belly. When her pregnancy became visible her father beat her till she miscarried telling her she wasn’t going to embarrass him just because she was a slut. She left home but never reported either the rapist or her father. Neither her pregnancy nor her parent induced abortion was her choice.

These are not extreme and rare stories, though I wish were. This is the reality of being born with a womb.

©2010 April Reign. All Rights Reserved.