human rights

“Well, you’re not going to solve the problem if you even refuse to say what it is.”

11/04/2007 by Debra

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.”

Khadr Lawyer Harrassed

07/16/2007 by Debra

An article in the Star reports that Omar Khadr’s Canadian lawyer was harassed by U.S. customs officials. He was requested to turn over all papers related to Khadr’s case and had all his personal effects searched as well.

It seems to be standard procedure for guards to violate attorney client privilege by reading defence lawyers notes however, this would appear to be the first time customs officials have become involved.

Omar Khadr is the last western prisoner to be held in Guantanamo and Peter Mackay of Canada’s New Government™ has no plans to activate for his release.

The lack of awareness and concern for human rights is only one of the burdens of shame this government carries.

It makes their rhetoric about being in Afghanistan to promote human rights and democracy a little hard to swallow. Much like the same from Bush makes one choke.

I’m ok..you’re gay

07/12/2007 by Debra

Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. ~James Baldwin

NEW YORK (AP) — The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gay-rights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation.
Such efforts — often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy — are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists. Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.
A six-member task force set up by the APA has its first meeting beginning next Tuesday.
Already, scores of conservative religious leaders and counselors, representing such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, have written a joint letter to the APA, expressing concern that the task force’s proposals would not properly accommodate gays and lesbians whose religious beliefs condemn gay sex.
“We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual,” said the letter, which requested a meeting between APA leaders and some of the signatories.

It is incredible to think that in 2007 there is anyone who still believes that homosexuality is a disease or an abomination. Sadder still that such people rather than keeping to dark dank diseased corners of bigotry feel quite safe spewing their prejudice like toxic rain upon anyone who will listen. [Read more…] about I’m ok..you’re gay

“Working Girls” and the Media

07/12/2007 by Debra

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. [Read more…] about “Working Girls” and the Media

Immigration Equality

06/26/2007 by Debra

Womens Enews has an article today on lesbians and the immigration system.

Some things I didn’t know, gay couples are not allowed to sponser each other in the same way that hetrosexual couples are.

One major barrier is U.S. refusal to recognize same-sex relationships for immigration purposes, which means that U.S. lesbians are unable to sponsor foreign partners as hundreds of thousands of heterosexuals do. In 2006 about 27 percent of the total grants of permanent residency were awarded to members of a heterosexual couple.
“If someone is straight and in a relationship, boom-boom-boom and they’re done,” says private attorney Noemi Masliah in New York. “Same-sex partners have to jump through the hoops and find different ways. Or some just give up . . . It’s not fair that a lesbian’s status is employment-based and the other (straight) piece is family-based. I think it’s very sad and very dismal and very unfair.”

[Read more…] about Immigration Equality

Mothers

05/09/2007 by Debra

An interesting article at Women’s Enews on mothering and the value placed on it. While much lip service is given to the undertaking, little is done to actually support those choosing to have children.

(WOMENSENEWS)–The news media loves stories about highly educated mothers opting out of rewarding careers to stay at home with their young children.
Anecdotal evidence unsupported by serious research is also constantly drumming home the idea that women consider themselves the best providers of child care. For example, a 2006 Salary.com survey of what mothers do “on the job” leads with the headline “Dream Job: Stay at Home Mom.” Although the survey claims that equal numbers of working and stay-at-home mothers participated, quotes from the happy, at-home mothers dominate the report.
For instance, working mothers are “horrified” at the thought of hiring strangers to care for their children, they believe that mother’s care is “priceless” and that motherhood is the “greatest job in the world.” It’s easy to stay on message: Women must choose between work and family.
But the opposite message is sent to low-income mothers.
The recent debate over the welfare-to-work provisions of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families–or welfare–captures this difference. Congress did not debate the best means to provide even minimally adequate day care to the children of single parents. Instead they wondered whether or not the required hours of paid work should be increased!
Why does popular sentiment portray some mothers as virtuous when they drop out of the labor force to care for their families, while others are responsible only if they work for pay outside the home?

With Mothers Day coming up and the usual platitudes running rampant trying to get you to spend spend spend to show mom how much you love her, and with the forced pregnancy folks all creamed up about Bushie and company and their anti choice stance, I thought it might be interesting to see just how much mothers are valued once those sacred womb contents are born. [Read more…] about Mothers