Hmm, the folks at L.O.V.E. Vancouver have got me thinking (more)… What is the goal of equality?  Does equality = dignity?  If it does, then is The Law an effective tool (or a tool at all) for fighting inequalities/fighting for equality?  In other words, is it possible to realize our dignity/dignities through The Law?  Or is The Law another structure that co-opts/delimits resistance and social change?

Bonjour Montréal. C’est quoi ton opinion sur la justice sociale et l’égalité. Quel enjeu rencontres-tu dans ta vie quotidienne et quelle solution trouves-tu? Partager vos idées et participer dans le débat.

Welcome Montreal. What is your opinion on social justice and equality? What issues to you face in your daily life and what solutions do you find? Share your ideas and join in the debate.

The Montreal Youth Commission Face book group is found at:

LEAF Youth Commission on Social Justice and Equality in Montreal

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121790991188019&ref=mf

I have moved, or been forced to move, seven times over the past 18 months.  I’ve just been evicted from my current residence, where I’ve lived for one month, and so am being forced to move again at the end of June.  Housing, and more aptly, affordable housing, is a huge issue in Victoria BC, and in many cities across the country.

In May 2009, I moved out of a community house I was living in, because the number of people and animals living there created too much stress and social contact for me to live comfortably.  It was a five bedroom house which we made affordable by having 7 people living there – all of the bedrooms were filled, and we also had roommates living in the dining room and in a basement crawl space.  Because so few landlords allow tenants to have dogs and cats, and ours did, we also had up to five dogs and two cats living there at once.  And, because we had illegal occupants, we lived in a constant state of stress about our landlords’ impromptu drop-ins, and frequent visits to the house to do “yard work.”  We knew well that is was illegal for her to attempt entry to the house without first giving us 24 hours written notice, but we also knew that she would not take kindly to being refused entry, and would make our lives more difficult if we complicated hers. 

 From there, I moved into another community house where I lived from June 2009 – September 2009.  The house was reasonably affordable, but residency required living underneath our incredibly disruptive and abusive landlord, who co-owned the house with his sister and mother.  I would be woken up regularly (3-4 times per week) at 4am, 5am, or 6am by him blaring music that caused my bed and walls to shake.  When I went upstairs to request that he quiet down, he would turn it down momentarily, until I went back down to my suite, flatly refuse, or toss me a set of earplugs.  He would enter our apartment unannounced, and help himself to our beer, cigarettes…whatever.  One of my roommates once returned home to find him in our kitchen, with none of us home, rifling through our freezer.  He once let himself into our apartment on the first of the month, and walked directly into my bedroom, where I was in bed in my underwear, and demanded his rent cheque.  Flustered after having woken up to my abusive landlord in my room, I got up to write the cheque, and while I was leaning over my desk filling it out, he picked up a leather studded belt from the floor of my room, and struck my butt with it.  Twice.  On top of the difficulties he imposed, his family was completely unreceptive to our complaints, the kitchen ceiling leaked constantly, the driveway filled up with the garbage our landlord threw from his third story window, and our stairs were on the brink of collapse.  I moved out, and subletted from a friend who had gone traveling.

 I informally subletted my friends apartment from September 2009 to January 2010, when her lease expired.  Upon its expiry, the landlord wished to sign a new tenancy agreement that would see my rent raised by $150.  I couldn’t afford it, and so was forced to move.  During the last month of my tenancy, I discovered that the landlord had been showing my suite without giving me any notice or informing me that she had.  One day, as I was getting dressed (it was a bachelor apartment) I heard keys in the door, and she barged in with two huge young men.  My apartment was a mess, with many personal and private items on display, and I was in my underwear.  When I told her what she was doing was illegal, she said simply “Well, I don’t even have your phone number, ” which I had given her upon moving in.

 Unable to find affordable housing for several months, I moved into my mom’s tiny apartment for one month, and then into my sister and brother-in-law’s basement for three months.  In April 2010, I moved into an apartment I couldn’t afford because I had outstayed my welcome at my sister’s.  I stayed in my new residence until June 2010, when I moved into an inexpensive and clean apartment with some friends.  Our landlord then attempted to impose an illegal rent increase of $150, and when we refused, she served us an eviction notice on the grounds that an immediate family member would be moving into the suite.

 That brings us to now.  Eighteen months, seven moves, and another coming at the end of this month.  Meanwhile, the tenants of the original community house I lived in were evicted in March 2010, with the minimum notice the landlord was required to give – two months – and under the pretense that her daughter would be moving into the house.  Similarly, two other community houses that I know of in Victoria – and within two blocks of one another – have been evicted on the grounds of “renovations.”  These are the only two reasons that landlords can impose evictions in Victoria – an immediate family member moving in, or renovations.  My suspicion is that these landlords are in collusion with one another, driving tenants out, and then driving up the rent.

In my own life, and in the lives of people in a similar income bracket as myself, affordable housing is virtually impossible to find or keep for any length of time.  Landlords exploit loopholes in the residential tenancy act to get their way, or simply wear their tenants down with authoritative vigilance, bullying, and aggression.  It strikes me that landlords, as people who “own” land and housing, have a great deal more resources – with financial resources at the top of the heap – than their tenants.  They are able to exploit them and circumvent justice to get their way and continue making the most revenue possible off of their suites.  I have considered moving from this city, but I have not, as of yet, been able to gather enough funds to make the costs of a move feasible.  With $20, 000 of student debt, and a maxed out credit card from the time I was a student, on top of $600 ++ rent each month, I still barely get by despite working a well-paying job.  

We need a cap on rental costs.  We need better and more accessible affordable housing non-profits and programs.  We need tighter legislation around residential tenancy, and stronger laws preventing landlords from exploiting or evicting their tenants.  We need co-ops.  We need less starkly class-oriented tenancy requirements, that suggest each person in a tenancy needs a separate room of their own.  We need greater rights and freedoms for tenants.  We need a tenancy arbitration system that is timely and that affords tenants legal resources and representatives.  We need government-sponsored housing initiatives that disallow the free market from compromising our human right to housing.  As far as I  know, there is no longer any government funding for cooperative housing initiatives in Canada, and affordable housing grants are few and not easily procured, especially by the people who might need them most.  

What have your experiences trying to find stable and affordable housing taught you?  How do you think the affordable housing crises across the country might be resolved?

What does it mean to be an ally? What would be the dynamics of this relationship?

When I was an undergraduate Women’s Studies student, I learned a great deal about how oppressive psychology permeates our minds, and our communities, and the institutions that govern our day-to-day lives.  As a student, myself and my peers were intellectually ruthless – tearing ideas, and identities, and experiences apart to understand the deeper meanings and to interpret our lives through the theories we were learning and developing.  Since graduating from school, my thinking has shifted a bit, becoming a little more open, a little less academic.        

Now, back in my community and in a non-intellectual job and workplace, I often find myself in situations that I would identify as oppressive.  Often, these moments are fleeting and ambiguous – a quick comment or “joke,” a momentary action, or merely an absence of commentary or representation.  Usually, these moments are not intentionally malicious.  Usually, the person saying or doing oppressive things is simply unaware of the implications of their words or actions.  Sometimes people are genuinely malicious, strategically working to gain power by acting in oppressive ways.  Sometimes people think that being oppressive is funny for its contrariness and seeming edginess.  Thus, bringing anti-oppressive dialogue into my day-to-day life has been a complex experience.  Responding is largely dependent on the way that oppressive attitudes are being expressed, by whom, how i interpret their receptivity, and what safety risks might be involved.   

How, as a community of people invested in social change and equality, do you initiate these conversations?  Do you try to ensure that they happen in a constructive way?  Why or why not?  How do you connect with people in a way that honours differences in experience, education, and exposure to ideas?  What are some ways that we can begin effectively disseminating the language and ideas of anti-oppressive politics, so that a larger population of people has the tools to express their experiences?

last night i was watching the news and they said the oil spill will likely continue to gush until august…AT LEAST! i can’t help but think about how crazy are world is.  how much it doesn’t make sense…and where we are headed…

i think many of our equality rights are directly tied in with our responsibility to mother earth…and how we care for her. as the oil continues to seep into the ocean, many people are losing their livelihoods, animals are dying (and will continue to), people are getting sick…and who knows what else is happening. but the oil companies still refuse to stop the insanity of drilling for oil in our oceans.  what are we doing about this?  how are we holding corporations responsible when we allow them to kill our home?  i wonder how our rights and responsibilities change when the very home we all live on hangs in peril.

i think all rights are interconnected–how we treat each other is not separate from how we treat the earth, animals, our air. i think equality rights (any rights!) are inseparable from our responsibility to treat all life with respect and honour.  i wonder if maybe equality rights are that simple: respect, honour, self-awareness, responsibility to all life.

this is a cool link that talks about the possible impact of the gulf oil spill on all of us:http://www.naturalnews.com/028893_top_kill_Gulf_Coast.html

Girl on girl hate appears to be a whole ‘new’ and different issue that young women are facing today.

From what I understand from conversations from women of all ages, it used to be that outward sexism was so prominant in society that it required women to unite and work together against this visibly oppressive force.

However, now that sexism has arguably learnt how to better hide itself, it has taken on a less visible form that is now polluting the laws, policies, and attitudes of today’s society in a more underhanded and less obvious way.

Without a visible and clearly identifiable ‘enemy’, many young women seem to have lost their comradery, they have lost their female support system.

Based on the testimonies of my peers, many women experience their worst name calling, demeaning glares, and competitive attitudes from their fellow women.

This blog is not seeking to separate the sexes by blaming one sex over the other.  But it would be interesting to hear the comments of others on this topic as well as any suggests as to how Canadian woman can come together  as a forceful support system working against systemic sexism in Canada.  Thereby ensuring that the fight for equality does not lose its momentum.

Yesterday while attending a leadership dinner, one of the individuals was having a fun discussion by making sexist jokes about women. While everyone was having a good laugh, would the same be acceptable in a formal setting such as at work etc. Does the saying hold true for us that everything is ok for the sake of a good laugh? Does being too serious about how this proliferates into our everyday actions makes one uptight? Or using humor to laugh at stereotypes breaks barriers to have a dialogue and conversation? Has too much become taboo to speak about in society which leads to an over censorship?

Bill 94, the Niqab law, recently proposed in Quebec requires that any person requesting services in a public institution must do so with an ‘uncovered face’ for identification, security and if required to facilitate communication.

The Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University publicly stated in response that “regulating women’s public religious expression and denying them access to government services and public life is not a step in the direction of gender equality” but instead we should be “attending to gender-based violence, poverty, women’s health, and women’s access to education and work.” To see the Institute’s full public response see: http://wsdb.Concordia.ca    

My personal opinion is that the law has the responsibility to protect the rights of all women and their right to self-determination. Of the young Muslim women I have met over the years who have made the choice to wear the hijab, they have done so for different reasons ranging from religious, cultural and personal identity to showing their solidarity with Muslim women around the world that are denied that CHOICE.

The simplest solution may be to communicate openly, learn from each other and to continue to provide community support to all newcomers, especially if their personal histories hinder adaptation, social integration and their own overall wellbeing.

I have been shocked by the recent resurgence of mainstream commentary and discussion about Women’s rights to reproductive freedom, including the right to choose abortion.  Of course, I shouldn’t be, because I should probably know by now that as a woman, my rights are never truly secure.

Stephen Harper and his Conservative representatives are refusing to even discuss funding abortion as a means of providing women around the world with reproductive freedom at the G8 meeting.  Recently, a representative of the Catholic church suggested that allowing a woman who was impregnated via rape to abort the fetus is a process of double victimization – first the woman is “victimized” by rape, and then the fetus is “victimized’ by abortion.  At the University of Victoria (UVic), an anti-choice student club called Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) is suing the University of Victoria Students’ Society for denying their “Free Speech” by refusing them club status and funding.  I was a student at UVic when this issue first arose several years ago, and it emerged something like this:  YPY posted truly offensive and violent posters that positioned women who undergo abortions as murderers of society’s already oppressed and dispossessed – children born of rape, people with disabilities, etc etc.  I was one of the students who tore down their posters and fought to have YPY denied the right to post them.  That turned into a debate about whether they should even be allowed to be an offical club.  The official stance of the University of Victoria Student’s Society (UVSS) is pro-choice…so it didn’t make much sense for the UVSS to fund an anti-choice group, or award them club status.  The fundamental purpose and ideology of YPY contradicts the values and goals, and definition of freedom, put forth by the UVSS.  YPY sees this as a denial of Free Speech.  I see it as a rejection of violent, oppressive, and misogynistic practices in a declared pro-choice union and group.    

As we know, women’s right to abortion in Canada exists in a sort of legal vaccuum – it is not illegal, but neither is it fully legalized, or formally recognized in law as a human right.  My sense is that for a long time, pro-choice activists have been reluctant to push for full legalization, because it risks reopening the law for debate and commentary, and therefore losing.  While it would be proposterous for the Canadian government to revoke women’s right to abortion, that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a hefty battle if the law was reopened.

So much about mainstream commentary about abortion makes my blood boil.  Often, women and their rights to control their own bodies and lives are completely absent in discussions about abortion.  Anti-choice groups are often able to procure a great deal of funding from religious and conservative organizations, and this in turn translates to power and privilege in the “debate” that they themselves create.  Generally speaking, feminist and pro-choice organizations are less well-funded and economically privileged.  The reality that a fetus is incapable of existing in a living state outside of a woman’s body is ignored.  One slim definition of morality is held above material reality, and the material reality of women’s lives is denied moral character.  There is just so much that is incredibly agitating and muddled when abortion is discussed, and too rarely are feminist and pro-choice perspectives truly heard and honoured. 

How do we confront the resurgence of mainstream anti-choice ideology?  Do we need to be organizing more actively and regularly around pro-choice politics and social movement?  If we accept that the terms of the mainstream abortion “debate” are stagnant, but that it is raging on and continuing to be disseminated, where do we go from here?