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Death leaves a heartache

“Death leaves a heartache.”

Those were the words on a card that Jennifer Chieh Ho, the UNE’s Regional Vice-President for B.C. and Yukon, received during last week’s Memorial March.

While countless Canadians were putting final touches on their Valentine’s Day plans, many others took to the streets to honour our country’s missing and murdered women. The first Memorial March took place 22 years ago in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

Over the past decade, these marches have started taking place in many cities across Canada.

Kristin Gilchrist, a co-founder of Families of Sisters in Spirit and a doctoral student at Carleton University’s department of sociology, says these marches have grown considerably thanks to the important work of countless grassroots organizations.

“They draw critical awareness to the violence happening in our communities, especially violence directed at Indigenous women,” wrote Gilchrist.

Chieh Ho and a few members of her Local attended this year’s march where it all started: in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. She said she was especially happy to see such a diverse group of allies demonstrating for this important cause.

“There were many aboriginal brothers and sisters, but there were also a very encouraging number of men and women of all nationalities, of all ages, who came to support,” she remarked.

“The march took us to a number of spots where women were found murdered or were last seen before they went missing,” said Chieh Ho. “We took a moment at each spot to honour each woman.”

Chieh Ho said that a rose was left to mark each spot: a red rose for women found murdered – a yellow rose for women who have gone missing.

“I was a bit shocked and saddened by the number of times we stopped,” she added.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada has a list of more than 500 confirmed cases of missing and murdered native women – and those are just the ones they can actually confirm.

Gilchrist says that Indigenous women face many barriers when it comes to being heard.

“Barriers are especially apparent when there’s a failure by allies to make connections between anti-violence, anti-colonialism, and settler responsibility,” wrote Gilchrist.

She says Indigenous women’s voices are often included only as an afterthought or silenced altogether. And it’s not at all uncommon for those running their own agenda to simply expect these women to go along with their plans.

“These things happen far too often,” she added.

The Harper government continues to brush off demands for a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

As Jennifer Lord of the Native Women’s Association of Canada told us last year: “This is what the families want.”

There are many photos of the march on Flickr.

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Black History Month – Viola Desmond

Last year, in honour of Black History Month, we shared with you the story of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a pioneer of the equality rights movement in Canada. We did that primarily because Black history, especially Black women’s history, has largely been overlooked.

Dr. Audrey T. McCluskey, Professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, confirmed this sentiment when we corresponded with her last year.

“Black women’s history has been in the shadows for too long,” wrote Professor McCluskey. “So much more needs to be done to bring this history of struggle, courage, disappointment, and overcoming—continually overcoming—to a broader audience.”

So with those inspirational words in mind, we’d like to shine the spotlight on another brave Black woman. Her name was Viola Desmond – and in 1946, she caused quite a commotion.

Desmond was a Halifax-born Black woman who owned a hair salon. While on her way to Sydney on business, her car broke down in New Glasgow. After checking into a hotel, she decided to catch a movie. When she asked for a main-floor ticket, she was informed that she’d have to sit in the balcony (apparently, this was the theater’s version of making Blacks sit at the back of the bus).1

“But Viola Desmond recognized instantly that she was being denied seating on the basis of her race. She made a spontaneous decision to challenge this racial segregation, walked back inside and took a seat in the partially-filled downstairs portion of the theatre.”2

That’s when the manager was called… and then the police… until finally, Desmond was dragged out of the theater. Oh, and then they threw her in jail for twelve hours.3

Enter the Judge

The Crown attorney must have dug really deep in the law books because they decided to charge Desmond with defrauding the Nova Scotia government. Yep. Fraud!

When Desmond slipped a dollar for her main-floor ticket, 70 cents were returned to her and she was told to sit in the balcony. A main-floor ticket in the “whites only” section would have cost 40 cents, 4 cents of which were tax. The prosecution alleged that Desmond’s actions amounted to trying to defraud the government out of that extra 1 cent in tax.4

Desmond wasn’t informed of her rights and didn’t have an attorney with her the next morning when she entered the court room. She was fined $26.5

The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People raised money to fight her conviction and her case made it all the way to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, justice didn’t prevail. Desmond lost her case on a technicality.

She may have lost her legal battle, but she lives on a part of our history that deserves be remembered. Our country is often remembered for being a haven for escaped Black slaves. For free Black men and women, it was a place that guaranteed their freedom while the Fugitive Slave Act in the U.S. had been putting their brothers and sisters back into slavery. That’s a part of our legacy that we can be proud of.

But we mustn’t deny the darker parts of our history. Segregation did exist on this side of the border.

Viola Desmond lives on because her story reminds us of the countless Black men and women who were victims of discrimination – and to this day, continue to fight ignorance and prejudice. She lives on because she was a strong, brave, progressive woman who took a stand – who refused to accept the status quo – who refused to be told that she was a second-class citizen.

Viola Desmond is a Canadian hero. Let’s honour her and countless others who fought in the name of equality.

Viola Desmond was post-humously pardoned in 2010.6

[1] Bingham, R., Viola Desmond, the Canadian Encyclopedia

[2] Backhouse, C., Racial Segregation in Canadian Legal History

[3] Bingham, R., Viola Desmond, the Canadian Encyclopedia

[4] Backhouse, C., Racial Segregation in Canadian Legal History

[5] Idem

[6] Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia

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Remembering the victims of the Holocaust

I have learned that the Holocaust was a unique and uniquely Jewish event, albeit with universal implications. Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims. I have learned the danger of indifference, the crime of indifference. For the opposite of love, I have learned, is not hate but indifference. Jews were killed by the enemy but betrayed by their so-called allies who found political reasons to justify their indifference or passivity.1

–       Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born Jewish American and Holocaust survivor

It was on January 27, 1945 that the Soviet Army liberated the survivors at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Soviets found a little more than 7000 prisoners; a dismally small number compared to the 1.1 million prisoners murdered at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945.2

The greatest victims of the Holocaust were Jews, whom Hitler had targeted for genocide. Over 6 million Jewish men, woman and children lost their lives during the Holocaust. Many suffered and toiled in concentration camps that dotted the map from eastern France to modern-day Belarus.

After the war, over 40,000 Holocaust survivors immigrated to Canada.3 Many Jews settled in Montreal, where their French was a great asset. Even in Canada, the Jewish community had to combat discrimination. In 1946, they even had to bring a case against the City of Quebec for preventing them to erect a synagogue.4 By the late 1940s, human rights legislation removed common discriminatory practices.5

A number of other victims also lost their lives during the Holocaust. Among them were millions of Ukrainians and Russians, including many Russian prisoners of war. Millions of Poles and Yugoslavians were also killed. There were also tens of thousands of Gypsies, mentally and physically disabled persons, gay men and Spanish Republicans. Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses were also killed – and it’s unknown how many communists, political prisoners, resistance fighters and trade unionists lost their lives.6

Sadly, genocide is not yet part of our past. Many countries are still at risk of genocide and politicide, including Syria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.7

There are many signs that can signal an impending genocide. Perhaps the most troubling is a tendency to create out-groups, which are then stripped of their humanity.8 During the Holocaust, the Nazis regarded Jews as “parasitic vermin.”9 In Rwanda, the Tutsis were often compared to cockroaches.10

On this day, let’s pay honour to the victims of the Holocaust. Let’s also remember to never be a passive bystander; there are countless who paid the ultimate price for others’ indifference.

1. Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Elie Wiesel and on Signing the Jewish Heritage Week Proclamation April 19, 1985

2. The Liberation of Auschwitz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

3. The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Jew

4. The Canadian Jewish Chronicle – Sep 25, 1946

5. The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Jews

6. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust, Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas

7. Genocide Watch, 2012 Global Watch List

8. Genocide Watch

9. Victims of the Nazi era: Nazi racial ideology, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

10. Peace Pledge Union

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. It’s a day to celebrate the achievements of a civil rights icon – a chance to look back at how much progress that has been made and to look ahead at the tremendous amount work still left to be done in the name of equality.

This year will also mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, which he delivered during the March to Washington. While desegregation and racial harmony were key demands, the march also pushed for more jobs and the elimination of discrimination in hiring practices.

Over 200,000 people joined the demonstration for civil rights. The march had been organized, in part, with the help of labour unions. Asa Philip Randolph, an African-American labour leader, was the march’s head organizer. On that historic day, Randolph told the Times-News that it was “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the nation’s history.”

In 1964, a few months after the U.S. congress passed the Civil Rights Act, Dr. King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. During the award ceremony, Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Jahn noted the following about Dr. King:

“He is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.”

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Human Rights Day

Today is the International Day for Human Rights, which is an occasion to celebrate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration was adopted in the shadow of World War 2. The Nazis had given a new meaning to war. Pictures of concentration camp survivors shocked the world. Global leaders were determined to never let anything like this ever happen again. Thus the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 – and later that year, so was the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Meanwhile in Canada, our government was forced to look at its own actions and realize that it couldn’t take the moral high ground on the global stage while attempting to eliminate a culture at home. At the time, Canada was still banning certain cultural or religious practices of First Nations people, such as powwows and potlatches. Shortly after signing the Declaration, Canada revised the Indian Act to remove many of its most oppressive laws.

To find out more about this year’s theme and what you can do to make your voice count, go to the United Nations’ website.

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Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

On December 6, 1989, 25-year-old Marc Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique in Montreal and shot 28 people before turning the gun on himself. Lépine, who specifically targeted women because of their gender, killed fourteen women that day. The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is an occasion to remember those who died that day and take action to prevent other women from becoming victims of violence.

Violence against women takes many forms. In 2010, girls and women accounted for 7 in 10 victims of police-reported family violence.[1] Shelters for abused women in Canada took in approximately 62,000 women and 38,000 children in a one-year period between April 2007 and March 2008.[2] Women are about three times more likely to be victims of spousal homicide than men.[3]

When we speak of violence against women, we often talk about domestic violence. But many women are victims of violence in the workplace, which includes assault, sexual harassment, bullying, and harassment based on race, disability, sexual orientation, and religion.

In a 2004 study by the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, researchers found that women “experience a range of physical, emotional and financial costs due to their harassment.[4]” The effects aren’t limited to the workplace; the psychological and economic toll often has repercussions on women’s family lives. These women find different ways of dealing with their experience:

Some coping mechanisms may help end the problem of harassment, and others may focus on getting through the day at work.  While some women confront their harasser, the majority of women cope in other ways, such as avoiding the harasser, denying the experience is happening and blaming themselves. [5]

The report identifies a number of suggestions for unions, including getting appropriate training, allowing women to bring their own personal support person into meetings with union representatives, and evaluating whether it is within a complainant’s best interest to address their complaints through a grievance, an employer designed process or a joint union-employer process.

For more information on workplace violence, consult the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. If you know a woman who is being abused, Health Canada recommends contacting the following services in your community: shelter or transition home, police department, victim services, crisis centre or crisis line, women’s centre, social service agency or health care centre.

[1] Marie, S. (2012) Family Violence in Canada, 2010: A statistical profile Statistics Canada Juristat Article. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11643-eng.pdf

[2] Family Violence in Canada: a statistical profile (2009) Statistics Canada. Retrieved from : http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/pdfs/fv-85-224-XWE-eng.pdf

[3] Beattie, S., Cotter, A. (2009) Homicide in Canada. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2010003/article/11352-eng.htm

[4] Carr, J, Huntley, A, MacQuarri, B, and Welsh, S. (2004) Violence and Harassment in the Workplace. Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. Retrieved from: http://www.crvawc.ca/documents/WorkplaceHarassmentandViolencereport.pdf

[5] Carr, J, Huntley, A, MacQuarri, B, and Welsh, S. (2004) Violence and Harassment in the Workplace. Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. Retrieved from: http://www.crvawc.ca/documents/WorkplaceHarassmentandViolencereport.pdf

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Let's bring people together

Everyone knew that I was ‘different’ – everyone except for me.

My family tried very hard to take the concept of “different” out of my understanding. Others took great pride in pointing out my disability to my parents and siblings – and to me. Some, believe it or not, thought that they were being helpful. Some just intended to be funny; others meant to be cruel.

All I know is how it made me feel.

I learned early that I would have to toughen up if I was going to be able to deal with being ‘different’. After all, I was reminded of my disability every day. Sometimes it was intentional and sometimes it was accidental – but I was reminded nonetheless.

I remember riding in an elevator with a father and his young son. As I left the elevator, I heard the child ask his father, “Why does that man walk like that?” His father quickly and softly replied, “Don’t ask questions”.

Why not? What is the fear? The fear of offending? Walk around me, ignore me or laugh at me – will I not be offended then? Is it the fear of embarrassment? Whose embarrassment? Yours or mine?

I wish that everyone had the self-assuredness of that young boy; I wish they had the courage to ask their nonjudgmental questions so that they could come to an understanding to satisfy their curiosity. I wish everyone would simply accept me just as I am.

Yes, I am different. But so are you. We need to be! Imagine how boring life would be if we had 8.3 billion copies of the same person.

We all need to learn ways to bring people together, not force people apart.

Unity in Diversity should be celebrated every day. On this International Day of Persons with Disabilities, make it a point to ask someone to share a part of their story with you – and yours with them.

You may be surprised at what you find out – about them, or about yourself!

Michael Freeman is the Union of National Employees’ Regional Representative for Human Rights in Ontario.

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Trans Day of Remembrance

This International Transgender Day of Remembrance, over 60 transgender people who have been murdered or who died under suspicious circumstances are being memorialized. Among these victims is 26-year-old January Marie Lapuz from Westminster, British Columbia.

Lapuz was found in her home, fatally stabbed, on September 29.

“The obstacles she overcame as an immigrant, as a transgender person, as a person in poverty, as a person working in a high-risk occupation, she really overcame a lot,” said Alex Shanga of Sher Vancouver, in an interview with the New West Record.

“I learned that society is not providing enough supports for people like January Marie,” added Shanga.

Queen’s Human Rights Office notes that while there is insufficient research on the violence perpetrated against transgender people, preliminary research points to a very high incidence.

Carrie Davis, Director of Operations for GenderPac, reported in a speech in March of 1999 that almost 60% of [transgender] people are victims of violence. GenderPac is also compiling statistics on the number of [transgender] people who are murdered because they are [transgender]. According to their figures, currently in the United States, one [transgender] person is murdered each month. It is believed that this number seriously underestimates the real level of violence because these crimes are often attributed to gay-bashing or other causes.

Additionally, Queens remarks that a transgender person who is a victim of violence may be reticent to identify themselves as transgender when reporting the crime to police.

Trans Day of Remembrance events and vigils will be held across Canada and around the world. To find an event near you, please consult the International Transgender Day of Remembrance website.

For more information on how you can be an ally to trans people in the workplace, please consult the Canadian Labour Congress’ publication entitled Workers in Transition: A Practical Guide for Union Representatives.

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International Day of the Girl

Today is the International Day of the Girl. It’s a chance to reflect on how many battles women have won in the name of equality and fairness. It can’t be understated how many more opportunities girls today have compared to generations ago.

But the fight isn’t over. Today, at the Union of National Employees, we’d like to spark a discussion about stereotypes. Don’t be shy; use the comment box below or go to our Facebook page to join the conversation.

On this Day of the Girl, we ask: do stereotypes still affect girls’ choices when it comes to career opportunities?

There’s a common stereotype about boys being better at math and science, girls being better at reading and writing. Does the theory have any basis in truth?

The last report (2010) from the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program revealed the following:

  • In math, there was no significant difference in the performance of girls and boys at the national level. However, more boys than girls were able to demonstrate high- level math knowledge and skill proficiency.
  • For Canada as a whole, girls performed better than boys in both science and reading. More variation was seen at the provincial and territorial level. [1]

So the lines are muddled a bit. However, consider that, as of 2009, Statistics Canada reported that only 3% of women had an occupation in the natural sciences and engineering, versus 10.5% for men. [2]

Could stereotypes affect girls’ performance and attitude towards math and science? Psychologists at the University of Massachusetts were equally curious about this question.

The psychologists asked female students studying biology, chemistry, and engineering to take a very tough math test. All the students were greeted by a senior math major who wore a T-shirt displaying Einstein’s E=mc2 equation. For some volunteers, the math major was male. For others, the math major was female. This tiny tweak made a difference: Women attempted more questions on the tough math test when they were greeted by a female math major rather than a male math major. On psychological tests that measured their unconscious attitudes toward math, the female students showed a stronger self-identification with math when the math major who had greeted them was female. When they were greeted by the male math major, women had significantly higher negative attitudes toward math. [3]

It’s an interesting result, especially when you consider that in the academic sector, women make up 19% of full-time faculty in the natural sciences and engineering. [4]

Finally, there’s another battle going on when it comes to stereotypes: an internal one. Psychologists at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, discovered that when we perceive someone as holding a particular gender stereotype, it affects how competent we sound. The theory is that your brain is so busy monitoring how you come across – because you’re so concerned about the perceived stereotype – that you end up sounding incompetent. [5]

When it comes to math and science, it’s important to recognize that girls are still battling stereotypes. It’s an important issue because stereotypes are the last thing that should bar girls from a career in a field they find fulfilling.

There’s still a lot of work to be done to bust the doors of opportunity wide open.

[1] The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada

[2] Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

[3] Slate Magazine

[4] Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

[5] Implicit Knowledge of and Explicit Beliefs About Gender Stereotypes: Their Relationship to the Perceived Competency of Women