Upstream /1 IWD: What are we fighting for?

en's Year, devoted to changing at a consultation meeting with by Pat Daley And Interval Holise, a home long term funding from local our society's attitudes about for women and their children service clubs and donations from ·the secretary of state's Women's Since its establishment 67 women, and in October 1975 who leave hoine and find them­ indlviduals through a fundraising ?rogramme in Ottawa March 3-4, years ago, International W om· minister of · health and welfare selves in emergency situations, campaign to be carried out in also said- they are fighting for en's Day has been a day of worn· Marc Lalonde said, "1975 must is just sci'aping by on a $11.35 April. survival. en's protests and demonstrat· not become the 'token' year in per diem for each person who "There's a possibility in some Secretary of State John Rob­ ions. which women's rights and wom­ stays there from the regional ways of getting some govern­ erts explained government fund­ On March 8, 1908, working en's equality are subjects· of government. ment grants but you have to ing, which, he said, "has to some women in New York marched major debate - a debate that "Vie have been going through come up with something quite extent been put in limbo by the under banners demanding equal might fade into obscurity at somewhat of a financial crisis," intere~ting like statistical re­ restraint program." pay, child care centres, the right year's end.'' Since that time the says Interval House spokes­ search. They might pay someone Roberts said, "There is some to vote, and an end to sweatshop government has been working person Glenda MacPherson, "not to do that but that doesn't help advantage to say we are going to working conditions. slowly but surely on reforms in because we have been going over the regular running of the place. help a variety of activities start Two years later, German soci­ areas like human rights and up, like drilling for oil wells. If alist leader Clara Zatkin called on Canada Pension Plan for home­ they do, over a period of time, the Second International Social­ makers. establish their worth, they will ist Congress in Copenhagen to But, a month after Lalonde's crystallize the need for those establish March 8 as Internation­ statement, Ottawa Women's programs. Then they should be al Working VI omen's Day. De­ Centre staffer Diana Pepall call­ i funded on a regular basis; mands at that congress included ed IWY "a snow job.'' She said "It does seem to me that opposition to the impending the government's emphasis on there's a certain sense in saying Vlorld War I, the right to vote attitudinal changes before legis­ the federal government should and equality with men in the lation made people "feel it is no finance most daycare services. work place. longer a struggle." But if they prove their worth and "These obscure and anxious Two years later, it seems are strong, they should look for women of the poor (ii) New Pepall may have been right; that funding at the local level. The York)," wrote labour organizer 1975 was a "token year.'' federal government may have a Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "with For, although women now strong role in developing pro­ shawls and kerchiefs over their have the right to vote, the other jects, but that is not to say tbe heads, with worn clothes and demands of New York's working federal government should sus­ shabby shoes, did not know they women 69 years ago still stand. tain them. were making history ... This day Daycare facilities are still inade­ "I can see the advantage to· a became known around the quate and social service cutbacks two level process. The federal world.'' at all levels of government are government can start, then we From 1917- when Russian making the situation worse. say 'look you have proved your working women held a demon­ Vlomen are doubly-hurt by the success but for sustaining in a stration and strike that helped cuts because oL.the decrease in permanent way, you should look set off the revolution to 1970 jobs in areas which traditionally for funds elsewhere.' That will when Uruguay's Tupamaro ur­ employ women. VI orking women free funds of ours to start other ban guerillas freed 13 Tupamaro are still living with poor working 'PLEA~,SIR, I WllNT 50/'\E NilRE ~ programs.'' women from prison, March 8 has conditions and '}>OOr wages, most Roberts also expressed a po­ been used by women around the without the protection of a union. our budget, as much as in the fall "Vie have some people from tential concern for the autonomy world to make their voices As for equal pay, the wage gap we didn't have the house running LIP worlQng there and it's a help of voiuntarY organizations, say­ heard. between men and women is con- it full capacity.'' The house will because they're doing some ing he hesitates about ~ving too During Vlorld Viar II, many stantly widening. hold about 20 people. things our regular staffers just much government funding. women throughout Europe cele­ Women's organizations existed "Now things should be getting couldn't do, like programs for the "When you invite the govern­ brated the day in concentration in Canada before IWY and many better because we have been children. But then, of course, ment in as a funding partner, camps or in exile. have .sprung up since. Even having it pretty full lately. But programs like that al'fays end. they gradually take more and "Even in fascist and colonial those are finding it difficult not we still have a large debt to over­ You have to find some other way more control because they are countries, ther~ will be manifest­ only to maintain the services ' come and the budget we are on is of carrying it on or just let it go.'' responsible to the House' of Com­ atiens in prisons and secretly they provide for women, but to very, very tight," she Said. MacPherson said, "Vie feel mons for policies and expend­ among people," Elizabeth Gurley continue the organizations them- MacPherson said Interval that we are really filling an itures of money. You are inviting Flynn wrote in 1947. selves. House is looking at incorporating important need. We have to sub­ in somebody else who says we To many Canadian women, Funding seems to be the big- as a charitable institution which mit a budget soon to the regional have directions and . objectives. that history may seem remote. gest problem now facing worn- means it may be able to get a municipality .and we hope there How do you get the advantage of Spared of the wars and tyran­ en's groups. In Ottawa, VI omen's larger per diem from the provin­ will be a slight increase. Vie hope public funding without the bur­ nical governments, we may ask Career Counselling is undergoing cial government. But, she said, to get some long term funding eaucracy of public control?" what there is to protest on a Canada Manpower review to that also means qiore expenses "from service clubs.'' ' He admitted that "you might International Vlomen's Day. determine if it will survive. This because the province has certain Interval House is not alone in legitimately say that's a bridge The federal government spent newspaper is living hand-to- requirements for the houses. its plight. Representatives of 18 we'll cross when we come to it.'' millions on International Vlom- mouth~ She said they hope to get .more national women's organizations, Roberts also discounted rum­ ours which arose from an inter­ nal report on reorganization of the department of secretary. of state, Women's Career Counselling that the government is consider­ ing dismantling the Women's Programme. But, not all women's grotips Feeling the Squeeze look to the government for mon­ ey. One member of the Ottawa Outreach project funded by Can­ problems. They varied from not VICCS puts the women into Women's Centre policy commit­ ada Manpower, is to be evaluat­ having the proper skills or edu- support groups and workshops. tee said they are hesitant about ed this month to decide whether cation and not knowing what Their annual budget of $60,000 applying to the government for it lives or dies. Based on ques­ they wanted to do, to knowing pays the four salaries, maintains funds, "because when the gov­ tionnaires sent to clients, agen­ what they wanted to do but not the office, covers rent and phone . ernment gives grants, they try cies and.employers who have had how to go about it because of lack bills, as well as office equipment to make you intO a low-cost social contact with the service: as well of experience and/or lack of rental and photocopying ser­ service agency, which we're not. as on information gleaned from funds. vices. The staff counsellors earn We are a political organization. the VICCS's quarterly news re­ Although Canada Manpower less than Canada Manpower "The government funds us be- ports, the Toronto regional office does provide counselling it does counsellors. cause they want to set up a cheap of Canada Manpower will submit not -attempt to answer the spec- How effective has their service orga~tion, to have women do a written report of its findings to ific problems of these women. been? "Manpower weighs su~- the work that the government the local Ottawa manpower pro­ The VICCS is concerned with cess in terms of placement. Vie should be doing. The information ject manager later this month. individual career orientation and weigh success in terms of de­ and referral that we provide is a It is then up to the local man­ planning. Each woman who cision making and in terms of po)jticizing effort." ager to decide whether the ser­ comes in for help receives per- change", says Dwyer. If a wom­ So, the Women's Centre too vice provided by the VICCS fits sonal attention in assessing her an walks out of here knowing is looking at different fund raising in with the designated priorities own specific needs. herself, having made a decision projects to sustain it. for this area. A frustrating his­ The majority of women who and feeling good about it, then Sometimes the history of In­ tory of lack of cooperation from use the centre are between the_ that is success, she stresses. ternational Women's Day activ­ the Ottawa manpower office has ages of 35 and 50, with an aver- It is important to note, how­ ities in other countries does not by Lucie Sawczenko left. the centre's staff pessimistic age grade 10 level of education, ever, that the placement record seem so far away. Women in about their chances of being re­ says Helen Dwyer, a counsellor of the VICCS has been qµite re­ Canada have been making the There is a strong possibility funded. who has been with \VCCS for spectable. Their average ratio is same demands - equal pay, that the Vlomen's Career Coun­ The service, informally organ­ over two years. They usually four referrals for every job universal daycare, the right to selling Service may no longer be ized over three years ago in the have been at home raising chil- placement while some Manpower birth control and abortion and in operation a month from today. Vlomen's Centre, arose out of a dren, have gone through a period centres have a ratio of eight to more - for decades, with limit­ "Changing priorities, that is definite need to provide women of feeling isolated and scared and one. ed success, at best. And the what we're victim to more than with career counselling that was don't know what to do. Many are Approximately 400 women ·organizations working for wom- anything else," says Pat Hacker, personally oriented. Specifically, on public assistance and have have used the VICCS in the past en to get these changes are one of three counsellors at the the service was for women who financial burdens; others are sin- year, a dramatic indiciation of fighting a double battle. At the centre. "My feeling_ is that wom­ had been out of the work force gle parents with child care wor- Approximately 400 women same time as organizing, lobby-. en are simply no longer a prior­ for a number of years and who ries, or ex-psychiatric patients have used the VICCS in the past ing and providing services, they ity, not since Vlomen's Year". wanted to get back in, but were with 89justment problems. year, a dramatic indication of the are waging a life and death The three-year old wees, an faced with a variety of re-entry After individual counselling, need for such a service. struggle simply to survive. Z/ u,..._ MU'daum Saskatchewan gets rape crisis line

Saskatchewan's first rape the support we'll be able to give moral support to rape victims in making the service, and the front page of the directory, crisis line was instituted in Re­ women who have been raped, during police questioning, med­ phone number, known to the with all the other emergency gina in February, by the Regina will .result in more rape cases ical examinations, and through public. numbers, we would have to Colmmunity Women's Centre, being taken through the court proceedings should char­ "We are havin,.g problems state in writing our funding although Centre members feel courts," Kokotailo said, "but is . ges be pressed, Kokotailo said. with Sask-Tel in getting the sources, and prove that we are its situation is less than ideal. . strictly the woman's -personal. The centre will also put rape number published in the phone the only such centre in the "We applied for funds to set decision whether she wants to victims in touch with each directory," she said. "They' city." up the line and the crisis centre go to court or not. She will be other, for mutual supp0rl, an·d have some law that says you Kokotailo said at present the along with our operating bud­ able to count on our full sup­ offer self-defence courses for can't list a number without rape crisis line number is being get to the Local Initiatives port, no matter what her deci­ women. giving the address for it as well, made known to all departments Project. program," said Terry sion is." Kokotailo said now that the which, of course, we don't of social services, as well as Kokotailo, a member of the If called, the women of the centre is established, another want. We were also told that to being promoted in local radio Women's Centre. "However, a centre will give assistance and problem is in getting assistanr.e get the number listed on the and television interviews. rape crisis line, and centre, such as we've set up should ideally remain anonymous, be­ cause similar centres in other cities have received weird and Chicago woman fired; threatening phonecalls; some crisis centre workers have been attacked and raped themselves. There is no way, in our situa­ tion of having the crisis line Wouldn't make boss coffee right in the Women's Centre, that we can publicize the activ­ A legal secretary in chicago's about the stand-off contacted ities of the Women's Centre public defender's office has been Women Employed (WE), an or­ without exposing the workers fired because she refused to ganization of women office work­ to this danger." make coffee for her boss. ers The group organized a de­ Kokotailo said all four mem­ Iris Rivera, 35, was given a monstration at Rivera's· office bers of the Women's Centre two week's 'termination notice Feb. 2. According to Jackie Shad would serve as staff of the rape Jan. 25 because she wouldn't of WE, 50 women "demonstrated crisis line as well. comply with a new policy set by for the ignorant executive exact­ "There appeared to be no director James Geis at the office ly how to make a cup of coffee." other ·way to get the line ex­ of the state appellate defender. Jean Hoffencamp of WE present­ tablished in Re_gina," Ms. Koko­ Iris Rivera, 35, was given a ed a bag of wet ·coffee grounds to tailo said. "There were only 12 two week's termination notice one of the lawyers. reported rapes in Regina last Jan. 25 because she wouldn't "It's incredible," a WE staffer year, not a number tha:t could comply with a new policy set by said, referring to the response to be used to justify the establish­ director James Geis at the office the discrimination, "the phone ment of a separate centre. We of the state appellate defender. hasn't stopped ringing for two know there are more rapes than The office represents criminally­ days. Women from all over are that here, but unti.1 a centre like accused poor people in their registering their support." this is set up, the number of appeals. Since Rivera's fair employ­ reported rapes will probably "From now on," wrote Geis, ment claim may not be heard for stay low. Also, there is a high "all secretaries will have respon­ two years; she expects to lose number of non-reportable rapeS sibility for making coffee without her job and is worried about under the present laws, a assistance from the attorneys." getting a new one, noting, "I'm woman can't charge her hus­ But Rivera refused. afraid that I'm labelled a militant band with rape. This doesn't "I don't drink coffee," she or a troublemaker.'" mean she won't need help deal­ explained. "It's JlOt listed as one But she says she hopes the ing with the situation, though. of my job duties and ordering support she's getting will force "We definitely hope that the coffee is carrying the role of the public defender's office to setting up of this centre, and homemaker too far." rehire her. "If you're refusing to make with Illinois' Fair Employment "I'm getting calls from secre­ coffee," responded Geis, "consid­ Practices commission. At the taries all over the country," she er yourself fired." same time, she appealed her said. "Who would think that Rivera, a former factory work­ dismissal to Ted Gottfried, the something so petty would brew Woman.wins er and widow who supports state public defender in Spring­ up into something so big?" herself and three children on an field. The appeal has been annual salary of $9,600, filed a denied. UIC Appeal sex discrimination complaint Area secretaries who heard Liberation News Service

Vancouver A British Colum­ working or collecting UIC bene­ bia federal court judge ruled fits 10 weeks in and around the Students and Child Care "inoperative" a section of the time of conception," according Unemployment Insurance Act to lawyer Allan McLean who by Dan O'Connor last month because it discrim­ handled the case for Bliss and ation, a working father cannot changed, however. inates on the basis of sex. the Service, Office and Retail "Who has less money for ex - claim the expenses if his wife There will be further efforts to Section 46 of the act auto­ Workers Union of Canada tras than students?," asked Carol leaves work for more schooling. get either a believable explana­ matically disqualifies pregnant (SORWUC). Massi, a student at Ryerson Federal officials say that this is tion of the .child care deduction women, or those who have just Since Bliss was unemployed Polytechnic~! Institute in Tor­ not really discrimination, it is for students or a non-discrim­ given birth from receiving reg­ at the time of conception she did onto. Unhappily she found out just that one must understand inatory child care deduction. ular benefits regardless of their not qualify for the 15 week that the federal government did the income tax act. They say the Students, male and female, are availability for work. maternity benefits. Her appli­ not allow students to deduct deduction exists to help working advised that if they have taxable Judge Frank Collier said, cation for regular benefits was their child care expenses. mothers and single-parent fam­ income and fall into the categor­ "The right to equality before rejected although she was will­ Carol and other women stud­ ilies. ies of working mother or single the law of those persons is ... in­ ing and able to work. ents at Ryerson asked Ryerson Meanwhile, the taxation de­ father, the deduction can be used fringed because of discrimina­ Employed with a Vancouver Student Council to pressure for a partment changed the descrip­ to cover child care expenses. tion by reason of sex," after car sales company, Bliss was change in the income tax policy. tion of the child care deduction. hearing the case of a B.C. fired four days before giving Ryerson gained support from the In 1975 they said "Please do not woman disqualified from mater­ birth. According to her legal national Union of Students and claim expenses for child care nity benefits and fired from her brief, she was ready to work its member institutions. which enabled you to attend­ MOLLIE'S PLACE job four days before giving one week later. Ryerson and other student which enabled you to attend­ Weekends are for wom­ birth. SORWUC president Pat Bar­ councils found that, although a school or university." How they en. A simple house in rural "It plainly denies benefits to ter said the ruling "is really a working mother can deduct child say "new provisions for child Quebec 1 hour from Ott­ certain claimants who might breakthrough for women before care expenses if her husband care expenses will also apply to awa. No frills, home-cook­ otherwise be covered b_y the en­ the law." quits work to further his educ- students." The rules were not ed meals eaten round the titlement provision·s, even kitchen table (vegetarian McLean noted that without though those claimants prove if you choose) and any one the union's "special privileges" themselves separated from em­ can put the kettle on in the case would nave died be­ ployment, capable of and avail­ between. Bring cross­ cause "if the board of referees able for work, but unable to ob­ GLEBE MEAT MARKET country skis, snow shoes rules against you unanimously tain suitable employment," he or your favourite book. said. and if you can't convince the chairman to give you special A-1 steer, fresh lamb, veal, pork Friday evening to Sun- In doing so Collier overturn­ permission to appeal, you are day evening ed a UIC board of referees de­ Hours: Mon-Thurs 9-6; Fri 9-9; Sat 8-5 blocked." $35 inclusive cision which denied benefits for Stella Bliss. She was ineligible The board of referees is the 793 Bank Street 235-9595 $18.50 Sat. to Sunday for maternity benefits because first step in the appeal process, Section SO of the act ·"basically MOLLIE SMART followed by an umpire. UIC has free delivery with order over $30 says that a )Voman must be the right to appeal the decision. (819) 985-3291 March1977 U)llltream /3 MADELINE PARENT Women hit hard by inflation, cutbacks

unemployment," she said. southern U.S. with profits made this in part by providing social by Philip Gibson Parent stated that after wage from Quebec cotton mills. services. Women workers are hit hard­ controls were introduced "it be­ Labour leaders who advocate During the current period of in­ est by the combined effects of the came a sin to ask for higher_ tripartism do not understand flation and high unemployment federal anti-inflation programme wages. It was theorized that that the true fight is between the state has a choice to make. It and federal social service cut­ wages caused inflation and prices workers and private enterprise, can fulfill its third role and backs. just reflected increased wages. according to Parent. provide more services to satisfy Madeline Parent, organizer for Profits, well they just were not "What else can Morris expect public demand, such as more un­ the Canadian Textile and Chemi­ important." but more strife?" she asked. employment payments, welfare, cal Union, told a meeting organ­ She said not only must work­ Parent maintained that the and hospitals. ized by the Ottawa Committee ers fight employers for wage only real strength workers have Or it can fulfill its first function for Labour Action that because increases, but now they must is collective bargaining and the and satisfy the interests of pri­ women workers are lower paid fight the AIB which has been in­ right to strike. Tripartism would vate investors. It has chosen the and more tied to children and creasingly hard on workers even put collective bargaining in the second path in the hopes that housework than men workers though "decontrol" is on the hands of a few _"labour bosses" private investment will improve they suffer most by cutbacks in horizon. and would take away the right to the general situation. The result social services such as daycare. She criticized recent Canadian strike from the rank and file. is less social services pending Added to this burden is the Labour Congress (CLC) propos­ She said the current call by and more spending to subsidize bias created by the anti-inflation als for a tripartite national econ­ business and government leaders ("encourage") private investors, board (AIB) which calculates all omic planning council made up of to keep permanent controls on who of course still keep their wage increases by percentages labour, business and govern­ public employees such as munici­ Madeline Parent profits. ThlS, she said, is an incentive to ment. It would have the power to pal and hospital workers must be Katz said one result is an employers and trade unions to manage the economy. Any la­ resisted. This would only turn services and wage controls were attempt to isolate and impose negotiate percentage increases. bour leader, she said, referring worker against worker and be a part of a general assault by the further controls on public em­ A 10 per cent hike will increase to CLC president Joe Morris, first step towards removing the state on Canadian workers. ployees. He agreed with Parent the difference between a worker who thinks it is possible to sit right to strike from all workers. He said a state such as ours that this attempt to divide work­ earning $6,000 and . one earning down and plan the economy with Parent advocates increasing has a threefold function. First, it ers has to be resisted. CUPE, he $12,000 by $600. The result is business is out of touch with the rank and file communication be­ creates and maintains an econ­ said, would do so by informing all that lower paid workers (most workers. They do not want to tween public and private sector omic climate which will encour­ workers of the causes and effects often women) fall farther and discuss with the business leaders workers. This would increase age private investment and of cutbacks and by trying to dis­ farther behind higher paid men who have "despoiled the count­ their understanding of their com­ growth. Second, it settles dis­ pell myths about public employ­ workers. This increases the seg­ ry". mon situation. putes among the different in­ ees. regation of women workers into She questioned what labour Larry Katz, research officer vestment interests in the best in­ Women are affected especially the lower paying jobs. has in common with Noranda for the Canadian Union of Public terest of private enterprise gen­ as employees by the social ser­ "The higher the ghetto walls Mines which is now investing in Employees (CUPE) also spoke at erally. Finally, the state must vice cutbacks because they are go up, the harder it is to jump fascist Chile, or Dominion Tex­ the meeting. make the capitalist system ac­ generally employed in the ser­ over, especially in times of high tiles which is building in the Katz said the cutbacks in social ceptable to the people and it does vice sector. Federal human rights act still wrong: NAWL

people have found it bas not Mason points to the Combines the Act has taken place, NA WL exemption from equal pay pro­ by Patty Gibson worked." She said Bill C-25 ig­ Investigation Act as an example. recommends the onus should visions should apply to and satis­ Dissatisfaction with proposed nores provincial experiences and where fines of $1 millio,n can be shift to the employer to justify fy the commission that there is a human rights legislation drew must, if it is to be effective, pro­ levied against those parties his or her actions. reasonable factor justifying the several recommendations from vide adequate enforcement "making money 'illegally." She Also, NAWL will suggest a­ exemption rather than leaving the National Association of mechanisms. said Bill C-25 must spell out fines mendments to section 14, dealing the burden on the employee to Women and the Law (NAWL) at ''The single most important re­ sufficient to act as a deterrent. with bona fide occupational re- prove discriminatory pay prac­ their second bi-annual confer­ commendation we-are making is NA WL passed more than 20 quiremenis. tices. ence held in mid-February. an amendment to section 41," proposed amendments to Bill . The conference noted bona fide Despite basic support for prin­ said Mason. NA WL will propose C-25, "many of which deal with occupational requirements are NA WL delegates reaffirmed ciples contained in the proposed that the tribunal, a special body shifting the burden of proof to not defined in the proposed bill their disapproval of section 3's federal human rights bill, dele­ instituted to hear cases of alleged the employer where the employ- and suggest a specific definition exclusion of "sexual orientation". gates attending the Ottawa con~ discrimination, be empowered er is the one who has greatest be included. Further, any em­ NA WL supports the stand of the ference raked section after sec­ not only to force guilty parties to access to relevant information," player wishing to benefit from mapy Canadian gay groups who tion over the coals, passing a­ pay compensation, but be further said Mason. section 14 must be forced to have lobbied unsuccessfullv for mendments to be presented to empowered to levy fines that Once an employee shows there justify any desired application the inclusion of sexual orienta­ the Standing Committee on Just­ may act as a deterrent. are reasonable grounds for be- for hiring on the basis of sex. tion as a prohibited ground of ice and Legal Affairs. Mason said there is "absolutely lieving that an offence against Similarly, employers seeking discriminatiOn. The two-year old association no use in simply forcing a guilty supports Bill C-25 in principle party to compensate through but fears it will be ineffective back pay." unless Canada's first attempt at Unless employers acting Women and law supports human rights legislation "draws against the act's provisions are upon the experience of the prov­ fined, and fined heavily, there is inces," said Peggy Mason, mem­ no incentive to obey the law, said ber of the NA WL national steer­ Mason. . ''The worst that can free choice on abortion ing committee in a recent inter­ happen to an employer who has view. not adhered to equal pay pro­ The right to freedom of choice Delegates also supported a doc­ make healthy profits from Can­ "Legislation needs teeth," she visiOns is that he will, if caught, on abortion, recognized as a tor's right to refuse to perform adian women seeking abortions. said. "Human rights legislation be ordered to pay the employee fundamental human right by the an abortion but agreed to bind a NA WL approved a motion to has been around the various the amount legitimately owed National Association of Women doctor to referring the abortion urge the Status of Women Coun­ provinces for many years and the employee in the first place." and Law (NAWL), emerged as request to another doctor, clinic cil and similar group,s undertake one of the major themes of their or hospital who perform one. ·~xhaustive studies:· on profit­ national conference held here in NA WL assumed an activist making abortion agencies and mid-February. role concerning the entire issue recommended these studies be HERB AND SPICE SHOP A series of resolutions passed of abortion when delegates ap­ carried out by councils on the by the three-day meeting clari­ proved a two-tier stream of status of women and submitted TWO locations fied NA WL's position on remov­ activity concentrated on · chang­ to the ministries of justice and ing abortion from the criminal ing the existing abortion laws. health at both provincial· and 841 Bank [at Fifth] 409 Bronson [at James] code and developed positive poli­ First, members of NA WL are federal levels. cy on the provision of free access required to lobby provincial and Mon-Wed 9-6 closed Monday to abortion for all women. federal elected representatives NA WL's final concern involv­ Thurs & Fri 9-8 Tues-Sat 9-6 At the offset of the conference, in the association's name to re­ ed "misrepresentation of the facts relating to abortim1." by Sat 9~6 Thurs open ti/ 8 delegates voted overwhelmingly peal of the law and free access to in favor of affiliating the national abortion. groups actively opposing a wom­ law association with the Canad­ Second, the national steering an's right to abortion. The con­ 233-0879 232-6388 ian Association for Repeal of the committee was charged with ference charged these organiza­ Abortion Law (CARAL), noting preparing a brief containing tions with posing "a threat to the shared goals on the abortion practrieal legislative action at freedoms of the women of Can­ issue. the federal level to follow a ada" and recommend the Not content with policy re­ repeal in existing abortion legis­ NA WL steering committee act­ stricted to removal of abortion lation. Once the jurisdictional ivate a lobby project to encour­ from the criminal code, the wom­ field is available local caucuses age tile association and its local en and the law conference sup­ are required to prepare briefs caucuses to compile and dissem­ ported women's right to the regarding positive provincial inate information correcting any operation "without compulsory legislation. misrepresentation of fact on the consultation, paid for by health The conference recognized the abortion issue at federal, provin­ insurance and available in all - problem of women exploited. by cial and municipal levels of gov­ hospitals and accredited clinics". agencies in foreign countries who· ernment influence. 41 Upetreua Marcb.1977 Abortion Reform in Canada A Delay Tactic?

THE ABORTION LAW

Criminal Code, Revised Statutes of Canada 1970, Chapter c-34. Section 251. 251.(1) Everyone who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a felJlale person, whether or not she is pregnant, uses any means for the purpuse of carrying out his intention is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for life. (2) Every female person who, being pregnant, with intent to Ron Basford, Minister of Justice, wh-0 mighicOntario, for example, ten Yukon and N.W.T. of 10,594 to a abortion as a human right and ients. Of the 1,513 staff employ­ out-of-country abortion centres; or more members on active med­ high in Quebec of 96,733. preferable to an unwanted child, ees in 70 hospitals, 65.1 per cent and obtained counsel and infor­ ical staff are necessary to estab­ The abortion procedure is per- even though a slight majority felt they had a free choice in­ mation from several national and lish a TAC. formed mainly by obstetrician- also felt it lowered the value of volving their work with abortion provincial voluntary associa­ In 1975, 490 of the 906 general gynecologists, half of whom in human life. patients. However 30.5 per cent tions. hospitals across the country eight provinces did not do the Again over half felt abortion felt they did not. In all its work with patients, were accredited. Of these, 251 abortion procedure in 1974-75. should be removed from the About one half of the social physicians, hospitals and volun­ had TACs. Forty-six of these did The percentage of induced abor- Criminal Code. One in five workers who responded were in­ tary associations, the committee not do any abortions in 1974. tions performed by this spcialty physicians had served on a TAC, volved with some aspect of the gave assurances for confidential­ Provincial criteria by themselves ranged from 53.1 per cent in and 40 per cent of those surveyed abortion procedure. More social ity at present and in the future. exempted 317 general hospitals Nova Scotia to 100 per cent in said they would be prepared to workers favoured changes in the Special precautions had to be from setting up TACs, and the P.E.I., with a seven province do so. (25 per cent gave no abortion law than nurses or taken in this reg!}rd, proving federal requirement for 4 phys­ average of aoout 85 per cent. reply). Only one in 10 physicians physicians, with a majority feel­ necessary since in the course of icians on staff eliminated 331 When the provincial distribution felt an abortion decision should ing the present law was too the work the committee's prem­ hospitals. The committee gener­ of this specialty is considered be the woman's alone, and one restrictive. ises were broken into twice, and ally found that across the count­ (from 1 gynaecologist per 16,253 third felt it should be between KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW lawyers and physicians falsely ry, no uniformity existed in the people in Ontario, to 1 per 41,993 the woman and her physician. In general the committee claiming to represent the com­ facilities or quality of service in Newfoundland), the regional While there was no concensus found that knowledge of the law mittee sought information on required to set up a therapeutic disparities in accessibility to the with regard to the TAC proced- was imperfect. Among phys­ therapeutic abortions from var­ abortion committee; that almost abortion procedure appear more ure, many physicians felt it was ician~. nine out of 10 reported a ious sources. one half of Canadian women acute. not working equitably and could legal length of time set out in the This committee was given a could not apply for a therapeutic In the words of the committee, be simplified. law after which an induced abor- fact-finding mandate to ascertain abortion in their own commun­ these figures show "that the Four out of five physicians felt tion should not be performed, if the procedure set out in the ity. In Quebec, 100 per cent of procedure provided in the Crim- abortions could be carried out up even though the law had no such abortion law is working equit- the reported hospital abortions inal Code for obtaining therapeu- to and including 12 weeks of stipulation. While most of the Upstream /5 Marchl977 per cent estimated the interval before and after use of health the pill and 10 per cent the IUD hospitals required the consent·of Report continued to be less than 28 days. services in Saskatchewan, it was at the time of conception. a married woman's husband hospital staff felt they know the A number of criteria are used found that women having spon­ Whether the methods failed or prior to sterilization (65 per abortion act, similar misconcep­ by different TACs across the taneous or other abortions, or were used incorrectly cannot be cent), 3.8 per cent of the hos­ tions existed about the length of country. Almost all require writ­ who had been sterilized, subse­ determined. A far greater per­ pitals required consent of her time stipulated. Among those ten documentation, and about 68 quently consulted physicians for centage of abortion patients used former partner if she was separ­ surveyed in the population at per cent require the consent of reasons related to mental health foam, rhythm, or withdrawl than ated or divorced, and 7. 7 per large, two out of three persons the spouse. Length of gestation twice as often as women who had in ~he greater population. cent required consent of the male did not know it was legal under is considered by almost 90 per term deliveries. From its national population partner if the woman wasn't survey, the committee found married. An interesting fact re­ any circumstances to obtain a cent of the hospitals with almost CONTRACEPTION therapeutic abortion. Among one half imposing a twelve week that at least 40 per cent of ported was that between 1970 women carrying pregnancies to gestation limit. Other require­ The report states that 85 per Canadians have no formal in­ and 1973 thef~ were 9,880 male term who were assisted by wel­ ments include specialist consult­ cent of those women ·seeking in­ struction in the use of contra­ sterilizations and 244,963 female fare agencies or living in mater­ ation, social service review, resi­ duced abortions were contra­ ceptives. While the physician sterilizations. was a chief source of information, nity homes, two out of five dency, patient interview, contra­ ceptively experienced. Among OTHER ISSUES thought the procedure was il­ ceptive counselling, and tests for sexually active women less than the committee found that many legal. congenital damage. Of ten hos­ one fifth used no form of contra­ physicians had no formal prepar­ While three out of four hos­ pitals, 18.4 per cent require con­ ception when they had inter­ ation on contraceptive isues. pitals took special precautibns THE ABORTION PROCEDURE sent of spouse even if separated, course and these women were About 30 per cent of physic­ for the records and the minutes Women seeking abortions and some require consent of the more usually young, single and ians surveyed would not give of the TAC, only one third of went variously to their physic­ father even where the woman with a high school or elementary contraceptive counselling to any­ these hospitals took comparable ians, community agencies, uni­ never married. At certain hos­ level education. The two major one under 17 years of age. precautions for the handling and versity health services, or di­ pitals women are required to types of contraception reported Notable by its absence as a storage of the charts of induced rectly to the United States for an agree to be sterilized if they are in the national population survey source of information were the abortion patients. abortion. From these places they seeking a repeat abortion. were oral contraception (44 per mass media. The findings also Extra-billing of abortion pa­ were referred either to a TAC, to stfkgested·that th·e effectiveness tients was found to be more .com­ a clinic in the States, or decided of current contraceptive and mon than !VOUld be expected in to carry their pregnancies to family life education programs at five out of eight provinces. For term. schools in Canada is not high. one out of five abortion patients Incomplete information was The committee concludes that in 1976, financial deterrents did sometimes given to women who, "the extent of induced abortions exist. The largest fee charges, as a result, did not seek a in the future can be expected to and most extensive extra-billing hospital abortion or were delay­ rise, unless there are effective involved women who were ed in doing so. Of the women changes made in the contracept­ young, newcomers to Canada, surveyed who went to the ive practices of Canadians, par­ and less well educated. States, 22.6 per cent had been ticularly among high risk The average hospital and med­ told by their physician that abor­ groups". It calls for increased ef­ ical costs for the treatment of a tion was illegal, 41.5 per cent forts to find more effective and woman having a therapeutic a­ were told abortions could not be acceptable methods of contra­ bortion dropped between 1973 obtained at a Canadian hospital ception and for coordinated fam­ and 1974 by 5 per cent. In 1974 and 13.4 per cent went to a ily planning programs for public these costs varied in the 10 physician who would not refer education and health promotion. provinces from $195 to $320. The report states that the per capita patients to other doctors or hos­ STERILIZATION pitals. costs in 1974 to Canadians for the For those who did apply to In 1974, 12.3 per cent of the medical insurance payments for hospitals, an average interval of total terminations of pregnancies all therapeutic abortions was 58 eight weeks existed between the were concurrently sterilized. cents. If these pregnancies has time the physician was first con­ The prevalence of sterilization a­ gone to term, the per capita cost tacted and the abortion opera­ mong abortion patients was sig­ would have been $1.61. On a per tion. This delay, the committee nificantly higher for those wom­ capita basis, as comparison, the states, "resulted from direct de­ en who were less well educated, costs paid by Canadians in 1974 lays in how physicians and hos­ Based on information from Stat­ for the use of contraceptives was istics Canada about abortion pa­ $1.85 and at the same time 24 pitals handled these patients , COMPLICATIONS cent) and sterilization (25 per and this in turn often extended cent). In the national patient tients who were concurrently cents per capita was spent on the length of pregnancies and The rate of complications with survey of abortion patients it sterilized, the regional break­ federal and provincial family increased the likelihood .of com­ therapeutic abortions increases was found that 27 per cent of the down was 8.3 per cent in the planning measures. plications. It was noted that only as the length of gestation in­ women had been using no form of Maritimes, 9.5 per cent in Que­ The report will now be taken one out of 200 physicians in the creases, and was found to be contraception. bec, 13.4 per cent in Ontario, to the provinces by the Honour­ national physician survey re­ higher in the younger age The committee was puzzled by 15.6 per cent in the Prairies, and able Ron Basford and the Hon­ ported eight weeks as the aver­ groups. Generally, the commit­ the high level of unw{lnted preg­ 9.7 per cent in B.C. ourable Marc Lalonde for further age interval. While almost 80 per tee reports, the rate of complica­ nancies reported by women who The likelihood of sterilization discussion. cent "preferred" not tO answer tion was highest at those hos­ had been using some contra­ increased with age and with the this question and 4.4 per cent pitals performing less than 100 ceptives - for examp.le, of number of previous births. With admitted they did not know, 17 .3 abortions annually. On a study of those patients, 18 per cent used the exception of Quebec, most

. that lead nowhere by Nancy Rudge & Jane Arnott tion 251 in all provinces.. and tion is extremely limited. I be­ that it was illegal under any cir­ report at an early date." Al­ lieve that a comprehensive fact­ cumstances to obtain a therapeu­ Otto Lang, on his last day as tic abortion in Canada. justice minister, announced the though asked, Leggatt did not ual analysis is now required." withdraw his motion and the When the report was tabled, It would seem clear that there · establishment of the $680,000 vote was lost. has been an inadequate dissem­ Although there is no known Badgley Committee, Sept. 26, Conservative justice critic Eldon When the committee was es­ Wooliams questioned: "Wasn't ination of information surround­ legal requirement for the consent 1975. ing the federal law and the of the spouse, more than two­ Justice minister Ron Basford tablished, Fox said in the House: this information known to both "The facts as reported by that the national department of abortion issue. thirds of the hospitals surveyed announced in October 1975 the (68.4 per cent) required this intent and mandate of a commit­ committee will undoubtedly pave health and welfare and the de­ The report found that 288 hos­ the way for a debate to throw partment of justice long before consent before performing a tee: "To conduct a study to pitals eligible to do so under the therapeutic abortion. Many even determine whether the proce­ more light on that important the Badgley Report was issued?" federal law had not established question (abortion)." The terms required the consent of the dure provided in the Criminal Basford did not deny that therapeutic abortion commit­ of reference also stated that "the spouse of a woman who was Code for obtaining therapeutic much of the information was tees. It seems this decision was results of the study will be made available previously, but sug-- separated or divorced; some re­ abortions is operating equitably based on religious morals and qhired the consent of the father across Canada." The Badgley public and will be tabled in the gested that it had been necessary professional ethics. Stuart Leg­ House for debate." to analyse and place the in­ of the child when the woman had Committee was to "make find­ gatt asked in the House whether never been married. Similarly, it ings on the operation of the law, When the study was"tabled fif­ formation in a comprehensive the minister would change the teen months later, Basford indi­ was found that in cases where rather than making recommen­ form for study by government. federal law to require that pro­ cated that the promised debate sterilization was also performed, dations on the underlying poli­ There seems to be no pre­ vincial authorities set up thera­ would not occur immediately but cedent for a committee of this consent of the spouse was often cy." peutic abortion committees. required. In some hospitals con­ Around the same time, a mo­ "It would be desirable for the type. According to Peter Omen, However, in most provinces minister of health and welfare at the justice department, this sent of the woman's partner was tion came before the House the Bill of Rights recognizes the even required in the case of the which was submitted by Stuart and I to have the opportunity of was the first time that a commit­ right of individuals to. refuse to raising some of these issues with divorced and unmarried women. Leggatt (NDP justice critic) pri­ tee has been established solely to perform any duties that are in • The findings of the committee or to the summer recess. It asked the provinces before there is investigate the equitability pr in­ conflict with moral and religious such a debate." showed the ineffectiveness of the that all correspondence between equitability of the operation of a beliefs. It is unlikely that the existing family planning pro­ the minister of justice and attor­ AVAILABllJTY OF law. provinces, any more tqan the grammes, as the number of neys-general and ministers of INFORMATION FINDINGS: federal government, could legis­ women seeking a therapeutic health of the provinces dealing Around the time of Leggatt's late the mandatory establish­ abortion who had received sex with the subject of abortion motion, a number of questions The report illustrates the lack ment of therapeutic abortion education and the number who and/or section 251 of the Crim­ were asked about the abortion of knowledge of the laws sur­ committees. had not, were approximately rounding inal Code be laid before the issue. These questions, fact­ the issue. A survey The questionnaires used in the equal. This, combined with the House. seeking about the prevalence and showed that 9 out of 10 doctors national surveys we.re neither in­ limited funding of such pro­ Francis Fox, parliamentary costs of abortion, were answered reported a maximum legal ges­ cluded in the report nor available grammes (24 cents per .capita) secretary to the minister of just­ quite easily from information tation periOd after which abor­ frorn the department of justice. led the committee to suggest ice, was able to defer to the made publically available by tions could not be performed, The format of the questionnaires that there is a need for upgrad­ abortion committee saying that: Statistics Canada. Lang in his when in fact the federal law is not linked with the confident­ ing of present programmes and "Since that motion has been 'raison d'etre' for the commit­ makes no mention of a maximum iality of reply guaranteed by the for more extensive provision of tabled, the government has set tee's establishment said: "The gestation time. committee and the vacuum left them. The report also calls for up the Badgley Committee which law has been in operation for The people in the national by this omission makes analysis more money to be allocated for was instructed to investigate, several years, the available stat­ population survey were equally of the committee's findings dif­ research into contraceptive and look into the application of sec- istical information in its opera- uninformed; 2 out of 3 rep0rted ficult at best. abortion methods. eoathnled m DUe 10 6/U,.V... Marchl977

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NORTHERN /RELAND Peace Movement-Silent But Strong

by Wynne Jordan television interview. "Who killed the other 677?" Leeds, England Although the Leaders of the peace move­ movement for peace in Northern ment say the only way a lasting Ireland has moved away from the solution can be reached in North~ attention-getting rallies and ern Ireland is by stopping the marches it held last year, there is fighting and talking out restruc­ little sign of dwindling support. turing of the country among Formerly called the U1ster themselves. Women's Peace Movement, the "They've got to stop the fight­ organization has changed its ing first, and then let people name to Peace People, reflecting come together and say what they the increased involvement of want and organize themselves ... men and children. not as Southern Irish or British Much of the criticism of the people, but as Northern Irish movement has come from Irish people," Williams said. Catholics, who feel that by stop­ Another woman admits that ping the war and declaring peace solutions will take a long time, the Catholics of Ulster would be ··but the first thing that'll happen no ctoser to political self-deter­ will be an easing of tension, and mination than they were before then an opening for hope." the latest fighting began in 1968. Since its conception, the move­ Marie Moore, speaking for the ment has gained a vast member­ Provisional Sinn Fein (the politi­ ship and over $800,000 in dona­ cal wing of the Irish Republican tions from foreign well-wishers. Army), has accused tlie Peace However, many Northern Irish People of being used by the are cynical about the recognition British government to put for­ they have -gained abroad. Ar. ward British ideas. only half-joking question askec Wynne Jordan But the Peace People have in Ulster at the end of last year ing different religions. On one schools had started their own 400 years of oppression and take always refused to attach them­ was, "When will the Peace Peo- visit, Mairead Corrigan succeed­ peace groups. the risk of losing anything they selves to a political side in the ple come to Northern Ireland?". ed in signing over 90 teenagers. Another tactic the Peace Peo­ may have gained since beginning Nationalist-Unionist dispute, But the important work for the Among other things, she talked ple are using is the appointment to fight back. It's even more which is not to say they are a­ movement is gaining confidence to the boys about the changing of "escape officers" to get reluc­ difficult when the Peace People political. Organizer Betty Wil­ among the Catholics who either image women- have for the ideal tant terrorists out of Northern have no solid platforms to pre­ liams, asked to comment on kill­ do not want ~o support it or are man. Ireland. Currently, the pressure sent but ask them to have faith in ings so far by the British Army, afraid of IRA retaliation if they "We as women no longer look is very great on a terrorist to what will follow peace. said the IRA, the Protestant do. up to the John Wayne type as remain in the para-military or But the rapid spread of the Ulster Defence Association and Part of the community work our heroes," she said. "Our her­ else risk retaliation from his "col­ movement so far is a tribute to the British troops are all armies. planned for this year are regular oes are gentle, not afraid to cry. leagues." In one instance, a the determination, hard work "The British army has killed 62 visits to schools to try and open They care for their neighbours." young man with a family refused and courage of Betty Williams, people," she said in a January the minds of children to accept- By the end of January, 15 to go on an IRA bombing cam­ Mairead Corrigan and Liaran paign and had to run for his life. McKeown, who must be aware The Peace People's escape officer that they are putting themselves Resource Handbook: Aids Survival was instrumental in helping his in daily danger of death by a family secretly follow him. terrorist bullet. One of the basic tenets of the use should you encounter any gives a nice perspective on the To ask Catholics to forget the "We'll never get anywhere if women's liberation movement is difficulties with the care provid- problem. The introduction to the past, put down their arms and we sit back and say we're a­ rationally negotiate a new social fraid," says Corrigan. that women just help e~ch other, ed by any agency. list of available resources leaves both to survive in this still sadly The "law" section is likely to the clear message that women contract is asking them to forget sexist age, and to work to im- be of especial interest to Ottawa must come to regard lawyers as prove it. women as more and more they tools to help them in this often The Ottawa Women's Centre are becoming aware of how little complicated life. It ends with the has done us a great service by the average women is helped by point that women must get to publishing the Ottawa Women's the law and how important this work to change our laws to Resource Handbook. A modest can· be. Locating legal assistance reflect a more equitable society. ea8aloma I . soft-cover book, 8 1/z by 11 and for anything from a bureaucratic The book is a pleasure to read. containing 75 pages, it is packed snarl-up to a divorce action can be It is available at the Ottawa with advice, information and en- traumatic for women, who trad- Women's Centre, 821 Somerset couragement. itionally have not regarded such St. W., for $1.95, and is a bar~ DINING ROOM The handbook is composed of aid as their due, and this sections gain for every woman in Ottawa. excellent Continental, Canadic~m. and Chinese food section on such topics as ------~--...... ------. "health", "education", and c.ale. dollhoU.S~ c:lol\house... "media"; each with a brief dis­ 1 NIGHTCLUB cussion of the subject from a rniturc. > ac...c..e!>~oric.~ entertainment and dancing Tues-Sat 9 p.m.-1 a.m. feminist's viewpoint, followed by do\\~ - ~nd~ t. imported ·a list of various resources avail- able in the area. C..a\"'o.dian h~rno.clc. +oys · Fully licensed A section on "daycare" de- ; Ample free parking ma;or credit card~ honoured scrihes what types of daycare are ..,";:l dalhOUSI• 0 ..•. , availableinOttawa,fromnursery ~., 8 ~ ~ jjzzie S schools to home help. and how to offaa..•a ,· ontar1·0 find them. It tells how to locate ""' d 11 hOU 348 Rideau at Nelson thehow right to apply type offor care it. forOf youspecial and ______233 75.k.1,._. ______0 SC, for reservations phone 236-36 77 interest too are the several av- enues which are detailed for ...... March1977 u,..._11 Law For women ______NOTES ON THE LAW OF RAPE story. by Shirley Greenberg reliability and rationality. The view sumption may arise that she is likely to that women are not reliable or rational, Recently the Supreme Court of Can­ consent every time. Strong differences What does one have to do today to and therefore not in the same class as ada decided in the case of R vs. of opinion exist over whether a wom­ get a conviction in a rape trial? It is men, seems to be especially current in Warkentin et al .. that the following an's refusal can be taken seriously after said that juries won't convict unless a certain stream of society. p"ieces of evidence corroborated the she has said yes once before, or ten there are bruises. Why? . This idea is thought by some to have victim's story: (1) a written admission times before. As a rape victim, these points m¥-y its origin in the locker rooms of the of facts as to ownership of a red An attack on character - which is be useful to know, if you plan to go to nation. It is not difficult to find exam­ Mu~ang, and as to placement of the usually 11exual character - is another court: ples of such thinking in law reports and accused at the scene of the crime; (2) method of getting at both consent and the distraught condition of the com­ [a] resistance must be proved beyond legal texts, especially in the context of credibility. Apparently a "loose" wom­ a doubt, your non-consent must be un- rape. Women who claim to be rape plainant when seen after the rape an is not a credible woman, and a occurred; (3) the existence of semfual mistakable to the rapist. If anything victims are sometimes said to be acting "loose" woman is one inclined to say fluid on clothing and in the victim's allows him to think you are consenting, on the basis of fantasy, motivated by a yes rather than no. This is trial by vagina; (4) human scalp hair found on insinu~tion, frequently destructive to the balance will tip in his favour, in desire for revenge, or attempting to the.victim's jeans, and (5) pine needles the witness's testimony and of prejud­ court. cover up adultery. A stir was created recently because found in the victim's underclothing. icial effect on a jury. [b] Your subjective.state of mind (say­ a judge cast doubt on a woman's CREDIBILITY Recent amendments to the Criminal ing "no" inwardly, not outwardly) is testimony solely because of her age and The defence counsel attempts to break Code require defence counsel to obtain not resistance. Resistance must be supposed condition. However, this is down the victim's,testimony in order to judicial permission before the ques­ proved by observable conduct. only one aspect of a much larger and get at the truth, fu order to give the tioning of a witness as to past sexual [c] Consent obtained by force, threats, very serious problem, of doubt when accused the best possible defence. conduct. Defence counsel have made fear, or fraud, is not consent. But you women's reliability, rationality, and Cross-examination is a test of a wit­ their opposition to this amendment must convince the jury that you had no credibility are concerned. This is es­ ness, and it is said that any witness known: questioning should be unfetter­ reasonable option (see below). pecially serious should it influence the with nothing to fear should be able to ed, they say. Consent is the primary issue in a administration of justice, procedures in withstand the process. The victim can OUR DECISION rape trial, given that identity of the a courtroom, or decisions-of members be questioned on any fact which tends The recent amendments have not accused and commission of the act have of a jury. to show a defence, and can be asked improved the law's effectiveness, been proved. Then it must be proved, CORROBORATION questions with no factual basis, such as either as a deterrent to men or a beyond a reasonable doubt, tbat the Corroboration is a factor in all trials. "Did you ever sleep with X?" protection to women. Obviously the victim did not consent, that the accus­ But until last year when the Criminal A lack of credibility in any witness situation will improve as soon as ed knew she was not consenting, or Code was amended, a judge was re­ will destroy their testimony. The case women's rple as sex object is de-em­ that he recklessly disregarded obvious quired to warn a jury in a rape trial can be won or lost on this point alone. It phasized and men no longer have to signs of her non-consent. that it would be dangerous to convict is especially important if the rape prove their sexual prowess and super­ A frequent quotation from a law the accused without corroboration of victim is the only witness. In our iority in a malignant way. report of a rape trial tells you what the witness's story. This rule applied in system the accused need not give This wen't happen overnight and •must be done: "It is not enough for the situations involving evidence likely to evidence and need call no witness. The may not happen at all if sexist assum­ woman to say 'I was afraid of serious be unreliable, such as that of children, whole burden of proof is on the ptions remain embedded in our laws bodily harm and therefore consented.' accomplices, and rape victims. prosecution and proof must be beyond and p1·actices. Especially insidious is She must prove in evidence that she Corroboration is not a technical term a doubt to overcome the presumption the image of women as unreliable, had dire reason to be afraid and that but a matter of common sense: it of innocence of the accused in a irrational, subject to fantasy, etc., she took every reasonable precaution merely means independent evidenee criminal trial. particularly if it prevails among any to avoid outrage." Women will be tending to confirm other evidence. But in directing attention at the persons responsible for the adminis­ comforted to· know that another fre­ Corroboration exists if there is inde­ issue of credibility or similar issues, tration of justice. quently quoted authority makes it pendent evidence which confirms the the trial becomes a trial of the witness. The federal Law Reform Commission clear that you need not by violent story of the victim and implicates the This could be good or bad, but it is a is soon to publish a special report on conduct induce the man to murder you accused in a "material particular.'' dreadful ordeal for many witnesses. rape. Contact the Commission at (Black Bob [1897] 7 S.C.R. (N.S.W.) Evidence is not to be digested in CHARACTER 996-7844 or write it at 171 Slater 120, still good law today). isolated fragments but in the context of The character issue in a rape trial Street, Ottawa, or your Member of Major problems also occur in the all the circumstances of a case. If the often zeroes in on past sexual conduct. Parliament. Let them know you care. areas of corroboration, credibility and evidence is capable of assisting the jury If a woman has previously consented, character, as well as consent. All four to arrive at the truth, it is evidence to this man or any other man or men (to of these issues bear on a woman's capable or corroborating the victim's whom she is not married), then a pre- The Healing Arts

MYTHS OF MENSTRUATION of harming men and any number of the physical or psychological felling of be defined? Maddux's "to one degree or by Beatrice Baker growing things including bees, gardens it, doctors have over and over again another," must include every woman and crops. dismissed women's complaints as in­ who experiences a twinge or headache Euphemisms are soft words for hard For their very life's blood, for their stances of malingering, neurosis, bids during her period for that 80% figure to take realities. Generally, the more ability to reproduce the race, women for attention, or hypochondria. Not in­ to be valid . . euphemisms we use, the more embar- were condemned to a burden of shame, frequently women were counselled Secondly, how can such a subjective rassing or taboo the subject. . guilt, fear, inferiority and ·anxiety. (sometimes indignantly) to "grin experience as pain be objectively defin­ And menstruation has been all but Most certainly in comtemporary and bear it"; after all, it was women's ed? No two women will experience buried under euphemisms such as: the Canadian society our behaviour and lot. cramps in the same way. Nor is it likely curse, on the rag, flying the red flag, attitudes have changed substantially; In am attempt to counter that that they will react the same way. falling off the roof, the hit, the blues, the extremes of our fears and prohib-· attitude, Hilary C. Maddux has written Men have used menstruation as a the blahs, a female problem, Aunt itions have been blunted. But we still a book which vigorously assures wom­ rationale for excluding women for im­ Tillie is coming, the British have carry a residue of embarrassment, un­ en that they are not alone in their com­ portant decision-making positions on landed.Charlie, Millicent, or in the certainly and, still, ignora~ce. plaints, that it is not all in their heads, the grounds that the potential pain, saddle again. that they do have the right to demand difficulty, hormonal changes, etc. Some euphemisms require vocal more research, more attention and to would negatively affect their ability to quotation marks: being "unwell", be taken seriously. work and think. "sick" days, or "that" time of month. Unfortunately, Maddux's Menstrua­ Because of the subjective nature of Or they're spoken with delicate irony: tion tries so hard to reassure women pain this is a false issue; who questions you again? or my friend. There are also that they aren't freaks if they have the abilities of a man with a corn or the genteel excuses: "I've got a head­ menstrual problems that it creates the hemorrhoids or jock rot? ache", "my stomach is upset", or the false and dangerous impression that Indeed, one could as well argue that ubiquitous "I've got cramps". menstruation is abnormal, debilitating a woman in her mid-thirties, who is We have surrounded the menses and a handicap.· likely to have experienced between 200 with this verbal smoke screen because When discussing dysmenorrhea, and 300 menstrual periods, can, with a it has been a topic of the utmost that is, menstrual periods which are bit or awareness, be far more capable sensitivity. While the bounds of prop­ painful, difficult, or in some way dys­ of controlling her existential situation riety have in all times and places been functional, she claims that 80% of all than a man with any of the aforemen­ overstepped with ribaldries about women "suffer, to one degree or tioned disabilities. adultery, infidelity, or pre-marital sex, another, from dysmenorrhea." Al­ Menstruation is a normal aspect of women's menstrual flow has been though there is a bibliography included lj]most every woman's life. More signif­ historically regarded with such fear, in the book, Maddux does not footnote icantly it ii one of the essential defining awe, loathing, and ignorance that her material; there is not way of know­ characteristics of woman. We must pay rareJy has it been the topic of jokes. ing where this 80% figure comes from. great attention and take great care in In The Second Sex, Simone de Conversations with a nurse prac­ how we choose to speak of it. Beauvoir systematically summarizes The domination of the medical pro­ titioner and two nurses from the Maddux defines menstruation say­ the taboos, myths, fears and super- fessions by men and the inability of Centretown Community Health Clinic ing, " ... it is the monthly shedding of .. stitions about the menses. She reports men and women to communicate freely elicited the same reaction: the figure is the uterine lining resulting whenever a that as late as 1878 the British Medical and openly about anything related to grossly inflated. One nurse estimated woman fails to conceive a child ...". Jourml declared that, "it is an un­ sexuality, has inhibited the discovery that between 5 and 10% of the women What a subtle distinction to say rather: doubted fact that meat spoils when and dissemination of knowledge about they see suffer from dysmenorrhea. menstruation is the monthly reaffirm­ touched by menstruating women." For ll)enstruation. This discrepancy in estimates is a ation of a woman's being and the cele­ centuries menstruating women were With no understanding of the exper­ reflection of two problpmatical ques­ bration of her potential to reproduce regarded as unclean, evil, and capable ience of menstruation, or any inkling of tions. How broadly can dysmenorrhea the species. 81 Upstream SINGLE PARENTS LEARNING TO by Susan Wisking Eight months after her son was born usually mothers, has an office at 449 approximately 950 individuals. This Elizabeth left her common-law hus­ Somerset St. W which is open from could indicate not only a growth in the band with whom she was "just totally Tuesdays through Thursdays on a part actual number of single parents, but incompatible". At 25 she has been a time basis. growing awareness among these in­ single mother for almost two years. The women involved in this group ' dividuals that they require a source of Money was, and still is, her greatest are determined to help themselves by help and encouragement in their role problem. Her son's father, who has not having input into policies which affect as parents. contacted her for more than a year, their lives. They have sponsored a Single Parents organizes dances, pays no support. She receives $300 a series of lectures which covered every­ educational programs, rap sessions, month from family benefits and pays1 thing from The Children's Aid Society, and family outings. They sponsor a Big ~115 for rent. She says a night out on The Landlord and Tenant Act, to the Brothers program and last year organ­ her income is "only possible once a Family Benefits Act. ized a Big Sisters group. Last summer month." Valerie Bruneau, an information of­ they ran a two week camp for families Now that her son is almost three ficer with the Ottawa Children's Aid in the Gatirieau. Elizabeth, who has a degree in socio­ Society, said this government soonsor­ Every second Wednesday a speaker logy and would like work to reduce ed agency deals with both unmarried is invited to the meeting. Topics have some of her financial pressures, has mothers and single parents. Under ranged from love and development to discovered her researching, writing, their guidelines they offer assistance to transcendental meditation. Mr. Bux­ and social work interests are under­ unmarried mothers both prior to and ton, president of the Association, said mined by lack of experience in the job following birth. This involves referrals the emphasis is more on self-help than market. to other organizations, such as homes pure information. Elizabe,tl! must consider retraining where expectant mothers can stay He estimated that two-thirds of the or face a continued below the poverty­ before the baby is born, and counsel­ membership are women. Between 30% line existence on welfare. ling. The focus of this service, she and 40% of the male membership have "I think the financial aspect is the stressed, " ... is to help them make actual custody of their children. Mr. hardest, the fact that you're living in Buxton said the number of men grant­ their own decisions according to their Alisa Photography poverty ... you're living on $3,600 a own individual situations." ed custody is steadily increasing but in year ... " Ms. Bruneau said " ... people tend to most cases this arrangement is reached She has had to -learn to cope with a believe the Children's Aid means adop­ by mutual consent. had mothers who worked outside th lack of emotional support and extended tion of a child." In 1976 of the 292 He said that although men generally home. In the States one in every si periods of loneliness. unwed mothers helped by the Ottawa tend to be more secure financially they children under the age of eighteen live When the s_eparation had just taken Children's Aid Society, 153 chose to experience unique problems as single in a home headed by a single parent. place, Elizabeth suffered from prolong­ keep their babies. These statistics, Ms. parents. Babysitting services was one Almost half of all married women i ed bouts of depression but, she said: _Bruneau said, prove the unbaised example he cited. He said .difficulties Canada are in the labou'r force. OnE "You tend to make friends with indiv­ nature of the agency's counselling. often arise when young highschool girls fifth of all working women are heads c iduals who are in a similar circum­ While no official breakdown is cur­ were hired to sit for an evening. Many .households. stance just to get the emotional sup­ rently available for Ottawa, she said parents are reluctant to allow their Yet 43% of families headed 'by port ... you'll be the other parent for there has been a notable increase over daughters to remain overnight in the woman fall in the low income grou house of an unattached man. while only 9.3% of families headed by If a woman is destitute, he said, she man are at or below the poverty line~ always has recourse to family benefit family of five with an annual income c payments. Men, on the other hand, are not entitled to this form of social assistance. Mr. Bwdon believes he is very fortunate to have custody of his 3 year-old son in the former family home. At the moment he shares this accomo­ dation with another separated father who has custody of two children, a boy and a girl. Mr. Buxton was awarded custody as part of his separation agreement by mutual consent. His wife takes their son for one weekend every month. In a separation, he said, a parent has to learn to adjust to being an individual and not acting as a pair. ''The pursuit of mundane activities," he said, "like doing the dishes, wards off loneliness." Men, he said, who are not awarded custody may suffer. "Feelings of lost­ ness,"of worthlessness" are very com­ each other.. .'' the past few years in the number of mon, he said, among men who are not Although Elizabeth considers mar· younger women becoming pregnant awarded custody. riage to be possible at some point in the and choosing to keep the child. Ms. Mr. Buxton noted that "in a mar­ distant future, she would not base her_ Bruneau cautioned that " ... while this riage breakdown it is often the man decision on her pr~sent situation. At is not necessarily bad, they (expectant who moves out and the woman is left one time she worried about bringing up young mothers) do need to mature the remnants." The disastrous effect of her son without a father, but now is awfully quickly." this isolation from the children can be 'convinced it is possible to be an Under the Children's Welfare Act seen, he said, in the rate of suicide for effective single parent. the Children's Aid Society can inter-. divorced or separated men. According The total responsibility she now has vene directly on behalf of a child to Mr. Buxton, divorced or separated for her son is not anything new. Even whenever a need is determined. Un­ men are four times as likely as married when she lived with the father she married mothers, on the other hand, or single men to commit suicide. found she had to accept almost total re­ must seek out the agency on their own Divorced or separated women are sponsibility. Over the past year she has initiative. Ms. Bruneau said, "We can't three times more susceptible to sui­ found that she can cope and takes pride go to them. They have to come to us." cide. " ... in having done a good job in raising Under their family services division Mr. Buxton said the parent without the child so he's well adjusted." If she this organization deals with many custody is frequently left at the mercy were more financially secure she would single parent families. Individuals with of the other parent. Generally, he said, consider being a single parent again. children under the age of sixteen who they are relegated to the role of occas­ In Ottawa there are 7 ,$)() single " ... are having problems coping with ionalbabysitter. parent women like Elizabeth, raising their role as parent" are offered coun­ For Mr. Buxton the ideal way to children on some form of public assis­ selling to encourage " ... them to help raise a family is with two parents. ''The tance. There are over 15 thousand themselves." The society also helps good union of a man and a woman," he wor.nen in Ontario on family benefits parents improve their job skills and to said, "is the best for the children." classified as head of the household. secure adequate housing. As the divorce rate steadily climbs Over fourteen thousand of these wom­ An organization that deals exclusive­ so do the number of single parents. en are unemployable as either their ly with single parents is the Single Another factor in the growth of single health or family duties prevent them Parents Association of Ottawa. This parents is the reluctance of unmarried from holding a job. group, originally the Ottawa chapter of mothers to put their children up for The Well-Fair Rights Organization, International Parents Without Part­ adoption. Society no longer demands a "... a group of women on public assis­ ners, is not a government sponsored or woman conceal an illegitimate child by tance, trying to help each other", is a controlled agency. Single Parents op­ being parceled off to some home for year-old group encouraging women on erates on 'a membership basis with one unwed mothers 11.nd giving up the child ~ any form of social assistance to work criterion for membership: you must be to a two parent family. I together and share their experiences a single parent, with or without cus­ Urie Brofenbrenner, a p~ychologist -=­ and information. The organization, tody of the chilli. at Cornell University, discovered that ~ funded by a grant from local churches In 1966 this group had 25 members. for the first time in the history of the f and staffed by volunteers who are Last year its members swelled to United States the majority of children ) DO IT ALONE

at a local Ottawa grade school. But I always seemed' to have more She was married at 22 on Feb. 8, answer to, are, she says, easier tO dis­ money in my pocket after be left. And cipline. 1966. Nine years later with three the feeling that H I made a mist&ke it Before she married she had worked children she was granted a divorce. was all right beca~ it was my as a computer programmer. With pride· Her children, all girls, range in age mistake. That was really a big thing she points out that she was the only from 6 to 10. that got me through. woman in a group of thirteen. But in During her marriage she was sup­ Initially her husband left with the the eight years of remaining at home ported by her husband. The day he left idea "that we were going to work out many changes took place in the field. was the day she found a job for thre_e what was best for our children." The "When he left," she said, "I didn't feel I months in a store. The transition from reason for their separation precluded had the emotional stability to get back housebound to workbound was, she any considerations of reconciliation. into that." said, "scary". The girls see their father At one particularly low point Sheila Sheila would now like to arrange for for one weekend once every three went to welfare to inquire about social some improv~ments in her economic weeks. She has established a friend­ assistance but decided the money they situation. In order to do this she will ship with her husband whom she dated offered "was impossible to live on". probably have to undergo some form of for six years. The youngest child was only two and retraining. Then her financial state At the moment she manages "but a half when the marriage broke down. may continue to get healthier. Initially.she paid for daycare out of her has very little money." Her ex-husband But the prospects for women in the own pocket until she learned she was does make support payment, though at labour force are not very encourag­ 1:mtitled to subsidization. one point in the very early stages of jn~. The avera~ income for a WQ~an In order to courteract unsatisfactory their separation he did not. in Canada is $4, 710 while the average :Sheila refused to accept guilt for the babysitting arrangements Sheila ac­ for a man is more than twice that breakdown of her marriage. Although .comodated her working life to her role much - $10,770. she felt badly for her children who as a mother. She was fortunate to be Only 2.2 per cent of women have an would have to grow up without a father able to arrange to be at home when her income in excess of $15,000 compared she said she "didn't feel it was my guilt. children returned from school. with 23 per cent for men. Over 25 per It was his. He left." She found her emotional needs ex­ cent of men have an income of between With her husband gone she came to tremely difficult to cope with. In retro­ $10 and $15 thousand a year. Less than ide the less than $5,000 would be considered as realize that she had always had total spect she believes she was always in­ 8 per cent of women fall into the same ecy six low income or at the poverty line. responsiblity for the children. The real dependent "in every way except emo­ income range. en lives The unemployment rate for women issue was money. tionally." While "the other things took If finances are the greatest problems arent. who are heads of households is 7 .3% care of themselves" it took Sheila a facing single mothers the position of >men in For men in the same category it is I had always had to spend very long time to successfully confront the women in the labour force indicates e. One- 5.3%. Women overall have an unem­ little money. But that was a big absence of emotional support. little relief. Income distribution coupl­ 1eads of ployment rate of 9.6 per cent compared problem. Trying to make enough By surviving on her own she has ed with unemployment rates suggest with the national average of 8.1:! ·per money. And trying to make enough come to like herself better. The chil­ that the situation will not improve, but d by a cent. Men remain slightly below the ,money to live on. I worried about it. dren, with only one set of rules to will deteriorate; i group average at 8.3%. edbya Sheila is the head of her household line.A and is currently employed on a part mmeof time basis with an After Four program Up- and - Down Judith; 34, was married for 12 and a when I become more independent and separated in Feb., 1975 it was not until half years, has two children, both boys, able to provide the children with the Nov. 1975 that the final break occur- age 9 and 11. She has been separated things we cannot afford now." req. Maureen .said she went to a for about two and a half years. She finds the total responsibility for marria~ . co'!DSellor because she felt She is attending university and raising her children the most difficult responsible ror making the marnage aspect of her separation. "There's expects to graduate this year with a work. At. that time she worried about nobody to help you. There are agencies Bachelor of Science in dietetics. The Jenny being raised without a father. but nobody but you really cares about job prospects in her field are not, she Since going on her own she has Doted how your life is going." says, very encouraging. great improvements in her daughter She no longer suffers from severe She bas few outside interests beyond who used to be exceptionally quiet and depression but is constantly aware of her family and school. The few social reserved. her isolation and loneliness. In the outings she undertakes are either done Her husband has been twice charged future she would like to remarry to with her own brothers and sisters or in and twice placed on probation for reduce her responsibilityies and her the. company of a very few close threatening her wit~ assault. One time friends, sense of being alone. be came after her with a tire iron that Her oldest son is harder to discipline When her husband left the family he had placed in boiling water. She bas now and refuses to talk about his home she was devastated. Though the bad to move seven times in the past father. He attaches great importance marriage had begun to deteriorate two years to escape her husband. to his weekly visits with his father and three years before the actual split During their periods of separation demonstrates, she says, feelings of occurred, the shock of being on her her husband would volunteer to. buy own was still hard to handle. In the confusion and insecurity. food or other necesities in exchange for beginning she compared it to a "bad sex. Maureen s&id she lost all her self dream". esteem. I didn't believe it was happening. Jennifer visits with her. father once a Within six to eight months you come week but his sister must pick her up to realize that this is a permanent and return her home. She must also be state that will not change and you let present at all'times when her brother is up. You realize that yes, you really Maureen is a small, lively individual with his child. are all on your .own. who looks back upon her marriage with Financial worries are familiar to Her husband has made regular sup­ humour and few regrets. Though only Maureen. ·Although she shares her port payments and she admits the 24, she bas spent the past seven years apariment With another woman she terms of her separation agreement are working. Except for three months pays $200 a month for rent. Maureen generous. By mutual consent she was before her daughter was born and five might consider remarrying at some awarded the family home.· wee.kB after she has never had a time. At present she says "I don't feel I In order to keep her children in a vacation. could handle a serious involvement. I stable setting she decided to remain in She works as a clerk with the just like to meet friends and go out in the same n~ighborhood. The develop­ regional government and has an annual crowds." She says she is not bitter and ment where they live is populated by a income of $9,400. Her ex-husband is has "no regrets" about her daughter. fairly large income group. Her financial supposed to pay $120 a month for 1n reti_osPeCt she re&lizes the mar­ limitations are clearly apparent. In the support; to date she has received $57. riage should have ended ~arlier but entire negihborhood her children are For a year and a half she lived with that her emotional dependence and the only ones from a broken home. her husband, marrying after her feelings of guilt prevented her from She feels her life is very mundane dausrhter was born, With the arrival of . taking decisive action. She believes her and though she believes "things will Jennifer the relationship took a sharp child can be well adjusted and happy get better" cannot see any relief at the swing downwards. Maureen believes with only one parent. 'moment. her husband "wanted a girlfriend and Since she has been on her own she Judith bears animosity towards her found himself not only with a wife but likes herself better and has a renewed husband for opting out of his respon­ the added resporisibility'of a child." pride in herself. While finances are sibility to the family: "We are under­ She said he would go out for the for­ limited she is not destitute and fully privileged at this point. The children mula on Wednesday and return home believes she can manage forever on her need a father. I expect things to change on Sunday. Though they originally own as a single parent. ) Marchl977

Childcare deductions: Understanding income tax by Jane Arnott The diagram represents a individuals to "keep" a share of seldom examined and made pub­ The deduction benefits the hypothetical progressive tax the taxes that would otherwise lic; the social and economic ef­ woman with the greater ability At present the child care ex­ structure with the shaded area be owed. fects are rarely analysed; their to bear the expense and repre­ pense deduction outlined in the indicating the amount in each tax These tax subsidies or tax ex­ redistributive effects are gener­ sents a considerable inequity in Income Tax Act is both discrim­ bracket that is taxed. As we can penditures, as the report calls ally ignored; and they are not the tax system. inatory within its specific pro­ see from the diagram, the person them, represent the "spending" viewed as public charity and If the deduction was replaced visions and inequitable in the whose marginal rate of taxation side of taxation - that is to say subject to the concommitent by a child care expense tax context of the tax system as a is 40 per cent does not pay 40 per they are effectively government levels of judgement and stigma. credit, the effect would be quite whole. cent of the total taxable· income expenditures accruing because CHILD CARE DEDUCTIONS different. If, in the example Eligibility for the deduction is in taxes. They only pay 40 per the government has chosen not Deductions are subtracted above, the deduction were re­ restricted to working mothers~ cent on that portion of their to collect the tax. Such subsidies from the total income and serve placed by a tax credit of $350 per single parent fathers, and faJ;h-, taxable income that ·fa1fs' within are hidden in the tax system and to put taxable income into a child, each woman would get a ers whose wives are infirm or the $12,000 to $14,0QO range. never appear in government ex­ credit of a fixed amount to apply institutionalized. There is anim­ lower tax bracket. The amount of The rate of tax actually paid on penditures. tax lost by the government against her tax bill and reduce plicit assumption that the woman the total taxable amount would If, on the other ·hand, the through deductions is greater, the amount of tax payable by the shoulders child care responsibil­ be calculated by dividing total government chose to collect full the higher the level of income. amount of the credit. ity and her absence from the tax paid by the total taxable in­ taxes owing and then transfer by Look at the child care exoense For the woman earning $5,000, home requires that non-parental come - this would give the av­ grant the amount of money that deduction in Canada and consider the credit of $350 applied against child care be provided and usu­ erage rate of tax. If, for example, ally paid. Families in which the a person had a taxable income of OIAGRflM #~ mother works and the\ father !17,000, the marginal rate would does not are potential benefic­ be 50 per cent, but the average fat rat~s bracl;t1 iaries of this deduction, while rate would be 29.2 per cent. families in which the father This sytem of tax brackets is works and the mother does not applied to taxable income to are unable to benefit. This static derive the amount of tax due. __ _ family concept does not encour­ However, actual income and tax­ age or allow changing parent able income differ by the amount . - roles and division of responsibili­ of deductions and exemptions ties. allowed under the Income Tax In a situation where both par­ Act - that is, by the amounts ents work and share financial re­ of money not subject to taxation. sponsibility for the children, the (So, if you were to calculate an act is again restrictive because average tax rate based on actual only the mother can claim. The income, it would be lower still mother either pays fully for child than the rate calculated on tax­ care expenses and effectively re­ able income.) B duces her disposable income, or This distinction between act­ A the real expenses of the father ual and taxable income is import­ would have otherwise been a tax the case of two working mothers. her tax payable ($968) would are understated. ant in the discussion of the tax saving, the basic situation would Each has one child, and each reduce her tax bill to $618. This The $1,000 per child maximum subsidies that deductions and not have changed - the gov­ lives in Ontario. Both are entitl­ represents a bill that is $76 less placed on the deduction, if it is exemptions represent. ernment's net reven.ue the ed to deduct $1,000 under the than that under the deduction intended to represent the real The blocks in the second dia­ individual's net income would be child care expense deduction. method . .level of 'expense of child care, gram represent the income of the same as under a tax subsidy One woman earns $5,000. The could be called into question. two individuals. One earns system, and furthermore the deduction (assuming for simplic­ The woman earning The usual cost for non-sub­ $7 ,000 and the other earns subsidy would show up as a ity in both cases that it is the would apply the credit to $6,969 sidized child care in the Ottawa $20,000. The shaded area in­ government expenditure. . only deduction) makes her tax­ which would reduce it to $6,619 area is $35 a week. If the dicates the income exempted or Through deductions and ex­ able income $4,000. Under the which is $79 greater than her bill working year is 50 weeks, 5 days deductible, and conversely the emptions a second hidden system 1976 tax schedule, tax payable under the deduction method: So, a week, and if child care is unshaded area indicates the of subsidy exists, still transfer­ without the deduction would be the credit system places greater­ required for this time, then the amount of income actually tax­ ring money from government· to $968, with the deduction $694. burden on the woman more able cost per year would be $1, 750 - able. Deductions ana exemptions . individuals. Thus her tax saving of subsidy to bear the expense. almost double the allowable de­ are effectively taken off from the While the hidden system may through this deduction is $274. Such a credit system would duction. "top" of a person's income. have the same overall·effect as a The other woman earns also be accesible to those with no The law also does not provide In both these cases the amount direct transfer payment, it pos­ $22,000. Without the deduction taxable income who could still for parents engaged in full time of deductible income is the same, sesses a number of unique char­ her tax payable is $6,969, and claim o.n the tax credit (like the study at· an accredited institu­ $2,000. However, the amount of acteristics. Tax subsidies are not with the deduction it is $6,540 - rent credit system in Ontario.) tion; nor does it allow persons tax lost by the government (an explicitly visible and thus are not a tax saving of $429. r:ollecting unemployment insur­ effective expenditure) differs. subject to the same level of Thus, while the amount of the In terms of ability to pay ance to claim any deduction, For the individual earning $7,000 public or government scrutiny as deduction is the same, the larger criteria, a system of tax credit even though child care is neces­ the exempted income falls into welfare programs are. The tax saving goes to the woman thus lends a greater degree of sary for job search. the 27 .per cent and 25 per cent amount of revenue involved is with the higher income. equity to the tax system. These problems are all inher­ tax brackets and the amount of ent in the present child care ex- foregone tax is $520. For the in­ 1pense deduction allowable under dividual earning $20,000, the Badgley report analysis the tax act. A more fundamental amount exempted would have that the medical profession FUTURE: issue concerns the nature of the been in the 48 per cent bracket continued from page 5 should retain i~s autonomy in this The report has shown that the deduction itself. To look at this, and so the amount of forgone in­ The findings of the report also matter. that it was competent law is unenforceable and that the the nature of the tax system as it come would have been $960. exists in Canada must first be Thus the tax lost by the govern­ show clearly that the delay per- and should be trusted to do so. distribution and accessibility of iod found in obtaining an abor- Government, most felt, should therapeutic abortions is inequit­ examined. ment from the same exemptions on two different levels of income tion, which increases the gesta- have no direct involvement in able with the burden of this in- THE TAX SYSTEM tion period and the health risk to this matter." equity falling on the lower in- The tax structure in Canada is is different, and is greater in the the woman, could not be blamed, Lack of government involve- come less well educated women based on an ability-to-pay princi­ case of the individual with the as physicians quoted in the re- ment in the delivery of abortions and those who live in small ple which recognizes that as a higher income. port tended to do, on "socially brings up the issue of private centres and rural areas. person's income increases so Deductions and exemptions irresponsible behaviour" of the enterprise in the abortion dilem- Soon the federal departments should the proportion of income give greater benefits, though woman. Rather it was speoific- ma. Mrs. Pero!1 of ARCAL (the will begin talks with the provin- paid in taxes. This principle is somewhat hidden, to those in ally the fault of the medical pro- Ottawa abortion · referral and cial authorities. No time limit has made operational by a progres­ higher income brackets. Given fessionals and institutions. counselling service) indicat~d her been indicated by the minister. sive system of tax rates under that these deductions represent At best alarming is the state- fe:i~s ~f C~nada developmg a Leggatt's motion of October '75 which the first few dollars of a form of government grant to ment that "It is apparent that an clime situation, as presently ex- would have given the public taxable income are taxed at a individuals, those in higher in­ agreement to be sterilized has ists in the US and ~he UK, where access to correspondence which very low rate, the next few at a come brackets in essence are been used on occasion as a pre- women are financially and emo- would be vital in these talks. greater rate, the next few at a receiving a greater grant. requisite to obtaining an abor- tionally. expl~ited by the medical For the present at least, de­ still greater rate, and so on. As the National Council of tion." As was pointed out, "the profession, if the government bate of this issue in the House If a person's taxable income Welfare points out in The Hidden emotional vulnerability and the ~:tr~o;v~:~rt~~~~ form of has been delayed. can be pictured as a series of Welfare System, its report on feeling of being under duress of a blocks piled up on each other, the the personal income tax system woman either at the time of a bottom block repi-esents the first in Canada, there are two welfare delivery or an abortion makes it few dollars of taxable income, systems in this country. One, for somewhat easier for her to agree Interlude. Cafe the second the next few dollars of the poor, is highly visible in its or to be persuaded to have the Bebaeat [at Bulk] taxable income, etc. Each bloc.It, programs of social assistance and sterilization done, Abor­ 209 2.15-0341 income security. The other is a Opea Moa. to Wed ..10a.m.to10 p.a. or tax bracket, is taxed at a tion related sterilizations were Than. to Sat. 10 •••. to paldnipt different rate. In 'Canada the spending progr~ that transfers more prevalent among women system is .progressive, which money from the governments to with lower educations, an in­ means that the higher the tax individuals and its chief bene­ dication perhaps of their greater Serving light lunches, dinners bracket, the higher the tax rate ficiaries are not the poor. This vulnerability to medical author­ home ·puu:1e pastries, 8lpl'UM eeftee, latter system. is called the In­ applied to it. The rate of taxation ity. ·Wk•uic· applied to a person's highest tax come Tax Act and it operates Further, the committee was through such means as deduc- . Fridaw mtd &mmla, cwning• bracket is known as their mar­ led to conclude that "The mood of /rom9:00 ginal tax rote. tions and exemptions by allowing physicians about abortion was Mare1t11rn u,...u• /ll In the last column, .we promised that Problems with committee is almost a sure-fire signal of If the Bill is taking too long in Commit­ this time we'd talk about why (ifl) the impending doom. At the federal level, tee, put pressure on the Cabinet. women's movement needs to work separ­ lobbying committee scrutiny is probably the most Throughout the process keep your local ately from men and male organisations. intense and important the bill will ever members informed, even if they disagree Instead, and for reasons that are apparent We will have two major problems in receive. violently with your positions. The know­ thoughout this issue of Upstream, we're getting our lobby tactics to work effect­ The reason the government takes action ledge that there is strong informed opin­ going to talk about political lobbying. ivel7. As women, we are simply not plug­ on an issue is that somehow, somebody ion in the riding is important. It may stop Lobbying is the fine art of persuading ged into the old-boy network where a out there has persuaded them that this is people from speaking out publicly against people in positions of power that they will casual and outrageously prejudiced, ill-in­ a politically expedie.nt thing to do. Some­ your issue - even if it won't change the get brownie points by doing exactly what formed word dropped to cabinet ministers times the government tests the wind way they vote. . you want them to. on the cocktail party circuit mean as much before they go too far into a potentially The final form of the Bill is clearly The women's movement in Ottawa has as the well-argued briefs received ther tricky area by getting a Royal Commis­ visible near the end >of the Committee in the past lobbied effectively at the next day from people such as us. sion, Committee of Enquiry, Law Reform stage. A bill containing a few improve­ municipal level. Who can forget, for As people working in groups that Commission study, etc. to gather public ments but falling short of your overall example, the hilarious battle with City operate totally differently from the opinion. Occasionally they charge ahead expectations poses a problem what to Hall over the Women's Centre grant, or 'normal' decision making structures, we and ignore us completely. do. the current feminist campaign to stop are simply not yet aware of the various You of course will be prepared for such Do you support it publicly for the sake municipally funded bodies from showing constraints and decision points affecting events by your reading and information of those changes in the uncomfortable an evil and sexist film on rape. the development of legislative action to gathering. You will, with as many organ­ knowledge that there. will be no further constrain or liberate us. isations as you can muster, prepare and changes for tbe next 10 years? Do you As in everything else, women lobbying present a brief to the investigative body start working against the bill you pre­ for women will have to be twice as good outlining your views on the issue under viously supported knowing that no im­ and work twice as hard as men to exercise study. provements will occur for at least three women thE! same influence over governmental years? Each person involved in a lobby decision-making. So, here are a few Governmental will have to make this decision. And it's guidelines on when to push, where, not an easv one .. who, and how. procedures The Bill is now out of Committee. If it First, be informed. Read newspap· comes out with government support, its ers. Read Hansard. Read Annual Re­ The study's findings are reported to' the passage is guaranteed because the gov­ Helping ports of government advisory bodies responsible minister and to cabinet and ernment commands the majority of votes and Taw reform commissions. These then, perhaps, to the public. Depending in the House. contain the between-the-lines infor­ on the government's feelings about the If it comes out as a free vote (i.e. mation about areas the government is volume, strength, and unanimity of public members don't have to vote along parfy working on and where they should ask response, cabinet will decide whether or lines) and if the debate after second women (if they haven't already) for public not to take the issue further. reading was long, rancorous and indicated input. Use everything in your power to con­ sharp divisions of feeling, it is necessary Make an alphabetical card index of vince the Government that yes, this is a to continue lobbying. Sympathetic elected every potentially helpful person you priority and yes, there are a lot of people representatives can be helpful in telling But we have been shown to exercise know (someone on a numicipal commit­ waiting to see what they do about it. you which MP's or MPP's exercise the similar power at provincial and federal tee, a minister's secretary, a riding as­ Refer to your list of contacts, or your most influence on others, so that you can levels. And for good reasons, we think. sistant). The list will be small at first friends' lists and find out everything you now focus your lobby on. these members Feminists try to work through collectives but will grow as your fobbying ex­ can about what cabinet is planning or not directly. ·and by consensus. To be in developmental perience increases. Call these people planning to do. If it doesn't seem to be With any luck, all that hard work will stages with such fundamentally new and for help, for advice at various lobbying enough, write, phone, visit MP's, cabinet pay off in the passage of the bill you different structures and at the same time stages. ministers, and if the delay is long enough wanted or at least one with which you can to comprehend and grapple with tradi­ to make it newsworthy, use the media. live. Easy wasn't it? (And don't forget to Join or form national and local issue- tionally organised decision-making bodies You can make the job a lot easier by say thank-you to the people who helped is an impossible task. One risks corruption oriented lobby groups and keep them . forming committees to look after each along the way! gingered with the information you're of the former coupled with ineffectiveness aspect of the lobby, i.e. telephone commit- in the latter. pulling in. tee, media committee, brief writing, etc. USEFUL NAMES AND SUMBERS So we have wanted (over-long, some Keep in touch and be ready to par- If cabinet approves, and if legislative FOR LOBBYISTS have said) until experience and confidence ticipate in-what other.women are organ­ action is required, the inquiry recom­ in our own unique methods have become ising ... through Upstream, the various Community Caucus, National Association mendations go off for legal drafting. Ask of Women and the Law: c/o 11 Clemow; second nature. There is a growing feeling women's centre newsletters, and the for a conference with the responsible membership $10 per y~ar. now that we can deal with our society's Ottawa Women's Centre's new tele­ minister to guarantee your input at this existing power structures because we phone tree. stage. You might not get him/her, but you Canadian Research Institute for the Ad­ know exactly where we're coming from Learn how to use 'the media· to give will get somebody. vancement of Women: 415-151 Slater St., and exactly how that differs from their an interview, to hold a press confer­ Use this person to find out when the bill Ottawa; membership $10 per year. starting points. An examination of gov­ ence, to write and get out a press is going to the House for first and second Ottawa Women's Centre Telephone Tree: ernmental decisions being taken at pro­ release. (The Women's Centre can teach reading. If things bog down, repeat all 233-2560, 821 Somerset St. W., Ottawa.- vincial and federal levels shows convinc­ you all these skills). your earlier writing and phoning moves to National Action Committee on the Status ingly that it is time to make our voices remind .the government that this is a heard. Informed, plugged in, and equipped of Women: 922-3246: 40 St. Clair Ave. E., with media tools what do you do now priority item on which they're working Suite 300, Toronto. Look what's happening at the provincial (they forget easily). level: Family Law Reform, a committee to when an issue comes along? Advisory Council on Status of Women respond to the federal Badgely Report; at (Federal): 63 Sparks Street, Ottawa; the federal level: Human Rights Act, 992-4975. Badgely Report, Rape Law revisions etc. Ontario Council on Status of Women etc. (provincial): 801 Bay St., 3rd floor, Toron­ It is our demonstrations, letters to the to, 965-1111. editor, shouts and screams that have got Ottawa Municipality: General Enquiries: the legislation this far. Our loosely organ­ 563-31p, 111 Suxxex Drive, Ottawa ised ways have been fairly successful in getting governments to react to our de­ Ottawa-Carleton RegiolYl Government: mands (not overlooking, of course, the General Enquiries: 563-2622, 222 Queen slogging work put in by traditional wom­ St., Ottawa. en's groups that have tended to pick up Party Research Units (federal): where our demos leave off). The trouble Liberal - 995-0886 If possible, get a copy of the bill well is, we have not consistently asked govern­ PC - 995-7496 Tackling the issue·s the first and second readinp. Go ments for anything beyond their first hor­ befo~e NDP ~ 995-6289, rified and placating reactions to our Identify the level or levels of govern­ over it carefully. Brief opposition critics, Socred - 995-6489 pickets and anger. ment yQu'll have to work with. Municipal Ministers and their parliamentary secre­ Party Research Units (provincial): We have assumed, naively, that after and or regional issues are easy because taries on the strengths and inadequacies of the bill. Plant questions to ensure that NDP ( - (Toronto) 965_:5592 the government's first gesture, all the the politicians are· the most accessible. Lib - (Torontor960-1676 implicit improvements would be made. Write to your councillor and send copies to all horrors in the bill are exposed in debate. If they aren't, call a press Experts on ,women'• Isms (federal): We've been frustrated and heartsick to the mayor, and other people involved in NDP - Ed Broadbent 995-7224 see results like the neutering of the the issue you're raising. Publicise the conference and discuss your objections federal Human Rights Bill (no sexual issue with letters to the editor, local press Lib - Marc Lalonde 996-5461, special orientatioJJ. clause, a laugheble privacy r.onferences, hot line shows and television assistant: Patrice Merrin 996-5461 clause, no costs or appeal provisions appearances. Use organisational contracts You should be checking Hansard before PC - Gori:Ion Fairweather 992-4121 worth mentioning. and the infamous "rea­ tv get other women and groups to issue and during the debate which follows .Critics on Women's Issaes (provincial): sonable factor" clause negating any at­ press statements supporting your posi­ second reading. This will provide the NDP - JUiia Sanderman (Toronto) tempts to establish equal pay for work of tion. Bug councillors until the issue is names of committee members who will be 965:9071 equal value). raised in Council. studying the Bill after debate. Marion Bryden - 965-4726 We have seen the dreadful revisiom In municipal politics, remember that a Ask the Committee secretary for per­ PC - Betty Stephenson - 965-4101 proposed to family law. They are far no vote rarely means no (and a yes rarely mission to present a brief. Your brief Roy McMurtry - 965-1664 removed from even the marginally accept­ means yes) committees get overruled should go over all the inadequacies in the Lib - Margaret Campbell 965-1122 able Ontario Law Reform Commission by Board of Control, Board of Control by bill as you see them. It should also refute proposals. Similarly seen is the disappear­ Council, Council by itself and by Board of any objections to the good parts of the bill Law Reform Commission (federal): 13() Albert St., Ottawa, 996-7844. ance into limbO of the proposed revisions Control. A friendly council member can be that its opponents will have raised in the to the Change of Name Act; or the federal most helpful in advising you on the House. Law Reform Commission (provincial): 18 Pontius Pilate number with the abortion particular tactics to take at ~ach stage of If the Secretary seems reluctant, ask King St., Toronto; 965-4761. law. the game. Praise people when they do your representative to speak up for you. Ottawa MP's: The lesson taught by such disappoint­ things right even a mayor likes a pat Ask the Secretary to put you on the Hugh Poulin (Lib) 995-8348, House of ments is that governments react only as on the head! mailing list to receive the minutes of the Commons Ottawa. long as people push. They will work for us For provincial and federal lobbying, the Committee relating to the Bill if you don't Jean Pigott (Cons) 995-1427; House of only as long as they feel their re-election tactics are very similar. The main differ­ have time to attend all the meetings Commons Ottawa. will be assured, or at least not hindered, ence between the two is the unimportance yourself. This lets you monitor the Bill's by the legislation they pass. And the only of the committee stage at the provincial progress. One can also lobby Committee USEFUL REFERENCE way they receive such reassurance is level and its importance at the federal members individually on their lack of Women Rally for Action - A Le11on in through our constant input letters, one. At the provincial level, bills are so clarity around certain points. As well, you Lobbying, Humanist in Canada No. 39. (excellent on the various committees phone calls, visits, briefs, media reports of watered down by the time they hit the can counter an argument you know is our activities and positions. Lobbying. legislature for debate that referral to wrong. needed to run a successful lobby) 121 Upstream Marchl977

EQUALITY IN THE WORK FORCE HUMAN RIGHTS CODE NOT ENOUGH by Karen Fish and marital status will be includ­ Human rights tirely on a volunteer basis. Despite a wave ?f anti-discrimination legislation at the provincial and ed as bases for discrimination for legislation is not the sole device "Ultimately," Weir says, "the federal levels smce 1970, the status and remuneration of working the first time in federal legisla­ for preventing discrimination - success of the program rests on women in Canada has been slow to change. tion. it is only the beginning. the ability of the field workers to In fact, statistical evidence indicates a continuing and ever-increas­ Although the bill will directly "People who go to court on sell it to business." human rights legislation are usu­ ing segregation of the female labour force into low-paying occupa­ affect only 10 per cent of the The employer is asked to col­ ally scraping the bottom of the tions. Canadian work force (the major­ lect data on the percent,age of barrel," she says. In 1977, almost every jurisdiction in Canada has laws which ity of human rights violation women in the labour force, the The history of charges of dis­ stipulate that where men and women do approximately the same claims come under provincial percentage of women in the total crimination on the basis of sex work in the same establishment, they should be paid the same wage jurisdiction), it is anticipated population, the extent of unem­ being rectified through legisla­ without regard to sex. In spite of these laws, wage differentials on that its liberal tone will be ployment among women, the tion is gloomy. There have been grounds of sex persist.The 1974 Labour Force Survey by Statistics precedent setting for the prov­ availability of women with re­ few cases dea. th with, and fewer Canada revealed that ghettoization and pay discrimination for women inces. quired skills, and the institutions One of the most significant im­ settlements arrived at, over the in the work force had improved minimally over the previous decade. in the community capable of In several instances the position of women in the Canadian economy provements of this bill over its past 10 years. This is partly had regressed. ill-fated predecessor, bill C-72, because the law, in most cases, training people in the needed There were 3,324,000 women in the total iabour force of which died on the order paper puts the burden of proof in the skills. In other words, employers 9,662,000 persons in 1974, representing 34.4 per cent participation, before adjournment of the House courts on the person laying the are being asked to self-educate and a 6. .6 per cent increase ~ver 1964. last year, is the provision for information. Several women's themselves in the realities of dis­ Women employed in medicine and health occupations in 1974 equal pay for work of equal groups want amendments to bill criminatory practices that exist. numbered 292,000, representing 73.9 per cent of all persons so value. The equal pay for equal C-25 so that once a case of The brochure then asks the employed. There were also 1,119,000 women employed in clerical work formula was amended so discrimination has been estab­ employer to survey the attitudes occupations, representing 72.9 per cent of all persons employed in that equal work is now defined as lished, the onus of proof should and expectations of female em­ such occupations and 32.9 per cent of all working women. A decade work of equal value rather than shift to the employer to justify ployees in the organization. ago the percentage was 29.9 per cent, revealing a trend in increasing similar work. The criteria for his or her actions. Under the heading of "results" segregation. The 1971 census revealed that 80.1 per cent of all work of equal value remain the "No jurisdiction in Canada has the brochure states, "This pre­ elementary and kindergarten teachers, 97.0 per cent of secretaries same as before: skill, effort, achieved any measure of success liminary analysis may indicate and stenographers, 94.5 per cent of typists and clerk-typists, 88.2 per responsibility and working con­ in eradicating the practice of that women as · a group are cent of tellers and cashiers and 95.3 per cent Qf telephone operators ditions. paying women less than men for under-utilized and concentrated were womel). Compare this with women who comprise 6.0 per cent of Justice minister Ron Basford the same or similar work through in certain areas of your work financial and management occupations, 1.1 per cent of architects, 4.1 force in spite of their qualifica­ per cent of lawyers and notaries, 7.7 per cent d physicians and tions." surgeons and 2.5 per cent of general managers and other senior If this is the case with your officials. industry, the brochure says, we Average hourly industrial.wage rates for men exceeded those of suggest that "the chief executive women in nearly all similarly described occupations for which data M~ Ac;,tioft issue a statement of firm com­ was available in 1973. Initment to equal opportunity as In one instance, male machine operators were earning $3.99 per means women are guaran­ a personal and business goal." hour compared with $2;68 per hour for women within the same teeQ "It's their program," says Jean industry. In the inspector occupation within the motor vehical parts an o;:rua1 Shot Weir. "They develop it on their and accessories industry, women's average hourly wage was $3.00 an qt no job.$. - 't- own. We try to approach them on hour compared with $4.44 for men. a utilization of human resources Statistics Canada reported in 1972 that the average annual basis. 'Look, this can make your earnings of women employed in service ocupations were $2,926 organization more efficient.' compared with $7,507 for men. This represents a difference of 156.6 That usually hits home." per cent. In professional and technical occupations, women's average 6 But affirmative action alone is annual earnings were $7,220 compared with $12,405 for men. The not the answer. Since the wom­ earnings of men exceeded those of women by 71.8 per cent. en's bureau has no legislative power, the 1400 companies and · Enough? The statistics make that we need, all our problems firms can take as little their point. would be solved. It's a matter of or as much as they want - or It is now 26 years since the using that legislation to benefit nothing at all - of the program. first equal pay law in Canada was women. We've got to go further - Canada has little experience in placed in the statute books of than legislative change. 0 the administration of affirmative Ontario. "We've also been naive in our action programs, particularly In 1970 the Report of the Royal .blind faith in women in power. It programs designed to eliminate Commission on the Status of comes home to us clearly that both present and future discrim­ Women drew attention to the there are tremendous limitations ination in employment. omission of any prohibition of to what women in power can do," ''The only way we can deal discrimination in employment on she said. with this is to get it moving and grounds of sex from federal and Marsden's comments are echo­ then see what happens," says certai~ provincial fair. employ- ed by many bureaucrats working Weir. ment practices legislation. in the area of equal opportunities There appears to be a consen­ for women. · sus that job equivalency stand­ Today, 12 jursidicttons include Kristine Furlought, program ards are necessary now, if equal provisiOf!S relating specific8.lly to officer for the group understand­ pay legislation is going to be equal pay, nine jurisdictions pro­ ing and human rights division of effective. hibit, in some measure, discrim- the secretary of state says that •'Experts are needed to de­ ination on the basis of sex in all substantia! progress in the area velop a job evaluation system so, conditions of employment, and of employment opportunities said prior to introducing bill C-25 its equal pay laws," according to that equal pay for work of equal three provincial jurisdictions does not lie with legislations but to the House of Commons, ''The Women's Bureau '74, a publica­ value will mean something," says have incorporated equal pay pro­ with extensive public relations/ fact is that women are often not tion of Labour Canada. Rita Barri!. "Most large com­ visions into their human rights education programs. allowed to do work similar to The problem then remains. If panies now have some sort of legislation. "The argument has been going that of men and are hired and legislation is less than 100 per evaluation system to deal with The gap, however, remains. on for years," she says, "Which hived off into female work ghet­ cent effective, what is the gov­ their own companies. The trick is There is no federal statute pro­ comes first, legislative change or tos. Thus, they are often paid ernment doing to improve the who decides what is more impor­ hibiting discrimination in em attitudinal change? Legislation is less, even though what they do is position of women in the work tant: a construction worker or a ployment on grounds of sex, of no value unless people know it of equal value. To provide truly force? secretary?'.' other than the equal pay provi­ exists, for the first part, and equal opportunity, regardless of The trick is also to extend sion set out in the Canada Labour know how to use it effectively. sex, we have decided to accept The women's bureau of the· inter-co-mpany equivalency Code. "If the populace really believed the recommendation of the wom­ .department of labour has re­ standards laterally to include all Federal legislation applies to in women as equals," Furlought en's groups and to adopt the cently instituted an Affirmative industries within the province or workers in industries declared to adds, "then there would be no definition proposed by the Inter­ Action Program which will go region. be of general advantage for more need for anti-discrimination or national Labour Organization of into effect this month. No one has the answer. The than one province or for the equal pay legislation." equal pay for work of equal value Jean Weir explained that affir­ rigid occupational distribution of nation. The list includes air Aileen Manion, a director of as the governing criteria." mative action can range any­ women is resisting with the vast transportation, radio and televi­ the Public Service Alliance, com­ Jean Weir, of the women's where from simply allowing majority of women still concen­ sion, telegraph, telephone and ments, "The trick to anti-dis­ bureau, does not see the human qualified women to apply for trated in a relatively small group cable systems, shipping and crimination legislation is moni­ rights bill as the panacea for traditionally male jobs to choos­ of so-called "female" occupations banks. At this time, a bank teller toring it. Employers are getting equality for women. ing a less-qualified woman over a ... dead-end occupations that are with a discrimination grievance away with it because no one is "Human rights laws are the more qualified man for a partic­ consistently associated with low on the basis of sex would have no squawking. We need a P.R. job. last resort. We want to get at the ular job. levels of pay. In the end, equal· recourse, other than the labour It's like PROBE tht had to use root-of the problem so that cases Ac~urding to Weir, the depart­ pay legislation isn't the issue; code. all sorts of horror stories to make of discrimination don't come up ment of labour has taken the equal opportunity is. Addressing a Women in the people realize what's going on. again," she says. middle route. Its affirmative Equal pay laws only prohibit Law conference held in Ottawa in The thing is to make women "We want to change the situa­ action program is "aimed at the payment of differential rates February, Lorna Marsden of the aware of their rights and get tion of working women. Human making women aware of the because of differences in the sex National Action Committee said, them monitoring their own sit- rights don't promote equal op­ training programs a\}d advance­ of workers engaged in the same "A great many of us have come uation." portunity, they just set the limit. ment avenues available to them ... or similar work. Where all the to the realization .that we have The Canadian Human Rights But I'd like to see it passed so to extend traditional limits," she workers are of the same sex, the been naive in that we thought Bill, bill C-25, is now in second that at least it's there and we says. principle , of equal 'pay is ir­ that if we get the legislation in reading. If it is passed, sex, age, have somethinl!' to aim at." The program is operated en- relevant. Marchl97'T U~[Ja The Hill: Unemployment Still The Issue by Sman Wisldag the authorization of more pro­ are enough to ~uade even the operation of their oWn business. ation then you must begiti to ductive or developmental uses · most eager of the unemployed. This vital presence is referred make the plan conform to the In February the Liberal gov­ of unemployment insurance While individuals will be consid­ to in the application as a sponsor. aims of the program. ernment struck upon another of funds, including the use of such ered for funding the emphasis of If you are in an area of high You must ensure that the their dubious money-saving funds as income maintenance this project is on finding money unemployment, which means project will not leave a hole in schemes. for claimant's participating in in the community. above the natiOnal average, and the community when it ends, will By extending the qualifying approved training courses, job Ideally, and application should if you are fortunate enough to get not generate any revenue, will period for unemployment insur­ creation projects and work be forwarded by someone wish­ hold of some business or organ­ not last for over a year, and will ance from eight to twelve weeks sharing programs. ing to temporarily expand the ization willing to place an applic- not employ less than five people. the minister responsible, the In effect, people will have tc. After submitting the application Hon. Bud Cullen, claims workers work longer to get less. the department responsible will with a low attachment to the By investing in job-creating contact you, when and if you are labour force will be disqualified, and retraining schemes the num­ accpeted. Frequently applicants once and for all. ber of unemployed persons may are not informed of their status The minister argues the statistically decrease slightly, or and assume they were disqual­ majority of these claimants, at least be held at bay. But the ified when the starting date for youths and housewives, " ... re­ cause for the epidemic of unem­ the project has come and gone. ceive a significantly higher de­ ployed persons will remain es­ Another discouraging factor in gree of subsidization from the sentially untouched. the nature of unemployment is unemployment account and have Manpower retraining is not what politicians refer to oblique­ a much more unstable attach­ noted for its success. John Rod­ , ly as the "bidden unemployed". ment to the labour force than any riguez pointed out: These individuals do not hold other category of insured work­ ... these programs will never jobs and do not appear on labour er." force statistics. Yet in Canada, as the unem­ work unless the government is committed to a philosophy of The opposition parties, of ployment rate wavers around 8. 7 course, tend to have a higher per cent, the largest gtoup af­ full employment. Otherwise, you will be training people for estimate for this group's size fected are people between the than the Liberals. ages of 16 and 24. This group has nonexistent jobs, and by the time you have trained them, Like money, unemployment a rate close to double that of the keeps growing. In February t~e labour force as a whole. what few jobs existed will have disappeared. situation took a sharp swing In addition, 62% of uninsur­ downwards. For the first time, ance recipients working 8 to 11 He told the house of commons heads of households were ap­ weeks are located in Quebec and that in Sudbury every second pearing in the statistics above the Atlantic provinces, the areas person. on Manpower retraining the "safe" level. with the highest rates of unem­ is retraining to become a station­ While young people continue ployment. ary engineer. "We will have so to be most. affected by unem­ John Rodriguez (NDP M.P.) many stationary engineers in the ployment, the situation for all said a study on unemployment Sudbury basin that we shall be groups is deteriorating. If unem­ able to man every furnace and published by Statistics Canada ployment rate11 continue to that examined unemployment boiler from Vancouver Island to climb, (and reports commission­ Newfoundland with a stationary patterns in 1971 and 1973 found ed have indicated they will) · by engineer." The government " ... in both years unemployed 1978 over 10 per cent of the plans for job creatfon are, at wives tended to come from fam­ labour force could be without best, half-baked. Recipients of ilies with low incomes." In 1973 jobs. unemployment insurance will be the unemployment rate for all The government can continue wives was 13.5 per cent; for permitted to work, on a volun­ to blame the population or it can tary basis, on federal projects. those in families with an annual . decide once and for all that the What the nature of these pro­ income between $4,000 and situation can only be aided by jects will be is anybody's guess. $6,999 the rate was 21.4 per direct intercession. cent. When women in this cate­ Under the rules and rights of AliaPbotegrapby gory were working they contrib­ unemployment benefits, as pre- uted 22% of the family income. sented in slide show format to The Liberals, aware of who every new collector, a recipient unemployment hurts worst, have must be ready, able, and looking for work every day. By partic­ BANSARD'S GOODIES advertisement protesting the and to establish greater aware­ decided to appease certain sec­ killing of 172,265 babies by abor­ ness for the care of government tions of the population by getting ipating in a project an individual FOR THE MONTH could be penalized. Maybe this is tion between 1970 and 1974. This property I wish to ask him about tough with individuals confront­ responsible and legitimate mes­ statements contained in the pub­ ed with 'an almost nonexistent a further government plot to cut ·Mr. J. Larry Condon people off. sage asking the Canadian people lication [At Home With Trans­ job market. Ever aware of their [Middlesex-London-Lambton[ to respect the rights of babies is port] to the effect that employees need to boost their Gallup Poll Another problem yet to be dis­ LI"beral cussed is how any project with being denied by certain indiv­ should not stand, walk or crawl image, they estimate, with ... I rise on a matter of press­ inconsistent input will be effec­ iduals in these transit systems on their air conditioners, that pride, that only 2% of those in­ ing and urgent necessity, namely tive. Individuals who are not who feel the issue to too contro­ they should leave pencils at their dividuals no longer entitled to the banning by the Public Tran­ versial. desk when they go to the wash­ unemployment benefits will have bound to show-up and perform sit systems of Toronto, Ottawa have a tendency to opt . out, room, because, ... those walls are to turn to welfare. and Vancouver of an advertise­ unless the project appeals to an Mr. Don Mazankowllki for privacy and not for poetry In discussing the new bill on ment supporting the anti-abor­ intpi-oeo+ [Vegreville] and ... that employees should unemployment, the minister ex­ Canada Works apd Young tion group known as Valade face the front of an elevator at all plained; Canada Works are two further Vitae Cervice of Winnipeg which ... While I realize the minist­ times lest they be backwards and There are three major examples of the government's at­ depicts a pregnant woman in an er's desire to improve efficiency miss their floor. changes proposed: first, an in­ tempts to create employment. crease in the number of weeks On_the average an individual em- requir'ed to qualify for UI bene­ ployed by Canada Works will fits, so called entrance require­ receive $122 a week. Those oper­ ments, ... second, a change in ating under Young Canada Women Protest School; the benefit structure which is Works, students, will receive the framework used to deter­ even less. mine the duration of claimants' The qualifying process and the Police Use Of Rape Film entitlement to benefit; third, rules for conducting the project by Susan Bristow lations branch of the Ottawa On March 3, representatives of The film, How To Say No to a Police Department, says they the Ottawa Women's Centre at­ Rapist and Survive by Frederic too will continue showing the tended a meeting of the status of Womens Self-Defence Course Storaska, which has been con­ Storaska film to community women committee of the board of demned by Rape Crisis Centres groups and high schools around education to discuss halting the across North America as victim­ The course involves basic self-defence tech­ the city. film being shown to high school izing women, will continue to be To date no lobbying has been students, and the head of media niques .and. phys!cal fitn~ss: Integrated into the used by the Ottawa Board of started by the Rape Crisis Cen­ resources for the board of educa­ course 1s d1scuss1on to aid in understanding and Education and the Ottawa Police tre, but Jutta Teigeler, educa­ tion has been supplied with an coping with irritating or violent situations. Common Department. sense hints, attitude, and the role of weapons will tional and community liaison co­ alternative list of films approved be considered. According to Dr. Gordon Mut­ ordinator at the centre, says by rape crisis centres. ter, consultant for health and they have now received funding The Women's Centre is also at­ course length: 8 weeks physical education for the board and a placement student from tempting to obtain future view­ Wednesdays 7-8 pm., beginning March 16 of education, the film has the Algonquin College and will begin ing dates from the Ottawa police course size: minimum 10, maximum 20 students approval1 of students, teachers, to produce their own film design­ department and will attend whei: cost:$35.00: $18.00 at registration, and priiicipals and is to be used ed to destroy the social myths the film is being shown to com· $17.00 at first class as a starting point for discussions surrounding rape which the munity groups around the city about rape. Storaska film prepetuates. They intend to distribute mater­ Registration required before March 16 Upon a recommendation from The Ottawa Women's Centre ial pointing out the· de~ctive the Rape Crisis Centre of Ott­ has been active in its opposition qUalities of the film to women. awa, the film No Tears for to the film. The centre has con­ The Women's Centre would Rachel has been screened and tacted city councillors, Ottawa appreciate hearirig of the film CANADIAN ACADEMY OF SELF-DEFENCE ordered, but Mutter says the MPP's, the chief of police, and being shown at places of employ­ 200 First Avenue {at Bank) film deals with rape after the fact the board of education in an at­ ment or community groups. If 238-5312 and not prevention. tempt to have the film stopped. you know of any dates, pleue Staff Sargeant Rawlins, To date they have received no contact the Women's Centre at . spokesperson for the public re- response. 288-2560. SPORTS ADVANI:

by Amy Chouinard mouth, and Advani -is no excep­ tion. Free stylers, because they In a day or so, Jean Advani must shoot longer distances, use will find out whether she's the a lower point, such as their chin, new Canadian indoor champion The arrow travels farther be­ in women's bare bow shooting; cause it has a slightly greater meantime she can't let the sus­ arc. pense interfere ~ith her concen­ tration - March 13 she defends D Her last step is to decide her title as provincial champ. whether or not to shoot and then Advani competed' in the 'na­ to carry through. She concen­ tional archery championships trates on the bulls-eye in the· last week along with about 800 target, and if she feels "right" other archers across the country; she relaxes her grip on the arrow of white, black, blue, red, and competition. advising officials in disputes on no one yet knows who won. and lets her hand drift back to gold. the circles are divided in She also practices approxi­ scoring, etc. She also arranges The time lag is due to the her shoulder. half so that there are actually 10 mately 9 hours a week and has a tournament facilities and is plan­ system for conducting the indoor These basic steps are utmost circles - a hit on the outermost target set up in her living room ning a clinic for archery officials. championships. Competitors in Advani's mind as she prepares white circle is worth one point for her free moments. In her capacity as teacher, she shoot in their respective. regions for the provincial championships. and one in the inntermost gold She is a provincially and na­ has a few things to say about the and their scores are sent to the She says she will think each step circle (the bull's eye), 10. tionally certificated coach and Ottawa schools' archery courses. director of tournaments in Win­ out over and over before she Because of the simplicity of teacher. Since October she has She comments that most of the nipeg. There the points are tab­ steps to the shootii1,g line. "Then recording scores, archery clubs been teaching 29 would-be arch­ teachers have not had training in ulated. Ottawa archers met in my mind is like a programmed around the country can partici­ ers from ages 10 to 16 and has archery and many of their stu­ Hull for the event, but other computer, and all I have to do is pate in "mail matches". At pre­ more recently taken on a course dents develop poor habits and Ontario hopefuls travelled to plug it in and let it take over." sent, Advani and her colleagues for handicapped teenagers. bruised forearms. "Why don't Galt. This sort of concentration is in the RA Archery Club are She is also the director respon­ they come see us first?" Perhaps Competitions, which included the soul of archery, according to competing in a 12-week match. sible for one of the five divisions this year they will. Adult courses c>vents for archers of all ages, the 31-year-old Advani who en­ Each Tuesday and Friday she in Ontario. Basically, her duties begin at the J!A Centre in April were basically divided into the tered the sport 41/z years ago. scores about 60 shots for the · ara coordinating programs and so the possibility is there. lwo styles of shooting - bare She says, "If you're not sure bow and free style. The differ­ you're going to hit the target, kAYAK DIAGf\AM5 - PATTERN FOR "'t35, El'IDS r l°,0,DDLE ence is simple: bare bow shooters you won't. I have known peole do not use a sighting device but who shoot a whole tournament in free stylers do. their mind the night before so l"lioltAlc. There is a series of seven steps the next day they're not worried in shooting: about what's going to happen,_ D First the archer takes a they know already. It sounds a stance - square, open, or clos­ bit mystical, but it's true." ed. Advani uses a modified At times, this sort of concen­ square stance; this means· her tration can be a drawback. When feet are~ spread, weight evenly the archer steps to the shooting distributed, and her body is at a line, there is a 20-second interval right angle to the target. In an before she gets the go ahead, and open stance the body is turned Advani says she has come very slightly toward the target and in close to letting fly during that 20 the closed, slightly away. seconds. 'Tm concentrating so hard on the shot the last thing in D She selects an arrow, pick­ my mind is the timing." 19'' ing it out with the hand that she However, she has never been will place on the bowstrings. seriously bothered by the 21/z­ She loads the arrow with minute limit for getting her three the same hand, bringing the bow shots airborne. The closest call 1 up in front of her. There are she has had was in poor weather Paolcll~ three feathers on an arrow - conditions when the wind was -t,f- two are the same c.olour. When blowing. "I've had to put a couple an arrow is loaded, or "nocked", arrows down and that means I've one of the two like-coloured been through the sequence (of feathers is on the top and the seven steps) five times instead of unlike feather is on the outside. three," she says. The piece on the end of the arrow A timing light, which is green that is notched is called the nock, for the first two minutes, yellow the origin of the term nocked. for the next 30 seconds, and red D She then places the other at "stop", is visible to the archers sports calendar hand securely on the belly (in­ as a reminder of their limit. If the sport side) of the bow. final arrow (of three) is not in the Archery Orienteering short air when the light turns red, the With a relaxed shoulder and \larch 27 - Provincial indoor The Ottawa Orienteering Club is hand, she straightens the arm, archer only scores the points championships, eastern region, accumulated by the first two holding its Annual General Meet­ holding the bow and tightens RA Centre, all day, starting at 9 Capitalettes and Webb's Motel arrows. ing at the Lynwood Tennis Club ("sets") her elbow. a.m. Cardinals were in the dark about Scoring can be done at any on April 22 at 8 p.m. who would advance to the finals Slowly she draws the string time. The target, which is paper April 5 - Adult classes, RA Sailing when their playoff game was back to the "anchor point". Bare Centre, registration 7 p.m. spread over a tightly-coiled The Ontario Sailing Association foiled by a blackout at the Ne­ bow shooters usually pull the straw backing, serves as a per­ Badminton pean Sportsplex. The two teams string to the corner of their is holding its Annual Yacht Rac­ manent record. it contains circles March 18, 19, 20 - Provincial B ing Seminar at the University of had been virtually equal all sea­ son and had played to sudden and C Tourneys, Trenton Ottawa, Montpetit Hall on ~pril death overtime in the first game ./. 16. Registration is at 9:30 a~m. March 27 - Gloucester Invitation­ of their playoff. LES \IELOS al Tourney, Montpetit Hall, Ott­ Water Sports Capitalettes took that game 5 G~UCAERSLTEE awa U. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Forces Subaqua Club (Ott­ to 4 but were upset in their April 1, 2, 3 - District Open awa) started a 16 week SCUBA second game by Bayshore Tourney. Location to be deter­ training course -1ast week. Al­ Marine. L.:..!CA TEO AT BANK NEAR Fl FIH mined. most half of the participants are Many women have trouble getting Fencing women. The Club has been hold­ double-butted frames to fit ·JW date given - Governor General ing regular outdoor underwater Fencing Tournament, RA Centre activities throughout the winter.

SOUTHPAW ·AFTERNOON lo EVENING is pleased to annqunce that SELF-DEFENCE CLASSES FOR ASJAN ARTS MEN - WOMEN - CHILDREN JIU - JITSU DOJO LTD. (Since 1971) we will be able to supply high quality framesets in smaller sizes. We now have a framebuilder affiliat­ OPEN 7 DAvs A WEEK! ed with the shop who would be pleased to design a 125 HOLLAND AVE. frame for you. (CORNER OF WELLINGTON)

857 BANK-STREET t 722-9611 JEFFREY J. DAVIO OTTAWA, ONTARIO, K1S 3W2 BLACK BELT. 4th DEGREE VISITORS WELCOME CALL ANYTIME CHIEF INSTRUCTOR TEL: (613) 238-4947 u,._ 1u BUILD YOUR OWN KAYAK

by Kate Middleton format appears on paper in type just about anything goes as long and is more difficult to under­ as it guarantees the structure stand. will be sound. I had to drill some I learned to build kayaks from of my ribs and stripping and hold Kayaks pave been around for a two friends of mine who spent them together with lashing. long time. As a method of water some time building and paddling Don't be afraid to experiment. travel they are very efficient and their kayaks near the Queen MATERIALS graceful. Perhaps this is where Charlotte Islands on the west 1 4' x 4' sheet marine grade ply­ their appeal lies. coast of B.C. They picked up wood 1/z" thick The kayak was first used by their knowledge of kayak-build­ 1 4' x 8' sheet marine grade ply­ the Inuit who needed a boat to ing from other friends. Up to this wood 1/-." thick (or any 1/4" ply­ brave the waves of the Arctic. point little more than a few wood finished on one side.) The basic Inuit kayak was first diagrams and some words of designed like its predecessors - encouragement were all that was 30' of 2" x 4"s (to build base for once a good design emerges needed to build a 12 to 14 foot ribs.) there's little need for re­ ocean-going kayak capable of 3' 1" x 2" (for rib frame) vision. The kayak consisted of withstanding ten-foot waves. 1 ribs carved from driftwood which 20' /2" dowelling preferably Now, in order to pass this know­ fir were drilled and joined by skin ledge into larger circles I am thongs to longer, horizontal 4 pieces - 20' 1/z" dowelling or breaking from the oral tradition. 1 strips of driftwood. This frame Hopefully, the technique will be 1" x /4" fir or mahogany trim was covered by stretched skins just as understanda,ble. 2 pieces - 20' l" x 1/z" or 1/z" x which were sewn onto the frame 1 Building the Kayak /z" x Vz" pine or fir to form a watertight covering. Wood for cowling At the top of the central balance The kayak being described point of the kayak a hole was cut here is a 12 to 14 foot structure Screws either#6 or #4, l" and 1 Kate MJddleton into the skin and a hoop was capable of ocean travel. It is not 1 /-." round-headed brass inserted and sewn to the frame the type of kayak you may have l lb. l" copper nails seen on T. V. racing down narrow and smooth the joints with the glue and attach them to the prow and covering. This is where the Canvas - 16 oz. for the bottom, wood file. Polyurethane the ribs. or stern with 1" screws. Start paddler sat. The empty space gorges through whitewater. The 1 whitewater kayak is a different 14 oz. for the top Measure the dimensions for· with the 1" x /z" pieces first, inside the kayak was used to the plywood bottom onto the 1/4" then the rest. Check the align­ store the supplies and game that creature - it is built either of 1 gal. copper naphenate or zinc fiberglass or plastic parts and naphenate plywood, outline, and saw it out. ment constantly to make sure the hunters carried. The kayak Urethane the bottom. that the boat is on an even keel. can take an occasional brush with 2 qt. Airplane dope was primarily used as a means of Each rib needs to be held in If one piece of stripping is longer obtaining food - seals, etc. di­ a river rock. A canvas/plywood 2 qt. Airplane thinner the rib frame so you can attach than the other or at a different rectly or indirectly, by trans­ kayak (the one pictured here) is built to take the strain of waves, Marine glue the stripping. Cut pieces of 2" x angle re-align them or the kayak porting the hunter to ice floes or 4" to match the open length 'of will list over to one side when other inlets known for their not rocks, and is shaped differ­ 1 qt. polyurethane the bottom ribs. For example, if you are paddling it. game. In our culture the kayak is ently from its whitewater cousin. TOOLS: jig saw (for cutting the rib is 2' long cut the 2" x 4" at The kayak will look quite spec- . a device used for pleasure, and It is closer in construction to the ribs), hacksaw, drill, screwdriv­ original Inuit kayak. both ends, so that the rib is held tacular at this stage. Polyure­ this is what this article is devot­ er, hammer, knife, scissors, securely in place. You may have thane the whole structure, using ed to - the pleasure of building There are basically five steps wood file, ruler, pencils, paint to spend some time on this in 2 or 3 coats. your own kayak. to building this kayak. In order brushes, chisels. order to make sure the ribs can't Take the 16 oz. canvas, on the Traditionally, the Inuit passed they are: preparing the ribs, attaching the lower wood strip­ Method move. Take the long piece of 2" x bias, and keeping the bias on the their knowledge of kayak-build­ 4" remaining and nail it the centre of the kayak, stretch the ing down from generation to ping, joining the top ribs to the Take the pattern for the ribs rib frame, so that it is in the canvas over the bottom of the generation by orally illustrating frame, securing the frame with and draw it to .scale on the sheet centre of each frame and perpen- frame (tacking it on the top of the the technique with bits of drift­ the top dowels to the prow and of 4' x 4' plywood. Cut out the dicular to the rib. The measure- frame - see the photo for illus­ wood and skin at hand. Our stern, and nailing on the canvas. pattern with the jig saw. Where ments for the spacing between tration) With a friend, stretch culture leans more towards the The greatest trick in the con­ the notches have been marked, the ribs for a 14' kayak are given. the canvas from both., sides, written tradition - hence the struction is improvisation - chisel, or saw and chisel them out Attach the 1/z" x 1" (or 1/z" x standing opposite to each other, 1/z'') wood to the ribs by drilling, and nail it to the 1" x 1/z'' pieces glueing and then screwing it to every 6" with copper nails. Re­ each rib at the bottom notch. peat this process for the top but SALUTE TO THE SUN: (use 1" screws) Bend the prow instead of tacking, attempt to and stern ends of the wood nail the canvas (14 oz.) directly to together, scissors-like, until the 1" x 1/z" pieces. Stretch the WITH YOGA there is little play in them. They canvas, then told it so that the ward and the spine becomes concentrate. You will perhaps will be hard to bend any further). fold is even with the bottom edge by Bertie Lawton rounded often resulting in severe want to choose a particular word Tie the ends together· securely. of the 1" x 112" pieces. At this Yoga, a Sanskrit word mean- back and neck pain and head- or mantra to focus your atten- Repeat this process for the rest point nail it on while it is still ing union - a whole woman as ache. However practising Yoga tion. Now your mind has some- of the stripping. When the strip- tight.' Nail the canvas, both on opposed to one inwardly divided, reverses these conditions and thing to hold on to and allow ping is screwed onto the ribs, the top-and bottom of the kayak, combine·s the physical, mental, helps maintain a flexible spine. everything else to slide past. A join all the ends together. at 8" intervals along the ribs and philosophical. However one The Salute to the Sun is example of a mantra is the Attach the plywood bottom to (:Note: not the stripping). doesn't have to stop living a probably the best all round exer- Sanskrit phrase So-Ham - 'I the frame with 1" screws, mak- Stretch and fold the canvas normal life to reap many of its cise in Yoga. It consists of twelve am she'. This word or symbol or ,ing sure to glue and screw it onto over the prow and stern and nail. benefits. Tantric Yoga says a postures, each of which in its one of your own choosing is re- each rib. Keep the screws at At the centre of the kayak, on woman can· go on living her life own way keeps the body healthy peated over and over silently and least 8" apart. the top, cut out a hole 1' in naturally and add one activity - and gets rid of superfluous fat, the mind lets other thoughts Release the ribs from the rib diameter, get two triends to hold Yoga. Yoga exercises are design- and combines both forward and float away and relaxes. Medita- frame and turn the kayak over. the kayak in the air while you ed to stretch, relax, and backbending exercises. It is well tion practised regularly helps get Attach the top ribs to the ends of pour the. naphenate inside. By strengthen the body's muscles worth learning and is illustrated rid of depression and compulsiv the bottom ribs with l l/4.. turning, tipping and shaking the and joints and flex the spine. in the books mentioned at the thoughts and provides extr screws. Don't forget to glue each kayak after each time you pour, They also balance the secretions end of this column. Undoubtedly energy. Most meditators prac- joint: you should be able to coat the of the endocrime galnds, which the best way to learn Yoga is tise it for two or three fifteen- Take the front dowel, holding inside canvas so that it will not include the thyroid, pituitary, from a qualified teacher and minute periods a day. it flush to the top of the second mildew or rot. Let dry. and pancreas. Deep breathing is there are many classes available To those of you who would like rib, outline its diameter on the Mix' the dope and the dope important as it increases the in the area; however many pos- to learn more about Yoga I rib, then mark the centre of the thinner together. With a brush body's energy, and meditation tures can be learned on your own recommend either of the follow- circle and drill through it. Hold or spray gun apply up to four after exercising produces an in- if· you find classes in'convenient. ing two books: The Complete II- the dowel to this spot with a l l/4" coats, of dope to the outside of the ner calmness and improves con- Meditation is important in lustratedBookofYogaby Swami screw and glue. Trim enough kayai.. centration. Yoga, although the exercises Vishnudebananda and published wood off of the dowel top above Form a wooden frame to hold In Yoga all movements are alone provide a general feeling of by Pocket Books or Yog&, Tan the point where it rests on the the cowling canvas in place with slow and gradual with proper well-being. Meditation is usually & Meditation by Swami Janakan first rib. Drill through to the rib the frame. breathing and relaxation. Circu- practised in a quiet place with da Saraswati and published by and screw the pieces together. Using 1" x 1/z" cedar design lation and muscle elasticity - eyes closed. The first, step is to Ballantine Books. Repeat this process for the back and build a removable slatted important in keeping the body dowel pieces. Gently tie the frame for the bottomof the kay- youthful - are improved. The dowels together with the rest of ak. This is quite necessary. exercises or 'asanas', as they are the ·stripping at the prow and Without it you run the risk of called by Yogis, pay great atten- stern end. going through the bottom and tion to making the spine more Attach the prow and stern getting wet from the water that flexible and mobilizing the joints. pieces to the .kayak plywood will run down your paddle as you As a woman grows older her bottom, using 1" screws placed stroke along. Don't stop here, backbone tends to stiffen be- 4" apart. you can also add a real seat and cause the ligaments become The next step is perhaps the foot rests (to cut down on the tighter. Excessive stiffness can hardest one to carry out. This is risk of your feet going through also be due to different causes where intuition, skill and innova- the canvas. such as faulty body alignment tion come into play. and poor balance, which cause Align each piece of stripping shortening of the ligaments. This with the prow and stern pieces of occurs particularly in the vert- plywood keeping the plywood ebral columns of people who sit flat on the ground. Measure the much of the time, such as office angle at which each piece meets workers and students. Sitting the prow and stern and saw. .__thrusts___ th_e_he__.ad"""-=an..._d'--"n'"'"eck="- Drill the ends of each piece, then 16/ Up.tream March1977 Upstream is a monthly newsmagazine published by Feminist Publications of Ottawa. The staff is a collective with departmental co-ordinators. Upstream subscribes to Co-operative Press Associates CURRENTLY (CPA), a national labour news service. We solicit readers' views and opinions. All correspondence should be addressed to Upstream, 227 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 207, Ottawa KlP 5J7. Phone 232-0313. Mar. 11 Mar. 22 Women in Transitien - a self-help The Luck of Ginger Coffey, adapted by Co-ordinator this issue group for women preparing for sep­ Brian Moore from his own novel of the Bitsy Bateman aration or divorce. Open to all women, same name about a never do well Irish ·News Department the group meets at the Women's emigrant. Screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Pat Daley Centre, 821 Somerset St. W., at 8:00 National Library and Public Archives. p.m. ives. Sports Department Gallery Talks on Paul Klee by Marilyn Amy Chouinard Schiff at 3 p.m. at the National Gallery Mar. 23 Literary Department and again on March 16. Orientation to Feminism, Women, Alexa DeWiel Office Health, and Self Help groups is the Sue Bristow Lana Ritchie Mar. 12 . topic of discussion beginning at 7 :30 Jane Arnott Alma Norman p.m. at the Women's Centre. The Berczy and Girodet is the topic of discussion will touch on women's_ spec­ Arts Department Ana Guzewski gallery talk given by Rosalie McCrea at ific relation to the health care system; Lana Ritchie Sandra LeGroulx -the National Gallery, 3 p.m., and again alienation from their own bodies, es­ Dawn Amott Cover Photographs on the 27th. pecially reproductive systems and the Kate Middleton notion and significance of self help as it Features Co-ordinator Mar. 15 , has evolved in the feminist movement. Susan Wisking Lis Allison Business Manager Production this issue: Rachel Rachel, a translation of Mar­ garet Laurence's novel, A Jest of God, Mar. 24 Huguette Vrancken Ana Guzewski, Kate Middleton, Maney Rudge, Alma Norman, centred on a woman's exploration of Varda Burstyn on Strategic Plµ"spect• Advertising the limits of her existence in a small ives for the Women's Movement. Var­ - Marilyn Fuchs Patty Gibson, Derek Amyot, town, will ··screened at 7:30 at the be da will begin her talk at 7:30 p.m. at Colleen Glass-Hayes Lucie Sawczenko, Lis Allison, National Library and Public Archives. the Women's Centre. Jane Arnott, Oksana ives. Graphics Department Jean's Wife, a film by Bellon (France), Shewchenko, Sue Wisking, Pat Ana Guzewski Hedda Gabler, by Henrick Ibsen, is sponsored by the Carleton University Daley, Bitsy Bateman presented by the University of Ottawa Women's Centre at 8 p.m. _492 Tory Photography Department Drama Guild until March 19. Directed Building. Tickets on sale at the Wom­ Lis Allison Upstream wishes to announce by James Dugan, the play is staged at en's Centre, 504 Unicentre. the addition of a Literary Sec­ 8 p.m. every evening at Academic Hall, Distribution tion, containing poetry, prose, 133 Wilbrod Street. Admission is Mar. 25 Alma Norman and graphic art, from new and $1.50. Students{)() cents. Brigid Hayes established artists. Making a Will, the fourth informational Women in-TranSition, a regular work­ meeting in a series presented by the shop on women in situations involving Ottawa Community Law Program, will separation or divorce .. Discussion be­ begin at 7 p.m. at the Ottawa Public gins at 8 p.m. at the Women's Centre. Library. Admission is free. For more information contact Richard Nolan at 232-1161. Mar. 28 Mar. 16 Rape.Workshop This will be a general discussion centering around the myths 1337 B Wellington St. Carol Laing shows new drawings and and legal problems a rape victim Ottawa paintings until April 2 at SAW Gallery, encounters in Canada. Hopefully a film 72 Rideau Street. will be found which discusses rape in its proper context. If so, there may be Orientation to Feminism This session a small charge to cover the rental and on lesbianism will look briefly at some handling costs. The workshop begins at of the major forces and concepts behind 7:30 p.m. at the Ottawa Women's the creation and evolution of the Centre. 1 lesbian movement in Canada. The 494 /4 Somerset St7 W. major part of the discussion will centre Octopus 236-2589 on the present day situation and how societal trends relate to it. Discussion begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Women's March Centre, 821 Somerset West. Works by Helga Palko are displayed Bookstore until March 27 at the Algonquin College progressive books and periodicals Mar. 17 Gallery, 281 Echo Drive. -The Madwoman of Chaillot, presented HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY by the Ottawa Little Theatre, is staged Myths and Masks, story telling and at 8:30 p.m. at 400 King Edward IS MOVING mask making is offered at Main branch, Avenue un_til March 19. Ottawa Public Library for ages 6 years 837 and up. 2 p.m. Private Lives, a comedy by Noel to Bank St. Coward is staged by the NAC Theatre Ordinary Tenderness, a film by Company at 8 p.m. until March 19. (at Fifth) Jacques Leduc, sponsored by the Car­ Ticket information 237-4400. opening specials leton University Women's Centre at 8 La Leche League - at any time you may come and browse through p.m., 492 Tory building. Tickets on our new and expanded sections sale at the Women's Centre, 504 call a leader ·for breast feeding in­ Unicentre. formation or help, or to request a copy of The Womanly Art of Breast Feeding Women's Centre Policy Meeting, open ($3.50). La Leche League telephone to all women in Ottawa, begins at 1:30 238-5919 will be answered by a quali­ OPENING APRIL 2nd p.m. at the Women's Centre. 821 fied leader in her home. Somerset West. Home-oriented Maternity Experience. Registration is open for pre-natal class­ Mar. 18 es in· mid-March. Pre-natal yoga con­ Poppinplayer Puppets entertain at tinues on Saturday mornings. For HOUSE OF ERA Centennial branch of Nepean Public more information call 521-6658. Library at 2 p.m. Natural Foods Cooking every Sunday HANDCRAFTED at 2015 Banff Ave., KlV 7X6 and the Heavenly Art of Bread Baking every FURNITURE Mar. 20 Wednesday. JN PINE, OAK AND .CHERRY Pianist Angela Hewitt and a string See our selection of quartet led by Walter Prystawski • Occasional Pieces appear in concert at Christ Church April • Rocking Cha-irs Cathedral at 7:15. The Women's Centre is sponsoring a ~;:::;::::;:;~~ weekend Wen-Do course, scheduled • Maple Lamps Mar. 21 'for April 22 and 23 (6 hours per day). If • Four Poster Beds you are interested in attending, call the • Ceramic and Candles Women and the Law - The law from Women's Centre immediately, since single to married to single will be enrolment will be limited. Exact details Guy Bowie, Proprietor presented by Shirley Greenberg at the of time, place, course fee (tentatively Women's Centre at 7:30 p.m. Shirley $12.00) were not available at press will be discussing what the law means time. Those who have taken a Wen-Do for you, covering the gamut of legal course before are welcome to attend status from single to married, separ­ the weekend free of charge, but regis­ ated, divorced, widowed, or remar­ tration is still necessary. Daycare will OTTAWA ried. be provided. Guy Bowle, Prqprletor Marehl977 u,..... 117 PRAIRIE WOMEN: A HARVEST YET TO REAP

"Born an' scrubbed, suffered an' died" social intercourse and exchange. In the farm womeD bad in abundance. That's all you need to say, elder. their own way each provided a frame­ Tb&y were about to operate in another Never mind sayin '7 ''Made a bride, " work within which women otherwise context under more critical public Nor when her hair got grey. isolated could broaden their intellectual gaze. Irene Parlby, first president of Jes' say "born 'n worked t' deatll.": and political horizons. the UFWA recalls how, in their early That fits it - aave yr breatll.. To Nellie McClung, they were the meetings: "white hope of the progressive move­ Hamlin Garland ... We were scared to open ovr ''The Farmer's Wife" ment ... for they offered a forum where wome n were not afraid to tackle social mov.tks: afraid to /m1M or move. a The Saskatchewan reaolution. Shaki11g kMea! Trembling problems and their reading courses and by Alma Norman discussions showed serious purpose." voices ..... We 1uuJ. no motlefl to work with, no pre.tige ... When Nellie McClung and the other That the women had any time at all to consider social issues is astonishing Despite these obstacles, with babies suffragists presented the case for in their arms and toddlers underfoot, woman's vote to the premiers of the when one considers that in one chapter of the UFWA more than half the they fed their households, laboured prairie provinces they were speaking beside their men, and - somehow - on behalf of women of proven tough­ memberd had babies under three years old. went out and collected those signatures ness. These were prairie women, wives that finally convinced their govern­ and mothers and daughters of home­ As political training grounds th~ farm women's groups were the most ments that women wanted the vote and steaders. Somehow they managed to meant to get it. wrench time from their pressured lives radical and most effective. Unlike the By 1916 prairie women, rallying to collect the tens of thousands of WI which tended to concentrate on behind the Nellie McClungs, had won signatures on the petitions which final­ homemaking and family issues, the UFWA and WGGA realized early that the franchise, but they _had by no ly persuaded the honourable gentle­ means won the battle. ment prime ministers that women did only changing laws would improve their lot. In 1973 a prairie woman named Irene indeed really want the vote. Murdoch separated from her husband. The determination of these women Then, as now, women in the eyes of the law were often separate and An Alberta court awarded her an in­ was forlhidable. Lacking labour saving come of $200.00 a month. The Supreme household appliances, unprotected by unequal. Particularly galling to the and mort~ of the land her hard farm women because it concerned their work had helped to pay fort' Court of Canada in its appeal judge­ the pill or indeed any other reliable ment dismissed her contnlmtion of birth control measures, these settler security' was the question of dower Through the columns of the Grain rights, the uncertainty that a woman Growers Guide and the Western Pro­ work and management which was women could count on an annual about the same as her husband's, as pregnancy to add to their already would be assured of her share in the ducer, among others, settler women homestead she had helped to establish. were beginning to learn that woman's being what was expected of an ordin­ overwhelming tasks. ary ranch wife. Since the purpose of homesteading "A Saskatchewan Farmeress" writ­ place was not forever fixed in the ing to the Grain Growers Guide was universe. They learnt of growing op­ There is indeed "a harvest yet to was to establish a commercially viable reap". farm, it is not surprising that any surely speaking for many women when portunities in the working world and in money saved by a frugal woman went she said in 1910: ' education. They heard, increasingly, of (For most of the material in this article to ensure the farm's economic stability. Having waited for neighbours to the CJmpaign by women to get the v~. I am indebted to a history of prairie Good stock, improved seed, farm write as I heard them say they were It was inevitable that the more radical women: A Harveet Yet to Reap, machinery were bought; there was no going to... Will write for them... (for] women's groups should involve them­ published by The Women's Press. This cash left over for such frivolities as Most of them have small clothes to selves in political action. In many ways excellent book contains photographs, labour saving devices in the home. wash, and small faces too ... Pray teU this was a more difficult task than any extracts from letters and newspapers, By the end of the 19th century me, what incenti'Ve a woman has to as yet undertaken. thumbnail sketches of outstanding women were seen as one of the most worke very day, lrmger hours tlum her Physical activity, emotional forti­ prairie women, and an annotated bib­ vital components in the opening of the huslJand, if she has no my in the iellinll tude, tenacity - these were qualities liography.) west, for the government envisaged family farms. And how were families to be established without women - to bear children, and to bring their The Palladium Reports civilising influence to the wilderness? "Women - simply women," was one observer's solution to the problems AN EARLY FIGHT AGAINST RAPE of settlement. As to the imUiigration literature, it invited these women to a by Ron Verzuh false representations, or other traud­ the result in the Tait case. Seldom has "leisurely and refined domesticity, un­ ulent means, - ... (b) Inveigles or troubled by worry or fatigue." such a flagrant imtance in the abuse of ''.At the Toronto Assizes last week, entices any such woman or girl (under his position by an employer come to What most women found was a life George Tait of Brampton, a· tailor, the age of 21) to a house of ill-fame or where: light. was tried for the offience of inveigling assignation, for the purpose of illicit "The poor girl's innocence was taken "I've carried the l.ittle ones to the fence Eva Kenny, a young girl in his employ intercourse or prositutions, or who advantage- of and not content with corner, made then as comfortable as into a hOUBe of ill-fame. It was the first knowingly conceals in such house any effecting her ruin, t~ l1Utftd black­ possible, and then helped stack hay, case tried under the Charlton Act. " such woman or girl so inveigled or en­ guard enticed her to Toronto and in­ stook grain, build fences and harrow Just as today's newspapers have ticed, - is guilty of a misdemeanor, duced her to enter a hOUBe of prostitu­ the ploughed fields, having d

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter lectual rebellions. However, she in my life: my relationship with adventures uninteresting for sponst'ble. Disagreements with Simone de Beauvoir realized that the book left a Sartre". The development of this both of them, what remained was the Communist party caused by (translated by James Krup) major question unanswered: how alliance is a major concern of her an indissoluble bond of under­ the Stalin trials and the Hitler­ Penguin Books (paperback) did the optimistic, inexperienced autobiographies. Brought up as standing and commitment, a Staliri pact evaporated in the 360 pages girl of twenty become the woman she was in ignorance of sexual­ bond so deep that she says: camaraderie dt guerilla resist­ $2.95 she now was? ity, de Beauvoir early framed her Yet so assid'UOU8ly have we al­ ance and in the hopeful vision To answer this question, she own morality, which, acknowled­ stimulated by Stalingrad's de­ The Prime of Life ways criticized, ·corrected or rati­ wrote The Prime of Life (1963) ging the nonexistence of God fence. Simone de Beauvoir fied each other's thought that we which discusses the years 1928 to relied on the individual to form Neither Sartre rior de Beau­ (translated by Peter Breen) might almost be said to think in 1944, a period when her philo­ her/his own ideas of acceptable voir ever joined the party, but Penguin Books (paperback) common ... Very often one of us sophical and political commit­ behaviour - ideas founded on begins a sentence and the other they sided with it, in spite of 607 pages ments took root. The third vol- honesty. She rejected the double ideological idfferences, by lend­ $3.95 finishes it; if someone asks us a ume, Force of Circumstance standard of her society which question, we have been known to ing the weight of their presence Force of Circumstance (1965) chronicles her increasing excused men's infidelities while produce identical answers. to public meetings, demonstra­ Simone de Beauvoir political &ctivity from 1945 to damning "fast" women: integ­ This achievement, of a truly tions, journals, and petitions. (translated by Richard Howard) 1963, especially in relation to the rity, she felt, should be the mark mutual bond of experience and Both spoke in support of the Penguin Books (paperback) Algerian war. As well, she has of both sexes' actions towards ideas, is a deeper love than the oppressed: to de Beauvoir, this 674 pages written an account of a trip to one another. merely sexual exercise we com­ class included women. 1 $3.95 China, The Long March (1958), Moreover, she longed to meet monly suppose to be the real The Algerian war provided the Djamila Boupacha (with Gisele a man intellectually superior to last straw in their resistance to. by Betsy Struthers thing. Many people assumed that Halini - 1963), A Very Easy herself who would help her Sartre wrote her books and political involvement. So dis­ Simone de Beauvoir's autobio­ Death(1966), The Woman De­ throughtne morass of theories to formed her ideas and ignored the gusted was de Beauvoir by graphy is a faseinating history of stroyed (1969), La Vieillesse a true understanding of herself fact that the relationsliip was French apathy and complacency the formation of the twentieth (1970), and All Said And Done and the world. In Sartre, she dis­ reciprocal. De Beauvoir played a over the atrocities committed by covered this ideal companion: vital role in forcing Sartre to for­ their imperialist governient in with him, she explored ideas of mulate and elucidate his theories Algeria and Viet Nam, that she being, nothingness, contingency, into a coherent philosophical sys­ could not stomach social contact and political action. His, she said, tem. with the middle class: they made BOOKS was the "ideologically creative" her sick. Totally aware of the mind; she was willing to follow The supposition that her individual's inability to change century intellectual conscience. (1974), the fourth volume of her his ideas - after due consider­ thoughts come totally from him, the world. She found action pre­ In it, she traces the development autobiography. .ation and examination to dis­ she discisses contemptuously, ferable to disinterest and travel­ of the three fundamental doc­ Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter cover their validity for herself "But people in our society really led, spoke, and wrote in support trines of our time - existential is a very self-consciously reflect­ - because they did agree with do believe that a woman thinks of the independence fighters. philosophy, left-wing politics, ive novel, modelled in many what she thought. with her uterus - what low­ One of her books, Djamila and feminism - and offers un­ ways ·after Proust with its evoca­ Th'e real betrayal of my /Aberty mindedness, really!. .. It was no Boupacha, was the account of the ique insights into the theories, tion of nature, of physical exper­ would have been a refusal to re­ matter of chance that I chose torture of a young Algerian girl ideologies, personalities, and iences, and of the adult percep­ cognize this particul.ar superior­ Sartre; for after all, I did choose and around it revolved a growing events which form our cultural tion of psychological motives not ity on his part; I would then have him. I followed him joyfully movement to end that war. Her heritage. The first three vol­ understood by chilci and adol­ ended up a prisoner of the because he led me along the pe;.·ceptions of the cold was were umes, published in inexpensive escent. Written when de Beau­ deliberately challenging attitude paths I wanted to take up later anguishing:she perceived the fu­ Penguin paperbacks, cover the voir was fifty, it retains a certain and the bad faith which are at we always discussed' our itiner­ tility of the fifties' chauvinism in period 1908 to 1963. nostalgic flavour which enhances once an inevitable result of the ary together". It was not an easy the face of nuclear destruction De Beauvoir was born in 1908 the vitality and veracity of the path for a woman with her back­ and watched the resurgence of in a petty bourgeois Parisian protrait of a girl's growth to ground - but it was the only fascist nationalism with Amer­ family. Her upbringing stressed maturity. On the other hand, the one possible. The relationship ica's McCarthy and France's the traditional middle class vir­ two later volumes were written they created is indeed an im­ De Gaulle in horror. Hope for tues of obedience, peity, and much closer in time to the events pressive one. humanity's future seemed to lie chastity. Her mother read all her described and lack this reflect­ But de Beauvoir's life has not with the third world, with the letters; her father censured her ivesness. simply been the working out of communist experiments of China books; and her teachers restrict­ One of the most exciting tech­ her role as a woman in relation to· and Cuba. Yet, even these could ed her education to religious niques evident in all three vol­ men. As well, she is a writer, an not 'cancel the futility of exist­ moralizing. Nevertheless, her umes is the inclusion, at mom­ intellectual, a political activist. ence: native intelligence rebelled ents of emotional stress (i.e. She wanted to write from the age For now I k:now the truth of the against the intellectual stagna­ Zaza's breakdown, the Nazi occu­ of 15 ; she sought philosophy as · human condition: two thirda of tion and innate hypocrisy of her pation of Paris, the height of OSS a method of providing reason and mankind are hungry. My species class's morality and religion. activity during the Algerian war) . order in a universe that, without is two thirds composed of worms, This perceptipn was strength­ of passages from contemporary battl.e of the sexes and the God, seemed meaningless. too weak ever to rebel, who drag ened by her hatred for the letters and diaries - these compl.ete opposite of intellectual But not until World War II their way from birth to death parents of her best friend, Zaza achieve an immediacy impossible honesty. My independence has forced her to examine her own through a perpetual dusk of Mabille, whose ideas and ambi­ in the autobiographical format never been in danger because I conscience and convictions was despair... They will die, and that tions conflicted disa.Strously with and add liveliness and symn- have never unloaded any of my she willing to play a part in is all that will have happened. her parent's strict moral and pathetic insight into the events responsibilities unto Sartre ... He political history. Although she The void frightens me 1.ess than social standards, Unable to break described. has helped me, as I have helped hated the injustices of the cap­ misery made absolute. away, Zaza's conflict between De Beauvoir is candid about him. I have not lived through italist system and sympathized Having faced the reality of these .expectations and her .own her errors of judgement, harshly him. with communism, she had felt, collective despair, de Beauvoir is desires ended in her death. treats her critics, and is some- Whether one will or will not prior to the war, that her role as left with the individual dilemma: De Beauvoir was able to reject what too reticent about her accept this jus~ification, it is a middle class intellectual re­ the inevitability of death. In the stifling life of middle class amorous affairs. Self-justifica- fascinating to trii.ce the develop­ stricted her to a passive, critical many ways, the writing of these respectability and studied philo­ tion aside, what emerges from ment of their relationship as standpoint. However, the Nazi memoirs served as. a slap in the sophy and the classics at the Sor­ these books is the portrait of an unconsciously protrayed in the face of nothingness. By recreat­ bonne where she met Jean Paul vitory convinced her that this dil­ amazingly vital woman who, tone of her writings about him. ettante attitude on her part and ing the texture and tempo of her Sartre with whom she formed a somewhat crippled by her con- on the part of other liberal past,· she prolongs her life be­ lasting alliance. She taught ventional upbringing, strives to In the beginning, they must have intellectual bourgeoisie (includ­ yond its eventual demise, as her school in Paris, Marseilles, and find order and meaning in the been wildly in love, for they ing Sartre) was morally irre- books live for their readers. Rouen; sympathized with the world. De Beauvoir's prime con- willingly tossed aside convention socialist movements of the thir­ cern is the human condition: the (and this in 1928) for a "morgan­ ties; and followed the rise of the individual's despair under the atic marriage". Living apart, but Nazis in Germany with frighten­ tyranny of oppressive political constantly together, they shared ed indifference. and social systems. How she . philosophical discoveries, films, . Back in Paris in 1939, she develops these ideas is the sub- books, music, and friends in assisted various resistance activ­ ject of these books. all-night discussions in bohemian ities thoughtout the war. Her For obvious reasons of space in cafes. Although they both agreed first movel was published in reviewing fifty-five years of such not to limit sexual adventures, 1943; a second novel and a play a woman's life, I must omit many Sartre was the first to have an appeared in 1945; a third novel interesting views concerning "outside" affair. and a work of philosophic critic­ people (artists, writers, politic- Although de Beauvoir claimed, ism in 1947. Investigating a ians, revolutionaries, and the in Prime of Life, that this did not theory sparked by the tragedy of "beau monde"), places (most affect their friendship, her at­ her friend's death, she· studied European countries, Scandan- titude became somewhat more. the role of women and, in 1949, avia, Russia, China, Africa, critical and she seemed to have a published The Second Sex, one of South America, Cuba, and the number of adventures herself the classics of feminism. Her USA), and particulars (the con- (this is where that sexual reti" novel, The Mandarins, published ception and writing of her books, cence comes in!) However, the in 1954, won her the leading critical discourses on a variety of war and Sartre's imprisonment French literary prize, the Prix topics, and personal adventures). in a German POW camp brought Goncourt. Instead, I will concentrate on them closer together; sexuality In 1959, de Beauvoir published three fundamental aspects of de took a back seat in their relation­ Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. Beauvoir's life - her relation- ship. During the fifties, de Beau­ oi~ paintings She meant this to be her sole ship with Sartre, her politics, voir herself has a passionate watercolors autobiographical work, covering and her philosophy. affair with the American novel- sllk screens as it does the formative years of De Beauvoir's relationship ist, Nelson Algren (beautifully lllli99r8Phi her.childhood and adolescence to with Sartre is her central joy and recreated in Force of Cireum­ acutptures the age of twenty and including the most misunderstood aspect stance). This event served to custom framing Martha Connolley, prop. the story of her friend, Zaza, and of her life. She claims that strengthen her re~nship with a record of her moral and intel- "There is one undoubted success Sartre: when ~ made sexual 'IJ)/ Upstream March 1977 March 1977 - LIT RARY In Her Place

This rain does insist; the wind howling encouragement, egging it humming the same tune. lt)s'she. Dare I open my eyes? But there is on, finding the cracks in my walls, windows, chimney. But I refuse no need. I am sure. Th.i;n\reight of her body, mine pressing down. you both. Your shining only background music. The wood in my Heavy, yet so good this feeling. I am home, safe. How I can ask her. fireplace hisses with your tears, challenges your wet insistence. We Finally when I am sure I can ask. Why did you leave me here? Was it both refuse you, will not play mother to your tantrums. My feather a test? You see I trusted you. The doubt was never mine. It was the comforter and glowing fire must know their roles by now. We wait. others'. What do you mean when you ask what I did in your absence? She will arrive soon. With the sureness of the passing seasons, witli I am youi life. We have always lived together. Then I was you and the changing of the moon's faces, we evolve towards each other. I you became smaller while I protected you. Surely you didn't forget! I close my eyes so I may see her better. Her serious, loving glance as never forgot. You named me Patience and you Persephone. - she crosses the kitchen to stir the soup. I hear the rustle of her skirts Perseverance? No, it's not the same. Doesn't that mean enduring over the stone floor, the faint humming sounds from her throat as she hardships? Don't you understand? There was no inbetween. The does her chores. Lost in her own thoughts. I do not insist by opening others didn't matter. A life to be lived within these arms. Then, now, my eyes. I will not batter her but wait patiently with the sureness ~ later. You embrace us all. No, I am happy now. You are here, your one who was borne of her, knows her from the inside out. Now I feel sweet breath on my neck, in my lungs. You have returned to find me. her warm breath on my neck as she bends over my resting body. See, here I am. Waiting in your arms. Thinking me asleep she brushes her lips ..along my long black hair and Granny, Granny. Wake up. She doesn't hear so well anymore. Ah, whispers to herself, "my life". I dare not breath. Her presence so now she's opening her eyes. Sometimes she sleeps so deeply it precious from this sleepless hiding place. Having asked for nothing, frightens me. You never know at this age. Look, she's confused, she gives me all. The room is quiet now. She has left me to sleep. pretends not to know us, hardly speaks. No, she's not sad really. I open my eyes carefully, Your hiss has become a growl. I will feed Look how she stares into the fire, always with that distant look, that a wild dan you. You must stay with me, my warm companion. Here, does that smile on her face. Sits here alone for hours, never complains. A good a little far feel better? Don't be so greedy. You know those flames won't last. thing too. Since her fall she can't move much. I'd be so bored. Can't for herso1 Gently. Yes. We must make it last, must keep warm while we wait imagine what she thinks about day after day. Granny, look at all the but it bea1 for her. That's better. Is that a voice I hear? No, just the wind making people who came to see you today. Do you know why? Do you at the bac: a fool of me again. Teasing me with imitations of her voice. How could remember what today is? Her memory isn't so good anymore. movingm_ I be so deceived? I know that tiny voice better than my own. She is Sometimes I don't think she recognizes me. She calls me by my through ti asleep now, wrapped safely in her bed. I must wait until she wakes, mother's name ... a little disconcerting since even I can hardly ofhousew her sleep so precious at this age. So delicate that skin. I can see the remember her. Or she calls me Persephone. I have no idea who she is. tiny blue webs through its transparency. Could she really be mine? Look, she heard me say that name and she's smiling. Good. Granny, i have a hE Ownership is not the sensation running through my a_rms as J. hold make a little effort. Look at these nice people who came to see you. I'll night ligh1 that fragile body. I long to squeeze, hold her so close our breath is one tell you why. It's your birthday, Granny ... and you know what? children Ii again. Yet this love kills. I know it. I must be careful not to crush her You're the oldest woman in the country. You know how old you are? sleepingc with my love. Listen. It is not the wind this time. I heard her sign. I'm No, of course a lady doesn't like to reveal her age, not usually, but of heartbe sure of it. Dare I ask why? No. I must not insist. She will tell me when this is an exception. You are an exception Granny because you're one singing th she's ready. I wait in my comforter, in front my warm reminder. hundred and one years old today! I'm not sure she understands really wild dancE But I am so weary. Perhaps I can sleep a little. Slie will wake me but look, she's smiling. Quick, take the picture while I stand next to when It's time, Patience is my name and so I must be. A lullaby. her. That's it, keep smiling Granny. You'll have your picture in every j Sleep my child. Float in her arms. A waitless sleep. newspaper in the country. Look, she's so cute holding her arms out : (1 We are together at last. Strange, I don't remember hearing her like that, like she's hugging the world. That a girl, Granny. This is s enter, yet there are her arms around me, her breath in my ear. She is your day. You're famous! D b Sylvia Spring

Kate Middleton

Dream

water The tel}; cool tumbling almost he; explodes senses hac smacking rocks nape of he sucking trees sweat and lifting children burned th1 death-untied "GOO,"~ through the rage Theju11 three heads bob screaming women. SI the father plunges twice looking fm but cannot touch his youngest hundred ti who floats serenely down would vot1 father wakes "Thede in fear-chilled clothes He sat tl shaking revulsion. face. Her years later he stands Those har crying jeans whil1 his third child in sheets and the' m neck cancer-swollen pressed a! and dreams of white water Again the showering kate middleton night, her c mansmell, The cou filing in. E of her, thil again they Easy Street Everybody's got their credentials hitched up good here on Fashion Central Easy Street

The owners ride around in their fat business bananas Harmopy floats in the air like money

every day day shift every night night shift

Below the model suites sewing machines clatter on and on no time for lunch break the women eat their bread in silence beside the Christmas mink jacket and in the bathroom tell stories only other women would believe:

"He threw me on the bed and I was his, now I got love trouble, can't go before Jesus all dressed up in white"

every day day shift every night night shift

After six o'clock the sun goes down in orange and red jags of glass splattered across the parking lot After six o'clock the kids from over the restaurant come out to play cowboys and Indians leaping on the baby's pram in the empty parking lot rild dancer in the fields Rolls Royce pulls up to shoulder the day's take ttle far off and arrange next week's fur trade hersongto reach with the sweet tooth cloth man with his silver cane it beats and howls and cocky ascot polka-dot, bi- the back of my head sexual 1ving my hands and feet Mr. I-can-make-it-on-the-phone in between the seats ·ough the chorous kissing the driver, Mr. Two- ~ousework tone

~ve a heart in two worlds Lost colours after infrared, sweatshops on Easy Street :ht lights dancing over me ldren like stars in my skies Raccoon c9ats to keep mama doing dishes all year round eping curled in heat on the hill back home in the outskirts of the city, ~eartbeats just her. and the kids and the valium ging the song of the dancer. You know she wouldn't be caught dead r in an old sweatshop working joanflood (excerpt from her every day day shift soon to be published every night night shift book)

Alexa de Wiel

Now Justice, Now Safety

'he teqsion in the courtroom was evident she thought. She could and over again her anger had been denied as she was asked what she 1ost hear a high pitch whine of intense feeling. Certainly all her had done to bring it on - by the police; by the doctor whose clumsy ses had a painful clarity - hearing each whisper, feeling on the hands had examined her; by the lawyers, hers as well; and by the cold of her neck the breath of those behind her, smelling waves of faces that stared at her in the courtroom. So often she had thought toi and perfume. The putrid pink colour of the defendent's shirt call it off, caught in the web of doubting as she had been, but she ned through her eyes, bored into her head. would only have to remember his limp prick dangling in her face, the God;'' she thought, "How much longer can they be?" knife still at her throat and, nausea rising, her resolve would be set 'he jury had been deliberating for two hours now, six men and six again. nen~ She had searched their faces quite often through the trial, The judge entered and all stood. Chairs shuffling, people coughing clues as to their swaying sympathies and judgements. A as they sat down again. 1dred times over she had found herself trying to guess how each She had wanted to kill him and watch his pain. She dreamed of a vote. ritual castration, his cowering frame surrounded by strong women !I'he ·defendent! Such a mild label for the thing he is" she thought. who would show no mercy as he pleaded and begged. She wanted sat there, too smug - anger welled up in her again, and retribution and this was the hour. ulsion. Short and stocky he was, with red hair and a pock-marked "How do you find the accused?" silence, her next breath suspended.' Her frame shuddered from the memory she could not erase. "Not guilty, your honour." hands, those filthy, clutching hands - one tearing at her Not guilty! Not guilty! Had she really heard those words. The while the other held a knife at her throat. Violent, brutal hands gleeful look on his face mocked her and told her she had. The sounds the' maniacal 'laugh that was so. full of hate. His obscene body in the room blurred indistinctly. She stared unbelievingly at the ssed against hers, thrusting his grotesque cock at her, into her. jury - had they really accepted his, of all people, his words "she tin the shame welled. How often she had tried to wash it away - didn't resist; yes, I had a knife but it posed no reasonable threat." wering, scrubbing again and again. But still she'd wake up at Hadn't they listened to her pain, her shame. None of them would look ~t. her skin crawling with disgust, still smelling the loathsome at her - out of embarrassment or disgust she didn't know and didn't !smell, still unable to rid herself of it. care. They too denied her her anger, her reality, and she hated them he court-room suddenly went still. She looked up to see the jury all. in. How justice, she thought, now safety. It had taken~ lot out He was free, and what fears would hold her as she went home alone this trial. The indignity, the constant suspicion. Over and over to her apartment tonight. He was free, and she? - she was not. in they had pressed her to say she had wanted it to happen. Over - jane arnott 1/.21 Upmeua ARTS PRIVATE LIVES A LOST WORLD OF INNOCENCE by Dawn Amott charm of the play - as Efyot: His interpretation, however, is, I Noel Coward's Private Lives, suspect, more forthright and less playing at the Theatre of the petulant than Noel Coward's ori­ National Arts Centre, depicts a ginal. In consequence, the con­ world now past, if indeed it ever trast between him and Victor existed. It depicts characters Prynne, Amanda's husband, is who, with their strange and less funny than it may have been. elusive blend of jaded cynicism raymond Clark plays the desert-· dreamy romanticism, and suave ed Victoria, an at1"9phied public sophistication tinged with vir- Raymond Clarice ·plays the de­ tuous innocence, belong as un- serted Victor, an atrophied pub­ mistakably to the. theatre of the lie school type, as a bore while he Thirties as Hamlet belongs tQ the avoids boring the audience. As theatre of Shakespeare. Elyot's wife Sibyl, Barbara Gor- The play concerns a divorced don wrestles energetically with couple, Elyot Chase and Amanda the unsympathetic role of the Prynne, who, after five years now outdated. character, an in­ apart, meet in adjoining honey- genue of childlike loveliness and moon suites with new' spouses. incredible stupidity. As the play Their passionate and turbulent ends (most satisfactorily) with relationship, poignantly remem- Sibyl and Victor shouting at and bered, is soon renewed, and - brawling with each other, it their new marriages primly un-' seems likely that Coward enjoy­ consummated, of course - they ed demolishing that particular flee to Amanda's flat in Paris and female stereotype. a new life together no less tur- Michael Eagan's sets, espec­ bulent than the one they had ially Amanda's Paris flat, com­ previously abandoned. plete with grand piano and care- Elizabeth Shepherb and Neil fully accurate Thrities floral ar­ Vipond as Amanda and Elyot are rangements,' are excellent. As bound to be compared with the usual, Brian Jackson's costumes legend of the original perform- are stunning and meticulously ances of Gertrude Lawrence and authentic. The silk steekings Noel Coward himself. !nevi- even had seams. tably, they do not quite match up After almost half a century, with the myth. Elizabeth is close. the play is dated and the springs Her performance crackles with of its wit almost forgotten. But wit and elegance, and is enriched the production, though not per­ with warmth and sensuality. Neil feet, is well worth seeing. It is Vipond is convincing - perhaps fairly certain that the chance wil' too convincing for the brittle not occur again. Cross Canada Cooking Creating the Canadian Cuisine began writing witty reviews of Canada Cooking with not only a by Stephanie Gatzegi "that in order to write about ada is either regional or ethnic." her dining out experiences. The different kinds of cooking, some­ collection of recipes from across The author tests all the recipes Sondra Gotlieb, author of the · writer co-authored the first edi­ thing should also be written Canada, but also a series of in her own kitchen and says "its recently published Cross Canada tion of Where to Eat in Canacla about the people who cook and anecdotes to accompany them. either feast or famine" for her Cooking, started her writing car­ and her first book Gourmet's eat it". Many of the cooks were "When people heard I was going family since she can't always eer when she discovered that Canada was a success. Requests complete strangers whose names·. to write about their home cooking complement a fancy dessert with "gastronomic books concerning for articles from Macleans, Chat­ were passed on by friends and they put themselves out tremen­ an appropriate main course. The people and their eating habits, elaine and Saturday Night fol­ acquaintances, and who came dously". Gotlieb says that "there recipes in the book are those she existed everywhere in the world lowed. from all socio-economic back­ is no such thing as a typical felt could be done in any kitchen. except in Canada!" Her latest book was commis­ grounds. The result was Cross Canadian recipe. Cooking in Can- Although Gotlieb has estab­ She has always been interest­ sioned by the Multi-Cultural De­ lished her reputation on the sub­ ed in food and restaurants and partment of the Secretary of ject Qf food, she feels she ha8 also considered herself as well qual­ State. It was to be an ethnic· proven her versatility by writing ified as any and subseQ.'Jenti;y_: cookbook and so tJie author felt TASTE TREK on such diverse subjects as slim­ ming with the rich in Arizona and Cross Canada Cooking political wives in Ottawa. by Sondra Gotlieg "Being a woman writer today Hancock House Publishers, Ltd. is an advantage rather than a 160 pages, $8.95 disadvantage" says Gotlieb. But she feels that many women have by Julie Chadwick rather short-sighted views and "that they are surveying their Many people enjoy reading cookbooks as a source of ideas and own belly-buttons." She is con­ entertainment. From its attractive cover onward, Sondra Gotlieb's templating an article which will personal peek into Canadian kitchens is fun to read and will doubtless explore the negative sude of such bring back memories and images of past experiences in various parts publications as Cosmopolitan and of Canada. Ms. The taste trek begins in unique and rugged Newfoundland and The writer feels that many works its way west, giving glimpses into the lives of many colourful current women's magazines have Canadians. brought out "terrible feelings of There is a chapter on Quebec cooking with the emphasis on inadequacy in women". ''They traditional country food rather than the more elegant French cuisine are downgrading family life found in urban restaurants. Through multi-cultural Ontario, the which is a life many women Prairies, and B.C. she describes what is typical and often the best of enjoy, myself being one of German, Icelandic, Jewish, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, them". and Chinese delicacies. For women pursuing a career There are many valuable recipes and some that may startle less "it is a lonely life, leaving your than adventurous guests - seal flippers, pease pudding, uncooked husband and family, taking a rose petal preserves and for variety, a little dulse. As with most job - it is a selfish life". Sondra ethnic and regional food, ingredients are for the most part very Gotlieb feels that women are not fresh - which may create some difficulty in reproducing them being honest with themselves if economically. they don't admit to these feelings However, recipes are not the most important part of the book. however much \hey may enjoy Gotlieb has captured an integral part of our national mosaic. She the outside work they are doing. describes not only the food, but the people who prepare it with pride In the future Gotlieb hopes to and care, and the people who enjoy eating it in different parts of the write various articles for Chat­ country. It was obviously well researched and is a stylish treatment elaine, about Ottawa and "is in of one aspect of our heritage. the midst of writing a book which ...... Dmda•. ______i can't bear to talk about". Marehl977 U,.._./D

Photographic E~hibition Technique But Little Content at NFB by Bruce Paton faces on a wall and I had not "I am presentlr focused upon sented in the show, ~ts us itical relationships of man and realiZed the difference in ap­ extending my own perceptions with a selection of ballerina · his environment,_,It is a way of pearance between a frontal and .and concerns in m&king images shots. Ten of these are behind capturing changes and of un­ I was at Canadian Tire on a left profile view. Some of the camera club long sheets of plexiglass screw- derstanding the accidents, the Kent Street last week buying Ray Van Dusen's 20 brown­ members replied that his im- ed to the wall. Five of the ten struggles and the needs of man a new tire iron for my car when toned prints of usually cut-off ages communicated nothing to are photos of the ballerina being and nature." I decided to drop into the photo faces, cars streets and bodies them. pulled out-of-frame by a rubber Shun Sasabuchi gives us a show at the National Film were something I had seen a Across the floor John c. tube of something attached to selection of hazy, sooty nuances Board's Kent Street gallery. couple of years back at an Walker presents 16 prints from her waist. The other five are in nature - the likes of a full. That's quite the location for a Ottawa Camera Club meeting. Prospect, Nova Scotia, Saint- pencil sketches of the photos. moon, a cypress tree and a rock gallery they have there: you Advanced photographers had John and Sudbury. His line-up Her most impressive and in a forest with a little puddle of don't have to go mtich out of been invited to show a few begins with two texture and very large photograph shows water trapped in a crevice. He your way and if you're any good samples and say a few words to form shots, one of a nude female the ballerina complete with a also offers us a variety of at all, you can pick up needed budding new eyes. torso sitting on a stool beside. a flash of Pas de Deux motion with Japanese statues photographed items at the Tire and maybe slip Van Dusen chose to show slide window and another of a large a lush yet subdued forest scene rather dramatically. Stuff over to the Unemployment of­ copies of hia original prints. rounded boulder, probably from hand-painted on a black back- we've all seen before. fice to kill a few hours in the ground. The petite gallery and slide waiting-room. The picture is framed in what show feature work by Shin I moseyed over to the Mo­ appears a once-natural-wood Sugino whose series of rugged cambo Restaurant and wrote frame now painted gold which land and rock shots strive to this little item: in turn is enclosed in popular, lust the eye wi.th surrealism and The building commissionaire durable, practical plexiglass. saturated colour. He has taken was deep into his Journal, the The NFB does not seem to a nosedive into cliche rock-for­ gallery receptionist was near­ recognize that eyes do not have mation photography complete ing the end of her novel and I to be protected from photo­ with an overview of the four was the only Public in the room. graphs with plexiglass and seasons and a pair of summer Nomadic, in a big, bright white plexiglass, being plastic, emits boots mystically contrasted room. I began viewing Arnaud chemical gases which degener­ later with a pair of winter Magg's work - about whom ate their otherwise archival boots. His very small prints in the little booklet says: "Maggs prints. the petite gallery, incidentally, background and training is in While Lake gives us interest­ are glazed with inch-thick design and drawing. He studied ing form _she offer.s us no tit~a- chunks of plexiglass. typography in 1950 under Carl I did not like this photograph­ Dair at the Montreal Museum tion for the mind - not an iota ic exhibition because it com­ Fine Arts." of content. Her work does how­ municated nothing to me, Maggs' background best ex­ ever stand out in this form over taught me nothing new and had plains this symmetrical package content exhibition and that's no significance beyond the per­ of 55 prints of which 28 are something to her discredit. imeter of the gallery. No more photos of women and 27 of men. Serge Clement's 18 prints are meaning to the viewer than a Maggs has taken profile and similar in style and content to . mildly amusing way to spend a head and shoulder shots of Walker's aforementioned work. few hours and more often than persons representative of a Both seem to have been influenc· not, no more meaning to these large part of Canada's ethnic ed by the school of photography seven photographers than an mosaic. initiated by the American real­ inane exercise in image-mak- The quality of these prints is ist, Walker Evan.s. Evans did a profile-view by ArnaadMagp. Work by eevea photograpltera 18 • thorough study of American life ing. excellent but anything less Lett The National Film Board has display attheNFBPhotoGallery, 150 Kent Street, DOOD to 6 p.m. every coming from studio conditions, during the Great Depression. not given us :a substantial day until March 21 - Spring. large negatives and precise e­ Evans, like most. did not ap- photographic meal - lQts of quipment would be an excep­ prove of the depression and° the pre-Cambrian shield. wine, steak and ·bread but no tion; an affront to photography. Looking at slides projected on a ensured that its effects would greens, salad or- soµp. And I Since the National Film screen 25 to 75 feet away is not The next, of a fisherman at not be forgotten. must say, the steak was consid­ Board Still Photography Division the same as holding a print in the front of his boat, challenges Clement and Walker come erably underdone. The NFB has demands high teehmcal quality your hands or even looking at the texture shots for banality across as trite to the point of not transcended the simple­ from its photographers, we can plexiglassed specimens on a and opens debate for incongru­ cringing sentiment with their minded notion that photograph­ take it for granted that we'll see freshly-painted white latex wall ity. all-is-well~ nevertheless images. y is pretty pictures. quality in their exhibitions. complemented with eye-seduc­ Four more are of people Although Clement, 26 years· If every photograph, film, Consequently, we cannot use ing chromed frames. standing around and four are old, has not demonstrated a de­ book, painting and other quality as a standard of evalua­ Some camera club members old-town street and building veloped means of expression in medium of communicative art tion, except when it is poor. asked Van Dusen what lie was scenes. The last five of miners this work, his approach is high­ were as superficial and piffling I was mildly impressed with saying and he replied in a· show us faces without stories. ly commendable: as these images, we wouldn't Maggs' work because it over­ similar vein to this quote found Around the corner Suzy "Photography explores the know anything. whelmed me to see so many in the little promo booklet: Lake, the only woman repre- cultural, psychological and pol- Everyone Wins With Rocky

by Rose Desmeules has ever had and imagine how it barrassment for those of us who emotions and groping for words, (horrors!) still a (presumably) would feel to get one last shot at claim to have "taste", which relay the movie's message across frustrated, virgin. Her first date it. Boxing just happens to be Rocky does not! Instead he has so accurately. It can only be with.Rocky is absolute, writhing Rocky is a movie about winn­ Rocky's dream. And the pro- an underlying streak of gentle­ attributed to superb acting. At agony for the viewer, who exper­ ing. In spite ofthe enormous gap spective viewer will be happy to ness, loyalty, a great deal of any rate, Adrian is every teen- iences a strong desire to knock between the Philadelphia slums know that there are only two . determination, and one hell of a age girl's nightmare of the future their heads together. However, and the playing fields of upper­ actual boxing matches. The capacity for pain. - unmarried, almost thirty, and the JQOvie proceeds to do some­ crust Britain, this movie is a opening one may leave you cold, Rocky the loser more or less thing which should earn it an direct and touching illustration of but if the second one doesn't leads a whole string of other Academy Award even if nothing the stiff-upper-lip adage: "It's warm you up, there's something losers to victory. His most strik­ else does - it presents a sensi­ not whether you win or lose, it's wrong with you! ing parallel is his girl friend's tive (sympathetic love story with how you play the game." When This movie could have been J:irother, who works in a meat­ no sex scenes. Which proves that you play it properly and whole­ full of stereotypes - the dumb packing plant and gives Rocky it can be done, with a little heartedly, losing (to the accom­ boxer, the ugly girl who wears the opportunity to practice thought and talent. paniment of agonized audience glasses, the old ex-boxer burned punching sides of beef in the ribs, The thing is, a sex scene would protests) can be even better than coach who never made it himself an absurdity at the time but also not have been out of place in the winning. - but somehow it isn't (or else I an experience that turns out to movie - it would have been a The average woman's reaction just haven't seen enough boxing be of great value to him later.· logical development of the action to first hearing about Rocky is movies to recognize an honest-to- This poor schlep wants the same and a great relief to the audience! probably, "A movie about box­ God stereotype when I see one, things that Rocky (and the rest Nevertheless, we have to be ing? Ugh! Stupid sport." (This which is entirely possible). Rock- of us) wants, but he doesn't even content with a typically awkward very same woman will most y is a good-natured, inarticulate have the faintest glimmering of a and tongue-tied seduction scene likely find herself cheering like a chump with a strong resemb- dream to help him escape. He's culminating in an awkward but maniac at the end, her emotions lance to Paul McCartney, but one of those "there but for the absolutely delightful, long-drawn totally involved in - of all even that doesn't stop him from grace of' characters, whose onJ,Y out kiss that ends the scene and, things - the outcome of a box­ being a loser. One suspects that ! excitement is to bask in Rocky s in the good old Victorian tradi­ ing match.) It is a tnl>ute to he hasn't come to grips with that: reflected glory. But we all kow tion, leaves everything else to Sylvester Stallone (as both bit of reality yet. By the time that Rocky could easily have the imagination, which, as we all seriptwriter and Rocky himself) that he does realize it, it doesn't been in exactly the same t~p. know, if infinitely more titillat­ that he can overcome the in­ matter any more. He is certainly' Rocky's girl friend Adrian is ing. Fortunately it becomes ap­ grained distaste for violent not the stuff that movie heroes' equally inarticulate and awk­ parent, in a delicate way, that sports common to many of us. are normally made of, but he ward and wears homl>le glasses. their relationship is progressing, However, boxing is only an does very nicely for a movie: One wonders, looking back on it, so that the viewers can switch incidental subject of the movie. about real people, thank you. bow all these characters, who are their emotional attention from For boxing the viewer can sub­ His continual awkwardness so obviously supposed to be that to other aspects of ·the stitute any dream that he or she causes moments of exquisite em- choking on their inexpreaaible ' MARCH/.77 · Vol. I No. 6 rREAMN"

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