OCTOBER 1993 Interview with Dionne Brand...p. 20 CMPA $2.25 INSIDE NEWS Boycott over sex selection ads 3 SIS by Agnes Huang Iffl^l 0 Grant Street Women's groups put election issues forward 3 JKH^_/____ ;|lli]i'fl___R5S___[ f^_^1 Vancouver, BC V5L 2Y6 ! Tel: (604)255-5499 by Jackie Brown , J__« f*p|jl.' fep^M_flfflA 2_/ Fax:(604)255-5511 Transition houses, childcare moved to Women's Ministry 4 by Fatima Jaffer t M 11 \ /j Kinesis welcomes volunteers to work on Employment Standards under attack 5 all aspects of the paper. Our next Writers' Meeting isOct 5 for the by Sue Vohanka November issue at 7 pm at Kinesis. All women welcome even if you don't have experience. Kinesis is published ten times a year by FEATURES ^^__Ioli the Vancouver Status of Women. Its objectives are to be a non-sectarian feminist voice for women and to work Women at the Vienna Human Rights Conference 9 ry /1 'Mtyfu) \ ^-r* actively for social change, specifically combatting sexism, racism.classism, by Shelagh Day ' [ •$ iffl rr^ Ww. homophobia, ableism, and imperialism. Counting women's work in the census 10 / \i (!j§ b.jtf Views expressed in Kinesis are those of by Barbara Little ''rr=**\< the writer and do not necessarily reflect interview with Winnie Ng 14 Employment Standards Act attacked . VSW policy. All unsigned material is the responsibility of the Kinesis Editorial by Kristin Wong Board. EDITORIAL BOARD Shannon e. Ash, Lissa Geller, Fatima Jaffer, Anne Jew, Faith Jones COMMENTARY Sur Mehat, Kathleen Oliver, Gladys We PRODUCTION THIS ISSUE Three feminist views on the federal election 11 Winnifred Tovey, Faith Jones, Shannon by Judy Rebick, Dolores Fitzgerald and Shelagh Day e. Ash, Fatima Jaffer, Wendy Frost, Juline Macdonnell, Lisa Marr, Lori Motokado, Meegan Graham, Agnes Huang, Nikola De Marin, Mariam Bouchoutrouch, Frances Suski, Cat L'Hirondelle ARTS Advertising: Cynthia Low CirculatiomCat L'Hirondelle, Jennifer Johnstone, Tory Johnstone Review of Queer Collaborations 19 Distribution: Yee Jim by Larissa Lai Production Co-ordinator: Anne Jew Interview with Dionne Brand 20 Typesetter: Sur Mehat by Lynne Wanyeki, Nikola De Maria De Marin and Charmaine FRONT COVER Perkins Photo of Miche Review of Snakes and Ladders 22 by Fatima Jaf by Jill Mandrake Review of The Invitation 23 PRESS DA" by Tina Arsenault September 29,1993 Film festival previews 23 by Mariam Bouchoutrouch SUBSCRIPTIONS Review of A Child Is Not a Toy 24 by Karenza Wall or what you ca institutions/Gi $45 per year (+$3.1! VSW Membership (includes 1 Kinesis subscription): $30 per year (+$1.40 GST' REGULARS SUBMISSli Women and girls are well As Kinesis Goes to Press 2 submissions. We reserve Inside Kinesis 2 edit and submission does not guarantee publication. If possible, submissions Movement Matters 6 should be typed, double spaced and by Manisha Singh must be signed and include an address, What's News 7 telephone number and SASE. Kinesis by Lissa Geller does not accept poetry or fiction. Editorial guidelines are available upon Bulletin Board 25 IDIOTS request. compiled by Cynthia Low, Sur Mehat, and Lori Motokado No, not _.___«Kim!!!! _ «-__«*___fi____<<_r DEADLINES All submissions must be received in the month preceding publication. Note: Jul/ Writers—we need you! Aug and Dec/Jan are double issues. Features and reviews: 10th News: 15th Even if you Letters and Bulletin Board: 18th Display advertising have no experience (camera ready): 18th (design required): 16th call 255*5499. Kinesis is produced on a Warner Doppler PC using WordPerfect 5.1, PageMaker 4.0 and an NEC laser printer. Camera work by The Peak and Workshop with Winnifred Midtown Graphics. Printing by Web Press Graphics. Add paste-up, general layout Kinesis is indexed in the Canadian Women's Periodicals Index, and design to your roster of the Alternative Press Index and is a member of the Canadian Magazine PublishersAssociation skills this fall in the production room with a view at Kinesisl Call 254-8691 OCTOBER 1993 What is tha t gold thing you are wearing on your finger?--do you think it is right to flaunt your sexuality?" We figure we can ask other-than-politician types those questions too... Actually there were quite a number of fun lines last month...someone climbed up a building in Vancouver's West End late one night to correct a typo on a huge (expensive) billboard that had Kim Campbell's smiling face and "Putting Vancouver at the Centre of Things" on it. We think "Putting Vancouver at the Centre of Evil" was much more appropriate. Then the local media picked it up, now everyone in BC knows Vancouver Centre doesn't like Kim. They took the politically corrected poster down the next day; about 200 people in the streets booing. It was quite a month for a number of reasons, some not so fun. Israel and Palestine signed a peace treaty. Not once in the coverage (in Vancouver) have we seen mention of the history of the struggles of the indigenous peoples of the land, or of the fact that thousands and thousands of Palestinians have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, thrown into refugee It's getting so we're afraid to say the word "election!" Well, we say "election" a lot this camps, exiled, had homes burned down, tear-gassed, beaten, denied jobs, denied water, issue so what's two (20?) more times Have ever noticed how you get up one day and denied the right to grow olive trees... everyone's in a bad mood? So are you but you can't do anything to snap out of it. You go Black lesbian feminist poet Dionne Brand was in town last month [see page ...]. In her to sleep at night and figure you'll feel better in the morning-usually you do...but a month talk at the University of British Columbia, Brand told us about Audrey Smith, a tourist from passes, you aren't feeling better and you figure something's wrong. Well, something is Jamaica. Audrey Smith was standing at the corner of Dufferin and Queen when cops pulled wrong. There's nothing like an election to sour the mood...one more reminder of how the up and accused her of carrying drugs. They made Audrey Smith get into the cop car. She told state reinvents itself... them she didn't have any drugs on her; they could search her if they wanted. The cops made Globally, the women's movement has never been this strong or this organized. Yet Audrey Smith get out of the car and strip. Audrey Smith was strip-searched by two white we're living in a world that's increasingly right-wing. We cannot afford any more economic, male cops on the corner of Dufferin and Queen in front of all the passers-by. They didn't find social, political or physical assaults...we have to vote for the party that least tears us down. any drugs. The cops then got back in their car and drove away laughing, leaving Audrey No question. This federal election is critical because the issues are so urgent—we know it's standing naked on the corner of Queen and Spadina. important to stop the NAFTA, the backlash against women, peoples of colour, immigrants, the poor,...we need childcare, jobs, shelters, housing... Yet some women feel so little hope A week after Brand left town, Tlie Vancouver Sun printed a short piece on Audrey Smith. that the only act of resistance they believe left to them is to not vote. When we vote, it's 'cos Seems like the Toronto police leaked information about the investigation, and a top Jamaican we have to. No illusions, no disillusionment, now or after. Because we can't move a system diplomat in Canada, Margarietta St. Juste, is furious. The cops told the Toronto Star that that doesn't recognize we exist, we can't afford any illusions about options we don't, have Audrey Smith had stripped off her own clothes on the corner of Dufferin and Queen to never had We cannot afford to dwell on the bad days. We mustn't, can't stand still. "embarass or intimidate police. Yeah right. The day Brand told us the story of Audrey Smith, the local newspapers had reported the ... 'cos no matter what crawls out from under the rock after October 25th, the struggle will election to British parliament of a member of the "rights-f or-whites" neo-nazi National Party go on. What we do now is has to lead to making our resistance more possible! [see page 7). That day was also the first day of the trial of the man accused of the killing of Speaking of crawling, Kim Campbell made her first and only appearance in her riding Cheryl Joe, an Aboriginal woman from the Downtown Eastside. • of Vancouver Centre at the Walk for AIDS. Reports heard so far: Kim's staffers invited Liberal candidate Hedy Fry and NDPer Betty Baxter to walk the ("non-partisan") walk with As we go to press, the BC Supreme Court has granted the federal government one more Kim. Rumour has it Betty said: But I'm running and I don't think Kim can keep up; so Kim adjournment (delay) "to prepare their defense" against Little Sisters' lesbian and gay walked, Hedy walked and Betty ran; there was boos for Campbell and lots o' heckling... bookstore in Vancouver [see page 8]. A couple of last-minute notices as Kinesis goes to press: the Vancouver Status of A cartoon we saw the other day has this car with a sign on its bumper that reads: "Honk Women's/National Film Board's annual film series will take place in November.