COMING OUT AS AN ANTI-ZIONIST JEW | SHAWNA DEMPSEY ON ART & INTUITION

WOMEN’S NEWS & FEMINIST VIEWS Fall 2008 Vol. 22 No. 2 Made in Canada

NICOLENICOLE BROSSARDBROSSARD THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST QUÉBÉCOISE POET LOOKS LIKE SENATORSENATOR NANCYNANCY RUTHRUTH CANADA’S FIRST OPENLY LESBIAN SENATOR SUNERASUNERA THOBANITHOBANI THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN CITIZEN $6.95 Canada/US Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866; PAP Registration No. 07944 Return Undeliverable Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB R3C 2G1 Canada Display until December 15, 2008

FALL 2008 / VOLUME 22 NO. 2 news 6 NELLIEGRAMS DOUCHE BAGS OF THE WORLD UNITE! 7 by Kaj Hasselriis 8 CAMPAIGN UPDATES TEACHERS BUILD PEACE IN UGANDA 11 by Lauryn Oates KENYAN WOMEN CONFRONT VIOLENCE 16: Senator Nancy Ruth 13 by Maggie Ziegler

features THE SENATOR IS OUT 16 Nancy Ruth, the first openly lesbian senator in Canada, is doing all she can to promote women in Ottawa and to help Stephen Harper’s Conservatives do more to advance the cause of equality. Feminists would do well, the senator says, to give fiscal reform a higher priority. by Kaj Hasselriis

COVER INTERVIEW: NICOLE BROSSARD 20 The poet and activist asks: “Is patriarchy in your cellphone, in your marriage contract, in your perfume or in your head?” It may all depend on les valeurs, la manière. by Mariianne Mays

COMING OUT AS AN ANTI-ZIONIST JEW 53: Sunera Thobani 28 Aviva Cipilinski recounts her experience as part of a Birthright Israel tour and describes how her transformative experience as part of a Birthright Unplugged tour changed the way she views her political identity as a Jew. by Aviva Cipilinski

ART AND INTUITION 32 If female artists acknowledge that their work is informed, at times, by intuition, will they be marginalized? by Shawna Dempsey

GRAPHIC SCENES: MARIKO TAMAKI 37 by Zoe Whittal

CONSTRUCTING THE CANADIAN CITIZEN: 53 AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNERA THOBANI by Mridula Nath Chakraborty 28: Birthright Unplugged

HERIZONS FALL 2008 1 VOLUME 22 NO. 2

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HERIZONS is published four times per year by HERIZONS Inc. in arts & ideas Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. One-year subscription price: $27.50 ARTS PROFILE (includes GST) in Canada. Two-year subscription $45.99 in Canada. Subscriptions to U.S. add $6.00. International subscriptions add 40 Chandra Mayor, author of All the Pretty Girls $9.00. Cheques or money orders are payable to: by Kerry Ryan HERIZONS, PO Box 128, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA R3C 2G1. Ph (204) 774-6225. MUSIC MUST-HAVES SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: [email protected] 42 Zaki Ibrahim, Martha Wainwright, EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: [email protected] Hanne Hukkelberg, Ryelee, ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: [email protected] Annabelle Chvostek, Lily Come Down. WEBSITE: www.herizons.ca HERIZONS is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index. FALL READING GST #R131089187. ISSN 0711-7485. The Violin Lover by Susan Glickman, Stealing 44 The purpose of HERIZONS is to empower women; to inspire hope Nazreen by Farzana Doctor, Waiting: A Novel and foster a state of wellness that enriches women’s lives; to build of Uganda at War by Goretti Kyomuhendo; All awareness of issues as they affect women; to promote the the Pretty Girls by Chandra Mayor; Full strength, wisdom and creativity of women; to broaden the Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti, Bottle boundaries of feminism to include building coalitions and support Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittal, The Persons Case among other marginalized people; to foster peace and ecological by Robert J. Sharpe and Patricia McMahon, awareness; and to expand the influence of feminist principles in Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the world. HERIZONS aims to reflect a feminist philosophy that is the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie diverse, understandable and relevant to women’s daily lives. Kawakami, Bar Codes: Women in the Legal Views expressed in HERIZONS are those of the writers and do not Profession by Jean McKenzie Leiper necessarily reflect HERIZONS’ editorial policy. No material may be reprinted without permission. Due to limited resources, HERIZONS does not accept poetry or fiction submissions.

HERIZONS acknowledges the financial support of the columns Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine PENNI MITCHELL Fund toward our mailing and editorial costs. Oh Canada 5 HERIZONS gratefully acknowledges the support SUSAN G. COLE of the Manitoba Arts Council. 15 Pity, Sex in the City Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866, PAP Registration No. 07944. Return Undeliverable Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, LYN COCKBURN MB, Canada R3C 2G1, Email: [email protected] 56 Bish Wish Herizons is proudly printed on Forest Stewardship Council- certified paper that is 50% recycled, including 25% post- consumer, acid-free and chlorine-free.

2 FALL 2008 HERIZONS contributors

MEGAN BUTCHER KAJ HASSELRIIS Megan Butcher is a librarian, pornographer, sex has been male since birth, a feminist since his first educator and writer living in Ottawa. The author year of university and a journalist since he covered of two chapbooks, This is What She Said and a speech by Maureen McTeer. He’s travelled the Caught My Eye, contributes regular book reviews world, come out of the closet and run for mayor of to Herizons.. Winnipeg. Last January, he went to New Hampshire to campaign for John Edwards, but fell in love with Hillary Clinton instead. MRIDULA NATH CHAKRABORTY has just moved to Australia, where she has taken MAYA KHANKHOJE writes regular book up a five-year postdoctoral fellowship with the reviews for Herizons. Her feature essay Writing and Society Research Group at the “Homeland. Security” appeared in Herizons’ University of Western in Sydney. She hopes to Spring 2008 issue. Maya’s recent book, A continue making transcontinental, herizontal Panther in Your Dreams, is published by Gyldan connections and flights of imagination. Edge in Montreal.

SHAWNA DEMPSEY MARIIANNE MAYS is a performance artist and curator who has Based in Winnipeg, Mariianne Mays is a writer recently been appointed as one of three co- and poet with a special interest in the creative executive-directors of Mentoring Artists for process. Her chapbook of poetry, Umbrella Women’s Art in Winnipeg. Her contribution issue, Suites, was published by JackPine Press in an essay “Art and Intuition” is on page 32. fall 2005.

CINDY FILIPENKO LAURYN OATES Music reviewer and feature writer Cindy Lauryn has worked throughout the Middle East, Filipenko also creates for TV. Her animated Central Asia and Afghanistan to advance series, My Life Me, is currently in production women’s human rights. She has written for Teletoon. She lives in Pemberton B.C., with extensively for Herizons on women in her partner and children. Afghanistan. This issue, she reports on teachers in Gulu, Uganda’s poorest province. DO YOU TEACH WOMEN’S STUDIES?

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HERIZONS FALL 2008 3 Welcome Home!

Come on in to Herizons new website at www.herizons.ca

Here you can relax and read your favourite articles content from past issues for your pleasure. Past from past issues of Herizons magazine. Read some issues can be downloaded for just $2.75 each, or of inspiring Canadian book reviews and music reviews, course you can order past copies by mail for $5.00 or do research for that course you’re taking. each plus postage. Membership has its privileges. Subscribers are Buy gifts online and we’ll send an e-mail notice automatically entitled to download past issues of right away! You can also renew your subscription Herizons at no cost. You will be asked to sign in and or make a donation to your favourite Canadian provide the subscriber number located beside your feminist magazine. name on the mailing label on the front of this copy You’ll even find a Campaign of the Month to of Herizons (e.g., S928). check out, plus we have links to oodles of women’s If you are not a subscriber, there is still some organizations you’ll love to find out more about.

Enjoy yourself ... and stay a while! first word BY PENNI MITCHELL

Oh Canada

What would a feminist nation look like? We want a country Canada. This year, Henry Morgentaler—a key figure in the where all citizens have equal rights, opportunities and movement for reproductive choice—was one of 75 people privileges. We want to remove patriarchal privilege and sexist named to the Order on Canada Day. assumptions from our laws. We want policies that are non- And while the Order honours the achievements of a single racist, programs that are inclusive. Aboriginal people must person, I believe that honour was also bestowed upon the tens decide their nationhood on their terms. We want to end the of thousands of Canadian women who marched in the conditions that breed poverty. We want more women in streets, again and again and again, to fight for this government and on the bench; we want more humane fundamental right; upon those who ushered frightened immigration policies; we want the rich to pay taxes; we want women past vitriolic protesters into Morgentaler’s clinics; individual rights respected. We want daycare, already! upon the women who stood upon legislature grounds, You could say that feminists come to the table with high betrayed by supposedly pro-choice attorneys general who expectations. And you could say that we don’t often think of refused to drop charges laid by police; and upon the our work as building a better country. We bristle at flag- courageous choice spokeswomen who fielded death threats waving exercises like Canada Day; We’re far more from those claiming to be pro-life. comfortable criticizing our country than we are sitting back Morgentaler also sits high on the shoulders of Norma and saying, “Damn, we’re good.” Sure, we may love Canada, Scarborough, who, as the head of the Canadian Abortion kinda, but we love its potential more. Rights Action League, ensured that his actions had loud and It’s because we are often outsiders. As Sunera Thobani consistent national support. The legal victory Morgentaler points out in this issue, the experience of Canada as a kind won on women’s behalf was also enabled by citizens like the and gentle nation of open-minded citizens remains elusive late Liberal MP Judy LaMarsh, who famously said she’d for many, including many Muslims. In her recent book rather face a dirty kitchen table than a therapeutic abortion Exalted Nation, Thobani puts not only Canadian public committee any day—and that was around 1969. (LaMarsh, policies under the microscope, but also the mainstream the first female Liberal cabinet minister who, as secretary of women’s movement. In doing so, her keen sense of justice and state, presided over the Royal Commission on the Status of her refusal to worry about whether her views will be popular Women, was named to the Order of Canada shortly before remind us why she is one of our most influential citizens. her death in 1980.) Feminist poet Nicole Brossard, another interviewee in this And we will never forget that after the Supreme Court issue, confirms the links between identity, dissent and self- struck down therapeutic abortion committees in 1988, then- determination. “As a woman, as a Québécoise, as a lesbian, I prime minister Brian Mulroney almost succeeded in belong to groups that ask questions—and should keep asking recriminalizing abortion, but was stood dow-n by the women questions,” she tells Herizons. Read on. Brossard will of the Canadian Senate, who banded together in feminist eloquently convince you that our job as citizens is to do what solidarity to vote down the bill. we can to decolonize ourselves. The single reason abortion is publicly insured and So, what binds us? Are there special attributes that exalt accessible outside of hospitals (though not in all regions) is “the Canadian,” as Thobani purports? If so, who decides what because women, with the determined aid of Dr. Morgentaler, those attributes are? fought male politicians who were too chicken to do the right As it turns out, the Advisory Council on the Order of thing. And they did so using the tools of public dissent, civil Canada is one body that decides which attributes are exalted disobedience, and later the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. in Canada. Chaired by Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, Morgentaler’s appointment is an affirmation of his personal Canada’s first female chief justice, the council recommends achievements as a citizen. But it also serves as a reminder that citizens for the Governor General to name to Canada’s civil disobedience and social protest not only build strong highest citizen award for lifetime achievement, the Order of movements, they build strong countries. 

HERIZONS FALL 2008 5 nelliegrams HARVARD MOUSE HALLELUJAH! The Church of LITIGATOR LEAVES LEGACY England General BY NOREEN SHANAHAN Synod voted in July to appoint female bishops. The synod also voted down one proposal calling for the appointment of male “complementary bishops” to cater to those who find themselves under female bishops but don’t like it. The response of former Edmonton bishop Victoria Matthews at a global gathering of Anglican bishops at the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference was to predict that a woman will one day be Archbishop of Canterbury. Matthews, who was recently selected Bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand, noted that “the Anglican communion has had women in the episcopate for about 20 years.” There are approximately 77 million Anglicans worldwide. All of the 104 Archbishops of Canterbury throughout history have been men, beginning more than 1,400 years ago with Saint Augustine. One-third of Anglican provinces have now given permission for women to become bishops. Michelle Swenarchuk took on the Onco mouse, as head of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, and won.

ORDER! ORDER! (TORONTO) Before her death in February Called to the bar in 1976, Swenarchuk Abortion rights from cancer at age 59, Michelle Swenarchuk opened a Toronto practice with fellow law crusader Henry left a large environmental footprint on the graduate Judith McCormack. The two Morgentaler was Canadian planet. And that’s a good thing. worked with a group of small unions fighting named to the Order The former executive director of the for the rights of immigrant women who of Canada on Canada Canadian Environmental Law Association worked in appalling conditions in Toronto’s Day, July 1. (CELA) influenced many aspects of Canadian sweatshops and new bank towers. Morgentaler was environmental law but is perhaps best known Swenarchuk also advocated for workers’ central to women’s for leading a successful intervention at the rights, Aboriginal people and women. In 1982, three-decade fight for abortion in Canada. Supreme Court of Canada in the Harvard she served a four-year term on the executive Mouse case, one of the most significant of the National Action Committee on the He began performing abortions in his decisions in Canadian patent history. Status of women, under president Doris Montreal clinic in 1969 and was jailed for Prior to applying for a patent in Canada, Anderson. But the bonds of sisterhood were several months. His conviction was Harvard scientists had genetically modified a sometimes a challenge to negotiate. overturned, but Dr. Morgentaler’s clinics mouse to predispose it to develop cancer Anderson once confided to fellow executive were regularly raided by police. and had acquired a U.S. patent on the board members that she didn’t want to go Morgentaler’s network of clinics became mouse’s genetic sequence. But when the any meetings “where women held hands or a touchstone in the fight for women’s researchers applied for a Canadian patent on hummed.” Swenarchuk agreed, and from all reproductive rights in the 1980s. He the transgenic mouse, CELA intervened and accounts, the two women shared a great maintained that clinics were safer settings argued before the Supreme Court in 2002 that deal of non-hand-holding success. for the procedure and could be performed neither the mouse nor other higher life forms Swenarchuk’s daughter Larissa was born earlier in a woman’s pregnancy on an out- are patentable. in 1988, ushering Swenarchuk into the world patient basis. “For Michelle to have beaten the bigwig of single motherhood. After serving a few Vicki Saporta, president of the National scientist guys, that was a signal victory and years as chief counsel at CELA, she became that was the organizing point around her its executive director in 1991. In that Abortion Federation, said, “Canadians owe life and her work,” said colleague Karen capacity, Swenarchuk participated in him a tremendous debt of gratitude for Clark. “That was the thing [she believed] international negotiations on environmental standing up for women’s lives and health at about the law: It works for you whether law at the World Trade Organization, the great personal sacrifice and risk.” you’re rich or you’re poor. That’s what the Organization of Economic Development, the In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada rule of law is and Michelle believed that International Labour Organization and the ruled that hospital therapeutic abortion very strongly, and that was the fight that North American Commission for committees infringed on women’s she was always fighting.” Environmental Co-operation. 

6 FALL 2008 HERIZONS DOUCHE BAGS OF nelliegrams constitutional equality rights. This paved the THE WORLD UNITE! way for the procedure to be legally performed in private clinics like BY KAJ HASSELRIIS Morgentaler’s, or in community-based exhibits haven’t been significantly clinics. updated since the 1970s, the last Previously, abortions were allowed only time there was a big boost in in hospitals and upon the recommendation museum funding. But Cooke, of a therapuetic abortion committee. The Hinther and others are doing what uneven, arbitrary roadblock caused they can to inject women’s stories harmful delays to the health of women into their work. seeking abortions. Women no longer are When Hinther was first hired by forced to seek the permission of a hospital the Museum of Civilization in 2005, committee before obtaining abortions, her first big assignment was to update its section on Winnipeg’s though access is still lacking in some 1919 General Strike. Now, the story jurisdictions. of the strike is told through the eyes of Helen Armstrong, one of ORDER only three women (out of 300 ORDER II! people) on the central strike Kim Campbell, committee. Canada’s first Hinther and Cooke’s latest female prime project—an exhibition on sexuality minister, was one and reproduction—is especially of 75 people ambitious because they have to named to the start almost entirely from scratch. Order of Canada by Michaëlle Jean, The museum’s vast vaults contain Governor General of Canada on Canada thousands of objects, but very few Day, July 1. of them are the kinds of things Krista Cooke and Rhonda Hinther, curators at the Museum of Campbell was recognized for “her Civilization, take a coffee break. (Photo: Kaj Hasselriis) Hinther and Cooke are looking for. As a result, they’ve got a huge distinguished contributions to Canadian (OTTAWA) Got any old vibrators buried in wish list that includes maternity politics and her active involvement in the your basement? What about your mother’s clothes, birth control devices, sex-ed models leadership in the promotion of global breast pump, or a picket sign you held during and douche bags as well as items relating to democracy, international co-operation and an abortion rally? abortion, same-sex marriage, menopause, women in politics.” The Canadian Museum of Civilization and rape and sexual abuse. They’re not just Campbell was voted leader of the wants you to dig through your closets and looking for old stuff, either. They’re interested Progressive Conservative Party after Brian donate artifacts that relate to sexuality and in material from the 1870s to the present. Mulroney stepped down in a storm of reproduction. Mostly, Hinther and Cooke are counting on controversy. Four months later, after a Eventually, the objects collected will help word of mouth to locate potential donations. federal election, the Tories were reduced But once in a while they stumble upon useful form an exhibition at Canada’s largest to two seats in Parliament and Campbell museum. But for the two curators in charge artifacts themselves. Hinther’s favourite item stepped down as party leader. She went of finding materials, Rhonda Hinther and so far is an old tampon dispenser from the on to teach in the U.S., has worked with Krista Cooke, the first challenge is 1970s. “It was on the wall of the staff room at convincing women that their day-to-day stuff the East Selkirk Elementary School (in international democracy-promoting has historical value. Manitoba),” she says. “I was there to speak organizations and served as Consul Too often, women donate their husbands’ to a class, and I used the washroom and I General of Canada in Los Angeles. things instead of their own. Or they only saw it on the wall. I got very excited and I A lawyer by training, Campbell was cough up items used at public events. asked if I could have it, and they were happy Canada’s first female minister of justice and “Women offer their wedding dresses, and to oblige.” its first female minister of national defence their baptism gowns, and their kids’ little Most of the things they want aren’t out in in Mulroney’s cabinet. She was prime copper shoes,” says Cooke. “Very few the open, though. “We need people to come minister from June 25 to November 4, 1993. people have kept things that they think are forward,” says Hinther. “That’s the hard part, Campbell currently lives in Paris. private or not museum-worthy.” figuring out who may have things in the Cooke and Hinther are part of a growing drawer of their dresser or in the back of their ASPIRING PRESIDENT FREED number of feminist curators who are making medicine cabinet.” French-Colombian politician Ingrid sure women’s history makes it into Canadian If you are one of those people, e-mail Betancourt was among 15 hostages museums. Two years ago, they co-founded [email protected] or call Cooke at the Canadian Association for Women’s 819-776-8366. There’s still plenty of time to released July 2 after six years of captivity Public History and attracted 50 female rummage through your basement. The by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of historians to their first gathering. This fall, Museum of Civilization’s exhibition schedule Colombia (FARC). Betancourt was their third annual conference will be held. is already booked until 2012, so Hinther and kidnapped in February 2002 while Still, women’s history remains absent in a Cooke’s project won’t be displayed until campaigning as a presidential candidate in lot of museums because many of the country’s sometime after that.  territory controlled by FARC, which has

HERIZONS FALL 2008 7 nelliegrams campaign updates been trying to overthrow the Colombian government for 40 years. Her first comments, broadcast on CONSERVATIVES with the right not to be killed is that it appears Colombian radio, were: “I never expected to BACK FETAL BILL to pave to way to making abortion a criminal get out of there alive.” She was greeted by (OTTAWA) A private offence. And while Epp’s bill specifically states her mother, daughter and son at the airport in member’s bill, the Unborn that pregnant women are excluded, such Bogota, Colombia, and then flew to France. Victims of Crime Act (C-484) exclusions in the U.S. have not stopped Betancourt started her political career in introduced by Conservative prosecutors from criminalizing women. Colombia in 1990 after drug dealers MP Ken Epp (Edmonton Finally, the argument that killing a pregnant assassinated a presidential candidate. Sherwood Park), passed second reading in woman should carry stiffer penalties isn’t Thanking President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who Parliament in March. borne out with C-484. Double homicide she had been running against when she was The controversial bill goes to the Standing convictions result in concurrent sentences in kidnapped, Betancourt added: “I continue to Committee on Justice and Human Rights for Canada, so this bill will not mete out any aspire to serve Colombia as president.” review before being reintroduced for third and greater punishment for perpetrators. —BBC News final reading in the House. Four Conservative MPs voted against the C-484 would amend the Criminal Code to bill, while 27 Liberal MPs and one New EQUALITY ON THE RECORD allow separate homicide charges to be laid in Democratic MP voted for it. Ten Liberals, A proposed law in Britain would require the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman including Liberal leader Stephan Dion, were absent from the vote. The bill passed second public sector employers to publish the pay is attacked. While this sounds like a potentially reading by a vote of 147 to 132. gap between male and female employees good thing, abortion advocates say it and would encourage private companies to represents the thin edge of the wedge in an do the same, Reuters reported in June. attempt to recriminalize abortion. FRESHWATER LAKES British Equality Minister Harriet Harman TO BECOME TOXIC According to the Abortion Rights Coalition proposed the law to encourage women to WASTE DUMPS of Canada, the bill would bestow a type of complain when they are underpaid. It will The Council of Canadians legal personhood on fetuses and would also also allow for affirmative action in favour of has joined with potentially criminalize pregnant women for women and ethnic-minority candidates to environmental, First Nations behaviours perceived to harm their fetuses. boost the level of senior female staff or and social justice organizations to stop the This conflicts with the existing Criminal Code increase the proportion of ethnic-minority Harper government’s plan to allow mining provision that fetuses are not human beings officers in police forces. companies to use Canadian freshwater lakes until they exit from the birth canal alive. The British women in full-time positions earn, as dumping grounds for toxic mine wastes. bill attempts to amend the Criminal Code on average, 17 percent less than men and Although it is illegal under the federal section entitled “Offences Against the Person part-time female workers on average earn Fisheries Act to dump toxic material into fish- and Reputation” despite the fact that the fetus 26 percent less. habitated waters, mining companies have been is not a legal person and cannot rightly fall —Women’s E-News given a loophole under the government- under this section. amended Metal Mining Effluent Regulation. The CUT C-SECTIONS! Homicide is the second-leading cause of federal government is now able to reclassify The Society of Obstetricians and injury-related death for pregnant women and lakes and other freshwater bodies as “tailing Gynecologists say it wants to curb Canada’s new mothers in the U.S. Violence against impoundment areas” and can permit mining high Caesarean section birth rate, which women increases during pregnancy. companies to dump toxic wastes there, stands at 25 percent. “What we need instead of this bill are better destroying the natural habitat forever. The increase is attributed to an increase measures to reduce violence against pregnant Environment Canada recently announced in the average age of women giving birth, women,” said Joyce Arthur, coordinator of the that under the regulation, at least 11 mines are rising obesity rates and fear of malpractice coalition. “There is no evidence the bill will seeking permission to destroy healthy natural lawsuits. A study last year in the Canadian have any deterrent or beneficial effect. Fetal water bodies with their mine waste. Eight of Medical Association Journal found that homicide laws in the U.S. have done nothing to these mining projects are being considered this Caesarean births are three times more reduce domestic violence against pregnant year. The lakes include prime fishing areas and dangerous for healthy mothers than vaginal women or fetuses,” she added. In fact, laws in natural watersheds from B.C. to Newfoundland births. Only about three percent are 37 U.S. jurisdictions have been used and Labrador. performed for “elective” reasons. Older overwhelmingly to prosecute pregnant women “Allowing a lake to be turned into a dump women have a higher C-section rate than for behaviour such as drug and alcohol use. site for a private company is nothing short of younger women. The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that privatizing a public resource that is essential a woman and her fetus are physically one to life. Contaminating a water body will have INDIAN WOMEN HUNGRY FOR person under the law (Dobson v. Dobson) and devastating consequences on entire REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH INFO that rights accrue to the pregnant woman. watersheds at a time when the world is The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare “Bill C-484 is a radical bill because it positions dealing with a fresh water crisis,” says in India has set up a new call centre on the fetus as a woman’s co-equal,” says Arthur. Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the reproductive health as part of its family “The not-so-hidden agenda of the bill is to council of Canadians. planning initiatives, the Press Trust of India recognize the rights of the unborn so that Once toxic mine wastes are added to the reported in June. abortion can be restricted in the future.” water, the environmental damage cannot be The danger in a fetus becoming a legal entity undone.The Council is calling on the federal 8 FALL 2008 HERIZONS campaign updates nelliegrams In 25 days, the centre received 5,559 calls; 1,400 were about contraception, government to require mining companies to organizers arrange workshops for girls and followed in number by calls regarding invest in new technologies that do not result in women to talk about what it means to be sexual health in males, pregnancy and the pollution of local watersheds. The mining female in their communities. The workshops reproductive health. industry made a net profit of more than $80 are meant to give girls a chance to discuss —Women’s E-News billion in North America in 2007. their bodies, traditions and their legal rights. Kitchen collaborated with local groups based ABORTION INCREASE WOMEN DEMAND JUSTICE FOR out of the slums and whose members were fed AMONG ARAB WOMEN ‘HONOUR’ KILLING up with watching helplessly as children vanish. Abortion appears to be on the rise and is (IRAQ) At 16, Kurdistan Aziz escaped her “The issue of killing children, especially becoming less of a taboo in the Arab world, family with a man she knew her family would girls, needs to be taken more seriously,” says according to family planning officials, the not accept. Following the ancient tradition of Rutta Thobias, a project coordinator for Dar es Los Angeles Times reported in June. radu kauten, she eloped to Arbil, the capital Salaam’s Mass Development Association, In most Arab nations, abortion is legal city of Iraqi Kurdistan. known as MaDeA, an anti-poverty program only in cases of rape or when the There, Aziz asked the police for protection as focused on women and children. pregnancy endangers a woman’s life, and she feared her father would track her. They One day six-year-old Saffi said goodbye to many abortions are performed by midwives referred her to the department to end domestic her mother and set out for kindergarten, just 600 or back-alley practitioners. One reason for violence. However, her father was able to metres along a dirt path through her the increase in abortion rates appears to be locate her, possibly because someone in the neighbourhood. But her family didn’t see her the decrease in early marriages. In Egypt, department accepted a bribe. Aziz was taken again until seven days later, when she turned up for example, 10 percent of 15-to-19-year-old back to her family and stoned to death on the at a bus stop in another part of town, terrified girls and women were married in 2003, nearby Hawre Mountain. A local women’s and shivering with malaria. She had been raped. down from 22 percent in 1976. organization had alerted the authorities, but For her mother, the extraordinary thing was they refused to intervene, declaring it to be a not that she’d disappeared but that she’d ON GUARD “tribal issue.” Between the 17th and 18th of turned up again at all. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration May, Aziz died after her body was crushed with “On the first day we thought maybe she turned down Merck’s application to expand rocks. was raped and killed,” said Thobias. “On the its market for its vaccine Gardasil to include Local women’s rights activists have second we thought maybe she had been taken women ages 26 to 45 because of concerns demanded that national police charge Aziz’s into trafficking.” about the drug’s effectiveness at reducing father and members of the Aziz family with her A girl like Saffi could be sold to families eager cervical cancer among the large murder. They are also calling for a national for cheap house servants, or to pimps, witch demographic. inquiry to create policies to ensure that doctors or men seeking virginal brides. In 2003, The company claims the vaccine may ‘honour killings’ are fully prosecuted fully. a girl could be bought for as little as $20 in Dar reduce some strains of the HPV virus —Women’s E-News es Salaam, according to the United Nations. associated with cervical cancer and genital But Saffi’s mother, who is employed by the warts. The U.S. has approved the vaccine for TANZANIAN GIRLS DISAPPEAR Tanzanian military to train cadets, made as girls and women aged six to 26. Merck said it BY ZOE ALSOP much noise as she could, including going to will not pursue further approvals for now. (TANZANIA) For five months last year, Kim mosques around the city to ask that the Canada and several provinces are Kitchen, a Canadian expert on sexual violence muezzins include a description of Saffi in currently spending millions on public and community development, lived in a vaccinations for pre-teen and teenaged their calls to prayer. She spent what little crowded shantytown on the outskirts of the girls, despite women’s health experts’ savings she had on advertisements, and then Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam while she concerns that the drug’s effectiveness has went to Thobias to ask for more. Within days, set up a women’s safety program. Nightfall is been overstated by Merck. Saffi’s face was in newspapers and on an especially anxious time for mothers. television screens. “As the sun started to set, women would The media attention apparently made Saffi’s CRIAW PRESIDENT start calling in their daughters,” said Kitchen. REMEMBERED kidnappers decide she was more trouble than “As the sun set more and more, and daughters Tragically, Mirlande Demers, she was worth. They put her on a bus. By hadn’t come, the urgency in their calls grew. It president of the Canadian chance, a family friend spotted her slumped at was just a matter of fact that every girl has to Research Institute for the a busy bus stop miles from her home and be in their home after dark.” Advancement of Women called her mother. Across East Africa, once a corridor for (CRIAW) died suddenly while The odds that those who kidnapped Saffi merchants trading slaves from the continent’s travelling in Indonesia in June. will be found are low. But Thobias and others interior for fine cloth, frankincense and spices Jane Robinson, past president of CRIAW, continue to work to stop the kidnappings. from the Middle East, there is a booming described Demers, 26, as “an activist for “We are fighting to collect information market in the trafficking of human beings. women’s rights, disability rights and human from different people,” he said. “We see so Poverty and instability in the region mean rights who knew a lot about oppression.“ many issues with children here. There are many are desperate enough to sell children. “Mirlande touched CRIAW with her abuses from all sides. Raping is too much Tanzania is no exception. generosity and her determination, but also nowadays.”  Kitchen is a trainer with the San Francisco- with her desire to work together,” based organization Girls Speak Out. Its Zoe Alsop is a freelance writer based in Kenya.

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10 FALL 2008 HERIZONS TEACHERS WITHOUT nelliegrams Robinson said. TOOLS BUILD PEACE A woman of Haitian, African and Quebec origins, Demers was also an artist. As an BY LAURYN OATES activist, she was working to ensure CRIAW’s work would “reflect the multiplicity and intersectionality of oppressions and identities in our society,” according to Robinson. The cause of Demers’ sudden death remains a mystery, (At press time, autopsy results were not available) She died suddenly on a ferry travelling from Pontianak on the island of Borneo to the capital Jakarta, on Java Island. A funeral for Miranda Demers was held in Quebec City in July. Tragedy was, unfortunately, not new to Demers, who had been sexually assaulted while volunteering in Senegal a few years ago. Still suffering from the health effects of that experience, Demers was in a bureaucratic struggle with Quebec’s workplace health and safety board.

SPIES AMONG THE SISTERS Music teacher Ronny Lekong (right front), pictured with students at the Laroo Boarding School in the province of And we thought Gulu, Uganda. (Photo: Lauryn Oates ) “Underground” was the name of Rita MacNeil’s (UGANDA) Three decades ago, Uganda was rate is conservatively estimated to be 13 tribute song to in the grips of the brutal Idi Amin, infamous percent, well above the national average of exploited miners. for kicking out Uganda’s entrepreneurial an estimated five percent. Now, it turns out, “underground” also Asian population and heading a dictatorship In 2005, for the first time in two decades, refers to the Canadian spies who infiltrated responsible for killing an estimated 500,000 progress in peace talks saw the fighting slow the women’s movement in the early 1970s, Ugandans. down. Today, some of the enormous including one Winnipeg meeting in 1972 Today, we hear little of Uganda. Kampala, warehouses built to protect Gulu’s children attended by about 100 “sweating, the lush capital punctuated by earth- from being abducted during the night have uncombed” women who hugged, danced coloured rooftops and flora on rolling hills, is been closed down. Roads that were too and sang about sisterhood. largely free of chaos. The newly wealthy live dangerous to use have been reopened. The underground spies noted in in quiet, serene suburbs. A recently built But, looking around, it was also clear how documents brought above ground by shopping centre is teeming with Ugandans much of the future had been lost. The historians Christabelle Sethna and Steve and foreigners. Many expelled Indians have education system was in shambles: returned to their former homeland and the Generations missed out on schooling, Hewitt that MacNeil, representing the economy is growing. There is a new policy teachers were scarce and the schools that Toronto Women’s Caucus, was identified as offering universal primary education for the did exist were in rough shape. Much of the “the one who composes and sings women’s first time. population was living in camps for the lib songs.” But 300 kilometres to the north, things are internally displaced. The casual observer MacNeil, a member of the Order of not so rosy. For over 20 years, Uganda’s would look at Gulu and see nothing but Canada, has recorded more than 20 albums, northern province of Gulu has been the despair. holds honorary degrees from five epicentre of a civil war that has killed However, a small group of women has universities and has won a host of Canadian thousands while the world has largely looked pulled together to rejuvenate Gulu’s music awards, including an East Coast the other way. This long-running war education system. The teachers know that Music Award for her lifetime between the government and the cult-like the region’s prospects for peace ultimately achievement.—which presumably includes guerrilla militia the Lord’s Resistance Army depend on its children. When the them women’s lib tunes from her debut 1975 has been marked by brutal tactics of warfare government pledged universal primary album, Born a Woman. against civilians. The rebels kidnap children school education, hundreds of additional to serve as child soldiers, enslave civilians pupils showed up on the first day of classes. MacNeil, who has just recorded a as porters and abduct women to be sexually But the government hasn’t come through children’s album, said in response to her enslaved as “bush wives.” with the resources to realize its promise and name showing up in RCMP documents: Gulu is by far the poorest part of the an already over-burdened education sector “The only thing I’m sorry about now is I country, years behind its flowering capital to is heaving under the pressure. Most didn’t know I was under surveillance, or I the south. The province’s HIV/AIDS infection teachers have at least 100 students in their would have got them to drive me home.” 

HERIZONS FALL 2008 11 With no education materials provided for their use, Uganda’s teachers must make their own. classes; some have 200. have not been affected by the war, and most “These kids, they will get up and walk out Most teachers make less than $150 in a have spent time in the bush. Some escaped, of your class in the middle of a lesson. They month and many hold second jobs. When I ask trekking for miles barefoot to safe zones; will start screaming for no reason. They shake if there are enough textbooks for the children others were rescued by government forces. and cry a lot. At night, they have a hard time; to each take one home, the teachers look at me Like many women, Lanyero shows signs of they say the bad spirits come for them strangely. “There are no textbooks at all,” they mutilation on her face; part of her lips are because of the things they did.” say. I ask the obvious question: “Well then, missing and there is scarring on her head, a Lakong started an annual music festival at how do you teach?” permanent reminder of the unspeakable Laroo to help the children. He uses drums, They take me to a locked classroom. violence committed by the rebels. dance and drama as therapy and is Teachers Lilly Rose Lanyero and Vincentina In the rural school of Opit, another teacher convinced that it provides some relief from Okeello open the closet and pull out piles and stares off into space as I interview her. She is the children’s trauma. But Laroo has a piles of drawings—their own. Without unable to answer most of the questions, teacher shortage and a high turnover in staff. textbooks, maps or any teaching materials, the telling me, “Something happened to me. I am For little pay, teachers contend with teachers at Gulu Public School must make slow now.” Teachers come to class, living enormous challenges. Laroo has no library their own materials. They draw animals, the with their memories of being abducted, raped, and is short on textbooks and other supplies, human body, different jobs to teach words like cut and separated from their families. They like the rest of Gulu’s schools. It also has an “doctor,” “nurse,” “mother” or “farmer.” It is have the formidable task of teaching children uncertain future. The school goes only to the same story in every classroom and at who have witnessed and taken part in Grade 6, which means that once students other schools. The walls are plastered with atrocities, but they, too, have their own complete that level they can no longer the teachers’ drawings and the closets filled demons to fight. stay there. with their archived drawings. Some are on Another school in Gulu, the Laroo School Against the backdrop of the battered old scrap paper, others are drawn over newsprint, for War-Affected Children, opened its doors in school, small painted signs are pegged in the and still others drawn on cut up rice or bean 2006 to children and teenagers who had come grass in the schoolyard with inspirational sacks. Some are simple and others are back from the bush. Some were child soldiers. messages: “A healthy body makes for a complex and detailed. Others were porters. Girls had been sexual healthy mind”; “Work hard and you will be But pictures can only take you so far. slaves to the rebels. Some had HIV/AIDS. The rewarded”; “Love your sisters and brothers”; Lanyero and Okeello stay every evening after girls had been kidnapped when they were and “Education is the path to peace.” class to translate an outdated English textbook very young—the rebels knew they were less With little support from either their own into the local language, Acholi. To teach math, likely to be infected with the virus. The government or the international community, they collect pails of bottle caps or use dried children at Laroo are boarders who have no Gulu’s teachers summon their creativity and corn or peas. Cupboards are filled with items family or who have been rejected from their innovation to weave something out of nothing. you might mistake for garbage, but which will communities because of the atrocities they They know that for most of Gulu’s kids; an someday have a purpose in the classroom. were forced to commit. overcrowded classroom in a rundown school In Gulu, teaching is more than a job. Many primary students are well into their with a teacher capable of transforming a rice Lanyero and Okeello do it out of love, but they teens, having missed years of schooling. sack into a monkey, or a newspaper into an also do it to close the door on the past and Ronny Lakong, an exhausted music and drama illustrated alphabet, is the only chance they help heal their own spirits. Few Gulu residents teacher, explains what it’s like to teach. have at a better future. 

12 FALL 2008 HERIZONS KENYAN WOMEN CONFRONT VIOLENCE BY MAGGIE ZIEGLER

gender analysis and awareness to our work with HIV/AIDS taught us about violence against women,” says Wahome, who is deeply concerned about the violent traumas experienced by the displaced women. “Even when material aid is well supplied, their psychological needs are not tended.” In the rural Rift Valley, where the violence was the worst, trained SWAK volunteers went from tent to tent in one camp identifying pregnant women, HIV-positive women in need of medication and victims of sexual violence. Despite Kenya’s new Sexual Offences Act, passed in 2006, and despite pre-election promises to strengthen the rights of women, there has been a deafening official silence on the experiences of women during the chaos. Calls for an end to looting, arson and murder did not mention rape and gender-based violence. During the first six weeks of this year, the Gender Violence Recovery Centre of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital treated over 300 survivors of rape and sexual violence. The majority did not arrive at the hospital in time for HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. Ninety percent of the women treated reported gang rapes, usually by roving groups of young men targeting women not of their own ethnicity. Because Kenyan women rarely report rape due to the fear of being disowned by husbands and families, the women who obtained hospital treatment are thought to be only a small fraction of the actual number of victims. SWAK reports that sexual violence continues in the camps where men and Mercy Wahome coordinates the Society of Women Against AIDS in Keya (SWAK) and works with women in Kenyan women are housed together in crowded tents camps for displaced persons. (Photo: Maggie Ziegler) and there is poor security. Many women felt forced into transactional sex to obtain food (NAIROBI) Agata Wambui was returning from was fuelled by pre-existing tensions brought and clothing. Wahome recounts the story of a fetching the morning milk when crowds of on by historical land conflicts, politically girl, disabled by early childhood burns, who youth began to throw stones in her Nairobi manipulated tribal grievances, corruption, had become separated from her family during slum neighbourhood of Mathare. When they poverty and despair. The majority of the the violence. “In the camp she became set houses alight, she helped pour water on displaced are women and children. dependent on an older man who obtained the flames, but as soon as one fire was For five months, Agata and Margaret have food for her. She lived in a tent with six men extinguished another began. lived with hundreds of others in an improvised [who had sex with her].” The girl was “There was nothing I could do. For five days camp for internally displaced persons on the eventually reunited with her mother. my children and I slept on the bare ground church grounds. In a crowded, dark shed, SWAK enabled pregnant women to obtain along the road. There was nothing to eat,” she each family has been allotted a few square care, formed support groups for HIV-positive recalls. feet of space. women and established an innovative widow’s Twenty-year-old Margaret Wambui (no Not far from the church camp, Sofia group in which long-time widows supported relation) fled the same burning village with her Adbaala fled to the local police station after a the survivors through the initial shock of losing month-old daughter, taking shelter in a nearby torched stall destroyed her house, bursting husbands, children, relatives, homes and the churchyard. She lost everything, including the windows and buckling doors. Under a white integrity of their own bodies. They counselled job she has had since she was 15 making canvas tarp stretched out diagonally from the the victims of violence. clothes for export at a garment factory. “The side of a shipping container, Abdaala gestures “There is so much more we could do if we streets were unsafe and I couldn’t reach the towards her small mattress, a plastic shopping had money. And now the camps are being factory,” says Margaret. “I was fired for not bag of saved papers and a few clothes. dismantled and we worry about the women,” reporting to work.” “This is my home now,” she says. Wahome says. The two single mothers are among more Mercy Wahome, national coordinator of the The euphoria that greeted former UN than 300,000 people displaced in the violence Society of Women Against AIDS in Kenya Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s mediated that erupted in Kenya in December ignited by (SWAK), moved quickly to support women in settlement has given way to anxiety that the accusations of a rigged election. The savagery the camps. “SWAK’s history with bringing country’s problems will not be addressed and

HERIZONS FALL 2008 13 Many women in Kenya displaced by conflict lost their homes and livelihoods and experience violent trauma. Sofia Adbaala says “I am strong. I have rights.” (Photo: Lauryn Oates) that the displaced people will be sacrificed for assistance to rebuild her life. Agata used to sell SWAK is determined to try to find the political agendas. In the Rift Valley, displaced bananas to garment factory workers at women who have left the Rift Valley camp in persons are returning home—some willingly, lunchtime, but her wheelbarrow was burnt with order to provide the witness, assistance and some forcibly. her house and she cannot restart her business. trauma intervention essential to rebuilding The Kenyan Sunday Standard reported that “We are not sick,” she says fiercely, as shattered lives, ensuring that sexual trauma is “witnesses, including humanitarian agencies, Margaret Wambui nods in agreement. “We not submerged. said it was appalling and shameful to see can work. But we cannot see where to go.” In the meantime, courageous Kenyan security forces forcing wailing women and Both women think that while rural displaced women persevere. Mercy Wahome, who lost children onto trucks.” persons are being resettled, urban displaced relatives in the Rift Valley conflict and fled her Returning refugees found farms scorched persons have been abandoned. own home because of tear gas and gunshots, and gravesites desecrated. It is a return Sofia Abdaala resists being pushed out. allows grief to flicker momentarily in her eyes. without dialogue, reconciliation, justice or “The police don’t want us here and turn away Then her gaze steadies. “Me, I try to help. assistance. For women burdened by sexual anyone bringing aid. Often, I don’t eat.” She That’s how I cope.” trauma, being pushed home to face laughs softly. “You’d be surprised at how Abdaala, after telling her story, straightens perpetrators is intolerable. sustaining water can be.” up and breaks into a warm a smile that is like Meanwhile, Agata Wambui is preoccupied Mercy Wahome adds, “our leaders have the sun emerging after the rain. “I am strong. I with the future, hoping for government betrayed us.” have rights. I am not broken,” she says. 

HERIZONS Environmental Statement Herizons is printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper. The certification means that raw materials originate in forests run according to principles that respect the environment, at all stages of production. By printing on a paper that contains 25 percent post-consumer fibre, Herizons is saving 10 trees, or two-and-a-half tonnes of wood, four tonnes of water and 1,678 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year. This paper is also elemental chlorine-free and acid-free. Sure, it costs more, but we think the planet is worth it. And we know you agree.

14 FALL 2008 HERIZONS cole’s notes BY SUSAN G. COLE

Pity, Sex in the City

The term female empowerment has so become hopelessly You’d think we’d see a little more of the women’s corrupted these days it’s getting me down. I’m tired of people workload, given how much dough they spend on clothes. I celebrating teens wearing T-Shirts bearing the slogan “I do understand that the fashion aspect of SATC is supposed Wanna Be a Porn Star” as if they’re reclaiming sexuality. I’m to be a guilty pleasure, and, in fact, I myself succumbed— tired of people telling me that when a woman walks around even to the wedding dress montage, for God’s sake, which in the fashion equivalent of a negligee she’s redefining is truly spectacular. personal power. In my view, they are confusing feeling But it’s hard to call something feminist when it’s based powerful with getting attention. on an elaborate consumerist fantasy. Not very many women And I’m really tired of people making the claim that Sex make the kind of money required to buy the clothes the Sex and the City–now available in cinematic form—is and the City women are so addicted to purchasing. And emblematic of a new kind of woman power. anyway, as fabulous as the clothes are in the movie version, They cite, in particular, the sexually voracious Samantha, this is 2008. There are people rioting over food shortages, who, in one of the film’s major plot lines, believes she’s losing the U.S. is in a full-blown economic crisis and even her sense of self by trying to stay in New York working girls are a monogamous relationship. Not to having to think about using the say that promiscuity inherently They talk about nothing term sustainability. So how do our cannot be a feminist stance, but four heroines practise such sexual insatiability does not in and of that matters in the world, conspicuously gross consumption itself a feminist make. And it’s not nothing that’s going on and sleep at nights? exactly healthy for any woman to Then again, none of these four make her sexuality the only factor in outside of a three-metre women appears to be aware of her self-definition. True, the sexually radius of their own selves. anything except what’s going on in explicit dialogue in the TV series her personal life. They talk about made it a huge and important small- Feminist? I don’t think so. nothing that matters in the world, screen groundbreaker. But, though nothing that’s going on outside of Samantha’s ability to terrify her fuck buddies may be fun to a three-metre radius of their own selves. Feminist? I don’t watch, it doesn’t win her any political trophies. think so. I mean, at the time of the film’s shooting, a Actually, you can tell by the first tidbit of dialogue that the woman was vying for the leadership of the U.S. Democrats. recent flick is not exactly a feminist exercise. The Globe & But you’d never know it from the way this quartet talks to Mail’s Johanna Schneller made this point when she reacted to each other. the opening line, “Women come to New York for the two To be fair, Sex and the City is, indeed, an ode to female L’s—love and labels.” No, says Schneller, women come to friendship, and in that sense does press a feminist button. But New York to work. these friends seem to connect by dint of the absence of any But in this movie we see almost nothing of whatever it is family. We see practically no parents or siblings. It’s as if these these women do to make a living. Oh, the lovelorn Carrie women were birthed in a laboratory. Bradshaw sits by her typewriter struggling with writer’s They were actually conceived by Candace Bushnell, an block, but the scene is more about heartbreak than that other entertaining scribe, sure, but not exactly a feminist writer up L-word, labour. there with Audre Lourde or Alice Walker.  HERIZONS FALL 2008 15

THE SENATOR is OUT BY KAJ HASSELRIIS

n Parliament Hill, high-level meetings are as Conservative?” someone asked. A couple of women defended common as question period temper tantrums. her. A few rolled their eyes. Right away, I wanted to know O But every Wednesday morning, there’s a top- who Nancy Ruth was and how she infiltrated the Stephen secret gathering that beats all the others. Reporters are kept Harper government. out by security and lobbyists can’t even bribe their way in. Nancy Jackman (who changed her name to Nancy Ruth) The only people with access to the weekly Conservative was born into one of Ontario’s most well-to-do political caucus meeting are the prime minister’s most trusted advisors families in 1942. Her father and grandfather were both and, of course, the party’s MPs and senators. Among them is Members of Parliament and her brother, Hal Jackman, was proud feminist Nancy Ruth, Canada’s first openly-lesbian appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario by Brian senator. Every week, Ruth delights in tapping cabinet Mulroney. Twice Ruth ran unsuccessfully for election to the ministers on the shoulder, taking them aside and pushing the Ontario legislature as a champion of Mike Harris’s so-called issues she feels are important to Canadian women. And as far Common Sense Revolution. as she’s concerned she’s doing a damn good job. “I think the Yet Ruth insists it’s not family ties that made her a Tory. “I women of Canada should be fucking glad I’m here,” she believe you have to balance the books,” she says. “That’s why declares when I meet her in her Ottawa office. I’m a Conservative.” I first heard about Nancy Ruth a couple of years ago while However, family circumstances are what turned her into a sitting around a living room in Winnipeg. I was with a group feminist. “It’s having seen my mother be pushed down the of feminist women, and when someone dropped her name it stairs by my father,” she says. “It’s having heard the fights was like a bomb went off in the middle of the conversation. downstairs while I was upstairs in bed as a child that drives

Photo: Mitchel Raphael “How can someone who calls herself a feminist be a me as a feminist.”

HERIZONS FALL 2008 17 “It was like coming out of the Garden of Eden on a lava bed, full of excitement and burning desire.”—Senator Nancy Ruth

Ruth’s drive and considerable wealth helped her become a hundred pages in, there’s a paragraph that promises $20 dedicated activist and philanthropist with a fondness for million more for women’s programs. It also commits the feminist projects. Ruth is a founder of the Women’s Legal Harper government to creating an action plan for women. Education and Action Fund, the Canadian Women’s “The day I saw that in the budget,” she says, “when Foundation, and several other organizations that fight for [Finance Minister] Jim Flaherty got up in the Commons and women’s rights. Currently, she’s bankrolling the women’s read that, I thought nirvana had happened. I couldn’t believe news website Section 15 and the Second Wave Women’s it. It was like coming out of the Garden of Eden on a lava Archive Project. bed, full of excitement and burning desire.” Ruth maintains that it’s no harder to be a feminist in the Ruth isn’t excited about the $20-million increase. She says Conservative Party than it would be in any other party. it’s way too low. What gets her revved up is the idea of an “There is not a feminist party that I can join,” she says. “In action plan. She’s busy collecting ideas that fall in line with my opinion, no party has taken seriously the issues of women Harper’s agenda, meaning tax breaks over new spending. and poverty in a way that can move towards eradication.” Ruth wants suggestions from women’s groups, too, but says Ruth has earned honorary degrees from several Canadian most of the groups are stuck in the past, refusing to come up universities, as well as membership in the Order of Canada. with the kind of proposals the government is looking for. But it was a Liberal, not a Conservative, who appointed her “I will say this to the great public out there,” she says, to the Senate in 2005. leaning in to my microphone as if she’s broadcasting a When Paul Martin headed a minority government, he was message to the nation. “We have been asking for specific pressured to name members of other parties to the Senate, too. legislative changes and we are not getting them from national At first, Ruth was appointed as an independent, since she still or local women’s groups.” identified as a Progressive Conservative. But it didn’t take long Ruth says it doesn’t help parliamentarians like her when for her to make the switch and join Harper’s caucus. activists demand more housing and child care. “We don’t “It’s more fun being in power than out,” she says now. have any money,” she says, “so don’t give me any spending About a year ago, I saw a photo of Nancy Ruth in Maclean’s bills. Be smart about it. Use the tax credit system. That’s this magazine. She was pictured on the back of a Harley- kind of government.” Davidson, a wide smile on her face and her big, billowy white “What kind of ideas are you looking for?” I ask. hair blowing behind her. She looked like a lot of fun. When According to Ruth, women-friendly policies that the I e-mailed my interview request to her, I wrote, “I think some government has already implemented include tax breaks for Herizons readers would be surprised to learn that someone bus passes, the $2,000 Child Tax Credit for every kid under like you exists within Ottawa’s Conservative caucus.” 18 and the $3,500 tax exemption for low-income working Her response made me wonder what I was getting myself seniors. But she says women’s groups are sticking to their into. “You would do well to find out what sort of questions I usual demands, instead of making suggestions that conform have asked in the committees I have served on,” she e-mailed. to the Conservative Party’s approach. “Look for feminist threads. Do this research before you “Women’s groups are exhausted or they’re just depressed,” interview me, as your comment about a feminist in the she says. “Or they’re depressed because they stopped trying. Conservative Party is rather facile.” How can you ever stop trying? What a mistake. There are Ruth’s assistant warned me her boss is always very busy, so always opportunities. You just create them.” when I arrive five minutes late for our interview, I brace When I suggest that many women’s groups are struggling myself for a lecture or even a cancellation. But the senator is with financial issues of their own, and are having problems completely warm and welcoming. She serves me orange juice holding on to staff, she shows no sympathy. “Don’t their and apologizes that she doesn’t have any cookies. heads think?” she asks. “You don’t need staff to have your With her sunny, sixth-floor view of Parliament behind her, heads think. It’s called suck it up and move on.” Ruth gets right down to business. Immediately, she hands me Being a Conservative and a philanthropist, Ruth believes a copy of this year’s federal budget and flips it open. About a that women’s groups should stop depending on government

18 FALL 2008 HERIZONS “We don’t have any money, so don’t give me any spending bills. Be smart about it. Use the tax credit system.”—Senator Nancy Ruth

assistance for survival. She points to the multimillion-dollar So she’ll stick to proposing modest ideas for the Canadian Women’s Foundation as evidence that private government’s action plan on women. In the meantime, Ruth money can generate programs to help women. is also excited about an initiative she pushed Auditor- Ruth admits that big charities and foundations get the General Sheila Fraser to undertake: reviewing the biggest donations. But she says small-scale women’s government’s gender-based audits. Fraser’s report is expected organizations should be able to bring in more money, too. next spring. She says the key is to recruit high-profile “legimitizers” to Ruth yawns; I don’t take it personally. Senate meetings their boards, thus earning more credibility with wealthy start early and end late. She says she’s running out of friends donors. And in case you’re wondering, she doesn’t buy the back in Toronto, because when she returns home every argument that women don’t donate large sums of money to weekend all she wants to do is cook or garden and hang out progressive causes. with her partner. She’s not complaining, though. Ruth loves Ruth points to Fatma El-Mehelmy, an Ottawa software engineer and entrepreneur who recently donated $200,000 to Carleton University to establish a Centre for the Study of Islam. “Why should the visible and immigrant minority women say they don’t have any money?” asks Ruth. “Look, there’s a woman.” Perhaps most of all, senators are known for their work on committees, sifting through legislation they get from the House of Commons and grilling expert witnesses. Nancy Ruth is known as a particularly colourful questioner. As a member of the Senate defence committee, she often finds herself in front of high-ranking generals, and since last year she has made it her mission to ensure they know everything there is to know about United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. If you don’t know what that is, don’t admit it to Nancy Ruth—at least not while you’re facing her in a Senate committee. “There are now all these generals who know about this and know that this is an issue,” she states proudly. Senator Nancy Ruth on the back of EGALE executive director Helen Kennedy’s (In case you’re wondering, Resolution 1325 calls for women’s motorcycle during a recent Toronto civic election campaign. (Photo: Mitchel Raphael) participation in ending conflicts.) Even in dry committee rooms, surrounded by her her new influence. “I could never have done any of this if I’d Conservative colleagues, Ruth doesn’t think twice about stayed on the outside,” she says. “It’s what you get to do when outing herself as a feminist or a lesbian. Recently, she you’re part of the group.” questioned a general on why the Canadian military doesn’t Just as I’m about to say goodbye, Ruth checks her e-mail regularly recruit at gay pride festivals. “Nobody else would and bounces out of her chair with good news. A couple of ask that,” she says. months earlier, she met the government parliamentary Still, Ruth is realistic about the impact she can make within budget officer at a Senate committee. Now, he’s e-mailing the Conservative government, especially when it comes to one Ruth to hear her ideas on recruiting more female economists. of the biggest issues facing Canadian women. “I always avoid “This is a big deal,” Ruth says, excited. “He knows there’s talking about child care,” she says. “This is the system I have a senate watching.” to live with. There may be other ways to help in that area, but And there’s a feminist watching the Tories—whether you I do not have enough power to change it.” agree with her politics or not. 

HERIZONS FALL 2008 19 Les Valeurs, La Manière(Values, Manner) THE POETRY, WRITING AND ACTIVISM OF NICOLE BROSSARD

INTERVIEW BY MARIIANNE MAYS

Identity politics are embedded in the philosophy of Nicole Brossard, whose latest book of poetry, Notebook of Roses and Civilization, translated by Robert Majzels and Erin Mourè, was shortlisted for this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize.

HERIZONS: In your preface to your now-classic The Aerial and language. Our mother tongue is in fact a Father Knows Letter, you state that the impetus for the writings was “to Best tongue. It has been impregnated, filled and refilled understand patriarchal reality and how it works, not for its own through time with the subjectivity of men who were sake, but for its tragic consequences in the lives of women, in the permitted to express themselves, and to express opinions life of the spirit.” You also note that the writing and assembly on the public place. By the public place, I mean the place reflected “Ten years of anger, revolt, certitude, and conviction …; where decisions and laws concerning behaviour, language ten years of fighting against that screen which stands in the way and values are made; in other words, men have always of women’s energy, identity, and creativity. Ten years of curves, decided what is appropriate between men and women, graffiti, erasures, and writing, in order to exorcise that ‘curse.’” what is immoral, what is glorious, what is art, who can talk The “curse” could be lifted, you suggest, only through a struggle “in the name of god.” Until very recently, men were the with words themselves. Can you talk a little about how you only ones to explain and organize the world. And so they understand the relationship of language to feminism? did, according to their interests and needs, and imposed NICOLE BROSSARD: Every day we use two forces their own narratives about sexuality, fear, courage, emotion

Photo: Susan Moss essential to our intensive existence or survival: our bodies and death.

HERIZONS FALL 2008 21 No matter the culture or civilization, men have always in a spiral of energy and desire that redefines the practice of managed, through language, to declare women inferior. being a woman, a lesbian and a feminist. Since the 70s, many feminists have exposed the lies, Yet we also need to understand the world we presently live superstitions, clichés, proverbs, jokes, biblical or qur’anic in, to see how science in general—but more precisely, how quotes through which women have been despised, biotechnology, informatics and cybernetics—affect our lives. demeaned and marginalized. After millennia, those lies, What does it mean to be a woman in 2008, in North superstitions and fantasies have been seriously questioned American, in India, in Algeria, in Haiti? Is patriarchy in your through writing. cellphone, in your marriage contract, in your perfume or in your head? Describing your writing in her recent article “To Write: In the Feminine Is Heavy With Consequences,” Louise H. Forsyth notes Issues of patriarchal social formation impinge upon the quest for that scholar Alice Parker has defined writing in the feminine as “a an active space (as you’ve named it previously, a “turning sexuality that emerges from modernity, a woman’s body and platform”) in which, or from which, to think and to write and to history combined with a feminist consciousness.” What is your act. For you personally, has the feat of liberating the self from those understanding of the connections among “woman,” “feminine” expectations and restraints been an ongoing struggle, or was it and “feminist,” and how do these affect your writing? more of a one-time movement or breakout from which a new NICOLE BROSSARD: The repertoire of movements or gestures connections do not presently then became possible? inform my writing because I have “As a woman, as a NICOLE BROSSARD: I would understood them, and in my rather say it was a matter of current work I tend to put at stake Québécoise, as a lesbian, I decolonizing oneself from that which is still an enigma for belong to groups that ask patriarchal systems and values. me. But these questions were and This is a one-time showdown in still are vital to understand why— questions—and should the sense that the energy needed no matter how feminine, feminist keep asking questions.” to understand and fight back the or lesbian you are or seem to be— system is so huge—and lived in you are always categorized as —Nicole Brossard urgency and passion—that it being on the wrong side, and cannot be repeated the same way, guilty of something. neither individually nor collectively. In this process you do Belonging to the feminine gender requires that you learn not only learn to deconstruct the tricky system of to identify the philosophical or social lie that’s taking away oppression, you also learn the magic of being what you are your energy and positive image of yourself. Girls have to and, paradoxically, the pleasure of creating or renewing learn very early to become their own subject of interest, your own persona, open to new experiences. individually and collectively. Becoming a subject of interest For women, a new repertoire of activities came with an is to become aware of the world, of differences, and of your enormous capacity for creativity and performance in potential creative energy. different fields. But somehow I feel that the work of lucidity Now, to come back to the question. Let’s say that woman and honesty is never done. We live in a cruel chic society of is a social construction, that the feminine is a gender that merchants ready to sell anything they can put their hands differentiates itself physically and psychologically from the on: women, children, genes, chromosomes, kidneys, water, masculine, and that a feminist is a person (usually a woman) corn. We live in a world in which coexist a very primitive who has identified and understood how the patriarchal patriarchy and a highly scientific sophisticated patriarchy. system exploits women. In my written works, I have These blur our capacity to decide, to nourish our hope, and questioned reality through the experience of the lesbian body, tame our will to resist. In French, we often talk about le through motherhood, and through feminist consciousness désenchantement to speak about that which accompanies and the enthusiasm of solidarity. The three words intertwine globalization.

22 FALL 2008 HERIZONS In “Fragments of a Conversation” with Louise Forsyth (2003), lesbian to enjoy being a lesbian. Books like Lovhers, Surfaces you draw on a sentence that has appeared in several of your texts, of Sense, Picture Theory and The Aerial Letters have been “A lesbian who does not reinvent the world is a lesbian on the path shaped by feminist analysis, but also by the creative energy to disappearance,” and you subsequently place the words “lesbian” of lesbian desire. and “utopia” in close proximity. Can you comment on their All that said, the identity that seems to connect all the relation, and if and how those words or ideas and the connection other identities is the sense of being a poet and a writer. This between them have evolved for you over time? is to say, someone who does not take reality for granted and NICOLE BROSSARD: I still believe in that sentence who therefore constantly needs to reconfigure it in language, because, in a way, the space opened by lesbian feminists in out of desire, necessity or pure pleasure. the ’70s and ’80s is already closing up on lesbians, and on I can also say that in my novels I tend to be fascinated by women generally. Young lesbians, especially those active in strangeness, otherness via translation, and the idea of writing a career, do not find it so easy to proclaim publicly their in another tongue than my mother tongue. Prose is a place lesbian pride. There is a right-wing backlash. The same for me to enjoy imagining otherness and the process of thing applies to women; for example, think of [bill] C-484 becoming another. Indeed, prose is the perfect place to that the Harper government wants to pass on the rights of explore, to enjoy being someone else and to contradict the fetus.* yourself so you can argue with yourself and learn more about I have related lesbian and utopia for the very simple reason what really matters. that we naturally project the best Speaking of translation, your in us onto what matters to us. So original texts are written in onto lesbians I project many “Is patriarchy in your French, and they have attained a positive qualities, but mainly a cellphone, in your marriage wider readership after translation creativity and determination to into English. How does the change the laws and the mores of contract, in your perfume or relationship between you and your the city (the polis). There is real in your head?” translators work, and what is your life and la vie rêvée. It happens feeling about the various “in- that la vie rêvée or la vie imaginée —Nicole Brossard betweens” incurred by translation? is as important to reality as NICOLE BROSSARD: That reality itself. relation has always been fascinating to me because it wakes Your author’s biographical notes always identify you as a “feminist,” up two traditions, two dictionaries, sometimes more for the “lesbian,” and “Québécoise.” How does identity shape your writing sake of passing from one language to another what has been and your sense of the world? thought and crafted in the “unconscious” of a language. We tend to attribute specific meaning to each word, but there is NICOLE BROSSARD: The question of identity is vital for a lot happening at the level of grammar and syntax—and I people who belong to a group that is colonized, discriminated would even add that which is related to life itself: the pain, against and marginalized through injustice and/or violence. joy and enthusiasm that take place subliminally inscribe People belonging to a dominant group never question their themselves in the translated text. identity. They tend to simply reproduce what is beneficial to In a way it is because of the in-betweens that this process them and to their group. As a woman, as a Québécoise, as a and the encounters or conversations between writer and lesbian, I belong to groups that ask questions—and should translator are nourishing and exciting. The more I am aware keep asking questions. of English or Spanish and the more I pay attention to being I belong to a generation who had the opportunity to in a “translation relationship,” the more it renews my pleasure challenge religious, male and political authority where it of language, for sharing and for discovering. was considered as unfair, unjust and abusive. It was a questioning that would lead the French Canadian to Another kind of “between-ness” that’s developed over the years has become Québécois, the woman to become feminist, the been in your writing across the genres of poetry and the novel, and

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24 FALL 2008 HERIZONS what you’ve named “fictiontheory,” a combination of narrative and theorizing. How do you understand “theory” and its continued Closure; Nothing au bout significance to story or poetry? ... NICOLE BROSSARD: Theory always comes after the c of cerise that is not yet a comma experience. Experience serves the purpose of understanding between you and me and this foretaste of translation a practice, a process, a phenomena or matter itself. traced like an arc in the mouth Normally the fate of a theory is to get lost in reality, for an obsessive curve that could look like indeed once a theory is articulated, the only use we can make your belly, or those typos found of it is to put it back in reality as object (telephone, airplanes, in books telescope), beliefs (the Earth is round) or changes in noise of goodbye or movement of the lips behaviour (cigarettes kill, speed kills, etc.) Theory serves the ardour purpose of understanding process and the laws of behaviours inscribed in our body and species. the poem can’t lose its momentum But theory also serves the purpose of dreaming and make you suddenly turn around imagining, so we can juggle with ideas of presence and as if the sea absence, real and fictive, false and true, visible and invisible. were about to surge up at your back And this I believe only happens in literature, for the use we in pages of foam and foment make of written language will always offers a good dose of ambiguity, in contrast to the use of mathematics and as if the sea physics. In that sense we could say that for a writer the best with its syllables of water could theory is desire and exuberance opening the way to a realm transpose death help you of thought that concerns all of us. In literature, theory is to make slow curves in time always a way to dialogue. when we’re struggling to hang on to solutions The question is often posed about the relevance of poetry, why must we suddenly especially its relevance for feminism, political activism or social stretch a part of our being toward fiction change. How do you understand that relation, and what is it step back from words just as we emerge from that returns you to poetry? In particular, your latest book of the time of scars poetry, Notebook of Roses and Civilization is filled with sensuous detail that mingles with hovering philosophical don’t forget to turn the page thought, on the one hand, and the immediacy of individual with a light hand each time pain, on the other hand—and all overlaid with intimations of so that the shadow doesn’t touch the political realities. How does the relationship of poetry to the front of solitude feminism work there? ... NICOLE BROSSARD: Poetry works by itself and i arrive at this page burning. feminism works by itself. Once in while a woman poet needs others use the word light to intertwine her singular world with the one of other to shake up reality. Let’s see women. She says I or We and We and I in the same sentence, if standing up you grab tomorrow naked with the same body, in the same mother tongue. She dives out of order into knowledge and beauty for her sake, and when she surfaces it belongs to others. She shares. She writes. Poem excerpts from Nicole Brossard’s Griffin Poetry That is all I can say in answer to that question, plus the Prize of 2008-nominated Notebook of Roses and fact that both poetry and feminism as a consciousness are Civilization, translated by Robert Majzels and Erin necessary for life to be harmonious and worth sharing Mouré (Coach House Books, 2007). with others. 

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No sitting on the fence: The author with fellow Birthright Unplugged participants in the West Bank, from back left: Hannah (trip organizer), Simcha, Rosie, Nova, Michael, Aviva (the author); and front from left: Dunya (trip organizer), Saria, and Hannah.

28 FALL 2008 HERIZONS In the winter of 2006, I arrived in Israel/Occupied Palestine for my sixth visit to the region in 24 years. Past trips had been to visit relatives, to celebrate my bat mitzvah and, with classmates, to see the religious relics we learned about in Jewish day school. This time, I arrived in the country on an all-expenses-paid tour with Birthright Israel, a joint project of the Israeli government, North American Jewish federations and dozens of philanthropists who support the Zionist state. I had speculations that the trip wasn’t actually “free” in terms of its influential political agenda, but I decided to see for myself. Besides, I had an agenda of my own. I wanted to witness the occupation and learn Palestinian narratives for the first time. Moreover, I was ready to begin the challenging journey of disrupting my deep bond with Zionism, the belief in a Jewish state, a belief that had been tangled up in my Jewish identity for too long. After a 12-hour flight, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport with 30 young Jewish Canadians. We were greeted by 10 smiling uniformed soldiers and our Israeli tour guide, who shouted proudly, “Welcome Home!” I felt uncomfortable that I was being granted immediate comforts and privileges. I tried to keep an open mind, but this moment set the tone for the rest of the tour. We were rapidly introduced to a restricted view of the country in which militarized culture and Jewish privilege were normalized and the occupation, Palestinians and their history were made invisible. The 10-day tour was exhausting. Each day, I had to check in with myself to ensure I was not being influenced by the heavy doses of propaganda, booze, late nights and packed days. We were literally schlepped in a tour bus from one end of the country to the other: from Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) to Har Hertzel (a military cemetery), from drinking at a Jerusalem pub until late, to climbing Massada

Mayisa Amer, 8, opens the gate to her home in Mas’ha, a village in the West Bank, at sunrise; from camping out in the Ramon Crater to where each side of her family's property is surrounded by an eight-metre concrete listening to a lecturer on the Mideast conflict and the wall and electric barbed wire fence. “problem of Islamification.” We were encouraged to get to know the soldiers on our here are you and what are you doing?” asked my trip in order to understand their experiences. However, aside concerned parents from thousands of miles away. from the usual religious/secular debates, there was little “W I took a deep breath. room for discussion. “I’m back in Jerusalem, after spending the day in southern In Jerusalem, on a walk back to the hotel from the old city, Hebron with a hundred Israeli and international activists I learned that one of the Israeli women accompanying us was helping rebuild a Palestinian family’s home that was a dog trainer and a guard at checkpoints. She told me how demolished by the Israeli army.” great the job is because she loves working with animals. I Silence. found it hard to picture her at a checkpoint in uniform; she “Don’t you understand that going to the West Bank is seemed like a little girl. I asked her what she thought of the putting your mind and body in danger? Why can’t you travel group Machsom Watch, an Israeli women’s group whose like a normal person and just drink wine by the sea?” members witness, intervene in and document human rights

HERIZONS FALL 2008 29 abuses at checkpoints. She took a long look at me and said firmly, “It’s people like them who make it hard for us to do our job.” One night, while camping in the Ramon Crater, we played war games. We were told to meet in the darkness of the desert after supper. We arrived to find the Israelis we had befriended transformed. They were no longer the smiling soldiers who met us at the airport, but stone-faced figures yelling at us to get in lines. Some of us giggled at the serious tone of the military experience, but were soon scared out of it by barked orders to “Shut up.” Then we were taught how to sneak up on the enemy in the event of a nighttime attack. Later, we jogged as a troop, taking turns carrying a “wounded soldier” on a stretcher, with orders to fall to the ground when the commander yelled “The Arabs are attacking!” After, I went to sit by the fire, trying to make sense of what had just happened; everyone else boasted about how much fun it was. “Aren’t guns sexy?” I heard one woman say. The Israeli tour guide came to stand beside me and said, “What’s your problem Aviva? It’s just a game.” By the end of the trip, three participants from my group fulfilled the ultimate agenda of Birthright Israel and decided to exercise their birthright, moving to the country to join the Israeli army. But by the end, I was more certain than ever that this was a community of Jews with whom I could no longer identify. Growing up, I learned to feel at home with the idea of Israel: the Holy Land. It was a place my grandparents fled to, away from the pogroms of Russia, a place I celebrated in song, dance The author (in sunglasses) attends International Women's Day demonstration and stories throughout 18 years of Zionist/Jewish school, organized by Israeli and Palestinian women's groups at the Qalandia checkpoint. summer camps and religious ceremonies. It was a place I It was the first December I was not in Winnipeg, a city learned to be thankful for, and proud of. where Christmas is inescapable. I enjoyed, momentarily, the I was never taught about the wider context in which the surrounding scene of menorahs in store windows and songs state was created, nor was I ever challenged to think about playing that I knew the words to. It felt good to have my the dangers of aligning religion with state power. I was experience of Channukah reflected in public space. unaware of the history of colonization, displacement and However, after spending time in the West Bank, I institutionalized racism that gave birth to my homeland. witnessed the difficulties that arise for Palestinian The history of Palestine and the Palestinian people was communities during holiday time. Jewish holidays are conveniently left out of my Jewish education. Generations identified as “high-security times,” which translate into an of youth like me were born into a culture of flag-waving increased number of checkpoints—producing longer wait and falafel-eating in celebration of Jewish nationalism, times and aggravation, temporary or total closures on made comfortable by these dangerous gaps in the history Palestinian cities and towns (in which all entry permits can we were taught. be cancelled). Population groups are often targeted, (for It is quite a challenge to untangle Judaism and Zionism, example, men under 35) ceasing their mobility. It enraged me discourses I learned were synonymous. Even during my most that, as a visitor to the region, what made me feel temporarily recent visit to Israel, where I felt critical and aware, I found comfortable and excited had simultaneously created a context myself yearning to be part of Jewish traditions and religious of hostility and violence for the native people under ceremonies that don’t entice me as much at home. occupation. I reminded myself that it was not the menorah

30 FALL 2008 HERIZONS that created this violence, but the state which uses the context Since my return home, I have connected with other radical of these peaceful customs to repress Palestinians on the Jews in Winnipeg as well as like-minded Jews nationally at pretext of security. the Toronto Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians After the Birthright tour, I signed up for an alternative tour conference in March. Despite the geographic distance called Birthright Unplugged. There have been 12 Birthright between us, we are slowly building new radical Jewish Unplugged trips with 100 participants since 2005 and the communities dedicated to breaking the silence of injustice six-day tour of the West Bank is not free, as there is and working toward a just peace. significantly less financial and political support for anti- Although some view any criticism of Israel or Zionism as occupation education. anti-Semitism, I believe that dialogue critical of the state is As soon as the tour began, I knew I had found a home in a the best solidarity with Jews that one could have. radical Jewish community. We started by learning about each Unfortunately, because those who are critical of the state find other, unpacking our assumptions and privileges and sharing it difficult to find a safe space in which to host this dialogue, our expectations for the trip. We agreed to share these with many radical Jews must leave the community in order to do each other rather than with our Palestinian hosts, so as not to this work and to find places where our politics and passion burden them with these teachings, such as feelings of guilt and for change are celebrated rather than tolerated. shame while unlearning racism and deconstructing Zionism. I have a clear memory of attending a rally for Israel at the We also expressed our fear about how our families and Manitoba legislative building when I was in high school. communities would react. Many of us already felt severed from There I was, waving an Israeli flag proudly showing my our communities. And yet, somehow, that experience made it support for the Jewish state, snarling at the faceless activists easier to imagine coming out as anti-occupation Jews. holding signs that read “End the Occupation.” I can Over six days, we visited Palestinian cities, villages and remember my confusion and rage. “What occupation?” I saw refugee camps to develop an understanding of what it means Jewish people I knew on the other side of the picket line and to live under occupation. We visited a family in Mas’ha, a felt my anger rising. I identified them as self-hating Jews and village in the Salfit governorate of the West Bank. Their never asked them to explain their position. home is surrounded by the Apartheid Wall. We entered the Today, I am that face of opposition. It took a long time for gate and became speechless looking around at the cage the me to arrive at a place where I can hear criticisms of the state Amer family calls home. Each side of the property is of Israel without feeling personally attacked. I still don’t feel completely surrounded by concrete wall and electric fence. comfortable speaking about my views to certain members of Hani Amer, the father of the family, shared their story via my family and Jewish community, for fear of being ostracized a friend who translated: “No matter what government and silenced. I understand the barriers to communicating controls the area, this land is Palestine and I am Palestinian. these politics, and so I have tolerance and understanding for Our relation is with the land, not the name the government those who are not ready to hear what I have to say. chooses. And so we remain here because this is our home. It is through my queer consciousness that I developed the But this is no life for my children.” tools and strength to think critically about all systems of power A wall was constructed in front of the Amer family home and, eventually, to come out as an anti-Zionist Jew. I see these to isolate them from the rest of their community so that they pieces of my identity as intimately intertwined and necessarily will abandon their house to enable the Israeli settlement to loud—despite the call to remain silent. It is crucial that we expand. Further, a fence was built on the settlement side of recognize all systems of domination as interlocking and their property at the request of settlers who, ironically, did not incapable of existing in isolation. I want to make these links want to live next to a wall. The Amer family has, for many visible and, in doing so, fight sexism, racism, homophobia, years, seen rocks and garbage thrown into their yard, endured transphobia, classism, anti-Semitism, colonization and all verbal harassment of their children and had their greenhouse systems of domination in order to promote radical change. and side room demolished. Further, they had to fight to have It takes seconds to bulldoze a home and a lifetime to build a gate built into the wall so they could go in and out of their a movement. We can keep rebuilding homes, but they will home and gain access to their agricultural land. keep being torn down until Jews and allies all over the world On my return home, I felt a responsibility to share what I take action to create a culture of resistance that welcomes witnessed and experienced. So I created a zine called OUT transformation.  with another Birthright Unplugged alumna, Ilana Lerman. Aviva Cipilinski is a queer anarcha-feminist community We sent OUT to friends and zine distributors and we plan to activist who believes in the power of personal stories as a tool for continue the dialogue. social change.

HERIZONS FALL 2008 31 AND INTUITION ArtBY SHAWNA DEMPSEY

am doubly, even triply wary of any discussion around it, but to follow it, to ride it until it takes me to its logical intuition. As a woman, I have heard too many patronizing conclusion. This state has a physical component, a rush of I comments about “how intuitive the female sex is.” The exhilaration that is almost visible, a surge of movement and same people seem to cite the “intuitiveness” of Aboriginal colour that passes into and out of my body. I have tricks that peoples. In their minds, we are more in touch, more primitive can help me catch this euphoric exhalation of clarity, but and somehow less worthy of holding public office (or, in the there is no surefire way in. Lots of times, doing nothing helps case of First Peoples, attaining self-government). Any create room for it. And quiet. But that isn’t a formula. And it essentialist pedestal is really a sinkhole in disguise. isn’t something we artists discuss much, even among At the same time, as an artist I rail against the perception ourselves. It feels too fragile, too important and too magical of artist-as-super-intuitive super-flake, at one with the to unravel. creativity of the universe. Again, these stereotypes bite, not I was once at a talk by Toronto painter Fiona Smyth, when the least because they devalue skill and tenacity and have led performance artist and animator Daniel Barrow shyly asked to the societal perception that artists don’t need to be paid for the most intimate question I have ever heard in such a our work—art is easy! And we’re so in tune, we don’t need to setting: “Do you ever feel like something else is guiding your eat, or clothe our children! hand?” The artists in the room held their breath. However, if truth be told, it is largely my own superstition Smyth, whose work is a psychedelic, visceral riff on sex, that keeps the knotty problem of intuition at arm’s length. mythology and female archetypes, generously talks about the Something happens when I am creating that is beyond my mysteries of her process. “It’s like the film Altered States but power to describe. If I were to look to art for metaphor, I’d say without the drugs. I wouldn’t say I get into a fugue state, but that sometimes when I write, or draw, or perform, I fall down time is more fluid and passes quickly. When I was a younger the rabbit hole. I enter a dream and my job is to not to guide artist, I used to refer to it as channelling, connecting with some

32 FALL 2008 HERIZONS Fiona Smyth, Shadow Falls on the Amazon, from the exhibit The Chimera’s Daughters, 2005, ink.

greater-power-ish entity. But as I got older, wiser and went beautifully drawn schematic of the “witchy” experiences that through therapy, I realized it’s about accessing parts of myself. inform her practice. Writer and painter Bev Pike creates a It can feel a bit godly to create something from nothing, but it Tarot of Organizing Women, a fortune-telling deck for really comes from something more concrete: problem solving, activists that includes advice such as, “Maudlin manipulators a gazillion decisions made throughout the process.” no longer have role to play. You need not fear men or Robert’s Malcolm Gladwell would concur. The best-selling author of Rules of Order.” Historian Jo Applin approaches the Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (2005) provides apparent dearth of women in art history as a haunting, and numerous examples from the worlds of science and business of asserts the power of that unspoken presence. how intuition is strengthened by experience. But a text of In her selection of contributions, it is clear that Fisher does greater interest to feminists and artists is undoubtedly not shy away from the supernatural as a possible explanation Technologies of Intuition, a Canadian anthology co-published by for knowing-without-knowing-why-we-know. But a brilliant YYZ Books and Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (2006). essay by University of Manitoba art and architecture professor The book is edited by curator and cultural theorist Jennifer Serena Keshavjee puts easy conclusions into perspective. In Fisher, best known for the large contemporary exhibitions she her discussion of the spiritualist movement, popular in the late has organized, exploring everything from Victorian parlour 19th century and espoused by prominent scientists and artists games to the fetishization of museum artefacts alike, Keshavjee reveals that its adherents thought they were Technologies of Intuition is a collection of essays, interviews modern because they could speak to the dead. It’s a and artists’ projects that critically explores everything from preposterous notion in retrospect, leading one to wonder what the neurobiological basis for intuition to the relationship erroneous beliefs we hold dear in this current age. between early 20th-century clairvoyance and the suffragette Undoubtedly, intuition is a mysterious key component of movement. Inter-media artist Joanne Bristol provides a the creative process and is a type of instant-knowing or

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34 FALL 2008 HERIZONS Fiona Smyth, Invisible Woman, from the exhibit The Chimera’s Daughters, 2005, ink.

wisdom that has served women well, particularly when other last interview, Diana, the late Princess of Wales, said, systems of knowledge were denied to us. At times when “Nobody can dictate my behaviour. I work through instinct, women’s agency in the world was severely circumscribed, it and instinct is my best counsellor.” In hindsight, maybe not makes sense that women’s ways of knowing would fit the the best approach. common definition of intuition—an insight that is Which may leave us with more questions than answers. independent of previous experiences. We may have been Certainly, intuition is real. People from all walks of life denied experiences and access to information, but our experience it, and artists know it intimately. It has been intelligence has prevailed. documented historically and scientifically. Women are However, I remain wary of a wholesale celebration of thought to have more than our fair share. But it is only one intuition, despite its role in women’s history and in my art tool. Creative impulses without rigorous execution do not practice. I know that when I make the correct decision, I make good art; intuitive decision-making without rational call it intuition (Hurray!); and when I make the incorrect thought can be like eating a steak with a spoon—not always one, I call it an error of judgment (Boo!). In other words, the right approach to the job. intuition doesn’t always pan out. In art-making, these The more practised we become at listening to ourselves, missteps are part of the process. As poet Jan Guenther the stronger our intuition grows. However, intuition isn’t our Braun sees it, “You have to get lonely, afraid and bored to only intelligence, nor is it our only birthright. I look forward get there, and then it’s a hero’s journey through a dark to the day when I can talk openly about my intuitive forest. With experience, you learn it’s okay if it doesn’t work experiences without being dismissed for them, and at the out. You need to forgive yourself for writing total bullshit, same time have my women’s intuition be thought as natural and just have faith it’s part of a larger process.” In life, as my women’s empirical knowledge and my women’s hastily made mistakes can have larger consequences. In her deductive reasoning. 

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36 FALL 2008 HERIZONS GraphicBY ZOE WHITTAL IN CONVERSATION Scenes WITH MARIKO TAMAKI

f you don’t know Mariko Tamaki, I’d like to introduce I you. The whip-smart, stylish 32-year-old wears many glittery crowns while bombing around on her scooter through the streets of her hometown Toronto: a novelist, playwright, performance artist, comedienne, Herizons columnist and now a rising star in the graphic novel world. Tamaki is also an old friend of mine. In fact, on my 25th birthday, Mariko’s mother helped us move our battered futons and milk crates of paperbacks into a house in the Parkdale neighbourhood, our third common abode. Nicknamed The Parkdale Gem Praise for Mariko Tamaki’s new graphic novel, Skim, prompted friend and fellow writer Zoe Whittal to sit down with the (how it was advertised under “To author to talk about the direction of her career. Rent” in Now magazine), it has become one of those apartments passed on from queer artist used to feel like I had to be entertaining, the life of the party. to queer artist. Now I’m a little more chill. I’m more interested in having an At the time we lived in the Gem, Mariko was working on overall good time than making a gigantic impression.” her second book, True Lies: The Book of Bad Advice, and I was The younger Tamaki was certainly one for impressions. proofing my first. We both worked retail. The section When my parents came to the launch of my anthology Geeks, designated for eggs and butter in our fridge was filled mainly Misfits & Outlaws in Montreal, Mariko read her infamous with nail polish. And when we weren’t watching Gilmore performance piece “Reasons to Give a Blow Job” and was Girls, we could be found performing on stages around pretty fearless. Toronto, and sometimes in Montreal, where we first met as “My early writing was sassy,” she explains. “I went out of university students in the late 1990s. my way to reveal details, like the blow job story. I used to Then in our 20s, I would often invite Mariko along to write thinking, ‘This will totally freak people out!’ Now, I still parties if I felt shy going solo, because she was great at the like those details, but I’m more interested in how they fit into one-liners, always making people laugh. I remind her of this the grand scheme of things. You and I grew up writing for the when we meet to discuss writing and her tremendously stage, where you only have eight minutes to really make an successful graphic novel Skim, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, impression. It’s nice to have a little more breathing room to who is also Mariko’s cousin. make an impression now, to be more about the craft than the Mariko responds that her public persona has softened as of shocking details.” late. She is most comfortable letting her work speak for her. Skim is definitely well-crafted and a little quieter than the We clink coffees in a toast to this inevitable effect of being in Mariko Tamaki of her 20s. But it is just as edgy in its subject our 30s. matter. Released this spring by Groundwood Books, Skim is “Writing is kind of like going to parties,” Tamaki offers. “I about a teenage girl in a Toronto private school who has a

HERIZONS FALL 2008 37 “. . . an unusually strong graphic novel — rich in visuals and observations, and rewarding of repeated readings.” PW Comics Week

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38 FALL 2008 HERIZONS crush on a female teacher. To some vague extent, the teacher friends. Tamaki describes her new protagonist as “a girl from returns her feelings. The story also references the suicide of a the suburbs who ends up finding a flyer for the Factory Freak teenage boy rumoured to be gay. show, [then] decides she wants to be a performance artist. Yet Tamaki maintains she did not set out to make a statement She makes her way up into the superstar level of the factory about queerness and youth. “Skim’s in love, and kisses a woman, scene, but it doesn’t really work out. Behind the glamour of but heck, she’s just a kid. She could go on to kiss many people this indie scene, it’s basically like high school, with all these in her future—some of them might be dudes, who knows? I weird social dynamics—it’s never just about making art, it’s think Skim is more a statement about youth, and the variety of about social drama and making art.” strange experiences that can encapsulate.” Despite her interest in the medium today,Tamaki didn’t grow Tamaki is frequently asked whether Skim is based on up as a comic nerd. “I wasn’t interested in comics as a kid, more personal experience. I hate to ask, but I have to. “Skim is like Sweet Valley High. If I had SVH in comic form, maybe I about being a teenager and I was a teenager. So yes, in some would’ve been,” she says. I ask whether there is a resistance from ways you could say it’s true to my life,” she explains. “But did the comic world to both the sudden interest on the part of I ever kiss a high school teacher? No. This is definitely not a mainstream publishers to produce graphic novels and to non- Dr. Phil confessional moment. It’s more a comic writers entering their previously fictional experiment than anything else.” secluded world. Specifically, for the MINX Her fictional experiment is definitely line, the company brought in writers like getting noticed. Skim has garnered rave Tamaki to author graphic novels. “You have reviews in both Canada and the States, people in the comic field saying, ‘Why and recently a comic by the Tamaki duo bring people in?’ They’re defensive. The appeared in the New York Times. same as you would in poetry, you know? Mariko’s pretty cool about it, citing other The worst-case scenario is Billy Corgan, graphic novelists whose work has singer/songwriters who are like, ‘I can write appeared in that spot. Then she says with a poem!’ I don’t want to be Billy Corgan.” a smile, “It’s amazing to get the chance She smiles, conjuring up images of the to see your work in the New York Times.” Smashing Pumpkins singer who published I ask her about the boys’ club atmosphere poetry books of amateurish, high school- of the comic world. She corrects my esque, clichéd-lyric poems. assumption. “There are so many amazing There’s definitely no danger in Tamaki’s work being Corgan-esque. female graphic novelists out there. It’s not Skim: “Definitely not a Dr. Phil moment. as difficult to get into for women. The Skim is fresh, witty and a vital addition scene has a vibe of being a dude thing, but to both Tamaki’s impressive oeuvre and it’s a stereotype. It’s a place where you can be a boy or girl writer, the world of literature loved by both teen girls and fading and that’s okay. It’s a very visual field. The stars of the hipsters alike. Comicon—large comic conventions—are the artists.” The appeal is that her view of the world informs her art. “I I ask her how the writing process was different for Skim,as try to put something I want out into the world that I want to opposed to a traditional novel. “I just wrote a play. I didn’t be connected and associated with my politics—recycle, avoid give any visual direction—Jillian didn’t want any. It was like, gender stereotypes, do not hit people, no stealing,” she says. ‘I’ll give you the words, you do all the pictures.’” These days, Tamaki is “trying to be a less ‘future The process wasn’t quite as collaborative with her possibilities’ type of person. I’ve just come off of a very forthcoming project, Emiko Superstar, a graphic novel with future-forward time in my life and it was very little fun. DC Comics, part of a new imprint called MINX, which will “I’d like to do more graphic novels, maybe some more publish original graphic novels for teenage girls. It’s the first theatre and short story writing, and maybe even some more imprint from a major American comic book publisher high school teaching. Mostly, I’m concerned daily with devoted to entirely to girls. “It’s not like writing prose. You whether or not I got what I needed to get done done. And are basically directing as well as writing the narrative. For with what’s for dinner.” every panel you are composing the shot … it’s a balancing And Tamaki’s fans, including me, can’t wait to see what she act. It becomes a really visual task.” cooks up next.  Emiko Superstar is a nod to performance scenes in cities Zoe Whittall is the author of the novel Bottle Rocket Hearts everywhere. It is inspired by events like Girlspit, an open mic (reviewed on page 42) and three books of poetry, including the night I once hosted in Montreal, where Mariko and I became recent collection Precordial Thump.

HERIZONS FALL 2008 39 arts literature

Photo: Tamara Rae Biebrich Photo: Tamara Chandra Mayor may have never written a story about gopher tails, but she has earned praise from readers and awards committees as a prairie writer with a knack for tales about women living on the margins of society.

ou could say Carol Shields inspired Chandra Mayor as a fiction writer. Y “Carol Shields is a lovely, fabulous, fantastic, Prairie amazingly gifted writer,” says Mayor of the author who focused much of her fiction on women’s lives and often set her books in Winnipeg. But at an event honouring the late writer, Mayor took exception when she heard a participant say Porch Shields’ work captured the experiences of “everyday” women. Mayor recalls asking herself: If those are the everyday BY KERRY RYAN people, what does that make me? And so she decided to write her own book about Winnipeg. The result was Cherry, her Fiction poetic 2004 novel about a young woman negotiating the

40 FALL 2008 HERIZONS skinhead scene in Winnipeg in the early 1990s. more rewarding than the prizes and critical success is the “I wanted to write the people that I didn’t see in books and feedback from readers, Mayor says. in literature because—without sounding hugely arrogant—I “It’s so incredible when I get these e-mails out of nowhere, thought, if I don’t write some of these stories, who’s going some person who found one of my books somewhere and is to?” says Mayor. compelled to write to me and say ‘You wrote what I feel.’” True to that mandate, she has recently published a Mayor says it’s that kind of response she seeks in her collection of short stories, All the Pretty Girls (Conundrum writing. Press), which explores issues including poverty, abuse, “It’s probably most immediate in my poetry, trying to sexuality and motherhood. Mayor is also the author of a book connect with a reader and saying ‘This is me, is it you too? of poetry, August Witch, published in 2002. Please tell me it’s you too,’” laughs Mayor, whose upcoming Whether she’s writing about single moms navigating the project is a poetry manuscript. welfare system or young women escaping abuse, Mayor says Just as she makes connections and gives voice through her work is a process of seeking truth. She describes her her writing, Mayor also works to bring people together method as immersion and participation: As a writer she’s through her other roles in the literary community. As a not just recording a situation, but focusing on how it feels teacher of creative writing and former writer-in-residence for the characters. at the Winnipeg Public Library, she “It’s really important to me that what encourages writers to tell their stories I write be true—whether or not it’s candidly and find or create factual,” says Mayor, whose fiction is so communities of support. The results, precise it’s often perceived as she says, can be powerful. autobiographical. “I would really like “To create that kind of space where people to read what I’ve written and just people feel that the things they have to feel that they’re there, regardless of say matter—regardless of whether whether or not they’ve experienced that they’re going to set the world on fire or situation, or that setting, or those kinds set one tiny little eyelash on fire—it’s all of people.” important. Just the act of trying to put