Commentary around allegations against the actor has been heated, but the story has brought about an important dialogue about sex
Hanna Lee
On January 7, 2018, Aziz Ansari won a Golden Globe in a black suit adorned with a Time’s Up pin, a symbol of solidarity with women in the industry. Six days later, he was accused of sexual misconduct. Ansari has spent his career displaying his understanding of nuances—of the dating world, of gender inequality, of […] More »
The artist's Rest in Power series celebrates women whose lives were taken brutally and unjustly
Madi Haslam
When Vancouver-based artist Sandeep Johal read Shauna Singh Baldwin’s novel, The Selector of Souls, she was deeply moved. The story of two Indian women tackles difficult gender-based issues Johal often finds herself considering: female foeticide, infanticide, femicide, domestic abuse, dowry, and rape. Soon after reading it, Johal was bringing a fictional goddess from the novel to […] More »
After my Vancouver book launch in October 2013, I headed right for the snack table. My travel schedule had brought me from Winnipeg to Vancouver early that morning: I had slept on a friend’s floor in Winnipeg and arrived before sunrise in Vancouver. By the end of my talk, the sun was back down and […] More »
Lauren McKeon follows anti-abortionists south of the border in her new book, F-Bomb
Lauren McKeon
The day before the 2017 March for Life, anti-abortion activists took over the hulking Renaissance Washington, D.C. Downtown Hotel. After lunch, I joined about fifty activists, lawyers, law students, and others for the adjacent Law of Life Summit, designed to advance the anti-abortion movement through putting forward more antiabortion legislation, attacking Planned Parenthood as a […] More »
On a Thursday evening in May, about a dozen women gather around a large wooden table at L’Euguélionne, Canada’s only feminist bookstore. The Montreal shop is filled with chatter as the crew, participants in a zine-making workshop, sift through piles of paper. Since it opened in December 2016, L’Euguélionne has become a hub, hosting public events like […] More »
This year, Canada celebrates its 150th birthday. Ours is a country of rich history—but not all Canadian stories are told equally. In this special report, This tackles 13 issues—one per province and territory—that have yet to be addressed and resolved by our country in a century and a half In April 2016, British Columbia passed a […] More »
Tamsyn Riddle has filed a human rights complaint against the University of Toronto in the wake of her alleged sexual assault
Hillary Di Menna
Tamsyn Riddle was excited to start her university courses in 2015. At the University of Toronto, where she majors in diaspora and transnational studies and minors in equity studies and political science, her academic successes would be appreciated in a way that they weren’t at her Peterborough high school. Plus, she could be a part […] More »
How one writer dealt with her father's death, between Canada and Morocco
Sheima Benembarek
One morning, in early September 2011, I sat at my work computer and watched my hands hover over the keyboard, shaking. I had just flown back to Montreal from Morocco, a trip I’d done many times since I immigrated to Canada six years ago; I was used to flying across time zones. But these hands […] More »
She was Witness 1 in Ghomeshi's trial. She feared the dialogue around sexual assault would fizzle out. It's not.
Linda Christina Redgrave
It’s been a year since I took my final police escorted ride to hear Judge William B. Horkins deliver the verdict for the Jian Ghomeshi trial. Lucy, Witness 3 (still under publication ban) and I gathered in the Victim/Witness Assistance Program (VWAP) room accompanied by lawyers and friends to hear the outcome of this much […] More »
Paralegal Glynnis Kirchmeier is tackling sexual assault on campus head on, giving a voice to survivors at the University of British Columbia
Hillary Di Menna
For the last year, University of British Columbia (UBC) graduate Glynnis Kirchmeier has been working to hold her alma mater accountable for the sexual violence that happens on its campus. The paralegal has developed 44 recommendations for how the university can better respond to reports of sexual violence—what she calls her “unfinished business” in B.C. Her […] More »
When Charlotte Hrenchuk moved to Whitehorse in 1988, she didn’t intend to stay. She and her husband had been living in Alberta, and when he got a job with the Yukon government as a wildlife technician, she followed him north—“a very non-feminist thing,” Hrenchuk says with a laugh. They planned to move back south after a […] More »