Press release from Wellness Within: That the RCMP would charge a victim of gendered violence- a victim who herself survived the massacre through luck, resilience, and persistence- in one of their first public actions in response to the massacre is glaring evidence of the institution’s inability to consider sex and gender in their work.
Raina Young: The violence and harassment against Mi’kmaq fishers is despicable, racist behaviour. Even more concerning is the failure of the police to stop it, revealing deeper systemic racism. Imagine if it were the other way around, and Mi’kmaq fishermen were harassing white people. Such behaviour would never be tolerated. The RCMP would step in immediately. The hypocrisy and double standards show a clear racist bias.
Why are neither Minister for Women and Gender Equality Maryam Monsef nor Nova Scotia Minister for the Status of Women Kelly Regan willing to consider making a feminist analysis part and parcel of the public inquiry into April’s mass shooting?
Misogyny is systemic within mainstream Nova Scotia and Canadian culture and agencies. To prevent male violence against women awareness interventions about socialized and normalized human inequality of women and girls needs to be spoken out loud, just like Canadians talk about the weather.
Press release: As feminists we insist there will be a gaping hole in the inquiry on future prevention unless components of a feminist analysis are included in the mandate of the inquiry.
Media release issued by the NS College of Social Workers: “A trauma-informed restorative approach to grieving means listening to those who grieve. It means hearing what they ask for from their friends, from helping professionals, from supporting organisations and from their government. It means heeding their calls to action.”
Judy Haiven: “When virtually all the relatives and friends of the 22 deceased demand answers only a full public inquiry can discover, it’s time, it’s time for Nova Scotia’s premier Stephen McNeil and Bill Blair, the federal minister of public safety, to admit they made a mistake.”
“For us feminism is not a ‘dirty’ word. For others the word seems to be scary or spells “danger.” Our call for a feminist analysis was ignored by federal and provincial governmental departments during their deliberations on how to address the mass shooting atrocities of a man whose actions or behaviours can only be described as evil.” Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald on what the scary word is all about.
John McCracken takes a look at the feedback on the federal/provincial announcement that there will be a review rather than a public inquiry on April’s mass shooting. “The good people of Nova Scotia, as it turns out, can smell a cover up from a mile away,” he concludes.
