Further to the National Day of Action Against Bill C-484, the one that sets the stage for attack on women’s reproductive freedom in Canada by defying the Supreme Court’s statements around the issue of fetal personhood, etc.
Here are the notes from the teleconference to organize the national day of action. I’m thinking we should be prepared to hold local news events in as many SK locations as possible on Sep 26th.
Please email us if there’s something in the works where you live!
I’ve thanked the Quebec women for their energy to set our course on this issue.
B-)
The national protest will take place on September 28th, in different Canadian cities. Montreal, Ottawa, Regina and Vancouver are for sure. We have also heard that committees are possibly organizing protests in Fredericton, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Winnipeg.
There will be a press conference in Ottawa on September 26th. There will be one Newswire with contact information for each local protest and background material about the bill. Other local groups can also organize local press conferences as they wish.
Nathalie reported that there will be one big Quebec protest in Montreal. Women in other Quebec cities will be encouraged to go to Montreal. Initially, there was discussion about holding a mobilization in Quebec City but this will not be possible. A Quebec organizing committee was created to coordinate the protest in Montreal.
The Quebec committee met and discussed a slogan for the Mobilization committee. They have agreed on:
Contre C-484 : on vous voit venir
Against C-484: we know what’s coming
The slogan was chosen because it refers to the Government’s hidden agenda and because it does not concentrate on one specific argument against C-484.
ChoiceCan gave positive feedback.
The slogan will be used as a unifying theme for all local mobilizations. The group will produce a poster and postcards with the slogan. We will make sure to include a phrase like: Protect Women’s Rights or something similar on the poster so people know what the bill is all about. The Quebec committee will be building on the slogan and will create a poster and postcard that could be translated and used throughout the country for the protests.
FQPN and the Quebec committee will be developing a French website against C-484. They will post info related to the protests and about the bill. They don’t have the capacity to include English content.
The Coalition for Women’s Equality could include information about the mobilizations on their website. ARCC’s website is already used as a central point against the bill so it would be logic to post info about the protests on their website as well. Jessica will check with Joyce if ARCC’s website can be used to post info about the different local organizing committees.
An organizers’ listserv will be set up in the next few weeks.
