Proud to be a member of that "left wing fringe" group: Women

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Sunday September 20, 2009 · 1:56 PM PDT

2009/09/20 · 13:56

The Prime Minister of Canada said: (Paraphrased by a newspaper columnist in Canada, Antonia Zerbisias)

Thank you for finally admitting that your government shut down the Court Challenges program in 2006 not just because, as then-Heritage Minister Bev Oda claimed in Parliament, you "recognize the importance of women" but because you believe that that women's rights are "left-wing fringe" rights.

A video was broadcast by the CBC recently that shows Harper talking to the party faithful. Most of us think that Stephen Harper and his advisers probably didn't want this out in the public sphere, despite some commentary from the Right wing that it was on purpose.

A small taste here in the embed. Full version at this link.

On the federal Court Challenges Program, which funded legal fights by women's groups, gays, minority language groups, and the disabled before his government ended it:

"Instead of ... subsidizing lawyers to bring forth court challenges by left-wing fringe groups, we have been bringing in laws to crack down on criminals and support victims in this country."

He talks about the "majority" that has eluded his party thus far. (In the last two elections that he himself has triggered in one way or another.)
He also talks about the Conservative vision for Canada. And that is a scary place.

But the "left wing fringe" comment has many women and men who support women aghast. That same comment that painted many other advocacy groups as the "left wing fringe".

Antonia Z, (some call her the Zerb) pondered making T-shirts on these statements. Her initial Tweet:

I'm thinking of making T-shirts: "Proud to be a member of that `left-wing fringe group' called `Women.'"

They'd be pink, of course, for socialism – and also for the pink triangle, the badge the Nazis made gays and lesbians wear before shipping them off to the camps.

A Facebook group was started, and when the numbers got over 1,500 it became apparent that this was in fact maybe a viable idea.
An advocacy group for women called LEAF, has been hard hit during the last three years by the Harper Ideologues. From their site.

LEAF - the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund - is a national charitable organization that works toward ensuring the law guarantees substantive equality for all women in Canada.

Since 1985, LEAF has shaped the meaning of substantive equality and equality rights law in Canada. LEAF has done so by helping the Courts understand systemic discrimination and gender-based inequality. In over 150 cases before the courts, LEAF has exposed women’s realities in crucial areas such as:

* Violence against women
* Socio-economic rights
* Workplace discrimination
* Reproductive freedom
* Access to services to people with disabilities
* Aboriginal rights

LEAF intervenes in equality rights cases that affect the equality rights of women and girls in Canada. LEAF also brings forward its legal expertise by producing high quality research that is used to by policymakers in areas such as social benefits, criminal justice, reproductive rights, and violence against women.

LEAF is a group that runs completely contrary to the Harpercons hard right agenda, and they have been doing their level best to defund and defang them. A partial rundown of some successes at Antonia Z's blog.

LEAF has decided to sell the Tshirts as a fund raiser. In a completely non partisan effort made up of volunteers who have taken over the functioning of the Facebook group, the T Shirts will be available to purchase online, on Monday.

With a little help from her friends Francesca Dobbyn, who came up with the original t-shirt design, Pale Cold, who tweaked it to make it more inclusive of a diverse range of women, Michael Hanna-Fein, who represents the supportive men and gays, and Jude MacDonald, who will be managing this page from now on, Antonia asked LEAF if it would be interested in taking on the t-shirt idea as a fundraiser.