According to your website, The Chrysalis Anti-Human Trafficking Network is “a non-governmental organization designed to provide free counselling and emergency support services for survivors of human trafficking and exploitation across Canada. Chrysalis also focuses on re/victimization prevention through a variety of youth and community oriented education initiatives”. Can you tell us more about your prevention efforts?

Our prevention efforts are focused on helping to educate youth regarding the techniques that traffickers use to lure young people into the commercial sex industry. For example, gift-giving is a common ploy used by traffickers where they promise ipods, computers, clothing, fun trips etc. to girls in exchange for a few hours of their time. Often they will assume the role of a caring boyfriend to gain the victim’s trust and then force her into the sex industry either through manipulation or physical threats.

Speaking of prevention efforts, Chrysalis Anti-Human Trafficking Network, along with Stop the Traffik Canada, is also in the midst of organizing a really exciting event called Freedom Relay Canada. Can you tell us about what you hope to do with this event?

Freedom Relay Canada’s has three main objectives. The first is to raise national public awareness on the issue of human trafficking. Most Canadians would be surprised to learn that Canada is known as a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking with approximately two thousand international victims being trafficked into and through Canada each year. Statistics for domestically trafficked victims are currently unknown. We also hope to raise funds on behalf of victims of human trafficking both in Canada and abroad. Forty percent of the funds raised will go towards prevention and recovery initiatives in source countries currently feeding Canada’s human trafficking industry while sixty percent of the funds will be directed towards national and provincial projects. Finally, this is the first human trafficking initiative in Canada to involve multiple provincial partners working together as a national team. The project will strengthen inter-provincial ties with anti-human trafficking organizations across the county and help pave the way for a national action plan on human trafficking which does not currently exist.

I think a lot of people might be surprised to hear that human trafficking is such a large-scale and diverse problem in Canada. What do you think are some of the major myths or outdated ideas that our society is still holding on to around human trafficking?

1) That it doesn’t happen in a nice country like ours.

2) That all women in the commercial sex industry are there by choice.

3) That there’s no real harm being done when, in fact, the mental health fall-out from this profession is tremendous.

What inspired the decision to work in this area?

I am a trauma psychologist specializing in the treatment of complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Victims of human trafficking are trauma survivors that often present with a range of mental health disorders. Unfortunately, they are severely underserved with little or no access to professional counselling. I was inspired to start the Chrysalis Network’s 24-7crisis line after doing a talk on trauma neurobiology at a human trafficking conference organized by law enforcement personnel.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Funding is always a challenge for NGOs but particularly for those of us working in human trafficking which has only recently been officially recognized as a human rights issue in Canada.

What do you think is the role of the community/police/media in preventing human trafficking and/or supporting those affected?

Our primary roles are to protect those at risk, rescue those who are being harmed and then give them the opportunity to heal and fully re-integrate into society. Police are best positioned to do the rescuing, the community is best positioned to provide long-term support, and media is best positioned to keep the issue front and centre in the public consciousness.

What’s the role of the average citizen?

To pay attention to the possible signs of human trafficking in their own communities. Eg notice and report odd things like the house filled with foreign women down the street and different cars coming and going at all hours.

What is your dream for women?

I have the same dream for women that I have for all human beings – that they be safe, well and free from harm with the opportunity to follow their own life dreams and, with any luck, leave the world a kinder, gentler place.

What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us.

Antigone Magazine
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Women’s Worlds 2011

This week about 2000 women came together from all over the world to talk about women and to imagine a Women’s World, that is, one where women have power. As the closing plenary panellist Sebenzile Matsebula said, a women’s world is one that she would like to live in. It’s also one that I would like to live in.

As the conference comes to a close and we all head back to our respective homeplaces, I thought it would be nice to offer a place where participants could come and talk about the moments that touched them, changed them, or moved them to action. What was your favourite or most meaningful moment from Women’s Worlds 2011?

For me, it was watching the wonderful women from Ka Na Kanichihk Inc perform a beautiful ceremony about the colonization of Aboriginal peoples in Canada (pictured above). I was so moved by the three generations of women that came together to Reclaim their Power (the session was entitled Aboriginal Women Reclaiming Our Power).

Please share your favourite moment in the comments!

It’s been nearly a year since I left Vancouver and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to start my PhD in English Literature. Aside from being heartsick for Vancouver and the beautiful souls I left behind, I have learned hard some truths while living in the “land of the free.” I put that adage in quotation marks because one of the many realities I have encountered while living here is an unwillingness to correct hateful, racist, discriminatory, or oppressive beliefs and speech full stop under that very banner. Freedom of speech here seems to mean the freedom to discriminate too. And the cautiousness with which my peers embrace censoring that discrimination is heartbreaking to me. Of course, part of this stems from the pedagogical environment itself.  The unspoken truth of which seems to be that education, after all, is not political. To which I say: bull****. If we embraced anti-oppression politics as teachers in the same way we embrace anti-plagiarism rhetoric then maybe students might learn to start thinking critically outside the forum of an essay. Wait a minute, isn’t embracing an ethics of originality, creativity, and responsibility the same thing as taking an anti-oppression stance? No? But isn’t thinking for oneself all about questioning the hardened truths of those around us and the institutions we live in. No? Really? My bad.

More than anything, I dislike the race I seem to have entered as an academic “thoroughbred” in training. I spent my undergrad embedded in a community of doers unashamed to be politically brave and sometimes brash. I have suddenly entered a world where politics sometimes means silencing one’s own discomfort with the status quo and negotiating the unspoken rules of getting funding. Throughout all of this I have tried to remain mindful of the reasons I began Antigone. Here are some sticking points I present to you on being political in whatever path you pursue.

Number one: There is nothing “correct” about political correctness in the service of discrimination. Hold your ground.

As much as I dislike the metaphor that life is a fight and that one must defend one’s territory, sticking to one’s metaphorical ground seems to me to be useful advice.  Even if you don’t win the battle, or the debate, insisting on ethical treatment for yourself or others is never wrong. I had a discussion with a teacher here regarding my tendency to incur incompletes: he seemed to advise me to leave them be and not to contest them, suggesting that “this is how the system works.” While I’d rather not incur an incomplete, sometimes my disability leaves me with no choice. That the university does not recognize my reason for doing so, or even if it did, that it would continue to treat me normatively, (i.e. as a person in full health) is discriminatory. That I was told to just live with it is even more upsetting. I was also told not to get defensive. What he read as defensive was my attempt to counter the stigma I was encountering as someone who was not “performing.” Frankly, it was deeply patronizing and insulting. The only thing that gets me through moments like this is to hold my ground. Speaking back to privilege is not being defensive, it is to question what is excluded in any politics.

Number two: keep your head away from the sand. The world is much broader than the stable.

This simply means not to stick one’s head in the sand when a metaphorical (or otherwise literal) earthquake happens. Part of standing your ground is being present in the moment and asking oneself what a given event means to you and to others. While I might being having an anxiety attack over my own struggles, there are still things I can do to effect change where others cannot.Keeping this simple fact in mind helps me to put my life in perspective and gives me the courage to keep going. Especially given the hardships people the world over face.

Number three: Beliefs are precious. Hold on to them.

This also goes along with holding one’s ground. One of my biggest struggles since moving to the states has been to challenge the “American” way of life. Being Canadian has its differences, however small; I hold on to those differences as a way of interrogating the norm I live in here. Being feminist, and an outspoken advocate of queer rights has an equally alienating effect for me: I often make people uncomfortable just by expressing my passion for things I believe in.

In the same vein, stepping outside one’s sphere of influence every once in a while has a similarly grounding effect. Try speaking up in an arena where your voice is underepresented or unwelcome: while sometimes dispiriting, it can also help you to define what matters to you and to interrogate those beliefs. Ultimately, it makes your beliefs matter.

I have never regretted anything more than choosing to do an English degree over an English and Women’s Studies degree in deference to the job market. That sacrifice rankles whenever my department’s traditionalism rears its ugly head and the truth of job-getting highlights the fact that working on gender and sexuality as I do is passé. It should never be passé and yet according to the white men who make the hiring decisions it is. Still, I should say, despite all my frustrations, I love what I do. Working with ideas that would never fly in highschool curriculum and sharing my research with students is absolutely invigorating. If I can convince just one of my students to think critically about what he or she does with her life then I have done something. Many students enter my classroom however with a set of beliefs that are dogma for them; an unwillingness to question that which is dearest to us is a human universal. We are attached to our ways of thinking: moving beyond them is scary. Feelings are tricky things, they stick ferociously to ideas and beliefs lending them political capital they might not otherwise have no matter how inane. Part of our task as political beings is not only to use our voices, but to ask how those expressions affect and effect others: what are their politics? Part of being political is being unafraid to confront what is scary and uncomfortable: our own attachments.

At any rate, even though there’s 28% female representation in that room, sometimes being 2 out of 7 feels a bit outnumbered. Especially given that a lot of the Administrators that are in these meetings are also men.

Now I know that some women watch hockey. I definitely KNOW in my heart that when everyone in the room starts talking about hockey except for the only women present, that they aren’t purposefully trying to exclude us. People talk about things they know, things they have in common, they use these topics to build relationships. I do it too, if I know someone has a boat, I talk to them about it because thats what we have in common.  BUT….

There we were… the two women… finding ourselves kinda sitting there, time and again, looking at the table with nothing to add to the casual conversation happening around us feeling awkward and excluded.

So after my fellow trustee and I talked one night about how we sometimes feel left out when the hockey talk starts we decided that every time we find ourselves sitting mutely while everyone else is discussing a sport that we know nothing about, that we would start our own conversation that everyone in the room could join in on: Birthing stories.

By the same token that one could argue discussing Hockey isn’t sexist because many women watch hockey,  there are a lot of supportive men out there who have witnessed the birth of their children and were really involved in the pregnancies that created them. In the spirit of expanding on potential participation in stereotypically genderdized pre and post meeting conversation topics; we are hoping that our birthing stories serve to include everyone in the room particularly because we all have children.

I shared a story about a baby coming out of the birth canal so fast that the after birth hit the wall behind the doctor…. That was my son. It was like the scene from Carrie in there, seriously…

** source: http://equalvoice.ca/index.cfm

What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us.

Help support Antigone Magazine and the Dreams for Women project by purchasing our 2011 Calendar in collaboration with Women’s Worlds.

Filed under: Antigone Foundation, Antigone Magazine, Dreams for women, Environment, I'm a feminist because, women's issues Tagged: Dreams for women ]]> http://antigonemagazine.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/%e2%80%a6there-is-no-tool-for-development-more-effective-than-the-empowerment-of-women/feed/ 0 antigonemagazine d3hdf scan0002a df35j dfg3501 http://antigonemagazine.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/attention-celebrities-we-want-to-steal-your-purses/ http://antigonemagazine.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/attention-celebrities-we-want-to-steal-your-purses/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:26:32 +0000 areaume http://antigonemagazine.wordpress.com/?p=4321 Continue reading »

Okay, maybe we don’t want to ‘steal’ your purses per se. Technically, we want you to donate them to our Purse Auction Fundraiser It’s in the Bag (www.itsinthebag.ca).  So, if you are a celebrity, or someone who rubs shoulders with celebrities (whether in the media, blogging, movies, music, writing, or the circus), please consider giving us your purse or using your influence with your celebrity friends to get them to give us theirs.  In the following post, I plan to tell you precisely why you should give us your purses.

CAUTION: After you read this you will want to immediately send us your purses, so I would suggest removing your valuables from your bag before continuing to read this post.

1. Giving to a great cause is good. Giving to four great causes is even better. This event is raising money for four women’s organizations in Vancouver who have come together to put on this event. They are: The Antigone Foundation, WISH Drop in Centre, Soroptimist International of Vancouver and AWARE.
2. Vancouver is a great city! It is the place where a lot of people make movies, or music. If you love Vancouver as much as we do, help out the women in the city by donating a purse!
3. Giving us your purse is better than Prozac. Seriously, according to the New York Sun and numerous other sources, giving to charitable organizations and non-profits makes you happy. We are here to help you achieve happiness.
4. We would love you if you gave us your purse. You would be our favourite person in the world. We would rename our organizations in your honour. Actually, we wouldn’t actually do the last thing, but we would WANT to. Isn’t it the thought that matters?

So, what are you waiting for? Send us an e-mail at antigonefoundation@gmail.com to let us know that you will be giving us your purse.

Filed under: women's issues ]]>

These postcards were sent by the Young Women Leaders Program, a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program. YWLP originated at the University of Virginia, and UCF launched the program in the Orlando community. YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls.

What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us.

It has golden varnish and a sculpted back and I hope to keep it forever, not only because it has proven to be infinitely useful, but because the hands that put it together belong to a woman that I care about. She made my bench while taking a carpentry course for women offered by the Northwest Territories Status of Women Council.

I’m not sure when I first met this woman, I can’t remember a definitive moment that she entered my life. I do remember years ago sitting in Javaroma with a sketch pad, my pencils and a full warm black mug of coffee surveying the crowd for a subject that was both still and immersed in something enough that they may not notice me staring. She was sitting a few tables away with her son and she was familiar to me. I knew her then from the homeless shelter at Centre for Northern Families.

She was sitting at the table sculpting shiny, tiny glass beads and thread into lighter cases that she would sell to pay for her coffee and cigarettes, maybe even treats for herself and her son. She was still except for her hands that worked persistently at trapping the little beads with the end of a needle as they rolled within borders she had created on the table.

I know it isn’t the first time we met, but its a strong memory, probably because it was the first time that I spent a significant amount of time thinking about her. She had a shock of grey in her otherwise black hair that ran down one side of her downcast face. Even in concentration, she was smiling softly as her son chatted to her. She had warm brown eyes that were creased with age and high rounded eyebrows.

After I finished my sketch I showed it to her, and she smiled wide.

I knew that her life was difficult, and that she had faced horrors that I wish I could say I’d never dreamed of. Unfortunately though in the work that I do, I’ve had to hear many stories that have made me acutely aware of the violence and torturous experiences  that women in the North have faced, often from early childhood.

I remember passing her sometime later as I walked into the grocery store, she stopped me to say hello and ask for a cigarette. I gave her one and lit one for myself and asked her how she was doing. She beamed with pride and happiness as she told me that she had enrolled in the Status of Women’s Women in Trades Program and she was learning to be a carpenter. She said that she was really enjoying herself and talked about the projects they were working on. She said that once she finished the first course that she could enroll in the second one and that they would be learning to build small sheds. She said that she really hoped that she could learn how to build a small cabin for herself.

I remember looking at her beaming with pride. She was (and is) always a friendly woman. Normally fairly quiet and humble, and at the time it occurred to me that this was the most animated I’d seen her. She spoke with confidence, and had obviously spent a lot of time thinking about what she would do with her training in the future. She was proud that she had created big solid things in the program, that she had been given the chance to have an experience so outside of her regular experiences.

I remember standing outside of the grocery store and being envious of her. Thinking that I’d love to be able to learn the skills that she was learning, to have the doors open to well paid work where I could escape my office and be active and build.

After the course ended I ran into her at the Trade Show, she came over and told me excitedly that she had finished the course and that for her final project she had built a bench. She told me that it wasn’t even just a bend that you could sit on, but one with a lid that you could store things in and that she was selling it. She figured that she could get at least a hundred bucks for it. Her eyes were bright with excitement, her lighter cases usually sold for much less.

I gave her a hundred and fifty dollars for the bench, and it serves as more than just a storage or hiding space, it serves as a reminder of the potential people have when they’re given a chance and practical tools to substantially improve their existence.

The focus of this year’s Blog for International Women’s Day mirrors the theme of the 55th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.” Women throughout the world experience unique barriers in accessing decent work in non traditional fields. However when program providers and policy makers build bridges over those gender based barriers they are truly changing the world and changing peoples lives for the better.

These postcards were sent by the Young Women Leaders Program, a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program. YWLP originated at the University of Virginia, and UCF launched the program in the Orlando community. YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls.

What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us.