Date: May 30, 2013
Time: 8:30 am – 5 pm
Location: Segal Graduate School of Business Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville St., Vancouver

Breakfast Keynote:

Lunch Keynote: “Women Transforming Cities: Agendas for the Future.”

The Engaging Women, Transforming Cities Conference program features keynote addresses, morning and afternoon workshops/sessions, and the Best Practice Awards Reception. Speakers and forums will be announced in the coming weeks; watch our event webpage for details.

For the convenience of FCM 2013 Conference attendees: The Engaging Women, Transforming Cities Conference is being held in Vancouver BC, one day prior to the 2013 Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference (May 31-June 3, 2013).

By RENEE BERNARD, News 1130
March 14, 2013

As Canada Border Services is admitting that it did arrest people at a Vancouver job site on Wednesday, a civic party is calling for Vancouver to follow Toronto’s lead, and become a Sanctuary City.

A Sanctuary City pledges to provide services to everyone, even those who might be in the country illegally.

Toronto was the first city in Canada to adopt the designation. Three dozen cities in the US also bear the label.

Ellen Woodsworth, with the Vancouver civic party COPE, says undocumented workers have rights like everyone else.

“Maybe they work in the sex trade. There’s all sorts of reasons why people have come to Canada. If you’re feeling vulnerable, or if you are in Canada illegally, then you are terrified of going to the police when you’re in trouble,” she explains.

“There’s all kinds of vulnerable citizens that we need to protect.”

Reality TV cameras were rolling as the migrants were rounded up at the work site.

Woodsworth wants the city to stop issuing film permits for productions targeting vulnerable people.

Read this article at its source.

At events in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, Professor Jackie Steele and Professor Mari Osawa, members of the Japan-Canada Interdisciplinary Network on Gender, Diversity and Reconstruction, will present the preliminary interdisciplinary insights, the gaps in the existing literature on disaster mitigation, as well as the findings from the fieldwork of Network Members. Presentations will be followed by a question period and open discussion with the audience.

Vancouver Event Info:

Date: Monday March 11, 6 pm
Location: Simon Fraser University, Asia-Pacific Hall, Morris J. Wosk Center for Dialogue
580 W Hastings Street
Admission: free
Language: English

Main Presenters at all venues:

Dr. Mari Osawa
Professor at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo
Tokyo Branch Leader of the Global COE on Gender Equality and Multicultural Conviviality in the Age of Globalization.

Dr. Jackie F. Steele
Associate Professor, I.S.S. University of Tokyo
Research Associate, Global COE on Gender Equality and Multicultural Conviviality, Tohoku University, Japan

Additional Participants In Vancouver:
Consul General Okada, Consulate General of Japan in Vancouver
Ellen Woodsworth, Founder and Co Chair, Women Transforming Cities
Christine Nakamura, Director, Public Relations, Marketing and Policy Coordination, Asia Pacific
Foundation; Board Member, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
Dr. Tsuyoshi Kawasaki, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Humanities, Simon Fraser University
Natasha Fox, Graduate student at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria
Dr. Julian Dierkes, Director, Centre for Japanese Research, UBC
Dr. Paul Crowe, Director of the David Lam Centre, Simon Fraser University

The Canadian Centre for Elder Law (CCEL) is hosting an event this morning to celebrate International Women’sDay, and to draw attention to the inequalities women face in society as they age.

The “Women and Aging: Stories About the Widening Gender Gap” event will bring together policy experts with members to the community to share experiences and discuss strategies for positive change.

“Older women are the backbone of our communities—as mothers, spouses, grandmothers, caregivers, and volunteers—yet they face significant challenges to quality of life,” said Krista James, National Director of the CCEL. “We need to engage with older women so we can develop law reform and policy solutions that address the pressing barriers to their well-being.”

Today’s event is the third phase of the CCEL’s Older Women’s Dialogue Project, a yearlong community research project undertaken in collaboration with the West Coast LEAF. The Project aims to inform further work to enhance the quality of life of older women by asking them what they need to improve their lives.

Over the past five months, the CCEL has spoken with over 350 women across the Lower Mainland about issues such as discrimination, housing and poverty, personal safety and freedom from abuse, and immigration. The feedback gathered in the consultations will be presented today in the form of dramatic narratives performed by older women actors. Following each narrative, academic and social policy experts will provide analysis, identifying systemic issues, and audience members will be invited to engage in discussion about the issues.

The free, public event is taking place at UBC Robson Theatre in downtown Vancouver, and will run from 9:30am until noon. The event is being hosted by Ellen Woodsworth, former Vancouver City Councillor, and Co-chair of the Women Transforming Cities project. Registration available on site.

Read this article at its source.

The next Women Transforming Cities community café event invites youth, seniors and everyone in between to explore intergenerational themes, including Valuing the Care-Giving Role, and Universal Design – Access for all Ages and Abilities.  The event will close with a visioning workshop: Designing an Intergenerational Community.

Date: Saturday, March 9, 2013
Time: 2-4 pm.
Location: Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, 2131 Renfrew St., Vancouver.

Participants can join in discussions in English, Cantonese and Spanish.
Admission is free, but to ensure a space please register at http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/5666047300#.

“We are focusing on topics that are relevant and significant to our community, based on responses to our recent intergenerational focus groups that reached out to over 100 youth and senior voices in our neighbourhood,” says Rosa Palacios at Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, “These were lead by our own youth and senior mentors, and will inform upcoming projects that Frog Hollow will support.”

This is the seventh in a series of monthly café events hosted by Women Transforming Cities featuring grassroots discussion and informed speakers on topics that affect the urban experiences of all marginalised communities, including affordable housing, youth, seniors, transportation, and leadership. Women Transforming Cities recognises diversity and accessibility in multiple forms, and includes translators in community-relevant languages at all café events. Additional information can be found at womentransformingcities.org.

Women Transforming Cities is an organisation dedicated to engaging women and girls in municipal decision-making, policy making, urban planning and budgeting in order to transform cities to be more equitable, inclusive and democratic for all residents.

Pacific Immigrant Resources Society (PIRS) is presenting an IWD event which harnesses the power of storytelling to bring to people’s awareness indigenous and refugee issues that is part and parcel of our Canadian culture. Ellen Woodsworth, speaker, writer, activist, and community organizer will talk about Women Transforming Cities International, the organization that she founded and where she now sits as its National Chairperson. Winnie Cheung, member of Women Transforming Cities Steering Committee and winner of the Provincial Nesika Award for promoting diversity and multiculturalism, will also discuss some relevant and emerging issues affecting women.

The day’s celebration will be capped off with a short film screening about two teenage refugees who have left their own countries to escape abuse and to make a new life in Canada.

As part of the Older Women’s Dialogue Project and in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, Ellen will be moderating a panel discussing Women and Aging. This event is being hosted by the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, in conjunction with the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies and the SFU Gerontology Research Centre.

Date: Friday March 8, 2013
Time: 9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Location: UBC Robson Square Theatre, 800 Robson St, Vancouver
Cost: Free! Women and men welcome.

Older women contribute so much to our communities and yet face many barriers to their well-being.

• Hear stories of women’s experiences
• Listen to ideas for how law reform and policy changes can improve older women’s lives
• Share ideas about positive change

Moderator:
Ellen Woodsworth (Co-Chair of Women Transforming Cities and former Vancouver City Councillor)

Speakers:
Judy Graves (City of Vancouver — Coordinator of the Tenant Assistance Program)
Jill Hightower (retired Executive Director of the B.C. Institute Against Family Violence)
Karen Kobayashi (Associate Professor, University of Victoria, Department of Sociology)

Opening address by Gloria Gutman (Professor Emerita in the SFU Gerontology Department)

To register in advance and reserve a space please send an email to iwd@bcli.org. Advance registration not required, however. Onsite registration begins at 9 a.m.

For more information about this event and the Older Women’s Dialogue Project, check out our website.

A New York–based human-rights group says it will stand by B.C. victims of alleged police abuse who’ve asked that their identities be kept secret.

“If the government is committed to accountable policing, it should address the flaws in the policing system that leave indigenous women and girls feeling they have nowhere to turn for a safe, effective investigation of their complaints,” Meghan Rhoad, women’s-rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a news release issued today.

Rhoad led a Human Rights Watch probe into RCMP mistreatment of indigenous women and girls in northern B.C. She made the statement in response to calls from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Mounties for aboriginal people to file complaints.

That came after Human Rights Watch issued an 89-page report outlining alleged RCMP mistreatment of indigenous women and girls in northern B.C. The document included allegations from some women that they were raped by officers.

Human Rights Watch maintains that the prime minister’s remark ignores the women’s fear of retaliation.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Lyndsay Lyster made a similar observation.

“There are good reasons why these indigenous women who have alleged horrific abuses on the part of the police in northern B.C. have chosen to remain anonymous, including the fear of retaliation and stigma,” she said in a BCCLA news release. “There is no need to have their identities revealed for the government and police to take a serious look at the problems that have plagued police relations with First Nations for years.”

Human Rights Watch revealed today that Harper’s office declined its request for a meeting. Tomorrow, Human Rights Watch will meet with the RCMP at E Division, which oversees policing in B.C.

In addition, the researchers are also meeting with the Independent Investigations Office in B.C. today.

“We would like to be able to share the full details of the allegations of abuse we uncovered with the IIO, but the office is hamstrung by its limited mandate,” Rhoad said in the news release. “You can’t expect indigenous women and girls to come forward when some of the most egregious crimes against them have been excluded from the one existing institution that offers a meaningful, safe way to bring complaints.”

Former Vancouver city councillor Ellen Woodsworth told the Georgia Straight before the annual women’s march in the Downtown Eastside that she’s “so glad” that Human Rights Watch has drawn attention to this issue.

“It’s very clear to me why they don’t feel safe to go to the RCMP because they’re so isolated in small communities,” Woodsworth said. “There’s no place to go, and until very recently, the police have not been at the table to create the safety where they can speak out against the [alleged] violence that they’re experiencing from the police and the RCMP.”

Meanwhile, the federal NDP has taken up the report’s call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

NDP status of women critic Niki Ashton has claimed that it’s a “disgrace that in a country like Canada, women have so little trust in the police”.

“A national, open inquiry is the only way to get justice for the women who have been murdered as well as their families and communities,” Ashton declared in an NDP news release. “Successive governments have failed Aboriginal women. Continuing to ignore this national tragedy is unacceptable and will not make it go away.”

Walk out, Dance, Rise Up, and Demand an end to this violence!

Time: 10:30 – 11:30 am
Location: Marker of Change, The Women’s Monument
Main Street and Terminal Avenue, Thornton Park, Vancouver

Program:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T roadside action
Opening First Nations prayer & welcoming by T’Uy’Tanat-Cease Wyss
MC Ellen Woodsworth

Speakers:
Angela Marie MacDougall, Battered Women’s Support Services
Thekla Lit, *(BC ALPHA) – who will speak to the injustice against the “comfort women” *(BC Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia)
“This poem needs a name” read by Heidi Greco
Break the Chain dance – free style
Moment of Solidarity
Pledge to end violence against women

Sign up on One Billion Rising or just come protest!
https://secure.onebillionrising.org/page/event/detail/wlq

Afterwards we join the annual February 14th Women’s Memorial March which gathers at 11:00am at Carnegie Centre, then marches from Main and Hastings starting at 12:00pm.
https://www.facebook.com/events/488831777821558/

Directions for Marker of Change: Please get off at the Main Street Skytrain station. Head to the North East corner and then into the park. There is also free parking in front of the train station. Marker of Change is a 300 foot circle of pink granite benches dedicated to all women murdered.

PechaKucha Night Vancouver is partnering with Women Transforming Cities to build a speaker lineup around the theme of designing an ideal city for women and girls. If you’ve never been to PechaKucha Nights before, each speaker shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each, keeping presentations concise and fast-paced.

Presenters for this special night include:

Alex Mazerolle – Girlvana Yoga
Andrea Reimer – City Councillor
Chantelle Buffie and Sonam Swarup – Fusion Kitchen
Ellen Balka – SFU, Assessment of Tech. in Context Design Lab
Ellen Woodsworth – Women Transforming Cities
Erin O’Melinn – HUB: Your Cycling Connection
Hawa Mire – Leave Out Violence
Madeleine Shaw – Lunapads
Melanie Matining – 3eyond Consulting Group
Natacha Beim – CEFA Educational Systems
Tiffany Muller Myrdahl – Junior Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair in Gender & Urban Studies

Local indie electronica duo Onelight will be opening the night. Doors open at 6:30 and the band will hit the stage at 7:00 sharp, so come early.

Tickets for the event are $15 (includes service charge) and are on sale now at Vogue Theatre. As recent PKN events have sold out very quickly, we strongly recommend that you get your ticket right away.