The Canadian Social Forum: afternoon of day 2

This afternoon began with a conversation with Deb Matthews, Minister responsible for Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and Mary Schryer, the Minister of Social Development in New Brunswick. In talking about the processes within their provinces, both of them highlighted the importance of grassroots advocacy. Without that bottom-up process, there would be no movement on poverty reduction. Deb Matthews also noted how surprising it was – but how good it was – to bring sides that had previously been antagonistic together to work towards the same goal.

With that powerful reminder of the importance of advocacy, Mariel and I were off to a workshop led by former CPJ staffer Stephanie Baker Collins, now with York University, and Judy Cerny of the University of Toronto. Stephanie and Judy spoke about provisioning – the ways in which women fulfill their responsibilities and meet the needs of those they are responsible for. This can include paid and unpaid work, but involves other activities as well.

Stephanie offered a fascinating perspective on citizenship, arguing that women’s collectives offer a social model of citizenship that rejects the individualistic model of citizenship that portrays the worthy citizen as someone who takes the least amount possible. It’s an idea that we need to pursue further, especially for the new Dignity for All campaign.

Finally, the afternoon was wrapped up with two very powerful presentations by two very impressive women. With good humour and frank expression, Uzma Shakir talked about racialized poverty and Canada’s denial of its own colonial history. Then Cindy Blackstock reminded us all of our shameful treatment of Aboriginal Canadians. She offered some shocking statistics on funding for Aboriginals, and then shared stories of Aboriginal kids who were being hurt by this constant underfunding of services for Aboriginals. It was a situation that makes me feel ashamed of my country. We let Third World conditions persist and refuse to do anything about it.