The yearly Encuentro was initiated after the fall of the dictatorship in 1986 as a multi-sectoral women’s gathering to celebrate their freedom to organize. For many, this is a highlight of their year, a time when they escape their daily routine of work, household tasks and child and elder care.

The event is horizontal, democratic, pluralist, sovereign, and self-sustaining; financial and other support is accepted only if there are no strings attached.

Do most Canadians want a two-tiered society, one made up of citizens with full rights and another underclass of temporary ‘rent-a-workers’ who do not enjoy even basic rights? All of this while Canadian society benefits from their labour and indeed from their payments into a social service system that they will never benefit from?