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Open letter: Stop manipulating sexual assault
In its current war against the people of Gaza, the Israeli government has chosen to weaponize the issue of sexual violence for political gain. This statement will be delivered to Israeli officials who have mounted a public crusade manipulating this issue to both legitimize—and divert attention from—their campaign of ethnic cleansing.
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Gendering genocide
A new generation of women around the world is learning from and speaking out against this cruel and catastrophic Israeli violence. For these women, the assault on Gaza will be among their formative political experiences, a vital lesson in how racial-gender violence organizes the international order, how it shapes the workings of international politics and law.
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Believing women, believing Palestinians
Why is it so difficult for university administrators to express sympathy with all students, staff, and faculty who have been impacted by the events of October 7? To acknowledge that there are diverse Jewish views about Israel, Palestine, and what is unfolding now? Laurie Adkin writes on the tactics being used to silence critics of Israel and curtail free speech on campus and beyond.
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Shenanigans and misogyny at the Assembly of First Nations
The AFN is a political organization that advocates on behalf of First Nations with the federal government. Originating as the National Indian Brotherhood in the late 1960s, it has only ever been led by men. That changed in June 2021 when the chiefs made ‘her’story and elected the first female national chief. It was not the first time a woman had run for the post.
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AFN’s turfing of RoseAnne Archibald undermines good Indigenous governance
We hope the AFN will reflect on why it struggled so significantly, both within the organization and on the public stage, with its first female national chief. We want a politics informed by our Indigenous histories and traditions, but above all, we want a politics for future generations—which is what Indigenous politics have traditionally focused on.
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A gamechanger at the Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada has historically been the national emblem of that impervious white wall of denial and racism. Yet, it has changed—it has brought in critical minds and challenging voices. Tanzanian-Canadian feminist sociologist, academic, and activist Dr. Sunera Thobani takes her place there now, recognized as one of the finest scholarly minds in the country.
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The crisis of trans health care in Canada
Community researcher, support worker and organizer Carl Bystram details how the death of trans health care services in Canada has only worsened amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Bystram explores the utter lack of services available to trans people, particularly youth, who are falling between the cracks of a weakened public system.
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In Tehran they use batons, in Rojhelat they use bullets
Since the start of the ongoing protests in Iran inspired by the murder of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, observers have emphasized the continuities and breaks with earlier movements. But often the Kurdish story is left by the wayside. Here, Nesi Altaras interviews Kurdish activist and writer Gordyaen Benyamin Jeramyi on the current “revolution” in Iran and the “Kurdish specifics” being erased.
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Feds must act to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous people
Between 2015 and 2019, over 100 Indigenous women from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, and Québec publicly asserted that they were survivors of forced or coerced sterilization procedures. The actual number is undoubtedly much higher, and more and more Indigenous women come forward every year to share their traumatic experiences.
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AFN’s toxic politics hurts First Nations
No matter how you slice it, the AFN has created a monumental mess that, ironically, proves the very dysfunction many First Nations have been talking about for years. By effectively appointing itself as the judge, jury, and executioner of RoseAnne Archibald’s political career, the organization breached not only her basic human rights but also her basic legal rights to administrative and procedural fairness.