Why Canadian Feminists Cannot Afford to “Shut the fuck up”

I am not a writer but I have spent the last few hours trying to craft my first blog post out of sheer, panicky fear, because what I am is a scared Canadian feminist who knows that Feministing has many Canadian readers that need to be reached with this story.

Marci McDonald wrote an excellent piece in this Saturday’s Toronto Star titled ‘ How Canada’s Christian right was built’ that definitely needs to be read. Prompted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s announcement that abortion funding will not be part of Canada’s G8 plan for developing countries, and Senator Nancy Ruth’s advice to activists to “shut the fuck up” about it, McDonald takes an in depth look at just how successful Harper has been in shifting the political center of gravity in Canada to the right. The social conservatives of Canada first organized when Jean Chretien proposed the legalization of same-sex marriage. Their defeat on the issue lead them to organize and mobilize, and today this group is threatening to shake Canada’s long-held liberal and open-minded political spirit to its core.

As McDonald put it:

[They] have built sophisticated databases and online networks capable of mobilizing their forces behind specific legislation with instant e-mail alerts and updates. Setting up an array of internship programs, they are also training a new generation of activists to be savvier than their secular peers in navigating the corridors of power. Already, their alumni have landed top jobs in the public service, MPs’ offices and the PMO…

I firmly believe that we have the majority on our side–most young Canadian women are pro-choice, believe in same-sex rights and are increasingly disregarding traditional gender definitions as they shatter through glass ceilings everywhere. Since we were young we’ve been able to look to our neighbours to the south and puzzle over how they could have it so wrong. Some of us have even helped our American sisters and brothers in their fights, but always with the comfortable security of our own open-minded, liberal home. And while I do not for a second envy the situation facing women in America, these activists do have a great advantage–fear. American feminists are afraid of the situation facing the most marginalized women in their country and are afraid of what conservative, discriminatory policy may be enacted next. In Canada, it is the conservative right that lives with this fear and they are using it to their stark advantage. This minority group is organizing to become disproportionately powerful while many young Canadian feminists may have become complacent.

McDonald describes this scary new direction in Canadian politics much
better than I could:

Waving their bright flags on the lawns of the Parliament Buildings,
extolling the country’s Christian roots to a compelling soft-rock beat,
they might seem to offer a refreshing recipe for morality and national
pride, but their agenda–while outwardly inclusive and multi-racial — is
ultimately exclusionary. In their idealized Christian nation,
non-believers…would merit severe punishment and the sort of shunning
that once characterized a society where suspected witches were burned…
A preview is on display south of the border, where decades of
religious-right triumphs have left a nation bitterly splintered along
lines of faith and ideology… [emphasis mine]

I commend American feminists for their perseverance and determination
in the face of such great obstacles, but I do not want that fight
brought to my home. It is time for Canadian liberals to begin training
our own young women and men to take on the world and take nothing for
granted, before we too have to live with fear. We need an
online meeting place: a forum to provide each other support, a system to
alert us of any and all legislation that requires our action, a
resource to teach us how to get our letters to the editor and opinion
pieces published. That is what the other side already has. We may not be
as well funded or as well organized, but our advantage is that we have
the truth on our side. It is now time for us to organize ourselves and
make this truth known–Canadian women are largely pro-choice,
pro-equality, and anti-oppression and we will not allow a minority
government, a coalition of religious extremists or anyone else to make
our country say otherwise.