Advocacy
CFUW has a long and celebrated history of bringing about constructive change at the national, provincial and local levels.
As members of CFUW we are encouraged to use our expertise to better our local community particularly with reference to issues such as violence against women, early learning and childcare, the environment and climate change. The CFUW PQ Advocacy Committee has been proactive in each of these areas.
Here is a selection of the things we’ve accomplished recently:
- Hanging Red Dresses annually throughout the community aligned with the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women & Girls campaign (MMIWG), and the UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. When possible we’ve coordinated opening day ceremonies at both the Parksville Civic Centre and the Qualicum Beach Town Hall.
- Hosting an expert panel discussion “Silent No More” on Gender-Based Violence
- Actively supporting $10 a Day Childcare and other affordable childcare initiatives
- Collaborating with local environmental groups to host expert panel discussions and film showings (Beyond Climate, Artifishal are examples)
- Supporting our local high school students and teachers in “Zero-Waste” (Ballenas Secondary School) and “Fridays for Future” (Kwalicum Secondary School)
- Supporting the launch of “Climate Hugs” – a program that acknowledges individuals who demonstrate environmental leadership in our community
- Sponsoring a student to attend the Encounters Canada Program in Ottawa
- Sponsoring the local Back-Pack Program to bring food to students in need and their families
- Participating in letter writing campaigns to political and civic officials that address pressing issues such as the drug overdose crisis and access to free prescription contraception
- Arranging for Dr. Laura Cranmer (Namgis First Nation, Professor, Vancouver Island University) to speak on the Reconciliation theme at the Club’s September 2022 general meeting
Future initiatives may embrace recent CFUW National and Provincial campaigns such as Elder Rights & Long Term Care, Poverty and the Gender Pay Gap, Homelessness in the OceanSide area (Community ‘Walk for The Coldest Night’).
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On November 25, 1960, the three Mirabel sisters were murdered. On November 25, 1999, the United Nations declared International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Today, November 25th, red dresses are in display in our local community and a ceremony to acknowledge the missing and murdered Indigenous women was held at the Town of Qualicum Beach. Photo: Town of Qualicum Beach
This Friday, November 25th at Qualicum Beach Town Hall at 10:30am and at 1pm at Parksville City Hall, ceremonies will be held to acknowledge the missing and murdered Indigenous women. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Red dresses will be on display in both communities from November 25th to December 10th; the 16 days to commemorate gender based violence.
Warrior Woman mask created by Floyd Tate
The Mirabal sisters were three sisters from the Dominican Republic, Patria, Minerva and María Teresa opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.The three sisters were assassinated on 25 November 1960.
Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria called together a group of dissidents against the Trujillo regime and called themselves the 14th of June Movement, in honor of the dissidents that were tortured and killed 14 June 1959.Everyone in the family, including Patria's teenaged children, helped distribute pamphlets about the many people whom Trujillo had killed, and obtained materials for guns and bombs to use when they eventually openly revolted. Within the group, the sisters called themselves "Las Mariposas" ("The Butterflies"), after Minerva's underground name. The secret movement was discovered weeks after its founding leading to Patrias house (where the group met) being burned to the ground and María Teresa and Minerva's arrests. Minerva and María Teresa were incarcerated but were not tortured thanks to mounting international opposition to Trujillo's regime. Patria was never arrested but her husband and son were jailed. Their and Patria's husbands, who were also involved in the underground activities, were incarcerated at La Victoria Penitentiary in Santo Domingo.
The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into "symbols of both popular and feminist resistance". In 1999, in their honor, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/b-c-s-sarah-de-leeuw-uses-poetry-to-examine-the-colonization-of-l...
Huge shout out to our local paper, PQB News. After a devastating fire to their office and surrounding businesses, the paper was still published and available to readers the following Wednesday 🙌Following the massive fire at Parksville Heritage Centre last week, if you're looking to pick up print copies of this week's PQB News - and normally picked yours up at our office – you can find copies at local grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations or community boxes in neighbourhoods. Contact circulation@pqbnews.com for locations of boxes.
© CFUW PQ. All rights reserved.
© CFUW PQ. All rights reserved.