Good Morning Shameless readers! Thanks to our reader Nikita for alerting us all to the fact that Morgentaler has been among those named to Order of Canada. Good morning indeed!

Now 85, Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, opened his first abortion clinic in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures, which were illegal at the time.

Morgentaler, a trained family physician, argued that access to abortion was a basic human right and women should not have to risk death at the hands of an untrained professional in order to end their pregnancies.

Morgentaler’s clinics were constantly raided, and one in Toronto was firebombed. Morgentaler was arrested several times and spent months in jail as he fought his case at all court levels in Canada.

His victory came on Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law. That law, which required a woman who wanted an abortion to appeal to a three-doctor hospital abortion committee, was declared unconstitutional.

This is a huge victory, one that Shameless has believed in for a long time, and such a wonderful piece of Canada Day good news.

Feminist and author Judy Rebick told the Globe and Mail on Monday that it is about time Morgentaler is honoured for his long battle.

“Dr. Morgentaler is a hero to millions of women in the country,” she said. “He risked his life to struggle for women’s rights … He’s a huge figure in Canadian history and the fact that he hasn’t got [the Order of Canada] until now is a scandal.”

Agreed. Now go read this Feministing community blog piece, “Juno Lied,” written by a teenage girl in the US about trying to find out how to get an abortion for her best friend. It really does emphasize how important it is to honour people like Morgentaler in this country.

Photos by SMN.

Quick link: A Time story on access to birth control, babies for unconditional love, “fierce” Catholicism, economic depression, and over a dozen (no older than) 16 year-old girls who made a pact to get pregnant at the same time: Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

From the Associated Press:

Gay couples in Norway will be granted the same rights as heterosexuals to marry, adopt and undergo artificial insemination under a new equality law passed Tuesday.

Norway’s upper house of parliament voted 23-17 in favor of the gender-neutral marriage law on the same day that gay couples were marrying in California.

Today’s the day that Stephen Harper is scheduled to apologize for the horrors of the residential schools where Aboriginal peoples in Canada were imprisoned for decades, creating generations of abuse and also of survival.

The apology is scheduled for 3pm today in the House of Commons and you can watch it online livestream on the CBC here.

For me, the government’s apology comes too late to be meaningful. It isn’t happening in concert with acknowledging the multiple thefts of land and culture that are still ongoing in land claim disputes, cultural appropriation, and lack of basic resources like clean water, culturally-relevant and sustaining education.

If I can find any hope today, I want this apology to galvanize and influence white settler folks. Sadly, I think that white folks are more likely to respond and react to white people talking about racism and cultural genocide than the survivors themselves. Will hearing Stephen Harper apologize start the unlearning?

For many, it will do nothing. For others, it will mean something. What does it mean to you?

One of our readers sent us this article about a woman in Owen Sound, Ontario who raised $2,700 for Cops for Cancer by shaving her head, only to be ordered to take unpaid leave from her waitressing job until it grew back.

Her employers had this to say:

“Our staff is expected to come dressed appropriately and we did not feel that this was appropriate…She could have done a multitude of different things to support her cause that wouldn’t have affected her work, but she chose to do it in a way that we told her was inappropriate for our business.”

They suggested she use her summer off to “spend time with her kids”. The suggestion being that she was doing them a terrible disservice by going to work in the first place.

What exactly is inappropriate about a waitress with a shaved head? Could it be that it’s - *gasp* - unfeminine? What’s the bet that if one of the mail waitstaff came to work with a shaved head, the owners wouldn’t bat an eyelid?

There’s an interesting trend developing in US queer rights cases at the moment. Hot on the heels of the California marriage decision, the federal appeals court in California has reinstated a lawsuit challenging “don’t ask, don’t tell”.

The lawsuit is being brought by a decorated Air Force flight nurse who was thrown out of the military after a civilian tip-off about her six-year relationship with another woman. The case was initially dismissed, but the US Court of Appeals has reinstated it.

What’s interesting is the reason for the Court of Appeals’ decision. There was an article on Slate earlier this week that explained the significance of the California marriage decision (it’s written by Kenji Yoshino, who is incidentally the author of Covering, a discussion of the ways in which society’s limited tolerance of race and homosexuality demands that nobody flaunt their difference).

The article explains, with the minimum of legal jargon, the difference between “rational basis” and “strict scrutiny”, two different standards of review applied by the courts to constitutional laws that constitute the main distinction between the gay marriage decision in Massachusetts, and the one in California.
(more inside…)

Okay this just annoys me.

From the Ottawa citizen:

First Place Pregnancy Centre was one of three charities designated by the Sens Better Halves, a group of Ottawa Senators’ wives and girlfriends, to receive funds from the SENSational Tree Raffle organized last November. In December, First Place withdrew from the fundraiser after Planned Parenthood issued a press release saying the group was “anti-choice.”

First Place executive director Terri Mazik said her group has since noticed “a severe decline” in clients. The statement of claim names Planned Parenthood, executive director Stephanie Piché, and Heather Greenwood, program co-ordinator.

For real? This is what First Place has the time and funds to be doing?

And for the record, there is absolutely no doubt that they are anti-choice, anti-woman, and extremely judgemental. It is ridiculously unfair to trick people into thinking you are going to support and give them “options” when you get through their doors and the tactics to steer you away from actual choices (with what you want to do with your body) interestingly enough begin. It is part of the ongoing problem with these so-called “pregnancy crisis centres” popping up across the country that SHAMELESS has blogged on before.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that he will make an official apology on behalf of the government for the horrific abuse suffered by victims of Canada’s residential school system over the past 100 years.

Harper will make the apology in the House of Commons on June 11th.

While it is good to see the government showing some sort of accountability to the extreme genocide they have inflicted on Aboriginal peoples, I have to wonder if Harper even really knows what he’s apologizing for.

Because his government has so far:

-Refused to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, making Canada an international human rights laughing stock

-Cut the Status of Women which included major funding losses for the Sisters in Spirit Initiative that advocated for victims of violence at the Native Women’s Association of Canada, which was their largest contribution agreement

-Thrown out the Kelowna Accord, which, say what you will about it, was the first time the government actually asked Aboriginal people to be at the same table and collectively make decisions for our own people

-Has not done anything to help our people protect our own land and silently watched our leaders be thrown in jail, from the KI6 in Northern Ontario to Mohawk territory to the tar sands in Alberta, etc. More than 20% of inmates in Canada are Aboriginal, while we only make up roughly 3% of the population.

And the list goes on……..

90% of Aboriginal people today are affected by the residential school system on some level, the last of these schools closing in Saskatchewan in 1996.

So is an apology in order? Absolutely. Does the Conservative government really know what they are doing? I think not.

For starters, it’s going to take much more than an apology.

Fort Resolution residential school, North West Territories

Good news from Ontario health minister George Smitherman yesterday. Looks like OHIP could be changing to cover sex reassignment surgery. This from Xtra:

Helma Seidl is a counsellor who helps people prepare for their transitions.

“There are lots of people who are very happy once they transition, who don’t want this surgery,” says Seidl. “But there are lots of people who waited because they don’t have the money — $16,000 per surgery or more. If we have it paid by they government, that will open up the opportunity to a lot of people.”

There are some details that need to be worked out before the coverage is a reality, but all and all a step in the right direction. Read the details here.