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Mid-week ROUND UP: JULY 9

July 9th, 2014     by Jessica Hale     Comments

Illustration: Erin McPhee

Mad Pride week kicked off on July 7 and goes until July 13 in Toronto! Following on the heels of World Pride, Mad Pride describes itself as “an arts, culture, and heritage festival created by psychiatric survivors, consumers, mad people, and folks the world has labelled ‘mentally ill.’” Events include the Mad Hatters Tea Party (wear your wackiest hat!) on Wednesday afternoon, the Mad Love Dance Party (http://do416.to/events/2014/7/10/mad-love-dance-party-insane-in-the-brain) on Thursday night at the Rivoli, and the Bed Push Parade on Sunday. Show your mad pride and support!

Last week the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that closely held corporations can prevent their employees from accessing contraceptive medicine through their employee health care plans if it interferes with their religious beliefs. Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a 35-page dissent arguing that this could create a dangerous precedent—which it may already have.

The fifth and final Tar Sands Healing Walk took place on Saturday, June 28. This Indigenous-led initiative saw participants tour the enormous tar sands extraction project in Athabasca Region, Alberta, to learn about the destruction it has caused to Indigenous communities in surrounding areas. You can read a reflection from one of the participants here.

Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay sent a recently revealed Mother’s Day email to staff praising working mothers for the invisible labour they do before and after work, changing diapers, packing lunches and caring for aging loved ones. Sounds nice, until you see his Father’s Day email a month later, which made no mention of diapers but gave a nod to fathers for “shaping the minds and futures of the next generation of leaders.” If you think a parent of any gender can both change diapers and shape minds, you can send Peter MacKay an email to let him know!

The Free Her rally in Washington, DC, brought together people affected by mass incarceration and the war on drugs, specifically focusing on women, trans people and their children.

Tags: news flash

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