In the Blog

Mid-Week Round Up: March 11

March 11th, 2015     by Jessie Hale     Comments

Illustration: Erin McPhee

Happy belated International Women’s Day! There are still lots of events happening in honour of IWD all across Canada this week, including a talk tonight at the Bloor-Gladstone library in Toronto on Centering the Voices of Indigenous Women and Girls.

A new report from Canada’s auditor general details deplorable conditions in Iqaluit’s Baffin Correctional Centre, the only maximum-security facility in Nunavut. The report alleges that prisoners—most of them Inuit—are being kept in overcrowded, unhealthy conditions and do not have access to the mental health services they need.

Yesterday was National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers in the US. The day is observed each year on the anniversary of the murder of David Gunn, an abortion provider, by an anti-choice extremist. Five women explain why they became abortion providers.

An unarmed Black man named Anthony Hill was shot and killed by a police officer on Monday in Chamblee, Georgia. Hill was naked at the time of the shooting and had a history of mental illness. He was the third unarmed Black man to be killed by police in three days.

Natalie Zina Walschots reflects on the legacy of GamerGate. Self-described “GamerGaters” led campaigns of harassment against female game developers and critics, such as Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian, for months, supposedly in an effort to encourage ethical gaming journalism. Walschots asks:

“How many young women have chosen not to enter the industry at all? How many game developers have left the industry? […] How can we possibly know the real numbers of the ones we lost?”

A new webseries called Very Special Episodes pokes fun at mainstream representations of disability. In an interview with Bitch magazine, creators Caitlin Wood and Cheryl Green explain what led them to make the series. Says Wood:

“Disability is usually portrayed as tragic and pitiful, and something to be feared…With VSE, we don’t directly address these typical depictions, but we thought the act of having two disabled women onscreen together was radical in itself.”

Check out the episode “Accessible Icon,” where they hilariously try to create a universal access icon that truly represents everyone.

Tags: activist report, body politics, disability, event listings, indigenous, media savvy, news flash, race, recommended reading, reproductive justice

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