Next Teleconference: October 20th, 2010 - 7 p.m. Eastern Time - Don't Miss Out! This is a special presentation to celebrate Women's History Month!

Our next teleconference in October will feature Amy Gill:

As a recent MA graduate in history from the University of Ottawa, Ms. Gill’s area of interest focuses on social movements, political development within the Canadian federal system, and more specifically the relationship between the two.  Within the context of the debate surrounding the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, her research centers on the shift that occurs within the Canadian women’s movement and the powerful impact it had on the articulation of equality rights.  Her work seeks to explore how Canadian women perceived equality, federalism, and the Charter along with their role in shaping part of the underlying values that govern Canadian society.  Moreover, it ventures to explain how ideas are able to transform themselves into action within the context of modern Canadian politics.

Her presentation is entitled:   

“ “Get your Paws of our Clause!” : Deciphering the role of the Canadian Women’s Movement and the Formulation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Her presentation will address the following:

This presentation explores the role of the Canadian women’s movement in the formulation of sections 15 and 28 in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Grounded in the context of the decade leading up to the 1980-1982 mega-constitutional debates, the ideas and actions of the women’s movement demonstrate both their intellectual and political agency in securing a new interpretation of equality rights within the Charter. 

The success of the women’s movement in this era is attributed to its effective mobilization, profiting from an environment in which Canadian women were able to develop a complex network of organizations at the national, provincial, local, and grass roots level.  Moreover, the structure of the women’s movement provided a powerful platform for key figures within the movement to articulate women’s concerns and have those opinions respectfully considered.  Only in tandem do the ideals championed by the women’s movement and the structure of the movement allow for its eventual success.  

Providing an arena for action, the critical events that mark the 1980-1982 mega-constitutional debates showcase these elements and illustrate how Canadian women transformed their ideas into action.  Examining the context leading up to the debates along with the events during the fourteen-month span of negotiations, it is argued that women played both an intellectual and political role in shaping equality rights in Canada.  Their contributions not only secured an effective path to substantive equality but also irrevocably altered the nature of the debate surrounding human rights and changed the way Canadians understand, interpret, and practice equality.