Today, November 25th, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It kicks off the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, ending on International Human Rights Day on December 10th.
Every year we take these 16 days to remember all the women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence, and commit ourselves to work together to end violence against women once and for all.
Almost half of retirees are in debt. While their total debt might be lower, older Canadians are accumulating debt at a faster rate than their children and grandchildren. The question is, why this is the first generation of seniors willing to risk their retirement by taking on so much debt late in life? In truth, seniors are facing the pressure to go into debt for three main reasons.
1. Lifestyle and Longevity
For some, debt becomes a way of funding their retirement. A small segment may be using debt to maintain a larger home rather than downsizing and travelling, but for many, debt is funding basic living expenses. A reduction in income without a healthy safety net, in terms of retirement savings or a good pension, means borrowing to pay the rent and eat. As we live longer, any savings we do have may not go far enough.
Until recently, the nature and level of care and assistance received by First Nations, Metis and Inuit women in the Yukon was “all over the map”. Due to the existence of “negative social responses” to those who report violence, many Indigenous women choose to deal with complex violent situations on their own. Together for Justice provided a forum for exploring the cross-roads of gender, race and colonialism to better understand and stop the violence against Indigenous women in the Yukon.
The Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society (LAWS) was established in the Kaska Territory as a non-profit society in 1998. What began as a small circle of women from the Kaska Nation concerned with community healing, evolved over time to developing and offering a comprehensive community transformation process. LAWS recognized a critical need to provide opportunities for Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) members to hear from Kaska women, other community members, service providers and government agencies about violence and how it could be addressed.
I am a confident writer, always have been. But I recently chanced on a column I’d written in 2004 by that hang-about village idiot, Bill O’Reilly, on Fox News, and my blood froze. That was the year I was first hit by online bursts of hate. I’d reached the 10-year point at which the wonderful U.S. journalist Michelle Goldberg has suggested that online feminist writers might well burn out. A decade of being called a “c—t” and an “ugly bitch”? It saps the soul.
But I keep writing about equal rights, and so do most feminist journalists. It’s worth doing, not only because it’s how we earn our pay, and not only for moral reasons. I’m thinking of our daughters, and granddaughters. Imagine the bleak future they’re going to have if we back down now. We’re headed into hard times, and they’ll be that much harder for women without power, without public voices.
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