Montreal City Weblog

Kate 19:43 on 2022-06-26 Permalink Reply  

• H. John 00:24 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  The Palais de Justice seems an odd choice as a location.

  Quebec’s Charter of Rights guaranteed women’s rights when it was first passed in the 1970’s.

  With one caveat.

  At the back of the legislation, it included an article that the protection would not apply to economic benefits for some protected groups, until certain conditions were met.

  For example, you couldn’t pay people differently, or provide other benefits, because of race, but you could because of gender, being pregnant, or sexual orientation.

  Over the next twenty years, two committees set up by the Quebec Human Rights Commission asked for the blatant discrimination to be ended.

  Neither the PQ or the PLQ governments that received those reports. chose to do so.

  It was only with the Michael Hendricks/René Leboeuf case for same sex marriage rights, and a complaint from female professors at McGill that their pensions were less than male professors (McGill argued that women live longer) that Quebec reacted.

  Both cases based their arguments on rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights which can override Quebec’s Charter.

  Because of the two cases, the limiting provision was removed in the last 1990’s.

  More than 20 years, and if you weren’t a member of a group being discriminated against (e.g. a same-sex common law couple seeking the same employment benefits as other common-law couples), you wouldn’t’ have seen it in any newspaper.

  And. given our current Minster of Justice, we genuinely don’t have anything to teach other countries about respecting rights.

• Kate 09:34 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  I tend to agree about the protest location but am not sure what I’d have proposed as an alternative.

• Ephraim 11:39 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  Ever wonder why so many abortion clinics in Canada have a price list when it’s free for Canadians? 🙂
  The Canadian government should make mifegymiso a non-prescription medication (the way that insulin is) and allow Canadian pharmacies to dispense to the US without prescription. Maybe find another usage for taking this anit-hormone pill, like menopause treatment, so it’s not specifically for abortion and allow them to get the medication from Canada, where the states can’t prosecute… and send it inside a copy of Margaret Attwood’s Handmaid’s Tale book, just for the irony of it.

• Kate 12:20 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  Ephraim, there are always ways around the state-level bans, but nothing’s ever going to be a satisfactory solution short of making abortion legal across the entire country. Also, most methods leave some sort of trail of evidence, and with a bounty on the heads of those who procure abortion, people will be motivated to turn others in.

• Phil M 13:28 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  Alternate location proposal: The American embassy.

• Kate 14:14 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  Phil M, the American consulate is in the office building at 1134 Ste‑Catherine St W., just west of Peel. Tricky location to hold a demo.

• Ephraim 15:40 on 2022-06-27 Permalink

  @Kate – Yes, for example, providing abortion at Veteran’s hospitals, which are federal territory. But reality is that before abortion was available in the US, American women travelled to Canada… but that’s middle class. It’s a lot tougher for those earning minimum incomes in the US. Especially since that is what is tied to the especially bad outcomes (statistically). Somehow an unwanted child doesn’t tend to grow up in a loving home.