International Women’s Day (IWD) is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. On this day CJAM will be bringing you 12 hours of special content devoted to women, through a mix of syndicated and local programming.
8:00 AM – Subversive Parenting
Host Monica Reid brings you news, events, and information of interest to parents.
9:00 AM – Alternative Radio: The Body Toxic by Nena Baker
More than 4 decades ago Rachel Carson, in “Silent Spring,” first warned that man-made chemicals were taking a deadly toll on birds and wildlife. Now we are recognizing that chemicals are effecting human sexual development and reproduction and can cause central nervous system diseases, cancer, and liver disease. Everyone is carrying a dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of industry that contribute to a host of health problems in ways just now being understood. These toxic substances, unknown to previous generations, accumulate in our fat, bones, blood, and organs as a consequence of womb-to-tomb exposure. Almost everything we encounter from soap to soup cans and computers to clothing contributes to a chemical load unique to each of us. Scientists refer to it as “chemical body burden.” Chemical companies would rather consumers never knew about the potential dangers their products pose.
Nena Baker is a former staff writer for “The Arizona Republic,” “The Oregonian,” and United Press International. Her award-winning investigation of Nike’s Indonesian factories led to numerous improvements for workers. She is the author of “The Body Toxic.”
10:00 AM – Making Contact: Hyde-ing the Right to Choose
While lawmakers in Washington mull over the nuts and bolts of health care reform, advocates are concerned that a woman’s fundamental right to reproductive health services is endangered. On this edition, Stupak, the Hyde Amendment, and religion. We take a look at some of the threats to abortion access, more than thirty-five years after Roe V. Wade legalized a woman’s right to have an abortion.
Featuring Stephanie Poggi, National Network of Abortion Funds Executive Director; Jenny, shares her story about having an abortion; Jon O’Brien, Catholics for Choice President; Guadalupe Rodriguez, ACCESS/Women’s Health Rights Coalition Program & Public Policy Director (Bonus Audio).
10:30 AM – Making Contact: Women Struggling with War
Women are gaining influence as leaders throughout the world, fighting for peace, justice, the environment and civil society. In this program, we profile two government leaders tackling the monumental problem of war. Gambia’s Fatou Bensouda is Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, a judicial body dedicated to human rights. And retired Colonel Ann Wright, a former United States military leader and diplomat for the State Department is an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war economy.
Featuring Retired Colonel Anne Wright, former United States military leader and diplomat for the State Department; Gambia’s Fatou Bensouda, Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
11:00 AM – GroundWire: Women’s Voices and Feminist News from 2009 [Part One]
- On International Migrants Day, Philippine community group PINAY protests the exclusion of domestic workers from health and safety compensation laws [David Koch | CKUT]
- Sex workers and their allies march in Montreal to mark the 7th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers [Fabian Ebeling and Dee LeComte | CKUT]
- In Vancouver, Lu’s Pharmacy has emerged as the first in North America to serve women exclusively, but transgendered people have objected to the pharmacy’s definition of “woman.” [Glayzee de Franca and Frieda Werden | CJSF-Burnaby]
- On December 6th, communities across the country mourn the deaths of 14 women killed by Marc Lepine in Montreal this day in 1989. On the 20th anniversary of the shootings, violence against women continues, and women continue to demand justice. This report includes original coverage of the Montreal Massacre, first aired on W.I.N.G.S. with reports from CINQ FM’s Laura Yaros and Beth Blackmore in Montreal.
- A victory for a breastfeeding mom in Newmarket, Ontario. (Omme Rahemtullah | CHRY, Toronto)
- Defining Sexual Assault in Winnipeg (Michael Elves | UMFM| Winnipeg)
- VANOC Charter Battle with Women’s Ski Jumpers (Sam Kriviak | CJSR)
- Gretchen King and Saja Marouf of CKUT collect interviews while attending the 10th anniversary celebration of the legalization of midwifery in Quebec
11:30 AM – GroundWire: Women’s Voices and Feminist News from 2009 [Part Two]
- Legal aid for sex workers in Alberta| CJSR
- Adam Bemma from CKUT in Montreal gives us some insight into the life of a live-in caregiver and nannies.
- On June 14, 2008, three Mohawk women were crossing the border at Cornwall, between the United States and Canada and were stopped by Canadian Border Security Agents, which is a routine hassle that Native people have become used to for years. What happened next, however, was not routine. This is Kahentinetha Horn, a Mohawk elder, describing the experience (Tariq Jeeroburkhan | CKUT, Montreal)
- 2009’s International Women’s Day events in Toronto were certainly true to the spirit of IWD, which for a century has celebrated and commemorated the struggles of women workers to have their labour recognized in the home and in the workplace. 1,500 people rallied and marched for good jobs for women, and to speak out against the federal government’s response to the recession.(Kristin Schwartz in Toronto)
- In January 2009, a diverse group of Jewish Canadian women occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto. This action was in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. (Gretchen King and Mark Brooks | CKUT, Montreal)
- Breastfeeding Challenge and Challenges | Jacky Harrison, with additional audio by Frieda Werden (CJSF)
12: 00 PM – Alternative Radio: The Global Water Crisis by Maude Barlow
Water, water, everywhere. It looks that way. More than 2/3s of the earth’s surface is water but of that, only a tiny percentage is suitable for drinking. Underground water supplies, aquifers, the most abundant source of fresh water, are being depleted. It is predicted that two-thirds of the world’s population will not have enough drinking water by 2025. Corporations with their allies in government and international financial institutions are taking advantage of this crisis by pushing through water privatization schemes. Collectively they are manufacturing consent for corporate control of water. For businesses water is blue gold. Ka-ching. For humanity it is the very basis of life. A global water justice movement is emerging to establish water as a right, which can’t be bought or sold for profit.
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water. She is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize and the Citation for Lifetime Achievement, Canada’s highest environmental award. She is the first Senior Advisor on water issues for the United Nations. Author of many books, her latest is “Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis.”
1:00 PM – Alternative Radio: Rethinking Growth by Sunita Narain
In water stressed India, women walk for miles to fetch water. A stunning illustration of the problem is in the Himalayas. Its millennia-old glaciers are the source for many of Asia’s great rivers. They are shrinking at such a rapid rate that in a quarter of a century they may disappear. The official response in India? Build more dams. What is New Delhi thinking? There will not be enough water to drive the new turbines. The paradigm of growth and so-called development is intoned like a sacred mantra, it is never even challenged. It is touted as a panacea for all problems. With the various environmental crises facing the planet it is urgent for a radical reevaluation of conventional concepts of growth.
Sunita Narain is the Director of the Centre for Science and the Environment in New Delhi, and a leading environmentalist. She is the editor of Down to Earth magazine. She is recipient of the Stockholm Water Prize and the Padma Shri from the Government of India. She was listed as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy magazine.
2:00 PM – Local Vocal Ladies
The music of local singer-songwriters Jackie Robitaille, Bridget Klingbiel and Keats Conlon will be featured. In addition, we’ll give you a sneak peek at some of the submissions included in the first annual Women’s Studies Student Association’s “Are We There Yet?”
3:00 PM – Alternative Radio: Pakistani Women by Tahira Abdullah
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the human rights situation for women in that country is grim. The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto while she was campaigning in late December 2007 captured world headlines but violence against women continued unchecked throughout the country. The murder of Zille Huma Usman, the Punjab province’s Minister for Women’s Development, by a religious zealot, was another example of women’s insecurity. But the killing of prominent women masks the thousands of acts of violence carried out in silence and where men often go unpunished. Women are vulnerable and lack power particularly in rural areas where they are the targets of acid attacks, burning, rape and honor killings. In a strongly patriarchal culture women’s voices are generally muted. But some Pakistani women are fighting back.
Tahira Abdullah is a prominent women’s rights activist and development worker based in Islamabad.
4:00 PM – Deconstructing Feminism
4:30 PM – Making Contact: Women in Sports
Funding and publicity for women’s sports have grown substantially in the past two decades. Yet from high school to the pros, women often still have to contend with resistance and stereotypes that treat them like second class athletes. On this edition, Dave Zirin and Elizabeth Terzakis take a look back at the history of discrimination against women in sports, and we’ll hear where the long battle for equality and acceptance stands today.
Featuring Dave Zirin, Author and social commentator; Elizabeth Terzakis, Cañada College English and Reading instructor.
5:00 PM – Alternative Radio: Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Catastrophes from Katrina to Iraq from Afghanistan to the Asian Tsunami clear the way for corporations to move in and operate in newly privatized zones, pushing local government overboard. Kind of like shock and awe economics. Privatize, privatize, privatize is intoned like a mantra by the economic high priests of neoliberalism. The belief in the so-called free market is almost akin religious dogma. Abuses, shoddy work and rampant profiteering rule with little or no oversight or accountability. Governments sub-contract and outsource their essential functions and services as jobs float downstream from the public sector into the private. Free market neoliberalism is synonymous with democracy and since everyone loves the latter what’s not to like about the former? But what it really is, is a get rich quick crusade.
Naomi Klein of Canada is an award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker. Her articles appear in major newspapers and magazines all over the world. Her documentary film on the economic crisis in Argentina is “The Take.” “No Logo,” her book on globalization and marketing was an international bestseller. Her latest book is “The Shock Doctrine.”
6:00 PM – We Surrender!!!
Host Theresa Leslie will bring you a look at women in Canada’s music scene.
7:00 PM – Girlie So Groovie
The only program dedicated to the women who rock and the people who love then, with host Trevor Klundert.
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