Lived Writes Essay Contest

Reel Community - Women's Voices for Change

2006-03-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

See Kalindi Patel's comments on interview with Deepa Mehta (clip)
http://citizen.nfb.ca/onf/info?aid=6001&eid=15026&atid=21
Lindsay Anton, Mila Rochon, CitizenShift / 2006
Length: 14 min 25 sec

Following a meeting with Deepa Mehta, filmmaker of Water, a film about the plight of widows in India, 12-year-old Kalindi Patel says she will definitely dedicate herself to working on women's rights when she grows up. Patel attended the Adhoc conference after winning the 12-13 year old category of the Lived Writes essay contest. This interview was conducted at the Adhoc25 conference in Ottawa, Canada.

Goodbye Dinner Wednesday Night

2006-02-16T17:24:00.000-05:00

Dinner at Oregano's in the ByWard Market...

Followed by a Beaver Tail for dessert!

Photos From Trip to Supreme Court of Canada

2006-02-16T17:07:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday afternoon we received a very interesting tour of the Supreme Court of Canada. Gail Henderson, who is one of three law clerks to Justice Charron, was our tour guide.

We learned how Canada's top court is one of the world's leading courts in terms of percentage of females on the bench. We also learned about some of the key decisions heard by the Supreme Court that dealt with the equality provision (s.15) of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

We were very excited to have the opportunity to speak with Justice Charron who explained to us how a typical case works its way to the Court and how a hearing is conducted.

Emily's Reflections on Her Experience in Ottawa

2006-02-16T16:55:00.000-05:00

Last night, Emily blogged about her thoughts on the conference:

"The past few days I've been given the opportunity of a lifetime. By attending this conference, I was able to see how important women are and how much we need to work together in the global community to promote our rights. I never realized how much work there was to be done until I wrote my essay and got to come and listen to the presentations.

This conference has also shown me that as a young leader, I must help to address these issues. I do plan on helping Equal Voice through their youth chapter.

I have been so inspired by the original Ad Hoc committee women - they have shown me that women can make a difference.

All in all, this experience has shown me that equality matters. I have met incredible people who are interested in politics just as much I am. I am one of the youngest here, and so this has been a growing experience. I have become informed about many issues I had never heard about.

When I go home I will share my experience with others and help get my peers involved in equality issues. Hopefully 25 years from now more will be accomplished and women around the world will receive the equality they deserve."

Kalindi Speaks to Doris Anderson

2006-02-16T10:13:00.000-05:00

Doris Anderson is the president of Fair Vote Canada and is a journalist and an activist. She was the editor of Chatelaine from 1957 to 1977 and is a past president of NAC. Ms. Anderson spoke at the conference about options for change in our electoral system to create a fairer, more representative democracy.

Kalindi had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Anderson after her talk. Ms. Anderson shared with Kalindi her thoughts that we need a change in our voting systems that will allow the removal of barriers to the nomination and election of women. Even though 12 year olds, like Kalindi, cannot vote, young women should be informed about the issues and they have the power to work together to lobby the government for change.

Photographs from Day 2 of Conference

2006-02-16T09:59:00.000-05:00

Senator Lillian Dyck and Anita

Emily, Linda Palmer Nye, and Anita

Emily's Interview of Louisa Moya

2006-02-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

Louisa Moya is the Youth Membership Organizer of Equal Voice.

Emily, who wrote about the organization Equal Voice in her essay, had the opportunity to interview Ms. Moya:

Q: What are you doing in your youth chapter to improve public awareness on how few women are elected in Parliament?

A: We are currently trying to establish youth chapters. This youth initiative is fairly new (Summer 2005 launch) and right now we are focused on increasing youth membership. Once we have enough youth involved, we will use the action plans we established today to help raise awareness and participation of youth.

Q: What are you doing to improve pulic awareness about your youth chapter?

A: We are mainly coming out to forums like this one where youth will be in attendence. We are looking to young leaders like you to help us start our chapters.

Q: As announced on your website, Equal Voice was created in 1984 at at that time your goal was to see women elected to 50% of the seats in Parliament in 10 years. That goal has not been reached. That said, what new techniques can address this poor representation?

A: At the moment, we have changed our goal to 30% because that has become what is necessary and more realistic in the short term. But our focus right now is to get the chapters organized so that we can start working together to improve representation of women.

Anita's Thoughts on Speaker Sharon McIvor

2006-02-16T09:24:00.000-05:00

Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) is a lawyer, educator and activist. Her work focuses on aboriginal women's equality and human rights issues.

Anita blogged about some of her thoughts after this session:

“I learned that fighting for women’s rights is a never-ending struggle – especially for Aboriginal women. I can’t believe that it wasn’t until 1960 that the laws were changed to allow Aboriginals living on reserve to vote without losing their Indian treaty status. I also learned about the discriminatory laws where Aboriginal women were denied their rights under the Indian Act when they married non-Indians. Many women lost their Indian status by marriage and they only got their rights back in 1985.

From listening Ms. McIvor and other speakers, I learned that Aboriginal women continue to face great barriers to equality.”

More Photos From First Day of Conference

2006-02-16T09:08:00.000-05:00

Jacquie Hawken - Essay Contest Committee Member

Anita, Beverley Baines, Mary Eberts, Dr. Fester, Emily

Gail Henderson, Michelle Dagnino

Conference Day

2006-02-14T23:30:00.000-05:00

Kalindi, Emily, and Anita arrive early on Parliament Hill

Barbara Burkett, Emily, Anita, Marilyn Roycroft

Michelle Landsberg & Kalindi

Margaret Mitchell

Opening Night With Deepa Mehta

2006-02-13T23:17:00.000-05:00

Kalindi had the great privilege of interviewing Deepa Mehta before the screening of her recent movie "Water."

Kalindi was also interviewed by Alyssa Nael of 93.1 FM CKCU

As well as Meara Michalska who is a second-year journalism student from Ryerson University

Kalindi, Emily, and Anita Arrive Tomorrow

2006-02-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

The Rideau Canal is frozen, the Winterlude festival is in full swing, and the Forum on Women's Activism in Constitutional and Democratic Reform is only a day away!

Essay Contest Winners Announced!

2006-02-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

**ESSAY WINNERS ANNOUNCED**

Congratulations to All Participants in the Lived Writes Essay Contest!
We received many inspiring essays from across the country. Our grand prize winners will be coming to Ottawa to participate in the Forum on Women's Activism in Constitutional and Democratic Reform, a 2 day conference hosted on Parliament Hill.

**
We would like to recognize our grand prize winners, as well as some of our other outstanding participants:

Grand Prize Winners
Emily Bunnett-Jones
Anita Gyemi
Kalindi Patel

Semi-Finalists
Leah Blekkenhorst
Alexandra Cool-Fergus
Krupa Kotecha
Derek Hambly
Miranda Thorne
Leah Waldes
Robyn Zajac

Honourable Mentions
Bakhtawar Awan
Megan Benjamin
Olivia Best
Shruti Chakravarthy
Brianna DaSilva
Kimberly Dowell
Pauline Saunders
Fletch Shaw
Michelle Tedesco

Sponsors
Sincere thanks to our generous sponsors:

The Law Commission of Canada
Elisabeth Sachs Law Offices
Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario
Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish LLP

Special Thanks To the Essay Contest Committee:

Nadine Blum (Chair)
Jacquie Hawken
Cathy Lace
Cynthia Petersen
Marilyn Roycroft
Elisabeth Sachs