A generation’s legacy
Editor’s Note
My parents’ lives were shaped by the turmoils of 1960s America: the Vietnam War and the legal hurdles of family planning. My brothers, twins, were born on an army base in Oklahoma and my mother recalled to me the army matron who would sing-shout, “Ladies, come get your babies!” in a khaki-coloured daycare setting I can only imagine. If it weren’t for northern hospitality to dodgers and deserters, I would not have been born. When I picture in my mind’s eye the Canada to which my parents came, I think of it romantically, in spite of my residence here: its vast rock and wheat fields, its maple arms wide open.
This issue looks at what ghosts of Vietnam still exist, here in our safe country, and continues to explore the feminist struggle.
As Audra Williams writes in “A Gap in the Movement,” “Third wavers might not have the abortion caravan, but we’ve got record labels. Maybe we don’t attend candidate’s school, but we’re running feminist businesses.” Williams asks what will happen to the movement if young women—right on down to the next wave—don’t learn to organize. Focusing specifically on the National Action Council on the Status of Women (NAC), Williams encourages second-wave women to make room at the table.
As Bitch editor Lisa Jervis wrote in Ms. magazine, “Here’s what we all need to recognize so that we can move on: those in their 20s and 30s who don’t see their concerns reflected in the feminism of their elders are ignorant of history; those in their 50s and beyond who think that young women aren’t politically active—or active enough, or active around the right issues—don’t know where to look.” Williams picks up on this thread and, though continuing to define the differences between the generations, posits a mentoring system that goes both ways. Feminists, we’re calling you, she exclaims.
Long-time feminist Doris Anderson tackles other issues of representation in her feature, “Silenced Majority.” If you’re looking for the post-election gender numbers, Anderson’s got ’em. In addition to giving a historical rundown on campaign schools and the Committee of ’94, Anderson looks beyond Canada to demonstrate which electoral systems around the world are working for women—and what proportional representation would do here at home. If you’re still wondering why we need more women in office: no, you’re not in the wrong magazine, but do turn quickly to page 15!
And, in an investigative story that has been in development since August 2005, Chris Arsenault delivers “Collateral Damage.” From the 1950s on, Agent Orange was tested by the military in New Brunswick, and in the ’60s power lines across the province, as well as in Newfoundland, were sprayed with it. Some will recall the CBC’s probe of the process of compensation for those in Canada suffering from Agent Orange exposure, but there are stories that still need to be heard. When we hold a narrative in our hands and we sit with its still images, we feel it differently than when it flashes upon our television and computer screens. Robyn Gregory (pictured), Kenneth Dobbie, Lloyd and Suzanne McCann and hundreds of others like them deserve that time from us.
When I called an up-and-coming journalist who had submitted a piece on surviving Spanish Civil War soldiers and asked him out of the blue to write something entirely different, thankfully Arsenault agreed with me. In spite of, or perhaps because of, his 22 years, Arsenault was both committed to and unafraid of travelling to the edge of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown to document—visually and verbally—this ghost town and its one-time inhabitants.
Emily Schultz editor@thismagazine.ca
