Choice 101

Calling All Young Pro-Choice Canadians Apply for Choice 101!

“Choice 101” will bring together 15 pro-choice Canadians from coast to coast to participate in an interactive 8-week course about pro-choice issues. The course will link you with other individuals who want to learn, share and contribute to the movement for sexual and reproductive rights in Canada.

You don’t have to be an expert to participate; just interested in learning more about pro-choice issues and sharing your ideas, experiences and questions with other people who are under 35.

We will be using teleconference calls to meet each week and we will create a networking site for people to post their thoughts, videos, drawings, web links, etc. to deepen our collective pro-choice knowledge. It’s a great way to broaden your pro-choice horizons and to strengthen the young pro-choice network across Canada.

Topics:

• Pro-Choice, Sex-positivity, Attitudes, & Values
• Current Access Issues in Canada
• History of Abortion Politics in Canada
• Anti-Oppression, Intersectionality, & Privilege
• First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Women & Reproductive Justice
• Demystifying Sex Work
• Pro-choice Activism: Goals, Strategies & Tactics

Presenters:

• Joyce Arthur, Executive Director, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, which protects the legal right to abortion on request and works to improve access to quality abortion services. Before founding ARCC in 2005, she ran the Pro-Choice Action Network in British Columbia for 10 years and edited the national newsletter Pro-Choice Press, which she began in 1995. Arthur has written hundreds of articles on abortion and other political and social justice issues, spoken at dozens of venues in Canada and internationally, given hundreds of media interviews, and appeared in several documentaries. For more information visit: www.arcc-cdac.ca
• Patrizia Gentile, Assistant Professor in the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies at Carleton University holds a Ph.D. from Queen’s University in the Department of History. Her dissertation was an historical study of beauty contests in Canada from the 1920s to the early 1990s. Professor Gentile is also co-author of The Canadian War on Queer: National Security as Sexual Regulation (UBC: 2010) with Dr. Gary Kinsman.

• Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist (POWER) is a non-profit, voluntary organization open to individuals of all genders who self-identify as former or current sex workers, regardless of the industry sector in which they work(ed) (i.e. dancers, street level workers, in and out call workers, phone sex, etc.) and to allies who share our vision.

POWER envisions a society in which sex workers are able to practice their professions free of legal and social discrimination, victimization, harassment and violence and in which sex work is valued as legitimate and fulfilling work making an important contribution to society. For more information visithttp://www.powerottawa.ca/:

• Julie Lalonde, co-founder of the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre and board member of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Julie is a feminist activist and part-time academic. She has been doing work in the reproductive justice movement and anti-violence movement officially and unofficially for about 8 years. Her work ranges from protest attending and organizing to public education campaigns. She currently sits on the board of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. She has a megaphone and is not afraid to use it. Follow her on twitter: http://twitter.com/AskingForIt

• Courtney Scalan, Community Education Coordinator of Planned ParenthoodOttawa (PPO), offers education, counselling and referral services to assist and support people in making informed sexual and reproductive health choices. PPO is a non-judgmental, pro-choice, confidential, supportive, GLBTTQ positive, youth positive organization. For more information visit: http://www.ppottawa.ca/

• And more! Stay tuned as more presenters are confirmed…

Details:

The course will be held from September 27 - November 15, 2011 once a week onTuesdays for two hours at: 14:00 (British Columbia); 15:00 (Alberta / Saskatchewan / Northwest); 16:00 (Manitoba); 17:00 (Quebec / Ontario / Nunavut); 18:00 (Atlantic); and 18:30 (Newfoundland).

All participants must complete our online application and consent form. The consent form needs to be signed and either scanned and emailed/faxed; or sent by postal mail.

Apply online now at: www.canadiansforchoice.ca The deadline to apply is September 19, 2011.

Participant selection will take into consideration provincial and regional representation as well as representation of diverse identities.