[Lesley Tetteh] Hi everyone, thank you guys so much for being here today and I'm really great to
be here with all of you. I hope you are
all enjoying the conference so far.
Welcome to our discussion called "Elect Her: Women's Political Participation as a
Conduit for achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals." My name is Lesley
Tetteh,  I'll be the moderator for this
discussion today. So we begin this
discussion by acknowledging the land on
which we gather is the traditional
territory of the many Indigenous nations
who continue to live and work here
today. This territory is covered by the
Upper Canada treaties and is within
the land protected by the Dish With One
Spoon wampum agreement. Today this
gathering place is home to many First
Nations, Métis and Inuit people and
acknowledging this reminds us that our
great standard of living is directly
related to the sharing of resources and
friendship of Indigenous people. Before
we begin, I want to share a little bit
about the Ontario Council of
International Corporation that is
presenting this panel discussion to you
all today and the Youth Policy Making 
Hubs and the Gender
Equality Making Hubs. So these Hubs are
communities that encourages learning and
community engagement across Ontario.
These Hubs are designed to enable multi-sectoral
dialogue and knowledge exchange
to advance inclusion, gender equality and
sustainable development. And you can
learn much more about OCIC through
their website and by searching up their
social media pages,
we're on Instagram and we're also on
Twitter. I do want to share a little
bit about myself as your moderator and
also as your friend. My name is Lesley Tetteh,
again for those who don't know who
I am, and I am also a youth advocate with
the OCIC Youth Policy Makers Hub. And I spent a lot of time in the
academic space as a post-secondary
student and educator, mentor, advocate and
activist. And as a woman of color I do
believe that I deserve to be a part of a
conversation that affects not only my
lives but - my life,  sorry - but the lives of
those around me. And I'm grateful to be a
part of this discussion as not only your
moderator but someone who is keen to
learning about the multiple perspectives
that are needed in this discussion
surrounding womxn's
engagement in politics. And we all should
know by now that women's involvement in
politics that all levels truly matter,
from voting to running for office. However,
the role of women in political spaces is
often limited to those who are still
underrepresented. What we hope to do
today during our session, not only with
our wonderful panelists who I will
present to you in a short bit, but with
everybody here that's joining us today
is to foster a healthy and meaningful
discussion on the importance of gender
equality within institutional and
non-institutional political spaces
through fair representation of women of
all identities. So there are many ways
that we need to have this discussion and
I am pleased to facilitate and be a part
of this conversation today where there
will be insightful perspectives shared and it
will give us all an opportunity to learn
and unlearn and to discover how we can
all get involved in politics. So we do
have our great panel here today and I am
pleased to welcome each and every one of
you, thank you again for taking the time
here out of your busy schedules to
have this great conversation today. And I
just want to introduce each and every
one of you all and I'm gonna start off
with Farrah Seucharan, thank you Farrah for being
with us today. Farrah is a current
member of the Patients, Family and Public
Advisors Council at Health Quality
Ontario and is also the founder of a
project which now involves empathy
creation and shifts in thinking. She has
worked for both nonprofits and the
federal government and has spent over 15
years working on various human rights
campaigns. She is currently a masters
student at the SOAS University
of London specializing in poverty
reduction with a focus on inclusive
growth. Thank you so much Farrah for being here
with us today. Now before you do begin, I
do want to share with everybody that you
are all invited to the conversation. We
will be taking questions and we will be
answering them later on and after this
discussion today. So please feel free
to share any comments, questions, any
concerns, anything. This is a space for
all of us to engage and we'll be sure to
answer them
after we have our discussion here. Thank
you so much Farrah. [Farrah Seucharan]: Thanks,
Lesley. I'm an advocate for disability
rights and because I have many invisible
illnesses, such as lupus, and I don't see
people like myself represented in the
electoral landscape very often. But to
start I'd like to clarify PACs for the
audience. PACs or Political Action
Committees are American organizations
which finance political campaigns. PACs
and super PACs, which can donate directly
to candidate campaigns or influence
media respectively, are often considered
controversial as corporations will often
vote in their favor - oh, sorry - as
corporations will often donate to a
campaign or support a campaign in the
media in order to get the potential
winner to vote in their favor in regards
to certain bills. So to counteract their
influence new PACs, such as Justice
Democrats and Brand New Congress, were
created they find working-class
candidates and train their teams in
canvassing and fundraising strategies so
that they have a chance of winning
without selling out to corporations.
Although they've had great success with
a number of candidates, such as Alexandra
Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, they've
also had many failures where candidates
were unable to defeat corporate-backed incumbents. The electoral landscape in Canada is
becoming increasingly similar. While the
Canada Elections Act contains no mention
of PACs, similar groups called "technically federal
nonprofit corporations" are listed. Their
spending is limited during an election
but unlimited outside of elections and
this has resulted in many attack ads
being released during and outside of
election periods. So how can we as
private citizens influence politics to
promote the SDGs compared to people with
unlimited finances. We believe the answer
is to promote the election of
inclusivity minded women. The rallying
cry of people with disabilities has been
nothing about us without us because
we've continuously seen policies written
that exclude us despite our best efforts. A common occurrence among disability
activists, and something that I've
experienced, is to be invited to policy
consultations only to see none of our suggestions used
in final documents. Elections Canada
notes that people with disabilities are
largely absent in electoral processes
and states there's no collected history
of the presence or absence of people
with disabilities in Canadian politics.
But we're well-known organizers and have
established groups such as the
Disability Justice Network of Ontario to
advance our causes with in support of
accessible environments. Our activism
isn't altruism, it's necessary for our
survival. Canada still lacks the policies
to help most people with disabilities
become candidates. Many of the steps in
running a successful campaign are
barriers. How do you fundraise for a
candidate who is often thought of as
lesser or who needs physical assistance? More taxpayer dollars could be used to
provide funds to help candidates with
disabilities but this is controversial.
Politics is 24/7 but so is disability. The need for a substantive
equality is paramount and it's been
proven that independence is a myth,
interdependence is the way forward. A
PAC style group run by both disabled
and able-bodied candidates committed to
transformative justice could be the
solution for candidates with
disabilities, changing the way we're all
seen and making us well on our way to
advancing gender equality. Thank you.
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thank you so much Farrah for introducing that
really important sentiment, "nothing
without us." And I'm really excited to hear a little
bit more about your perspectives on that.
Thank you so much for introducing the
Political Action ommittees as well and
I'm really excited to learn what how
that looks like within the Canadian
context and how that promotes gender
equality. And so thank you so much again
far for being here with us today and I
want to introduce our next panelist Jess Notwell. Thank you so much Jess for being
here with us today. A little bit about
Jess, Jess is a PhD candidate in
international development and sociology. Her research focuses on how women's
everyday decolonial actions contribute
to liberation and decolonization locally
and globally. She's a
co-founder of Ignite Global Feminist
Oollective and is a member of the OCIC Gender Equality Hub. She also
volunteers with the YWCA Canada on the
Reconciliation Action Committee. Thank
you so much Jess for being here today and tell us a
little bit about yourself and why does
this conversation matters to you.
[Jess Notwell]: Thanks Lesley. So I'm two-spirit, Cree-Scot-Métis and like lots of Indigenous
people across Turtle Island I didn't
know I was Indigenous until adulthood.
So I'm on a journey to learn and live my
culture as an activist and land defender
and an ally in liberation struggle. And
within this context I've been thinking
what does SDG 5 really mean. What does
gender equality mean when thousands of
Indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people are murdered and missing
and the national inquiries calls to
justice are sidelined in favor of "more
important" priorities. Since thousands of
years, Indigenous women across Turtle
Island are leaders and decision makers.
This has looked different in different
Indigenous nations but is based in
practices of respect and reciprocity in
relationship with the land and water and
one another.
Enter settler colonialism and
transatlantic slavery, the foundations of
settler domination in colonial Canada
that work tirelessly to undermine the
leadership of Indigenous women and
eliminate Indigenous peoples because we
are an obstacle to complete control over
the land. Eter the political system of
colonial Canada, here are a few facts.
From 1857 until 1960 First Nations
people could only vote if they
relinquished Indian status. The Indian
Act in 1876 created band councils which
the state intended to replace Indigenous
governance systems. You may have heard
about some of the problems the
imposition of the colonial band system
has created for the Wet'suwet'en people.
In this context when Indigenous women
enter mainstream Canadian politics to
fight for equality they often experience
violence and their leadership is
undermined. When Chief
Theresa Spence was a whistleblower about
the poverty imposed on Attawapiskat 
through settler colonialism, the federal
government responded with an audit. In
response Chief Spence staged a hunger
strike to demand that Indigenous and
treaty rights of her people be respected.
And when Jody Wilson-Raybould was a
whistleblower against corruption she was
removed from her position as Minister of
Justice and Attorney General. But in
response she invoked Indigenous laws on
Parliament Hill saying "These are the
teachings of my parents, grandparents and
my community. I come from a long line of
matriarchs and I am a truth teller in
accordance with the laws and traditions
of our Big House." As you can see the
achievement of SDG 5 is impossible
without Indigenous women's leadership,
without ending the genocide, without
decolonization, without land back. Gender
equality is not achieved by telling
everyone that you are feminist. Honor
the treaties, respect Indigenous
sovereignty, decolonize now. 
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thank you so much Jess for that powerful introduction
and that powerful statement. I think it's
really important, I strongly believe it's
really important, to understand the
history, the Indigenous history in order
to decolonize and deconstruct political
systems and making sure we create a
space to achieve gender equality. And I'm
really looking forward to hearing a
little bit more on your perspective on
that and how we can be able to do so. So
thank you so much again for that Jess
and I really appreciate that. And I want
to introduce our next panelist Christina
Muia. Thank you so much  Christina for
being with us today. Chistina Muia has worked with the United
Nations, several Canadian international
nonprofits and is a board advisor at the
Canadian Samaritans for Africa. Her
passion for poverty reduction and social
justice has led her to work and
volunteer on women empowerment, youth
employment and food security projects. She co-founded BiaSHEara,
a multi-faceted enterprise that
showcased stories of Canadian women
entrepreneurs of East African descent
and connected women through networking
events. Thank you so much Christina. Please share with us what you hope to
bring to this discussion and
this is important to you. [Christina Muia]: Thank you so
much Lesley for the introduction and
thank you all for being here today. We're
really excited to have you all here to
listen to this amazing conversation and
actually much-needed conversation around
the SDGs. Another dimension in my work
has been centered around advancing
social and economic development for
local and international communities
through a social justice lens. I have
engaged politically through civic
engagement, sending petitions, running for
student council and am currently a board advisor for a nonprofit. My interest
in electoral position in Canada sparked at
the following elections in the last
couple of years and noticing that few visible minorities are running for
office and even fewer are getting
elected in public office. For example, in
Canada's recent federal election
diverse political candidates were once
again underrepresented. Women are in 3%
of the seats in parliament and only 20%
of all these women come from Indigenous
and visible minority communities. While
they obviously may be present in our
schools, our workplaces, our communities
is not evident in our leadership and in
positions of power in nonprofits, the
private sector, and most importantly, the
public office.  This gap in leadership in
our institutions is even more pronounced
for women who come from marginalized
communities. As the previous
co-panelist Farrah mentioned, we are here
to advocate for PAC-like organizations in
Canada that will support minority and
marginalized women to get elected in public office. I got interested in PACs after
following Ilhan Omar's story and how
she won a seat in Minnesota in the US.
And also hearing about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's story as well. Their stories were
so powerful and got me thinking hmm, how
can marginalized communities participate
politically in Canada and how
can we mobilize resources to identify
and elect more emerging leaders from our
communities. I listened to the Canadian
landscape to see whether their exists
PAC-like organizations
and this is how I came
across Operation Black Vote.
This is a non-profit and multi-partisan
organization. It has been around for 15
years educating, advocating and
motivating Black people to lead and
participate in Canadian political
processes at all levels as well as taking up
leadership roles in agencies, boards
and the civil service. Operation Black
Vote Canada was instrumental in helping
Arielle Kayabaga,  a 28 year old Black
woman who was once a refugee in Burundi,
to run for a seat as a councillor in
London, Ontario and win. Due to the work that Operation Black Vote Canada does in
leadership training and support we have
witnessed an increasing number of Black
people putting in their nominations
to run for municipal seats. Black women
and other marginalized women not
participating in the political sphere
and in addition making spaces will
impact the overall well-being of
families and communities, cities and
countries. Achieving SDG 5, or gender
equality by 2030, does not only mean
working with women but it means leading with
women from diverse and marginalized
communities to realize holistic
sustainable development. [Lesley Tetteh]:  Thank you so much Christina for sharing that with us.
And I think that include, or that
includes that are setting the tone and
showing that it is possible to be
involved in politics no matter where you
are and I think it's necessary. And I
want to introduce our final panelist,
last but not least, Anam Rashid. Thank
you so much for being there with us
today. Anam is a student at the
University of Toronto studying
International Development Studies and
criminal and critical, sorry, migration
studies. She is committed to supporting
and engaging in initiatives that
promote quality education, healthy
communities and gender equality both
locally and globally. Her passion has led
her to volunteer and work with a number
of organizations including the Yellow
Brick House and, more recently, Right
to Play and the Refugee Girls Worldwide. Thank you so much Anam for being here
with us today. Please share with us, like
the rest of our wonderful panel, what you
hope to bring to the conversation and
why this conversation matters to you.
[Anam Rashid]: Thank you so much Lesley and thank you so much to all my co-panelists
for all the insights that you've
shared already and to all my wonderful
colleagues who are watching this right
now and sharing this space with us.
So growing up I often failed to see the
representation of women of visible
minority groups, including Muslim women
like myself, in our political and
leadership spaces here in Canada which
led me to interrogate this idea of space
and who occupies the space. And I think a
Alaa Murabit, who is a remarkable
Canadian physician and global advocate
for the SDGs, puts it best what she says
if you do not have the people most
impacted by policy at the table then
whatever is decided will never be
representative of the community  it governs.
And I think my co-panelists have all
echoed that in terms of talking about
the participation of a diverse groups of
women and the fact that they need to be
at the table and they have to be able to
share their share their perspectives
within these spaces. So in the last few
years I've really come to understand the
importance of my political participation
as a young woman of color in Canada. Be
it through voting or through my
involvement with organizations like the
Canadian Muslim Vote who are dedicated
to improving the political engagement of
Canadian Muslims. And to add to that I
think that my experience in advocating
for gender equality, both locally and
globally, have allowed me to understand
how women's individual identities
intersect in ways that impact how they
are viewed, understood and treated. With
that being said, women's political
participation in Canada must be diverse
and intersectional. Increasing the
diversity of women who are from diverse
walks of life in the Canadian political
landscape is not only integral to
achieving gender equality but many of
the Sustainable Development Goals.
Working collaboratively with their
communities to understand their concerns
coupled with their lived experiences
minority women including Indigenou,
racialized, LGBTQ & two-spirit women and
women with disabilities can push for
policy change and I thought I'd share a
really great example of some women who
have done so here in Toronto.
Back in 2018 one of my professors at the
University of Toronto was running as
candidate for TDSB trustee for the Don
Valley North riding and her campaign
involved working collaboratively with
her community to understand the concerns
of parents over their children's
education, especially in light of the
provincial education cuts. And I think
what her story really demonstrates is
that minority women hold the power to
foster strong and meaningful
relationships with their communities
which can result in real progress in
achieving the SDGs in these spaces. In
her case this was SDG 4, quality
education. So it's undeniable that
women's increased political
participation can lead to better social
and political and economic outcomes for
everybody, but they need support because
the stark reality is that minority women
face systemic barriers to their
political participation in Canada. As my
co-panelists Jess and Farrah andTina
already alluded to this can include
various forms of gender-based violence
and discrimination. And the reality is
that we cannot remove these barriers by
ourselves.
There must be support and collaboration
from different actors which include
various community stakeholders, civil
society organizations and those in power
at the government level to address these
barriers and it is women who must be at
the forefront of these conversations. So
I think this all leads to the larger
question of what can we do to enable the
meaningful participation of diverse
women in Canada. And Jess you brought upthe really great example of, you know,
decolonizing our spaces and our
institutions so we can enable this
participation. And my co-panelists Jess
and Tina, I'm sorry Farrah and Tina alluded
to the power of political action
committees. And I think there's so many
ways that we can do so here here in
Canada. So I'd actually like to open up
the floor to for the audience to
engage on this. And I'd love to hear your
perspective on what do you think are
some effective modes of collaboration
and ways that we can create more
opportunities to enable the meaningful
participation of diverse groups of women
in Canada.
So if you feel comfortable please share
your ideas and thoughts in the chat box
and feel free to engage with one another
and I will also be engaging with you in
the chat box.
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thanks so much Anam for setting the tone along with our wonderful panelists here
for this conversation. I guess we can get
started again. Bfore we do continue, the
floor is open to everybody that has some
questions, comments, concerns for our
wonderful panelists to answer during our
coffee connections and after with this
panel. We have a couple of minutes to
chat so please feel free share all of
your questions and we will be sure to
look into them and answer them for you.
So let's get started here with this
conversation. So one thing that I have
heard from each and every one of you
panelists is the, are the barriers facing
marginalized communities and Indigenous
communities when it comes to
participating effectively as a woman in
in politics and a lot of this happens
because there is usually a lack of data
as a barrier and that affects political
participation. So I want to ask this
question, and I think Christina I will
ask this question for you, how has a lack
of disaggregated data on women
affected minority and immigrant women
and women with disabilities from
participating in Canadian politics and
what would be some of the barriers that
prevent women from these communities in
engaging in the political sphere? [Christina Muia]: Thank
you so much Lesley for that question, I
think it's such an important question to
ask. As far as we know the majority of
political participation data that has
been collected has been on women in
general. And although this is important
it does not help us identify whether
specific barriers for women from marginalized
communities are and how we can
support them to succeed in politics. In
the political sphere there's a need to collect disaggregated data from
minority, Indigenous, disability and queer
communities running for public office
regardless of whether they win or not.
This will help us identify the
opportunities and challenges and
collaborate for supporting them to
succeed and stay in public office.
It's really important for us to
understand what the barriers were for
women like Diana Yoon who recently ran
as a federal NDP candidate and
Lily Obina who ran in municipal
elections in Ottawa and how we can
amplify these voices in political spaces.
As my co-panelist Anam has just have
mentioned there's several systemic
barriers that are faced by female 
candidates who come from marginalized
communities while running for public office.
A good example is Celina Caesar-Chavannes,
a Black woman MP in the last federal
parliament reported facing racial
microaggressions decided to step down
from her role as an MP.
Another example is Jody Wilson-Raybould, an Indigenous woman who also reported
receiving hate mail and threats while in
public office. Concern of discrimination
or threats on the campaign trail or in
public office
is a major barrier for many women from
marginalized communities. When position
like this, in public office does require
resources like finances, social networks
and influence. Having PAC-like
organizationslike Operation Black
Vote Canada, as a previously mentioned,
will allow marginalized women to navigate
the nomination process, raise funds and
view the successful election campaign.
These are some of the political
resources that Arielle Kayabaga
acquired before her historic win in
London, Ontario.
In Mississauga for example, a city that I
lived in for over ten years,
where about 60% of the residents
identify as visible minorities there's
only one councillor who is a woman of
color, actually the only person of color,
Dipika Damerla. As a Black woman of
African descent who is a first
generation Canadian, I understand that due
to our intersecting identities we
require a diversity of representation in
policymaking.
Like Rosemary Brown, Jean Augustine, Daurene Lewis, Michaëlle Jean, Zanana Akande,
Vivian Barbot - we need to take up space
and take up seats at decision making
tables. Building female leadership truly
matters across a range of abilities and
identities. It is crucial to achieving
Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thank you so much Christina for sharing
that answer with us. I think that is
really great that you have shared some
experiences of women who have been
involved in political participation and
highlighting the fact that that can mean
something different to everybody. And
there's so many ways of being involved
from advocacy to capacity building to
educating and learning, in the sense as
we are out doing today. Aand on the topic
of advocacy and capacity-building in terms of achieving SDG 5  in the
political sphere.  Like I mentioned
earlier this can mean something
different for everybody and I do want to
talk a little bit about that in
using the Indigenous perspective and I
think Jess would be great for answering
this question. I want to ask you Jess,
what can you say can be the greatest
challenge in advocating for gender
equality in the spaces that you occupy
and the work that you do? [Jess Notwell]: Thanks Lesley. So I would say, as my co-panelists have
outlined, the greatest challenges come
from systems indicated with inequalities
and the people who prop them up. In
acting for gender equality I'm guided by
"miyopimatisowin" often translated from
Cree as "the good life" but that sounds a
little too much like Adam Smith to me. So
I explain it as living our
responsibilities to Spirit in all our
relations. Most recently I have been one
of the people advocating for Indigenous
ways of knowing and scholarship and
methodologies to be taken seriously in
academia as a student. My own research
methodology is decolonial co-resistance
built on Leanne Simpson's writing that
instead of relying on settler
recognition, we can choose to act through
constellations of co-resistance across
movements when we have priorities in
common, like on this panel today. I've
been told by non-Indigenous professors
that my research is "not sociological,"
enough, that my "activist voice" overwhelms
my scholar voice and that I'm not
"Indigenous enough" to write from the
position I claim. This racism has gone
unacknowledged and unchallenged.
And around me I see the hiring of a very small number
of Indigenous professors as "proof" that
the university is working on
reconciliation and the downloading of
responsibility for reconciliation on to
Indigenous professors and students,
particularly women, and a few amazing
allies. We are good enough to be the
reconciliation proxy for the university
but our ways of knowing and being are
not really "scholarship." I struggle
against this colonial thinking and
practice from a precarious position
since the very people and systems I
struggle against get to decide whether
or not I graduate. As my fellow panelists
have demonstrated the meaning of SDG 5
needs constant interrogation. And when we
don't achieve gender equality by 2030 we
will need to regroup and advocate for a
plan that has the possibility to succeed.
There is no gender equality without
Indigenous and treaty rights, without
decolonization, without Indigenous
resurgence. there's no gender equality
without handling anti-Black racism and
Islamophobia, without disability justice,
without the liberation of Palestine,
without trans rights. The biggest
challenge to achieving gender equality
is that it has been defined within
the boundaries of a system that is a
colonial, white supremacist, capitalist,
hetero-patriarchy. We will only achieve
gender equality through remembering that
another world is possible and through co-resistance to create this decolonized
world together. [Lesley Tetteh]: Wow,  thank you so much Jess for sharing that. And that just goes
to show that SDG 5 has more than one
definition and has more than one
experience and more than one story. And
it really does come with education and
awareness from all perspectives, all
spheres, all walks of life and that can
be difficult for some more than others,
and I want to talk a little bit about
that. I want to ask Farrah, especially when
you brought up your perspectives on
disability rights and you know who gets
to be a part of that conversation, I want
to ask you when it comes to education
awareness, and effective collaboration in
promoting gender equality and female
engagement in the political sphere
sphere, sorry, has training and education been an approach
inserving leadership positions that
mobilize adequate representation in
political spaces and what does that look
like for you and your field of work?
[Farrah Seucharan]: Thanks Leslie this is a great question to show an example of equality versus
substantive equality. Many training and
leadership programs consider themselves
"accessible" but too often the cost
involved or the hours required leave out
a number of people with disabilities. The
proposed Accessible Canada Act will help if
it's enacted because it applies to make
these programs truly accessible, but I've
personally found it ironic that some
training programs on human rights are in
fact discriminatory against people with
disabilities. Despite wanting to
collaborate with others, we're often left
out of leadership spaces and this is why
we tend to form our own organizations
and support our own leaders. We are
knowledge creators and at the forefront
of change yet the barriers entrenched
and leadership programs means that we
aren't seen as the face of change. So in
remembering that over 1 billion people
wordwide have a disability,  a
number that's only set to increase in
part due to climate change,
Canadians with power and privilege
should help us build leadership programs
and PAC-organizations that are
truly available to all, which would mean
keeping some programs virtual. This way
our knowledge and leadership could be an
example for the world to follow as they
cope with the growing number of people
with disabilities. The great activist
Denise Sherer Jacobson once said "you can
pass a law, but until you can change
society's attitudes that law won't mean
much." Let's pass the Accessible Canada Act but
count on intersectional cooperation to
change Canada's idea of what a leader
truly looks like. [Lesley Tetteh]: Wow that was really important, thank you so much Farrah for
sharing that perspective. And I think
that brings up the discussion again on
who is seen and who was heard and
deciding who gets to take up that space,
which everybody does deserve to be in
that space, so thank you so much Farrah for
sharing that with us.And I want to bring
over this discussion into an
intersectional approach and, as Anam
mentioned earlier, I think it's really important
that we use intersectionality when it
comes to being engaged within the
political sphere. And Anam, I want to
ask you this question - how can we use
this approach to encourage women's
political participation in achieving SDG 5
along with the other SDGs here in
Canada? [Anam Rashid]:  Yes, that's a really great
question Lesley, thank you so much for
asking. I think it's really important
that we look at and we approach women's
political participation in Canada
through an intersectional feminist lens, and I think there's a few ways that we
can do so. A) We need to understand
that the political participation of
women cannot be depicted through a
single lens or a single story.For
example, as a young Muslim woma,n the
issues and the concerns that I have
might be similar but might also be very
different from another young Muslim
woman living in another community in
Canada.. And that is because as women our
individual identities intersect in ways
that impact our lived experiences, and
also because we come from different
communities where the concerns might be
different. And then there's another part
to this, which is that because of women's
intersecting identities the way we
choose to participate politically might
look different from one another. For
example, for one woman
this might mean running us an MP for her
riding but I might see myself being more
effective by supporting a woman, this
woman, in her campaign and another woman
might see herself being more effective
by creating a petition to advocate for
an issue within her community. Each woman has a right to participate politically
in the way that she wants to and her
political participation, whatever that
might look like,  plays a key role to the
story that we are trying to create here.
Which is a story of inclusion, of
empowerment and leadership. And I think
this goes back to the conversation we
were having earlier on, and I think all
of my co-panelists have touched upon
this, but what are the ways, like what are,
how can we create more
opportunities and resources that can
really enable the meaningful
participation of diverse women,
but especially in ways that align with
their intersecting identities and their
experiences. And a lot of you had some
really great comments in the chat box so
just to mention a few of them . Some of
you mentioned having more youth and
educational opportunities so that, you
know, young women from diverse
backgrounds can engage in the political
landscape at an early age. So some
organizations that you mentioned
included Apathy is Boring and I think
networking opportunities and mentorship
opportunities are a great way for young
women of diverse backgrounds to see
themselves getting engaged in the
political landscape. And also having role
models and mentors where they can look
up to and therefore see themselves in
politics.. And I think this really
demonstrates the power of collaboration
to address this issue and I think that
enabling the participation of diverse
women, but in ways that really align with
their experiences is integral, to
achieving gender equality but also more
healthier communities and more
sustainable cities and reduce
inequalities in our communities across
Canada. [Lesley Tetteh] Thank you so much Anam for that
very insightful answerand response for
this question. I think that just wraps up
everything that was shared today
about the importance of having
individual stories and experiences in order to represent the way
policies and political engagement
affects our livelihood and our
well-being here in Canada and using the
the Political Action Committees and how
it means or what it means, sorry, in the
Canadian space is really important. And I
see here that we have some amazing
questions that I would love to share
with you guys and hopefully you guys can
provide some insight on them. So I'm just
gonna go through a couple of questions
here I do see one, and whoever feels
comfortable with answering this
question, please feel free to do so. I
think this question is really important,
this is a question that I often ask as
well. So  Michelle Alicia Leah Ma,
I hope I pronounced your name right,
asked "what are some thoughts on doing
more besides the land acknowledgments to
reconcile with Indigenous people?", I think
that's a really important question. [Jess Notwell]: I
agree, it's a super important question. 
Thanks Michelle and thanks Lesley.
For sure, I think some guidance can be
learned from the National Inquiry Report
on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. And specifically, because I
know it's a thousand pages and that can
be a little bit overwhelming, page 199 is
the Calls for Justice to Canadians and
the Calls for Justice to Canadians
really outline becoming a strong ally
and what that means. And becoming a
strong ally really means learning
Canada's history and present of settler
colonialism, understanding one's own
position within that and then taking
action in every single situation
possible, every time you hear a
conversation on the bus, at the dinner
table when, somebody says Happy
Thanksgiving and it's time to say mmm
let's think about what Thanksgiving
really means, and who's being thankful
for what. It's all of those small
situations every day, in addition to the
big picture that will really help us to
decolonize and take personal
responsibility.
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thank you so much Jess for that wonderful response Michelle, I hope that answers
your question. Thank you so much again
for asking that great question. I'm just
gonna ask another question here shared
by Miriam. And Miriam asks" how can we
motivate women of colour and those from
racialized communities to get involved
in the political sphere. I understand
that removing barriers like access to
education, however what are some ways that we can achieve participation?" [Christina Muia] I can try. Can I take a stab at that? like a
As Farrah just mentioned, and the rest of the panelists as well, we believe having, you
know, PAC-like organizations is really
important because they not only
educate and motivate people from the
community to take part in political
processes but they also work with
communities to centre the
education regarding voting but also to
be less apathetic
towards politics.  As we all know,
sometimes, so as you all know there is
political apathy among young voters and
even from immigrant communities as well.
People don't watch as much as they should
and even that discourages support from
our community from running. So it is
really important for us to be educated,
to be informed and to always, you know, be
knowledgeable about politics but to also
support these organizations and support.
women in this kind of collaboration, and
to also you know, take up political offices or
even just engage politically however
they want to. [Lesley Tetteh]: Thanks so much, Christina.
Miriam, I hope that answers your question. As well if you'd like to follow up
please stay stay with us we will be
discussing a lot more and we'll also in
our coffee connection. I just want to
move on to another question here, another
question I see here. This is more of a
little personalized question for Anam, it
is by Taznim, sorry if I did
mispronounce your name here,  but Anam they
want to know "can you please share with
us more about your experience working
with the Canadian Muslim Vote? What are
some ways they are making more space for
Muslims to express their political
opinions, especially for Muslim women?"
[Anam Rashid] Sure, thank you so much Taznim for that question, I think it's very, very
important, and I think Tina you kind of
touched upon this a little bit, is that
oftentimes in, you know, immigrant
communities there is kind of this
political apathy. And also I think it
comes to maybe having a lack of civic
education, which sometimes doesn't allow
us to understand the importance of
voting and the importance of our
political participation. So a lot of what
my work with the Canadian Muslim vote
really involved was A) that civic
education, so campaigning and canvassing
and going door-to-door to educate the
Muslim community, at will at least in the
GTA where I live, about the importance of
voting and about the importance of their
political engagement. And I think also in
terms of talking especially for Muslim
women, they had a youth fellowship
program, but it was for not, it was both
for both males and females but I think
this was a really great way for Muslim
youth to engage with mentors and role models
who are also Muslim and who had been
engaged in you know political spaces
before. And by having diverse women be
represented as these role models and as
these mentors other Muslim women,
especially young Muslim women like myself, can
see ourselves engaging in these
political spaces. So I think it's a whole
range of things but definitely, you know,
educating our communities about the
importance of our political
participation and also having role
models and mentors who can really engage the youth in that as well. [Lesley Tetteh]: Thank you so
much for that response and I believe we
have a little bit more time for one more
question, I want to make sure that
everybody gets involved here, and then
again we'll discuss more during our
coffee connections as well. Now I think
this will be a really important question
in terms of diversity and accessibility.
So Michelle Alicia Leah Ma again asks
"what are some ways to have subtitles in
these conversations so that people in
the neuro-diverse community have access
with subtitles, and what does that look
like in politics to have subtitles at
each of these meetings?" [Farrah Seucharan]:  Hello. Yeah, okay
great. So subtitles in terms of this
conference, I believe these videos will
be uploaded to YouTube and then you'll
be able to see it with subtitles there, I
believe from the YouTube subtitles. When
it comes to political consultations
unfortunately this is such a barrier. I
know a lot of neurodiverse people have
issues with audio in nature and I
think what we really need is to have
things virtual, I know I keep saying that
over and over again, virtual.   But if we
have it this way the ability to have
things subtitles will be there. And
addition in addition to this you'll be
able to adjust volume and all these
sorts of things. I think what we actually
really need to do is have consultations
with people in the neurodiverse community
to find out exactly what they need and
then we can have disability
organizations push for those changes
because there's power in numbers. So like
a government official might be able to
ignore one of us but they cannot have
like afford to 100, that makes them look pretty bad.
[Lesley Tetteh]: Thanks so much for that answer, I hope that also answered your question.
Michelle thank you so much for sharing
these questions here and we will be sure
to get to all of them. We do have a
little bit of time, I do see one question
here that I think it's really important. It's been asked often but sometimes the
answer isn't always as satisfying and I
think we constantly need to have this
discussion. The question is from
Elizabeth, and thank you so much for
asking this really important question even in 2020, is "what is the best thing
allies can do to help as white and/or
non-marginalized privileged women,
-sorry- or even men?" And if you guys don't
mind me asking, or if everybody doesn't
mind me asking, I'm answering this
question because this question often
comes up in the work that I do as an
educator, as an activist and as a
workshop facilitator, as well. Recognizing
your privilege is the number one key in
a allyship, effective allyship. One
thing that I always tell people is
there's a difference between being an
ally, and the difference between and and
a difference. There's a difference
between - sorry - being an ally and being
nice. Recognizing your privilege in the
space that you occupy and the power that
you hold within that space is more
powerful than people who are often
marginalized and that puts them in a
vulnerable place. And speaking up,
speaking up using that voice, that power
because a lot of these spaces works in
the favour of the privilege. So
recognizing that and being able to
challenge that is a great way of being
an effective ally.SO um I hope that
quickly answers your question, if you
want any more followup with that please
stay behind so we can have a discussion. We are unfortunately at the end of our
discussion panel, I want to thank each
and every one of you all for being here
for participating in this discussion. Please join us for a couple more minutes
for more discussion or for our coffee
connections which will be happening in
about 15 minutes. I want to thank our
panelists here again for this amazing
perspectives that you guys have shared
with us. So all ladies, gentlemen and
non-binary folks, thank you again for
being here and we will hope to connect
soon. Please stay well, please stay safe, 
better days are ahead. [All] Thank you
[Lesley Tetteh]: I think as a moderator at
it would stay just for about five more
minutes in case anybody has some
pressing questions.
[Anam Rashid]: I saw one by Heba which is "due to the fact that COVID-19 has changed politics, how
is this, why is this discussion even more
important given the current situation?"
That's one question maybe if any of us
want to take a jab at it. [Christina Muia]: I think what
we've seen with the pandemic is
mostly some recognition that data is
so crucial. Being able to understand how,
you know, marginalized communities are
being affected by the pandemic has come
to light and that's why, you know,
different provinces across Canada
now are collecting data regarding race
and ethnicity because that's really
important for us, you know how these
communities are affected by the pandemic. I think, as I mentioned, before this translates well
into politics. We need to collect data on
all fronts, in all spaces so we can
better understand what support women in
political spaces but also how to support
marginalized communities in policies and
in other areas. [Lesley Tetteh]  I think to add on top of
that, as we all know politics and
policymaking processes affect everything
that's going on, even in the midst of
this pandemic. And one thing that we have
to consider is that women are one of the
most vulnerable groups affected by this
pandemic in all spheres -  economically,
socially and even within healthcare - we
have to take into consideration how
women are affected as they, most of them,
are working on the frontlines and we
have to take into consideration how they
are affected by accessing health care. In
many countries, even within Canada,
accessing health care is very difficult
for a lot of women and that is often
because of the policies that are being
made. So I believe that this pandemic
really puts things into perspective and
how policies need to be reconsidered for
women to access
these resources fairly and to be
adequately represented. [Anam Rashid] For sure and I think just to add to that if it's okay,
we have some time. I definitely that the
last few months of this current
situation has really shown us, like both
Tina and Lesley mentioned, that women have
disproportionately been affected by this
crisis, especially women from
marginalized communities. And so we've
seen increases, you know for example,
increases in domestic violence within
our communities in Canada. And so for
that reason we need to have, you know,
women from diverse backgrounds be able
to make policy decisions to really
benefit the communities who are most
being impacted by this crisis.And I
think the crisis has shown us that women
can and they must be given the power to
make decisions that benefit both their
local and global communities. So yeah, I
think the situation definitely, you know,
brings light to that even more so. [Lesley Tetteh] I hope that answered the question,
thank you so much. I think this would be
a good time to move over to the coffee
connections. What do you guys think? [All}: Yeah. [Lesley Tetteh]: Okay let's do so. So everybody that is
sticking around, thank you so much we are
going to move over to the coffee
connections, it is in your registration. So we're all going to move over there
now and then we'll be engaging in more
discussion and answering some more
questions there, so thank you everyone. [All]: Thank you, thank you.
