This is a letter I have just submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office. Full of bile and incoherent as always, but spread the word and agitate. The women of Canada need to be
Hmmmm.......Nope, this is all I got. FUCK YOU Harper.
heard and he needs to know that women elsewhere are listening.
Prime Minister,
I would have started that with ‘Dear’, but I am shaking with so much rage right now that I feel I owe you very little courtesy. You have lied to me. You have lied to all women.
I am a wife, a mother, and a tax paying citizen of this country barely making a liveable wage while supporting my entire family well under the poverty line while your government does nothing for my husband’s disability. One of my only comforts is being able to control my fertility up to and including abortion.
In December of 2011, I exercised my legal right to choose and had an abortion. I cannot tell you how much it meant to me that I was able to do that and move on with my life. I imagine I am not the only one who feels this way. Appealing to your greed here, I’m certain that I just cost all taxpayers a few less dollars having that abortion too, since I won’t be drowning in further debt and getting additional child tax and that cheap UCCB you think is worth a damn.
One of my only comforts of your government was that this would remain an unquestioned right for women. YOU SAID in the last election that you WOULD NOT re-open the abortion debate. I figured that you would be smart enough to know that a country that is friendly to women when it comes to reproductive rights is a stronger country. I was also hoping that you would be paying attention to the backlash in the States regarding Republicans messing around with women’s right and take heed.
In learning that you are letting some old, white, male, backbencher with no idea what it’s actually like to be in that position, I have lost every ounce of respect I had for you as our leader. As a tax paying Canadian who breaks her back day in and day out, who has never committed a crime, who votes, and who contributes to society I am personally insulted that you allowed this to happen. I guess a Canada for all people is only for cisgendered and white males after all.
You, sir, are a liar and a coward. Make no mistake, there will be no brushing this off and trying to give us a false sense of security now. Nor will you be able to sweep this under the rug. Rest assured that the Conservatives will NEVER have my vote and I will be spreading the word amongst others.
I won’t bother with imploring you to change your mind because I highly doubt your empathy skills and we all know you can’t keep a promise. My bet is that you find this whole thing rather amusing. I too will find it amusing when this backfires on you.
Sincerely,
Marie Anelle McLaughlin
Wife of a disabled man, mother of two children, daughter of a retired Air Force Major.
Single income earner
PS. I’m posting this on a blog, since it’s women friendly you probably will not have heard of it, but trust me…it’ll be read.
You can contact the Prime Minister’s office at pm@pm.gc.ca or go here for the form.
As a woman down here in the aforementioned States (what’s more, from Texas with currently the most regressive laws on the books), let me just say, I feel ya. And I’m sorry that the illness pervading the States appears to be catching.
Fuckin’ A, Anelle. Fuckin’ A.
*High five* lady friend…from Wisconsin USA…I SALUTE YOU!!!!
Looks like you forgot part of your sentence.
“In learning that you are letting some old, white, male, backbencher with no idea what it’s actually like to be in that position,”
… letting them what?
Feel free to delete this comment – just wanted to give you a heads up. Cheers and good luck!
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!!!
Alright…Ive been screaming for my American sisters for months now…Now I gotta add ANOTHER douchebag to the list of SERIOUSLY jacked up adssholes in power wanting in on my uterus?!?!?!
Line em up…I have a BIG voice…a BIG stick…and am one of millions….if these crotchety old asshats want this fight I say bring it…They’ll see what a real fight looks like! Roe vs Wade sorted this almost a half century ago!!!
Here’s a radical thought I heard on Real Time with Bill Maher last week (brilliant show bte)…if we want to bring the rational men over to ourselves right bloody quick, then lets take a cue from the far right wing psychos in the states…withhold ALL sex unless trying to conceive…we have plenty of toys…just sayin hahaha — cheers ladies…lighting the perverbial fire in BC now…lets get this shit buried once and for all
Bastards!!!
I’ve left messages on Woodworth’s FB and posted in links on Harper’s
because I can’t post. I’ll be damned if I will “like” Harper to see if that changes things.
Furious!
Well done! Shared on FB.
All my life, Americans like me have been saying, “If things get too bad here, we can always go to Canada.” It sounds as if that escape portal is starting to close. The Arctic might still be an option. See you in Yellowknife.
You know what makes me the saddest in all of this? It’s not ALWAYS big, fat white men making the rules for all womankind. There is such acidity from fellow ladies.
My hats off to you sister! We need to get more women in politics, we cannot rely on old white haired men to do what’s right or even rational!!! Get out their and run for offices ladies, let the cream rise to the top…to the VERY top! Then men have had their chance and have gotten us in to these pathetic situations, it’s our turn NOW’
Ah, if only he actually gave a crap about anything in any of the letters he gets from anyone, never mind we ~insignificant~ women.
Honestly am still appalled that any woman in Canada voted for him – how could they?
I applaud you & your feisty attitude! Go on & cuss because your sisters in spirit down here in the USA are behind you! Women of the world need to unite against the rabid patriarchy who are grabbing their one last chance at perceived “authority” over women’s bodies. They are going down, big time and when they do, you gals up in Canada will hear such a ROAR. Then you’ll know your fight is almost won, so fret not, change is comin’. March on, Canadian Women, we admire you & are with you in spirit!
Hello Ms Anelle,
Just a FYI, the _only_ woman’s group Mr Harper has increased funding (as opposed to cutting like he did to SWAC) is an Evangelical Christian Group called REAL Women, who espouse the same Evangelical values as Mr Harper. I’d also like to point out that REAL Women is sponsored by the same church org that Mr Harper belongs to. He has _also_ put this same Evangelical group on the selection committee for the the Queen’s Jubilee awards.
I sent a letter of protest that this racist, anti-choice, anti-gay group was helping decide who deserved the Queen’s recognition as a valued member of Canadian Society.
Cheers!
Nickey, most of the cis/hetero women who care about our reproductive rights aren’t sleeping with men who want to take those rights away. The Lysistrata tactic would only hurt the couples on the side of all that is right and good here. The men trying to take away our rights are married to women who either agree with them, or are too cowed to stand up to them.
Plus, it’s the other side that views sex as a transaction where men try to get something from women. Feminists are supposed to view sex as recreation in which everybody wins. I would never endanger my marriage by using sex to manipulate my husband. And in this case it would be especially silly since he’s passionately pro-choice and even more passionately pro-birth control.
Rage on, Marie Anelle! That was awesome!
{{{Marie Anelle}}} you are the voice of many- TY….
I’m sorry the ignorance is catching, or so it seems. I did love that letter. Give me some ideas for my own “leaders”.
Good luck from a pro-choice chick from the States.
Oh god, that gasbag. For a short stint a while back he was my MP, and I was (and still am!) Not Impressed (read: very, very angry) about his anti-choice antics. It’s all he ever seemed to talk about, which is telling in itself, and also indicative that he’s not doing a whole hill of beans worth of actual political business. GRAAAAAGH.
Av0gadro — it was more of a tongue in cheek comment…I wouldnt advocate manipulating marriages and you’re lucky that your husband is passionate like you. I was meaning it more as a joke if males dont this issue as serously as us…a tongue-in-cheek comment meaning to suggest that if sex were withheld from said men, theyd be screaming beside us just as loudly and MUCH faster than by their own accords
ALSO on a side note….with the 2nd reading of the bill in CO that would make the use of morning after pill or abortion a First Degree Murder Charge…if this has truly gone sooo far past rational that unfertilized eggs are now considered human beings (as the morning after pill is taken in CASE an egg becomes fertilized) then will men who masturbate be charged after each transaction?!?!
And what will happen went Aunt Flow comes to town….will I be charged with assault on a child by toilet paper?!?! Sorry if this seems a little graphic….but MY GOD if theyre considering nonfertilized eggs people, we’re not that far off from this!!!
Again…before ppl take it the wrong way…its another tongue-in-cheek…blame it on my bloody english humour.
This entire issue is SO far past rational educated discussions of topics that you are really left to bust a gut laughing at the audacity of some…then the laughter ceases…and the all-encompassing rage comes back
Keep fighting the fight! We will never be truly free if our bodily autonomy is up for grabs
Excellent and enlightening post. I had no idea of the situation–when I visit Canada, my rosy-tinted glasses are on from the moment I cross the border with an equal male-to-female immigration officer ratio going in, noticing a bit that some social factors are the same, but that daily disturbances are handled better, recycling is more common, people like their healthcare (generally) and on and on… Then I come back, and am harassed by the almost exclusively male border patrol loons coming back to this hideous state I call home, just across the lake from Ontario’s Port Stanley. Oh, yes, I read your post. Thank you for it. And I’ll be calling your PM to let him know there will be no feigning superiority over American government if this is how Canada treats it’s women.
LOL! Some troll just tried to be all sanctimonious about “Children’s lives are at stake!!!! Unless it’s a rape fetus!!!! Then it’s not about life!!!!! I just wanna punish the sluts!!!!!”
Maybe next time I’ll publish one and let you guys have it.
I’m writing Harper (draft is written) and also my MP. I’ve been on vacation and somehow missed this. Thanks for keeping me aware of our OWN (Canadian) attempted erosions of womens’ rights