Rise Up News

Going Upstream: The Making of Ottawa’s Feminist Newspaper

 1975—International Women’s Year, as designated by the United Nations—had just come to an end when a notice appeared at...

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Wages For Housework button

Researching Alternative Visions #3: The Politics of Caring – Wages for Housework Activism in Canada

 In exploring Indigenous, racialized, immigrant/ethnic, and low-income women’s activism in Canada from the 1960s to the 1980s, we have...

Filed under: immigration, indigenous, racialized & women of colour, social & economic justice, work & labour

Date published:

Quilting as Feminist Theory and Practice

 Most of the women in my family are fibre artists, although not all of them would identify as such....

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Researching Alternative Visions #2: Indigenous, Racialized, Immigrant/Ethnic, and Low-Income Women’s Groups and the Royal Commission on the Status of Women

 The creation of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW) in 1967 was a watershed moment in Canadian women’s...

Filed under: immigration, indigenous, racialized & women of colour, social & economic justice

Date published:

This button supports the right of a woman to make choices about birth control and abortion, and to control whether and when she becomes a mother.

Intersectionality, Reproductive Justice, and the Women’s Movement in Canada

 Reproductive justice was a concept developed by Black women activists in the United States in the 1990s in order...

Filed under: disability, health & reproductive rights, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Indigenous Feminisms and Calls for Reproductive Justice

 As a Haudenosaunee Mother-Scholar who writes and teaches about Indigenous mothering, Indigenous literatures, and racialized sexualized gender-based violences, I...

Filed under: health & reproductive rights, indigenous

Date published:

The Archive is a Promise to the Future

 It’s 1985. It’s International Women’s Day and you’re the only video crew there besides news media, if they are there at all....

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Researching Alternative Visions #1: A project on Indigenous, racialized, immigrant, and low-income women’s activism in Canada, 1960s-1980s

 by Margaret Little, Lynne Marks, and Sarah Nickel As feminist activists and scholars, we understand the importance of the National...

Filed under: immigration, indigenous, racialized & women of colour, social & economic justice

Date published:

Reflecting on the Toronto Women’s Bookstore

 The Toronto Women’s Bookstore (TWB) was always political. It began in 1973 as some shelves at the Woman’s Place. After...

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Undated button of the Food and Service Workers of Canada (FASWOC). FASWOC represented the cleaners, almost all Portuguese immigrant women, who went on strike at the First Canadian Place in Toronto in 1984. After six weeks, the strike ended in victory.

Honouring Portuguese Immigrant Cleaners’ Activism on Labour Day

 Rise Up is pleased to encourage and facilitate the growing interest among current researchers, educators, and activists in the rich...

Filed under: immigration, racialized & women of colour, work & labour

Date published:

Women Unite: First Anthology of Canadian Women’s Movement

 In 1972, the Women's Press published its first book, Women Unite: Up from the Kitchen, Up from the Bedroom, Up from...

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Reflections of a Young Feminist

 This past fall, Laila Vahed sat down with Rise Up Collective member Julia Aguiar to reflect on her time...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

This button supports Broadside, a Canadian feminist newspaper published in Toronto between 1979 and 1989.

Feminist History Goes Digital:  Broadside & Rise Up Join Forces

 About twenty years ago a group of women met at the home of a Broadside collective member to celebrate the life of...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

The author, Debbie King, at the 2020 Walk Against Racism in Parkdale.

Spinning Our Wheels or Making Progress: The Race to Equity in Education

 Activism can feel like an uphill battle toward an elusive goal. Despite clear vision and strong resolve, the ongoing...

Filed under: education, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

The Promise of National Child Care…

 November 20th is Children's Day, coming in 2021 almost exactly seven months after a budget announcement last April that...

Filed under: childcare and family

Date published:

Coming out and speaking up…

 In the 1970s, lesbians in Canada were speaking up about issues important to them more than ever before, mobilizing...

Filed under: LGBTQ+

Date published:

A photo of the INTERCEDE contingent and banner at 1990 International Women's Day March in Toronto.

Oral History, Immigrant Women’s Organizing and the Women’s Movement

 Oral history allows people to narrate their own experiences of the past in ways that are invaluable in capturing...

Filed under: immigration

Date published:

Unions as Sites of Feminist Activism

 Justice and Dignity for All is a documentary by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers about the workers, mostly...

Filed under: rural & northern, work & labour

Date published:

Rich Imaginings & Freedom Dreams in the Archive: Our Lives and the Black Women’s Collective

 The Black Women’s Collective’s statement on state violence resonates in our current historical moment.as present-day abolitionists continue to struggle,...

Filed under: racialized & women of colour, violence, work & labour

Date published:

This photo is one of a number taken at the Oka Peace Camp set up in July 1990 in solidarity with the Mohawks of Kanehsatake who rose up in defense of their ancestral lands after the Oka Golf Club proposed an extension and the building of luxury condos over a Mohawk ancestral graveyard in the sacred wooded area known as “The Pines”. This land had never been ceded. In early July, after the Mohawks refused to end their non-violent occupation of the area or to take down the barricade, the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec police) moved in resulting in a violent confrontation. Later, the Canadian army was called in. Mohawk women, including Ellen Gabriel, played a central role in the uprising, which lasted for 78 intense days (July 11 – September 26, 1990). In the end, the golf course was not extended, and the condos were not built. But the larger issues of land sovereignty have never been resolved.

Considering Kanehsatake, Thirty Years Later

 September 26, 2020 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the 78-day blockade at Kanehsatake, known widely as the...

Filed under: environment, indigenous, violence

Date published:

The Burning Times Revisited

 Rise Up! A Digital Archive of Feminist Activism provides links to many feminist films and filmmakers that emerged from...

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Undated button calling for good daycare.

COVID-19 and Canada’s (Non-Existent) Childcare Strategy

 The unprecedented shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the federal and provincial governments’ woefully inadequate childcare strategies...

Filed under: childcare and family

Date published:

Going the Distance: Women and Sport

 The sports stories generating headlines this summer are not about the Olympics as planned, but rather, the growing activism...

Filed under: sport & leisure

Date published:

In response to the October 27, 1989, police shooting of 23-year-old Black woman Sophia Cook, the Black Women’s Collective organized the Women’s Coalition Against Racism and Police Violence. This coalition of 35 women’s and progressive organizations brought people together on December 16, 1989, to demand police accountability and an end to police brutality against Black people.

Fighting Racism and Police Violence: Then and Now

 Rage and grief. Agony and anger. COVID-19 has exposed deep racial and class inequalities embedded in Canada, and now,...

Filed under: justice, racialized & women of colour, social & economic justice

Date published:

This photo of Jackie Larkin with the sign "This Uterus is not Government Property" was taken during the Abortion Caravan which travelled across Canada from Vancouver to Ottawa in 1970.

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Abortion Caravan

 The Abortion Caravan occurred in the wake of amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada in 1969 that made...

Filed under: health & reproductive rights

Date published:

The Impact of Studio D – how it changed the place of women in film in Canada

 The creation of  Studio D has been attributed to ongoing lobbying for a women’s studio at the National Film...

Filed under: arts, media & culture

Date published:

Gene Editing: Then and Now…

 With the advent of CRISPR—a new, relatively simple-to-use gene-editing technology—it seemed like only a matter of time before the births...

Filed under: health & reproductive rights

Date published:

Action Daycare and other childcare activists join the 1983 International Women's Day March in Toronto. Signs call for universal quality daycare and paid maternity leave.

Promises, promises – A history of federal childcare proposals

 Feminists have been fighting for 50 years for the creation of a national universal child care program. Some version...

Filed under: childcare and family

Date published:

Illustration of a dress from Branching Out magazine

The (Re)Dress Code

 The passage of Bill 21 in the Assemblée nationale du Québec in June 2019 has meant a range of...

Filed under: politics & government, racialized & women of colour, spirituality & religion

Date published:

Farewell Interview with Akosua Adasi

 Akosua Adasi recently sat down with Rise Up Collective member Julia Aguiar to reflect on her time working as...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

Susan G. Cole in a still from the video interview.

Origins of Women Against Violence Against Women

 A driving force in initiating Toronto's Take Back the Night marches, Women Against Violence Against Women was a feminist...

Filed under: announcements & updates, violence

Date published:

Protests, Parades and Potlucks: The Lesbian Mothers Defence Fund

 This interview explores the important role the LMDF played in the 1980s, supporting lesbian mothers who faced systemic discrimination...

Filed under: announcements & updates, childcare and family, LGBTQ+

Date published:

The Story of Two Industrial Women Workers

 Cathy Mulroy was one of the first women hired into a non-traditional job at Sudbury mining giant Inco

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

Date published:

Organizing Domestic Workers: Intercede

 Intercede was an advocacy group of foreign domestic workers and their feminist allies that raised awareness about the exploitation...

Filed under: announcements & updates, immigration, work & labour

Date published:

historical photograph of a group of women in front of a banner at an International Women's Day celebration

International Women’s Day and International Solidarity

 This audio-only interview focuses on the international solidarity politics of the International Women’s Day Committee (IWDC) during the 1980s.

Filed under: announcements & updates, solidarity

Date published:

Birch Proposals: The Early Fight for Child Care Quality

 In June1974, Margaret Birch, Provincial Secretary for Social Development, delivered a proposal to change Ontario’s day care licensing requirements....

Filed under: announcements & updates, childcare and family

Date published:

Immigrant Women Create the Working Women Community Centre

 In 1975, in response to the recognition that a lot of immigrant women were marginalized either because they were...

Filed under: announcements & updates, immigration, work & labour

Date published:

Organized Working Women builds women's support picket for Fleck strikers.

Fleck Strike and Feminist Solidarity

 This interview focuses the 1978 landmark strike against Fleck Manufacturing, an auto-wiring plant located outside London ON, and the...

Filed under: announcements & updates, solidarity, work & labour

Date published:

Still from video of Jeannette Corbiere Lavell

Indigenous Women’s fight to end sex-based inequities in the Indian Act

 Jeannette Corbiere Lavell describes to Rise Up her long struggle to regain her status under the Indian Act

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous

Date published:

Still from Video of Monique Mojica

Monique Mojica: reclaiming Indigenous history and culture through theatre

 In this interview Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock nations), tells her stories of being an Indigenous playwright, performer and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture, indigenous

Date published:

DAWN & the Struggle for Disabled Women’s Rights

 The Disabled Women’s Network (DAWN) was founded in Winnipeg in 1987 by women from across Canada. 

Filed under: announcements & updates, disability

Date published:

This button from the 1982 Organized Working Women Conference features the slogan "Women for Unions, Unions for Women".

Founding of Organized Working Women

 The focus of this interview is the founding in 1976 of Organized Working Women, an independent feminist labour organization...

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

Date published:

Still from video of June Veecock at IWD in Toronto

Black Nurses Challenge Systemic Racism

 In 1990, seven Black and one Filipina nurse filed complaints of systemic racism against Toronto’s Northwestern Hospital at the...

Filed under: justice, racialized & women of colour, work & labour

Date published:

Charlottetown and the Power of Women

 Judy Rebick talks about the NAC campaign during the 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord.

Filed under: announcements & updates, politics & government

Date published:

Federal Leaders’ Debate on Women’s Issues

 Chaviva Hošek talks about the 1984 federal election debate on women's issues.

Filed under: announcements & updates, politics & government

Date published:

Toronto Women’s Bookstore: Becoming Intersectional and Anti-racist

 In this interview with Anjula Gogia, she tells the story of her involvement with the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (TWB)

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture, social & economic justice

Date published:

Justice in P4W

 In this new interview about Justice for Women in prisons, Joey Twins and Kim Pate speak about the 1994...

Filed under: announcements & updates, justice

Date published:

Founding of Toronto Wages for Housework

 This interview focuses on the founding of Toronto Wages for Housework in 1975 and its organizing principles, networks, and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

Date published:

Portuguese Workers & Cleaners’ Action 1975

 This interview focuses on Cleaners’ Action, an advocacy group founded in 1975 to support Portuguese cleaners.

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

Date published:

Women’s Equality & the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

 Canadian women began mobilizing in anticipation of constitutional reform in 1980.  After a series of mass actions, conferences and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, politics & government

Date published:

Creating Crisis Centres for Women

 In this new Women Unite Interview Darlene Lawson and Deb Parent discuss the early history of creating crisis centres...

Filed under: announcements & updates, violence

Date published:

Toronto Indochinese Women’s Conference 1971

 In April 1971. women from Canada and the United States met with Indochinese women to strategically collaborate

Filed under: announcements & updates, feminist organization, peace & war

Date published:

Women Unite Relaunched!

 Rise Up! is pleased to announce the relaunch of Women Unite, a new collection that includes over 25 video...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

The Fight’s Not Over

 This podcast explores the 1970 Abortion Caravan on its 51st anniversary...

Filed under: health & reproductive rights

Date published:

Statement In Response To Concerns About Women Unite

 There have been serious concerns raised about the lack of a Black feminist presence in the Women Unite* collection,...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

Celebrating Marlene Green

 Marlene Green is one of five Black activists celebrated through the Akua Benjamin Project: 50 Years of Black Activism.

Filed under: racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Angela Robertson, member of the Black Women's Collective, speaks at a protest against police violence. In response to the October 27, 1989, police shooting of 23-year-old Black woman Sophia Cook, the Black Women’s Collective organized the Women’s Coalition Against Racism and Police Violence. This coalition of 35 women’s and progressive organizations brought people together on December 16, 1989, to demand police accountability and an end to police brutality against Black people.

Sharing feminist history

 Sharing feminist history with new generations, students and researchers has always been an important goal for Rise Up! We...

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Some Black Women

 Claire Prieto’s film "Some Black Women" (1977) looks at the lives and roles of Black women in Canada during...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Sisters in the Struggle

 The NFB documentary Sisters in the Struggle (1991- Dionne Brand, Ginny Stikeman) features a frank conversation among Black women...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Making Movie History: Sylvia Hamilton

 Sylvia Hamilton first became involved with the National Film Board in the mid-1980s. In Making Movie History, she reflects...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

Date published:

Norma Scarborough and Henry Morgentaler hold a copy of The Toronto Star with front-page headlines announcing the historic Supreme Court decision taken on January 28, 1988, stating that Canada's abortion law is not legal.

“Abortion law not legal….”

 In 1974, Norma Scarborough and Dr. Henry Morgentaler were among the founding members of CARAL

Filed under: health & reproductive rights, justice

Date published:

History Repeats: Undermining Child Care in Ontario

 In June 1974, Margaret Birch—Ontario’s then-Provincial Secretary for Social Development—delivered a proposal to the legislature to slash the costs...

Filed under: childcare and family, justice, politics & government

Date published:

Pat Schulz: Childcare Advocate

 "Maybe one's definition of reasonableness depends on where you fit in the system. Reasonableness is a device used by...

Filed under: childcare and family

Date published:

50th Anniversary Royal Commission on the Status of Women

 The Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada was established in February 1967.

Filed under: politics & government

Date published:

For every woman…

 “Approximately 20 Ottawa women participated in Remembrance Day ceremonies at Confederation Square on November 11. They carried a large...

Filed under: peace & war, violence

Date published:

Illustration by Barbara Hartman Branching Out, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1978

Lesbian Mothers and Custody Fights

 Before same-sex marriage, before gay and lesbian couples could adopt children, and before benefits were extended to same-sex partners,...

Filed under: childcare and family, LGBTQ+

Date published:

Notes From the Archive: On the Current Crisis…

 In writing this update, there is a compulsion to write about the times we’re living through together. This would...

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

New to the Rise Up! Archive

 We’ve just posted a new article on the website that addresses the critical history of Studio D, Canada’s groundbreaking feminist film-production...

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture

Date published:

Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en

 As blockades and other actions continue in support of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s opposition of the Costal Gaslink Pipeline,...

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous

Date published:

New to the Rise Up! Archive

 We’ve uploaded a wide range of new buttons and posters that chronicle events and campaigns from the women’s movement....

Filed under: announcements & updates

Date published:

Thirty years after the Montreal massacre

 by Alana Cattapan On the evening of December 6, 1989, a man with a rifle entered the engineering school...

Filed under: violence

Date published:

Illustration of crowd of women with protest signs

Feminist Organizing in Federal Elections

 by Alana Cattapan The newsletters, communiqués, and other documents in the Rise Up archive include materials reflecting how feminists...

Filed under: politics & government

Date published:

A photo of Campus Community Co-op - the first iteration of the child care centre on Sussex Ave.

Fifty Years of the Campus Community Co-Operative Day Care Centre

 by Kathryn Petersen and Meg Luxton September 2019 marks fifty years since the establishment of the Campus Community Co-Operative...

Filed under: childcare and family

Date published:

Pipeline Politics

 The release of the final report of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)...

Filed under: indigenous

Date published: