Constitute! producer Susan Bazilli with disabity rights activist Meenu Sikand and one of the main women in the film, Linda Palmer Nye. |
By Susan Bazilli
(February 24, 2011) The film Constitute! was recently screened at the U of T Faculty of Law in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the largest social mobilization of Canadian women in the 20th century, where more than 1300 women went to Ottawa for the women's Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference in Parliament.
When the Canadian constitution was re-patriated from England, the plan of the day was to include the same old Bill of Rights that had ensured lack of equality for women. Canadian women mobilized coast to coast to change that. Involved in drafting what became Sections 15 and 28, women then had to lobby all the MPs and provincial premiers to pass the new language for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The film features such notable Canadians as Doris Anderson, Marilou McPhedran, Pauline Jewett, Flora MacDonald and Michele Landsberg and illustrates the importance of citizen engagement in democracy. It is a timely reminder of the need for renewed and continued democratic activism in Canada.
Constitute! was hosted by Women and the Law and the Feminist Law Students’ Association at U of T in conjunction with the International Women's Rights Project at the University of Victoria.
Students and scholars felt this was a very important story to share with the larger law school community as the story of how equality was entrenched in the Charter is not a regular part of the curricula.
Sixty people, including several of the original "Ad Hockers" who had been at the historic meeting in 1981, attended the screening. Some of the members of the audience had not seen each other in 30 years and there was a very lively discussion and reunion following the film.
The film is available on the IWRP website and at www.constitute.ca. The film is being taught in high schools and universities, including some constitutional law classes.
The Law Society of Upper Canada will be showing the film at the LSUC, Osgoode Hall, for its annual International Women's Day event, The Journey of Feminism, on March 1st 2011 from 4:00 - 6:00pm. Register here: http://ecom.lsuc.on.ca/equity.
Susan Bazilli is director of the International Women’s Rights Project at University of Victoria and executive producer of the film Constitute!
