ARCC Annual General Meeting, Jan 29, 2020

  • Agenda
  • Minutes
  • Regional Reports: New Brunswick   •   Quebec   •   Ontario   •   Saskatchewan   •   Alberta   •   BC
  • Executive Director’s Report
  • Financial Report (goes to PDF)


Note: Here are the minutes and reports from previous ARCC AGMs: 

2008  •  2009  •  2010  •  2011  •  2012  •  2013  •  2014  •  2015  •  2016  •  2017   •  2018   •  2019

Agenda

1.      Welcome and Introduction
2.      Motion to appoint Executive Director as Chair of Meeting (instead of President)
3.      Adoption of 2019 AGM minutes
4.      Adoption of 2020 agenda
5.      Introduction of Public Accountant (if present)
6.      Proposed Resolution to appoint Public Accountant
7.      Proposed Special Resolution to conduct a Review Engagement for 2019
8.      Proposed Special Resolution to conduct a Review Engagement for 2020 if required
9.      Financial Reports
10.   Membership Report
11.   Reports from the provinces
12.   Executive Director’s Report (national)
13.   New Business
14.   Election of Directors to the Board 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada / Coalition pour le droit à l’avortement au Canada (ARCC-CDAC)

January 29, 2020 (covering 2019)

In attendance:  Board members: Martina Zanetti, Kathy Dawson, Mariane Labrecque. 
Executive Director: Joyce Arthur. 
Members-at-large: Gwen Shrimpton, Liam Whelan, Robyn Schwarz

Minute taker: Martina

Called to order: 4pm PT

  1. Welcome and Introduction
  2. Resolution: Appoint Executive Director as chair of meeting (instead of President) – Mariane moves; Martina seconds – passes unanimously.
  3. Resolution: Adopt 2019 AGM Minutes – Gwen moves; Kathy seconds – passes unanimously
  4. Resolution: Adopt 2020 AGM Agenda – Joyce moves; Mariane seconds – passes unanimously
  5. Introduction of Public Accountant – She did not attend.
  6. Resolution: “ARCC will appoint public accountant Rachel Hill of RN Hill Professional Accountant Group to hold office until the close of the next annual general meeting in 2021.”
    • Discussion: Joyce and Martina explained requirement of an audit or review engagement because this year we exceeded the threshold of 50K in public donations.
    • Martina moves; Gwen seconds – passes unanimously.
  7. Special resolution: “For fiscal year 2019, ARCC’s Public Accountant will conduct a review engagement” – Martina moves; Gwen seconds – passes unanimously.
  8. Special resolution: “For fiscal year 2020, ARCC Public Accountant will conduct a review engagement if ARCC’s public donation revenue exceeds $50,000” – Martina moves; Mariane seconds – passes unanimously.
  9. 2019 Financial Reports were presented by the Treasurer, Martina.
    •  Still waiting for Alberta Handmaids to get bank account so we can transfer the $10K donation to them, which ARCC is holding for them.
    • Resolution: to accept the financial reports – Joyce moves; Liam seconds – passes unanimously.
  10. Membership report:
    • HUGE thanks to Lesley Hoyles who has been our membership officer since the beginning. She is joining Action Canada’s staff and unable to continue with ARCC due to conflict of interest. We wish her all the best in this new chapter.
    • 456 members as of Jan 29/20. (was 209 at last AGM)
    • 212 monthly donors and 46 auto-renewal annual donors (57% of members)
    • About 49 expiries in 2019 who did not renew after getting 2 renewal notices.
    • An increased number of supporters – people who donate but decline to join .
  11. Reports from the Provinces/regions: See Regional Reports below.
  12. ED report: See Executive Director’s report below.
  13. New Business:
    • Kathy: Antis are targeting newcomers to Canada.  Consider an “Abortion 101” in multiple languages to contrast this. Agreement that this would be an excellent project and useful resource.
    • Shout out to “Choice Connect”! First national abortion referral directory of abortion providers – https://choiceconnect.ca/ – Robyn compiled this.
  14. Election of board:
    • All current directors are entering a 2nd/3rd year of 4-year term therefor no re-elections required. There is one vacancy, however.
    • HUGE thanks to our exiting Vice-President and board representative from NB, Allison Webster, for her service and dedication over all these years. Our best wishes to her.
    • Board nominee Robyn Schwarz introduced herself. She is currently on our media list and on the Abortion Caravan committee.
    • Motion to elect Robyn Schwarz to ARCC board for a 4-year term – Martina moves, Mariane seconds – passes unanimously.
    • New Vice-President to be appointed at next regular Board meeting.
    • Additional new board members would be desirable, especially from NL, NS, NB, PE, MB, and SK.
  15. Seeing no other business, meeting adjourned 5:24pm PT.

Regional Reports

New Brunswick

by Joyce Arthur

ARCC worked with Clinic 554 in Fredericton to help save it, providing information, advice, contacts, and more, to Adrian and Valerie. We also started a petition to the federal government (still open), which over 60,000 people have signed. It is still open. In addition, over 10,000 have signed the clinic’s petition to the provincial government.

On July 16, our Montreal Board member Mariane Labrecque (also of the Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances), met with Prime Minister Trudeau, along with other Quebec women’s rights activists, and personally handed a copy of our petition to Trudeau, who promised to act. The Health Minister sent a letter to NB (and Ontario) shortly after. Mariane met again with Trudeau pre-election, as part of the G13 feminist coalition, and again Trudeau said he’d intervene.

During the election all progressive parties promised to save Clinic 554. Although Trudeau met with the NB Premier in December, nothing has happened yet (as of Jan 29-20).

Quebec

By Mariane Labrecque (FQPN)

It is somewhat status quo – no regression. FPQN is working on a booklet of Quebec abortion resources (same number as 2 years ago). Mifegymiso deployment has been slow. 29 locations providing it so far in Quebec. Meeting with Quebec College of Physicians to reduce criteria for accessing Mife. The abortion rights committee is analyzing threats on abortion access. The National Assembly (provincial) reiterated the rights to abortion and all parties supported. Translation of “Abandoned” film – trying to find funds and a translator.

Ontario

Protecting Ontario’s Safe Access Zone: ARCC helped provide information and evidence to the Ontario AG lawyers defending the law in an upcoming court case by an Ottawa protester who is challenging the law. We conducted a small survey of Ontario’s private clinics to gather evidence on how the law is working for them. Four responded and it is working well. We are pleased that the Ontario government is defending the Act.

LEAF case: ARCC had joined a LEAF-led committee (Legal Education and Action Fund) in the fall of 2018 to help with LEAF’s intervention in the case between Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, and three Christian anti-choice medical groups plus five individual doctors. The Christian groups and doctors lost their case in May 2019, with the Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that objecting doctors must make an “effective referral” when they object to providing services for personal or religious reasons.  

Saskatchewan

Parental consent law: ARCC has been active since 2014 fighting anti-choice attempts to pass a parental consent law for abortion in Saskatchewan. The current Sask. government is right-wing and anti-choice. In Feb 2019, the Sask. Attorney General responded to ARCC to concede the issue, acknowledging the “scope and importance of section 7 of the Charter” and noting that other legal opinions shared ARCC’s position against such a law.

Alberta

By Kathy Dawson

March

  • Assisted with ASPSH webinar on Antichoice Political Activity
  • Launched complaint with Simon Fraser University against antichoice Levi Minderhoud for failure to disclose conflict of interest

April – UCP Elected

  • Lots of work was done to identify antichoice candidates and raise awareness on Twitter and Facebook.

May

  • Protested March for Life

June

  • March for Choice – Small legislature protest in response to Kenney election. Started by another group and dropped onto us.
  • Protested RightNow political organization meeting at the Blue Quill community league in Edmonton, sent in a mole to spy, wrote to the community league
  • Protested Edmonton PCC fake clinic March for Life fundraiser

July 

  • Unplanned – Produced a Fact vs Fiction handout and organized a protest at the local theatre in Edmonton

September

  • Presented antichoice political activity and crisis pregnancy centres to members of Alberta Health in Central Alberta
  • Assisted in second ASPSH webinar on antichoice political activity

October 21 – Conservatives defeated in the federal election

  • Worked with ARCC to identify antichoice candidates and provide backup for their classification with voting history.  This information can be used in the upcoming CPC leadership race.
  • Defeated antichoice candidate Sam Lilley in Linda Duncan’s riding. 
  • Protested Life Chain across the province
  • Discovered antichoice Mattea Merta was paid employee of MP Brad Trost and gained access to UN Status of Women event – additionally discovered MP employee travel expenses – new project for 2020!

November 2019

  • Organized against antichoice Bill 207 – protested, encourage letter writing, contacted multiple organizations, many people spoke out – pressured committee and committee decided to vote against it proceeding.  UCP MLA objected and they were going to bring it to a vote on the floor but a veteran died by suicide in front of the legislature, the vote did not occur and the bill did not proceed when legislature was prorogued.

Addition by Joyce on Bill C-207

In November, ARCC issued a press release and a detailed analysis and critique of Bill 207, a private members bill that would have given complete immunity to healthcare workers to refuse care for reasons of “conscience” with zero recourse for patients. The bill was unconstitutional, dangerous, and a gross overreach of provincial authority. We renamed the Bill “Abandoning Patients Act,” and created a petition that reached 23,349 signatures (now closed). The petition and its rapid growth was cited in the media several times.

Thanks to the outrage from many people and groups including ARCC and the Alberta Pro-Choice Coalition, the bill was rejected by the private members business committee, and then died in January 2020 when Alberta Parliament was prorogued. However, it will likely come back slightly amended, and we’ll need to fight again.

British Columbia

Amending BC’s “Access to Abortion Services Act” : Five provinces now have safe access zone laws that protect clinics from anti-choice harassment. Four provinces passed laws in the last two years (NL, QC, ON, AB) but BC was the first in 1995.

In late June, ARCC wrote to the Premier and Health Minister of BC to recommend improvements to the law to better protect patients and staff, such as making zones automatic for standalone clinics (instead of requiring an application), and increasing hospital zones to 150 metres (from the current 50m maximum). We then worked with MLA Janet Routledge, who introduced a resolution at the BC NDP convention in November to amend the Act. Janet spoke to Health Minister Adrian Dix about it before the convention. We followed up a couple of times, and on Jan 28, Janet promised to get an update. We will continue to pressure the government to introduce the amendments.

Executive Director’s Report

By Joyce Arthur

Influx of new members and donations – In May, ARCC Board member Julie Lalonde sent a viral tweet asking people to donate to ARCC. The response was overwhelming! Within two weeks, we doubled our membership and raised about $20,000. Most donors signed up to be members, and many of those became automatic monthly or annual donors, so much of the new revenue is sustainable. The ARCC Board held a special meeting to discuss how to build capacity. We decided to start a new email newsletter for members, recruit more volunteers, expand our projects and campaigns, reward long-standing and hard-working volunteers with honorariums or small monthly wages, and increase the workload of the Executive Director with a pay increase. As a virtual organization with no office or phone, ARCC’s expenses are low; we mostly expend time. However, our rapid growth does entail increased expenses for accounting requirements.

Other large donations later in the year included a gift from UNIFOR of $15,000 and a gift from BC Teacher’s Federation of $3,000.

Volunteer Appreciation – We want to give a shout-out to the key volunteers who made significant work contributions to ARCC over the last year. Their help and expertise have been invaluable and we are very grateful for their commitment to ARCC. In alphabetical order, they are:

·        Anik Pettigrew                  Translation
·        Hazel Allen                        E-newsletter ARCC Spark / C.D.Action; Mail Chimp management
·        Heather Clarke                 Graphic design: election postcards, infographics, etc.
·        Lesley Hoyles                    Membership Manager
·        Kathy Dawson                   Research for Election toolkit; Alberta issues; online workshop
·        Mary Linville                     IT and website maintenance and development
·        Tasia Alexopoulos            Social Media Coordinator
·        Tina Beier                          ARCC Blog Coordinator; position papers
·        Zain Abdulla                      Advertising Code project; article writing

A big thank you to them, and all our other volunteers!

Election Toolkit – We used almost $10,000 of our donations to fund the work to create and disseminate an Election Toolkit for the Oct 2019 federal election (spending of $10K or more requires onerous reporting requirements). ARCC registered as a third party with Elections Canada to allow us to do partisan work by opposing the Conservative Party and supporting pro-choice candidates. The toolkit included:

·        Voting guides of candidates to support and oppose
·        A sample letter to send to candidates
·        Questions for candidates
·        A Solidarity Statement of support for abortion rights for people and organizations to sign (which reached 1,116 signatures and was sent to all party leaders)
·        Several free cards for folks to distribute – about ARCC, the election, and info for the public on abortion
·        Petitions to sign (to save Clinic 554, and revoke charitable status of anti-choice groups)
·        Election-related press releases, newsletters, and articles

The toolkit was a great success on social media, and thousands of cards were mailed out for free to our supporters. Thanks goes to Kathy Dawson of ARCC for her research and data collection on the stance of candidates and incumbent MPs to inform our voting guides.

ARCC Spark / C.D.ACtion newsletter – We began an email newsletter for members in June 2019, and produced five issues over the year, including a special election issue, and a summer issue of recommended reads/views. We decided to end our previous newsletter, The Activist / L’Activiste, although we produced a special issue in June 2019 with an article by member Robyn Schwarz about student pro-choice organizing at Western University in response to anti-choice activities. The email newsletter has been very well received. Volunteer Hazel Allen helps with newsletter production and runs our Mail Chimp account.

2020 Abortion Caravan celebration / campaign – ARCC is leading the organizing work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Abortion Caravan in May 2020. We’ve brought together a coalition of over 50 groups and individuals so far – including many original Caravaners – and plans are well underway. We hope to enter Parliament with an official invitation and use the occasion to not only commemorate the original Caravan, but bring attention to current access issues. The general theme is “Then and Now.” Other cities will hold local events and there will be a social media campaign as well.

Advertising Code project – We continued our project to persuade cities and municipalities to cite the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards in their policies and bylaws, and take other measures to stop inaccurate or offensive anti-choice messaging – in particular the graphic signs and flyers of aborted fetuses. We wrote many follow-up letters, as well as new letters to any city or transit company found to be hosting anti-choice ads. We worked more with Toronto, submitting recommendations on how to amend the city’s Temporary Signs bylaw. This issue is still under review, but the City’s report found an existing bylaw that could be used in some cases to remove the graphic signage where it “obstructs” or “fouls” the right-of-way. ARCC also created a Trespass Remedy, allowing residents in seven provinces to forbid the “Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform” from accessing their premises to deliver flyers, as well as a Quick Assessment Guide for cities on how to evaluate messaging that needs City approval or permits (such as flags, proclamations, events, ads, etc.)

Unplanned movie – Media interest in this anti-choice propaganda movie exploded in early July. At first, ARCC wanted to ignore the movie, but this proved impossible because of the media focus and the groundswell of opposition to the film from our supporters. The film reached about 60 screens, and protests took place in at least 15 cities or towns, which ARCC supported. ARCC published a June 25 statement on our website that was widely quoted by the media. The most cited line was that “pro-choice advocates fear that the movie could incite fanatics to commit acts of harassment or violence against clinics or doctors.” ARCC spokespeople received several hate mails and calls just for speaking out. However, the mainstream media was overwhelmingly critical of the movie and gave wide coverage to pro-choice comments and protests.

Charity status of anti-choice groups – Although we complained to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2017 and 2018 about 45 anti-choice charities, none has had their status revoked yet as far as we know. In June 2019, we began a petition to the CRA revoke their charitable status. During the election campaign, we used the petition as an election tool, issuing a press release about the issue. The petition gained 1,898 signatures before we closed it after the start of Parliament in December. The petition was sent to the CRA and the Minister of National Revenue. This project is ongoing.

Bill C-418 –In May, we wrote letters to all MPs against federal private member Bill C-418, which would have given immunity to healthcare professionals who refuse to assist with Medical Assistance in Dying. The bill died on the order paper when the election was called, but it was not expected to pass anyway.

Online course on anti-choice movement – Kathy Dawson and Joyce Arthur delivered an online course on the anti-choice movement in Canada, for the Alberta Society for the Promotion of Sexual Health (ASPSH), in April and again in October. It’s a PowerPoint presentation that can be used for other venues. The FQPN wants to host an ARCC presentation in Montreal.

ARCC’s New Blog – ARCC began hosting an ongoing blog at Rabble.ca called Viewpoint: Reproductive Justice. Here’s an example: Election woes: balancing reproductive justice with combating climate change. Coordinator Tina Beier is always looking for guest writers (tsbeier@gmail.com)

CAP-Net pro-choice coalition –ARCC continues leading this ad-hoc coalition of pro-choice groups across Canada, which we started in 2017. We have teleconference calls 2 or 3 times a year to share info on what we’re doing, discuss the issues of the day, and look for opportunities to collaborate.

Position Papers – ARCC has begun the process of translating our several dozen position papers into French (some older ones in French need revision). Our Board member Mariane Labrecque is assisting. Over 2019, several more papers were also added or revised in English.

Updating of resources – Besides our Position Papers, we have a growing number of well-used resources that we regularly update: 

We are looking at translating our list of clinics and the anti-choice MP list into Mandarin and Punjabi and maybe other languages.

Communications –ARCC continues to be highly active in disseminating information via our website, and through articles, our e-newsletter, media releases, our Facebook page (8,268 followers), Twitter page (4,185 followers), Instagram page (2,114 followers), and speaking engagements. In 2019, we issued 7 press releases, mostly around the election. Joyce and other ARCC spokespersons carried out many media interviews over the year. ARCC continues to operate two listservs for members only: Activist and News. Our website has just moved to another ISP (Telus) for better service, and we plan to hire a web designer to revamp it and give it a new look.

Status of Women capacity building grant application – ARCC applied for a $329,000 capacity-building grant in December 2018 from Status of Women Canada. We did not get the grant.

Canada Summer Jobs – ARCC had planned to apply for a CSJ grant in 2019, but this proved not feasible for us because the recruit must be treated as an employee and the requirements were too onerous for us, so we decided against it. Also because wages are not reimbursed by the government till after the work is done, and reimbursement is not guaranteed.

Documentary film – Joyce helped create the film “Abandoned” (http://abandoned.info) featuring the stories of several women in western Europe who died or suffered serious injury after being refused a legal abortion on grounds of “conscience.” The film is finished and Joyce has been securing screenings around the world. In January 2020, Joyce attended and spoke at screenings at the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. It will also be shown in Vancouver on April 29. The project is not funded by ARCC, but Joyce is promoting ARCC at the screenings.

International conferences – (not funded by ARCC)
     – Joyce attended a one-day conference of UK Doctors for Choice in London in April. She gave a presentation against the practice of so-called “conscientious objection” in healthcare. It was very well received.
     – Joyce spoke at the International Congress on Women’s Health and Unsafe Abortion (IWAC) in Bangkok in February, giving a talk on “Victims of conscientious objection.”

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