ARCC Annual General Meeting, Feb 2, 2021

Contents:

• AGM Minutes
• 2020 Financial Reports (goes to PDF)
• Financial Statement from 2019 Review Engagement by Invictus (Public Accountant)
• Board Member Reports
• Executive Director Report, 2020 Activities

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

2008  •  2009  •  2010  •  2011  •  2012  •  2013  •  2014  •  2015  •  2016  •  2017   •  2018   •  2019  • 2020

AGM Minutes

Called to order: 4pm

Present:

• Board members: A.J. Lowik, Carolyn Egan, Galya Bravo, Kathy Dawson, Lauren Lagoutte, Martina Zanetti, Paige Mason, Quinn Roffey-Antoine, Zain Abdulla, and Joyce Arthur (ED). Regrets: Nicole Tucker.
• Members at large: Alison Zimmer, Blair Trelinski, Émilie Bisson, Hazel Allan, Kady Thibeault, Kallie Desruisseaux, Kate Headley, Kate Rath-Wilson, Kathryn McIntee, Melissa Fuller, Ruth Mellor

1. Welcome and introduction by each attendee.
2. Motion to appoint Executive Director as chair of AGM in stead of President – Moved: Carolyn Egan; Seconded: A.J. Lowik – Motion passes.
3. Motion to adopt 2020 AGM minutes – Moved: Martina; Seconded: Alison Zimmer – Motion passes.
4. Motion to adopt 2021 agenda, as revised to add item #2 above – Moved: Kady Thibeault; Seconded: Alison Zimmer – Motion passes.
5. Joyce reviewed proposed changes to ARCC Bylaws to make them gender-inclusive (thank you to A.J. and Gayla for their work on this).
6. Special Resolution to adopt revised by-laws in the form presented at the meeting – Moved: Kady Thibault; Seconded: Kallie Desruisseaux – Resolution passes unanimously. (New bylaws posted here: www.arcc-cdac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ARCC-CDAC-Bylaws-2021.pdf)
7. Martina Zanetti presented the ARCC Financial Reports for 2020 and the Financial Statements for the 2019 Review Engagement as prepared by Invictus Accounting Group LLP.
8. Motion to approve the 2020 Financial Statements as presented – Moved: Martina; Seconded: Carolyn – Motion passes.
9. Motion to adopt the 2019 Financial Statements as prepared by Invictus Accounting Group LLP in the course of their review engagement – Moved: Kady Thibeault; Seconded: Joyce – Motion passes.
10. Membership Report for 2020 (Joyce)

11. Election of Directors to the Board

• Kathy Dawson has completed a 4-year term on the board. She regrets to inform us that she has withdrawn her name for re-election due to other commitments on her time. We extend our huge thanks to Kathy for her many years of dedicated service on the board and in volunteering above and beyond her board duties in ARCC’s work.
• Note: Directors serve for 4-year terms and can be re-elected. Martina Zanetti and Carolyn Egan are entering the last year of a 4-year term. Seven other directors were appointed to the Board prior to the AGM and are entering the first year of a 4-year term.

12. Personal introductions by each Board member, plus regional reports from some. Please see available written reports below.

13. Executive Director’s Report for 2020. Please see full report below.

14. New Business:

15. Draw for door prizes!

Seeing no other business and no objections, Joyce adjourned the meeting at 5:30pm.

Board Member Introductions / Reports

A.J. Lowik, Vancouver

Hi ARCC Members! I’m happy to share this brief introductory report so that you can get to know me a little bit better. My name is A.J. Lowik and I’m a non-binary trans person – I use they/them/theirs pronouns.

For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been conducting research on trans people and reproductive health and using the results of that research to train reproductive health care providers on how to better meet the needs of their trans patients. My passion for this work began when I was working in a women-only abortion clinic in South Ontario – as I began to explore my own gender, I started questioning how a trans person might experience the clinic and the care provided therein. My colleagues at the time encouraged me to keep my burgeoning trans identity a secret, for fear that I would transition myself out of a job. Those same colleagues indicated that only one or two trans people had ever access abortion care at the clinic, that they knew of – this seemed incompatible with my own knowledge of the prevalence of pregnancy (both planned and unplanned, wanted and unwanted) among my trans peers, as well as the prevalence of trans people in society more generally. Beyond calling trans people by their name and using the appropriate pronouns, none of my colleagues could even imagine what else being trans-inclusive entailed.

With more questions than answers, I conducted my Masters Thesis research on exploring the barriers to abortion care for trans and non-binary people – among them, that trans people are rendered invisible in spaces coded as being exclusively for women, that abortion clinic staff are often uninformed about how to adapt their provision for care for patients who did not identify as women, and that there was absolutely no clinical, experiential or critical theory research on the topic at time (there are only a handful of studies that explore this topic now). At the time, there was also no training available for abortion care providers on how to go about operationalizing trans and gender-inclusive policies and practices – and very few clinical spaces were even aware that this work was necessary in the first place.

In the years since this initial spark of interest, I have authored a manual for abortion care providers on how to do just that. The first version was commissioned by Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN) and was written for abortion care providers in Quebec. It has since been adapted for use across Canada and the United States and is available in both French and English. I have heard from folks using it as a training tool in Puerto Rico, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and the UK. It is currently being translated into Spanish and adapted for use in Argentina, with the help of some trans abortion activists there – we were anticipating the legalization of abortion occurring, and so wanted to ensure that that process was happening in inclusive ways from its very conception. Blas Radi, the Chair in Trans Studies at the University of Buenos Aires who commissioned the Argentinian manual, has plans to share it with the Ministry of Health, as well as with local abortion providers. The abortion law in Argentina will be among the only ones in the world to be written in gender-neutral and gender-inclusive ways – I take no credit for that but am happy that local activists have been able to benefit from a project that I never imagined would be disseminated so widely.

In 2019, I was commissioned by the National Abortion Federation to develop an online learning module for providers in the US and Canada. Finally, I’ve conducted training sessions with NAF Canada, NAF US, the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, as well as within individual clinics and hospitals across the country – I’ve personally trained hundreds of people who work in abortion care. I’ve shared my work in this area as a visiting lecturer at the University of Victoria’s Chair in Trans Studies in May 2019, and at a Trans Pregnancy conference in Leeds, UK in January 2020.

These days, my research and activism has taken me away from abortion exclusively – I conduct qualitative research that explores how trans and non-binary people strategically navigate all kinds of reproductive health spaces and experience all facets of their reproductive lives. I have published work on trans people and menstruation, nursing, alcohol interventions during pregnancy, and am the co-editor of a forthcoming collection on moving beyond the binary in reproductive and parenting worlds, centring non-binary voices in these areas.

I am honoured to be a new Board Member with the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, so that I can share my passion for and expertise in creating trans and gender-inclusive spaces, services, and movements with this hugely important and impactful organization. Thank you all for having me.

Carolyn Egan, Toronto

Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics Report:

This report will give highlights of OCAC activities over the past year. The group meets monthly at our office at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre in Toronto, or more often when required. 

• Before Covid, we were continuing to do school presentations on abortion and reproductive justice.
• We have a representative on the community board of the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre.
• We have been working with an abortion clinic in Toronto looking into securing funding under the Independent Health Facilities Act which would provide it more financial stability.
• Jaime Nikolaou, a graduate student, worked as a co-editor along with Robyn Schwarz for the Abortion Caravan toolkit, as well as being a contributing author. We had to cancel a planned event with speakers and cultural presentations commemorating the Caravan because of the pandemic.
• We participated in a zoom public meeting with a Polish abortion activist on the mass demonstration taking place in that country.
• We spoke with an activist from Argentina on the victory for abortion access and the inclusive language recognizing transgender rights.
• We are working with the Humanist Society on the Morgentaler Scholarship to train young doctors to provide abortions.
• We spoke on a zoom panel for the book launch of “Jeannie’s Demise”, an historical account of illegal abortions in Victorian Toronto by a professor of history at the University of Toronto.
• We did an interview for the women’s archives on the campaign for the overturning of the federal abortion law.
• We are actively involved in fighting for the full funding of sexual health services in the city of Toronto because of possible cutbacks due to a significant deficit.

Galya Bravo – Montreal

Hello! My name is Galya Bravo. My pronouns are she/her and I’m a first-generation refugee settler with a mixed Chilean/Jewish heritage. I work in the not-for-profit sector and I have been with ARCC since November.

Hopes for ARCC

I’m happy to be a part of the fundraising committee – although I missed the first meeting. I hope to contribute as much as I can to maintaining a steady influx of donations and making a replicable system for the future. I think it’s important that ARCC keep the $ flowing and I think I can be helpful in setting us up for that. I am having a meeting with my colleague who took on a new position at CRE that is solely for fundraising. She is going to share her learning curve, important insights and major flags for us moving forward.

Regional Report

http://www.maap-paam.ca/what-we-do/

• Abortion doula
• Support before, during and after
• For them, access includes a holistic approach – although abortion is free and accessible, there is an understanding that it requires guidance
• In big cities where abortion is very accessible and covered by RAMQ, the movement is veering towards wellness rather than access

Challenges in accessing the abortion pill continues as a barrier although it was reported that 8% (using data from clinics only) chose the pill in it’s first year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/abortion-access-canada-us-bans-1.5140345

Geographic location is the biggest barrier – although Quebec is considered to be one of the best provinces in terms of access, that is only in southern regions and in big cities http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1424/accessibility-of-abortion-in-canada-geography-as-a-barrier-to-access-in-ontario-and-quebec#header4page1

Northern and remote areas are severely lacking in practitioners and community care. https://www.actioncanadashr.org/news/2019-10-02-best-worst-places-get-abortion-canada

Indigenous communities have the greatest barriers. If remote Indigenous folks do not have a RAMQ card, abortion would have to be at their own expense. http://www.mcgilltribune.com/opinion/quebecs-racist-health-care-system-needs-reform10062020/

Late term abortions are a subject of contention in Quebec – women are travelling to the U.S and calls to have them accessible within the province are met with discomfort.  https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-health-minister-calls-for-improved-access-to-late-term-abortions

Anti-choice people are encouraging folks to run for office in the 2021 fed election. https://globalnews.ca/news/5799732/canada-anti-abortion-activitists/; 

The Quebec Life Coalition stands 3 hours a day, 7 days a week on a downtown corner in Montreal to protest access to abortions – they are upping that to an 8 hour shift one day a week. https://en.cqv.qc.ca/blog

Lauren Lagoutte, Red Deer AB

(not yet available)

Martina Zanetti, Vancouver

Martina is the Treasurer / Secretary of ARCC. She works mainly on the internal operations and strategic governance of ARCC and also sits on the Fundraising Committee. She is a lawyer by trade and so ARCC’s work on law reform and direct political advocacy is of particular interest to her.

She received her J.D. at UBC, and holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto with majors in Women and Gender Studies and International Relations. She also sits on the board of West Coast LEAF. In her spare time Martina loves live music, cooking, knitting, and hanging out on Commercial Drive or at the edge of the world in Tofino.

Nicole Tucker, Yellowknife

Nicole is a young mother with two small girls aged 1 and 4. She works at the Workers Safety & Compensation Commission in Yellowknife, where she’s lived for six years. She’s originally from Newfoundland, and the majority of her family still resides there. Nicole joined the Board in November. Abortion rights are very important to Nicole, as well as other reproductive and social justice issues such as dying with dignity. She says:

“Something I remember from a very young age is noticing the protesters outside of Planned Parenthood, and feeling total disbelief at how these people could make such a hard decision even harder on these women. I had barely known about sex, pregnancy, or abortion but something about that scene and those people never did sit right with me. I’d like to think I had some good gut instincts.”

“Having started a family at the age of 22, abortion was definitely a thought that had crossed my mind. While I love my little family beyond belief, I am grateful to have had doctors and those that I trusted to talk me through safe and educated options. Everybody should have this access, and while I pray that my girls never have to make that decision, I hope that it is still legally an option for them. I truly never thought I would live in a world where abortion would be considered illegal in some places. How are we going backwards!? I hope to help make changes in a step forward for women’s choices in Canada, for Yellowknife, and for my baby girls.”

Paige Mason, Selkirk MB

Paige Mason joined the board of directors just last October and is from Selkirk, Manitoba, a rural area just 30 minutes outside of Winnipeg. She is 20 years old and a third-year political science student at the University of Winnipeg and hopes to pursue graduate studies in law focusing on constitutional law, specifically the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to protect and uphold human rights in Canada.

Paige is interested in running for office one day at the provincial or federal level. She has volunteered with several social justice groups before and the Manitoba NDP. Since Paige was 15, she has followed ARCC’s social media page and has been passionate about advocating abortion rights. Her hopes for ARCC are to expand abortion access in the prairie provinces as she is concerned with the lack of access to abortion services in Manitoba’s rural areas, and there is currently no buffer zone legislation in Manitoba.

Paige would like to advocate for revising the sexual education curriculum in Manitoba, which she believes does not provide enough information to students on consent, sexual assault and contraception while excluding gay, transgender and non-binary students.

To address the lack of buffer zone legislation, Paige plans to start a social media campaign with ARCC in Manitoba and is currently reaching out to pro-choice NDP MLA’s such as Nahanni Fontaine, Winnipeg City Councillor Sherry Rollins, the Women’s Health Clinic and the Manitoba Branch of Medical Students for Choice.

Currently, in Manitoba, reproductive health is not the health minister’s responsibility but the minister responsible for the status of women. Paige recently collected information on the anti-choice PC provincial government and worked with ARCC’s reproductive justice committee to send a statement to Manitoba MLA’s.

Paige is excited to be on ARCC’s board and seeks to enhance access to abortion services in Manitoba.

Quinn Roffey, Toronto

(not yet available)

Zain Abdulla, Vancouver / Montreal

Bonsoir, merci à tous/toutes de vous être joints/jointes à nous. Je vais commencer par m’introduire rapidement puis brièvement parler des projets qui me tiennent à cœur et dans lesquels j’aimerais voir ARCC-CDAC s’engager davantage. Je m’appelle Zain Abdulla, j’utilise les prônons she/elle, j’ai 26 ans et je suis présentement en deuxième année de mes études en droit à l’Université McGill. Cela fait maintenant trois ans que je travaille avec ARCC-CDAC. J’ai un intérêt particulier pour le droit de la famille, l’accès a l’information et la justice reproductive. En ce qui concerne des futurs projets, j’aimerais voir ARCC-CDAC s’engager dans la diversification, le travail anti-oppression et l’inclusion linguistique.

Hello, thank you to everyone who joined us. I will start by quickly introducing myself followed by an overview of the projects I would like to see ARCC-CDAC get more involved in. My name is Zain Abdulla, I use she/elle pronouns, I’m 26 years old and I’m currently in my second year of law school at McGill University. I’ve been working with ARCC-CDAC for three years. I have a particular interest in family law, access to information and reproductive justice. In terms of future projects, I would like ARCC-CDAC to undertake more diversity training, anti-oppression work and linguistic inclusivity.

Executive Director Report, 2020 Activities

By Joyce Arthur

During 2020, ARCC was active on many fronts. Here’s a summary of our projects and activities.

COVID-19 resources:  We created and regularly updated a comprehensive COVID-19 resource page related to sexual and reproductive health and rights during the pandemic.

Clinic 554, New Brunswick:  We worked to support and help save Clinic 554 in New Brunswick, which is on the verge of closing because the province refuses to fund its abortion care:

• We supported the clinic in various ways (e.g., by obtaining some legal advice for them, writing letters to the federal government).
• Our Social Media Coordinator Tasia Alexopoulos carried out political advocacy work during the NB election campaign in September, including questioning candidates in French and English on reproductive health issues.
• Tasia attended events and supported activists during their occupation outside the NB legislature.
• We are supporting the current lawsuit against the province by the Canadian Civil Liberties Assoc, such as by providing input and resources to the CCLA.
• Our petition to the federal government is still open with over 79,000 signatures.

Anti-choice ads and graphic images: We continued our project against anti-choice advertising, public messaging, and graphic images:

• We encouraged local governments to pass bylaws limiting them.
• We helped supporters submit complaints about anti-choice ads.
• We followed up with some cities we had contacted in 2019, and wrote letters to every city where the imagery appeared in 2020.
• The anti-choice group Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform blanketed the City of London last fall with graphic flyers and signs, and ARCC worked with the City and local activists to convince the city to take action – we got them to pass a motion to look at possible remedies to address the graphic flyers.
• We also supported the group Viewer Discretion Legislation Coalition with a $400 grant to buy pro-choice bus ads.
• When the London Transit Commission (LTC) reached a settlement with two anti-choice groups and agreed to run their inaccurate bus ad again, ARCC and a local London activist challenged the LTC on its capitulation and we are now urging them to revise their new Advertising Policy to cite the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

2020 Abortion Caravan campaign:  Starting in 2019, we put together a coalition of groups and activists to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Abortion Caravan in May 2020. Over 50 people/groups were involved. We tracked down many original Caravaners, built the tools to allow the coalition to work together, facilitated communications and planning, and organized and led all meetings. When the pandemic hit, the coalition scaled things back and cancelled the Ottawa event (bringing some original Caravaners to Parliament in Ottawa), but continued the project of writing Issue Papers on various aspects that tied together past and present. Robyn Schwarz and Jaime Nikolaou took over that aspect with the help of an editing team (including Joyce) and produced a lovely set of papers published on the Action Canada page.

Guelph court case intervention:  ARCC has decided to intervene in a court case by Guelph & Area Right to Life against City of Guelph, concerning anti-choice bus ads that the city refused to run. LEAF helped us recruit pro-bono lawyers, who have begun work on an Affidavit (by Joyce) and a Notice of Motion to intervene before the court. The judge will decide in April if we can intervene (should not be any issues) and the hearing date is mid-June. We feel that the City of Guelph has a good case and are optimistic about winning.

Ontario Safe Access Zone case:  Carolyn Egan (President of ARCC) supplied an affidavit to the Ontario A-G lawyers who are defending the Safe Access Zone Act. (Joyce had supported the lawyers in 2019 with various resources and evidence). An Ottawa anti-choice protester is challenging the Act. Because of pandemic delays, it’s not clear when the case will be heard. Joyce also responded to an FOI request by an anti-choice activist trying to obtain all the evidence supporting the Act. Some of the strongest evidence – including a survey that Joyce did of four of the clinics – was not sent to the activist for confidentiality reasons because it identified clinics and staff. But the anti activist then claimed there was no evidence to support the Act.

Federal Bill C-233, Sex Selection Abortion:  We issued a statement in November against federal private member Bill C-233 that would ban sex selection abortion. It was introduced by Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall. We asked all MPs to vote against it, and to speak against it if possible. At the time, we thought the bill could reach Second Reading within a week or two, but that didn’t happen and we now expect it to take place in February 2021.

Coverage of prescription contraception:  We collaborated with AccessBC to issue a joint statement in favour of full coverage of prescription contraception in BC. We also promoted their campaign, which is on the verge of success as the NDP has put it into the budget!  In addition, we networked with activists in Manitoba and Alberta to start their own campaigns with the help of AccessBC. Because of our efforts, a campaign is now underway in Manitoba.

Conservative Party leadership race:  We raised public awareness around the Conservative Party leadership race in August, including exposing the outsize role of extremist anti-choice groups in selecting a new leader, and demonstrating that Erin O’Toole is not pro-choice. The latter article by Joyce was the 10^th most read article on Rabble.ca for 2020!

Small Grant Program:  ARCC started a Small Grant Program to help small or low-resource reproductive rights groups cover expenses for their projects or campaigns. To increase applications, late last year ARCC increased the maximum grant amount to $400 from $200. So far, we have given 10 grants, 8 for $200 and 2 for $400 (one was given in Jan 2021). It is very satisfying to help grassroots groups with their activism! 

CAP-Net coalition of pro-choice groups:  We continued to lead an ad-hoc coalition of about 25 pro-choice and sexual health groups across Canada in order to network, discuss issues, and support/collaborate with each other. We meet online about 2 or 3 times a year, but only met once in 2020 due to the pandemic and 2020 Abortion Caravan project overtaking things.

Abortion support:  A woman from Nova Scotia had to fly to Vancouver for a later abortion and needed support. We recruited an ARCC member in Vancouver to accompany the woman through the process and offer practical and emotional support. ARCC now has 3 volunteers on tap in Vancouver who could help with future such needs.

New website:  We created a new website for ARCC-CDAC over the spring and summer: www.arcc-cdac.ca/. We hired a professional designer, Jason Alward of Verge Communications in PEI. (Jason also has a pro-choice activist background!)  Our webperson Mary Linville was also a huge help. We are very pleased with the results and have been getting many compliments from people. The site is easier to navigate and also quite easy to maintain and update.

Board of Directors renewal:  Last fall, we found ourselves short of several Directors due to attrition and decided to take the opportunity to expand and diversify our Board of Directors. We now have some new diverse members including a non-binary person, another from the LGBT community, a woman of colour, an Indigenous woman, and for the first time a director from the Northwest Territories and one from Manitoba. ARCC looks forward to embarking on a wider focus on reproductive justice for future work. We’ve struck a new Reproductive Justice committee that also includes several members-at-large, and we also restarted our Fundraising Committee.

Feedback survey:  Last fall, ARCC designed a survey to send out to key donors, allies, supporters, and members. The objective is to get feedback on their perceptions of ARCC and our work, what we are doing well and what we could improve. We finalized the survey in early January and distributed it to 52 groups and individuals. We received 14 responses by the deadline of Jan 29, and will use them to explore ways in which we can enhance our work.

NAF award:  Joyce received the inaugural Celia Posyniak Award of Excellence from the National Abortion Federation. It was given at the Canadian NAF conference in November, held online. From the description: “This award recognizes an individual or group who has made significant contributions to the Canadian abortion care landscape. This could include dedication and daily contributions to ensuring reproductive freedom and/or justice, advancing quality abortion care, or a reputation for excellence in a particular field.”

Communications:  ARCC carries out a lot of public communication through our website, Mail Chimp lists, and social media, as well as via media work, articles, presentations, and our newsletter:

• As of Jan 30, our Facebook page has 9,133 followers [2019: 8,268], our Twitter page has 4,791 followers [2019: 4,185], and our Instagram page has 3,510 followers [2019: 2,114]. Thank you to our Social Media Coordinator, Tasia Alexopoulos!
• ARCC spokespeople did about 5-6 speaking engagements and presentations.
• We issued two press releases in 2020, one of them a joint release with AccessBC. (Will try and do more in 2021!)
• In 2020, we produced five issues of our ARCC Spark newsletter for members only.
• Joyce and other ARCC spokespersons carried out about three dozen media interviews over the year.
• We continue to operate two listservs for members only: ARCC Activist and ARCC News, on which we post, respectively, volunteer opportunities and events, and mainstream media stories related to reproductive rights.
• ARCC has two Mail Chimp lists – one for our members with 391 subscribed, and one for our Supporters with 835 subscribed. (Supporters are donors who didn’t join, expired members, or people who have contacted us.) With the help of Hazel Allen, our Mail Chimp Coordinator, we use these lists to send out our e-newsletter ARCC Spark to members, and various items of interest to our Supporters several times a year, such as our press releases, petitions, or statements.

Volunteer coordination:  We work with several volunteers on a regular basis and we’re always trying to recruit and work with anyone interested in volunteering. Let’s give a shout-out to key volunteers who made significant contributions to ARCC over the last year. Their help has been invaluable and we are grateful for their commitment. In alphabetical order, they are:

• Anik Pettigrew                                   Translation
• Elyce Ross                                           Membership Manager
• Hazel Allen                                         Mail Chimp Coordinator / ARCC Spark – C.D.ACtion
• Hong Liu                                             Translation
• Marie-Chantal Scholl-Dimanche    Translation
• Mary Linville                                      IT and website maintenance and development
• Sarah McLeod                                    Small Grant Program Coordinator
• Tasia Alexopoulos                             Social Media Coordinator, media spokesperson
• Tina Beier                                           Rabble.ca Blog Coordinator (Viewpoint Reproductive Justice)
• Zain Abdulla                                      Presenter, legal issues

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