On October 26, West Coast LEAF will celebrate Persons Day in Nanaimo with a special breakfast featuring constitutional expert Kasari Govender. Govender will be speaking on the intersections of legal aid and women’s equality.
In light of the recent news about a potential temporary closure of legal aid, access to justice is once again in the spotlight. Massive cuts to legal aid starting in 2002 have left BC’s legal system in crisis, with no poverty law and very little family law legal aid. “As the primary users of family law services, women are most impacted by the cuts to legal aid,” says Govender. “Our foremothers worked to ensure that rights for women would be enshrined in law, but unfortunately these hard-won legal rights have little meaning without the means to enforce them.”
Every October since 1992, Canada celebrates Women’s History Month, with the highlight being Persons Day on October 18. Persons Day is celebrated as a milestone in the long struggle for legal rights for women. It recognizes the 1929 victory that legally acknowledged many women as “persons”. Over the following three decades, the right to vote and be appointed to the Senate spread slowly to immigrant women and Aboriginal women. Access to justice is at the forefront of the present-day struggle for women’s equality.
DATE: Saturday October 26 2013
TIME: 10:00-11:30 AM
LOCATION: The Grand Hotel, 4898 Rutherford Rd, Nanaimo
SPEAKERS: Kasari Govender, Executive Director of West Coast LEAF
TICKETS: $35 per person. To purchase tickets visit www.nanaimopersonsday2013.eventbrite.com
