From Victimization to Criminalization Conference

Women’s Resistance: from Victimization to Criminalization

In 2001 the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres partnered with Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) to present an enormously successful conference in Ottawa, Ont. Some 1500 women and a few men joined in an examination of the Canadian response, particularly the criminal justice response to women. High profile victims of sexist violence like Jane Doe, women of Ciudad Juarez, women imprisoned for defending themselves from abusive partners, women charged with welfare fraud, women imprisoned for cross racial love affairs, exotic dancers forced into lap dancing and young women introduced to prostitution while in state care, all told their own stories. Panels of experienced activists exposed police practices, restorative justice shams, global economic forces, law reform efforts and the inaccessibility of human rights as charter rights. Supreme court judges, justice officials, prisoners, wives and frontline workers mixed spoke and allied

The event was held across the street from the national parliament. We were within the first days of the government response to 911and therefore the conference became an important site of feminist anti-war resistance and anti-repression organizing.