Here’s a glimpse so far:

Up for Debate

Wouldn’t it be handy if there were a debate specifically about women’s issues? There hasn’t been one since 1984. That means there has not been a debate focused on women’s issues in my lifetime. Up for Debate, an alliance of over 175 national women’s organizations, invited Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair, Justin Trudeau, and Elizabeth May to debate such issues. Mulcair was proud of the fact that he was the first to accept the invitation. Trudeau and May also accepted, and Harper did not. When the time came, Mulcair backed out. If Harper wasn’t doing it, neither would he. As a result, because two men didn’t want to play, organizers canceled the event. Up for Debate went ahead with Plan B, where one-on-one interviews with the politicians were arranged. Mulcair—the guy who backed out of the debate last second—took this opportunity to identify as a feminist. Trudeau also says that he is a proud feminist. Harper did not participate in the interviews.

I was looking forward to this debate. Very disappointed it had to be cancelled. https://t.co/q2Awq4iQcX

—    Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 24, 2015

Where did our debate go, @ThomasMulcair? And @pmharper? #women #GPC http://t.co/iSLL9pN4Ue pic.twitter.com/m1cQArPhnZ

— Green Party Canada (@CanadianGreens) August 24, 2015

Transcripts of full interviews:

Mulcair

Trudeau

May

Munk debate

The Munk debate is a charitable initiative of the Aurea Foundation, a right-wing organization founded by Peter and Melanie Munk of Barrick Gold. The September debate was on Canada’s foreign policy. Unlike the women’s issues debate, RSVPs to to the invitation of right-wing millionaires were quickly accepted, disheartening to say the least. May was not allowed to attend. The Munk Debates reasoning is the Green Party does not have party status. However, as a charity they are not legally allowed to support or oppose a political party. So the reason is official, not because of the boys-only nature of the Munk Debates. In the end, May used Twitter to participate in the debate. Trudeau said May should have been able to attend. Yet, he still attended, as did Mulcair and Harper.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Harper has said there really isn’t an issue around the fact that Indigenous women are over-represented among Canada’s missing and murdered women. For him, it is a non-issue that does not rank high on the Conservative radar. Not all candidates agree with him. “”Do you think that if 1,200 women who had been murdered or had gone missing in Ottawa, we’d need the United Nations to tell us to have an inquiry?” Mulcair asked at an August rally. “It would have happened a long time ago. This is about racism, that’s what this is about.” The NDP leader says he will launch a national inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous women. May has said the same and Trudeau has committed to support indigenous advocacy groups.

Childcare

Women today can work! Just for less money. Oh, and often only within daycare hours—which usually do not reflect the precarious shift work so many women undertake. Currently, Harper maintains he will slash all benefits for low-income earners, including childcare. Trudeau says he will end this trend and help families with lower incomes. Mulcair promises affordable childcare, saying, like healthcare, childcare is worth the money. May agrees that childcare is kind of a big deal.

Sex Work and Bill C-36

Harper passed Bill C-36 into law, further endangering the lives of women in sex work. But actually, he is saving them, because these women need to be saved by the morals of rich white men, as do we all. (Sarcasm intended.) May says the Green Party will repeal C-36, and Trudeau said, last year, that his party would be looking at the Nordic Model. More information about parties’ positions on sex work can be found here.

Domestic Violence

Those who participated in the Up for Debate interviews touched on this subject. Prior to the debate, the only thing the Green Party addressed in terms of domestic violence, according to a Toronto Metro article published August 26, was that “false allegations” were common. OK. At least, by the time the interviews were done May, a self-described feminist changed her tune, saying Canada needs a national strategy to confront domestic violence against women. Both Mulcair and Trudeau spoke about Parliament being a boys’ club and that they will lead by example there to make it less so.And money for shelters is a good idea, says Trudeau, but it isn’t up to the federal government to create them because municipalities, he believes, should do it. So, someone is going to do something, don’t worry about it.

Abortion

Pro-choice, anti-choice, reproductive rights. Light stuff, right? Harper doesn’t actually come out and say he is anti-abortion rights. Instead he says that abortion should not be discussed within politics because it is a matter of faith and morals. And although his own faith condemns these rights, he isn’t in the good books of anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition (CPL). The Conservative party is, though. At least there is someone out there ready to police women’s bodies. Phew. The CPL hates Trudeau, so that’s a good sign for the Liberals. Mulcair’s NDP is also pro-abortion rights: “A New Democrat government will increase funding for women’s organizations, particularly women’s rights organizations. Family planning, reproductive and sexual health, including access to abortion services, must be included in Canada’s approach to maternal and child health.” May is also on Team Abortion Rights.

The Niqab

Conservatives were getting attention for doing things like peeing in people’s mugs, and that was weird. So, a distraction—I mean, very important issue—was created by the Harper government. The niqab is a veil that covers part of the face and a sign of faith worn by some Muslim women. It is also being attacked for being anti-Canadian—as decided after settler colonialism. The argument goes something like this: “My white grandparents knew what it was to be Canadian (after white folk made what it is to be Canadian tailored to said grandparents) why can’t everyone else?!”

While fostering xenophobia the Conservative party is saving women by oppressing women. Anti-Muslim propaganda is being circulated on social media and women are being attacked because of this federally accepted hatred of the “Other.”

Mulcair says this is wrong. Like, no one likes the niqab, he says, but we need to trust the authority of tribunal decisions. Trudeau is also opposed to Harper’s stance. At a Maclean’s sponsored debate the Liberal leader said:  “You can dislike the niqab. You can hold it up it is a symbol of oppression. You can try to convince your fellow citizens that it is a choice they ought not to make. This is a free country. Those are your rights. But those who would use the state’s power to restrict women’s religious freedom and freedom of expression indulge the very same repressive impulse that they profess to condemn. It is a cruel joke to claim you are liberating people from oppression by dictating in law what they can and cannot wear.” As for May, at a televised French debate she said, “It’s a false debate . . . What is the impact of the niqab on the economy, what is the impact of the niqab on climate change, what is the impact of the niqab on the unemployed?”

Fun Facts

• Trudeau addresses misogyny, in certain communities.
• May re-started a women’s caucus in Parliament.

A former This intern, Hillary Di Menna is in her second year of the gender and women’s studies program at York University. She also maintains an online feminist resource directory, FIRE- Feminist Internet Resource Exchange.

Members of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the Copenhagen Climate Summit protest Canada's lacklustre showing at the conference. CC-Licensed photo courtesy CYD.

Nearing mid-December, I arise to Toronto’s first snowfall—though to my Christmasy disappointment, an unimpressive slop of wet snow and rain greeted the city’s drivers and transit riders with delays and headaches. The symptoms are similar for citizens rallying in Copenhagen this week, though for different reasons. An annual Christmas letter from relatives proved that November can now bring excellent golfing in Southern Ontario. The pudding comes from the World Meteorological Organization, that despite protestation from the deniers like those at the Munk Debate last week, the last decade will likely be the warmest one on record across the globe.

Checking in on the state of Denmark, where a recent leak of a new draft proposal has caused an international stir, I’ve asked two young veterans of international climate activism to help give us a better picture from the thick of it—their voices may or may not come through in commercial media over the next few days).

“The main point is that there’s a lack of trust now lingering over the hosting government [due to the leak],” said Zoë Caron, who is doing policy work at the negotiations with the Climate Action Network International.

“We should be able to move on just fine. We need to support the chair of the Council of Parties [the Kyoto agreement’s negotiating chair – this year being Denmark] in moving forward under the transparent UN process.”

According to Caron, everything is still on the table, with hope and opportunities abound. The world’s environment ministers will be meeting early next week.

Side negotiations seem to be occurring all over the place, and the citizen movement is reacting with urgency when they see something bubble up showing positive or negative momentum. A proposal by the South Pacific islands nation of Tuvalu for deeper cuts is being supported by other small nations and gained an immediate and loud response from activists which was posted to Youtube.

“We need to keep the message that Heads of State are coming here to work out issues, not deliver fluffy speeches, said Caron.

“France is saying they’ll reach their targets entirely domestically, which is great.”

Leaders in Europe’s youth movement are asking citizens to call their national leaders as they meet over the next two days. After watching their call for a deep cut, Canadian youth could support them by writing to ask for their leadership, by bypassing Canada’s weakness at the talks.

Another Canadian graduate of several annual Council of the Parties meetings, Aiden Abram is working as we speak in Copenhagen to mentor other youth in achieving their goals for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty. Despite the time difference, Facebook suggests that whenever you might be reading this, chances are he’s probably still working, as sleep doesn’t seem to be much of an option at the moment.

When I asked him what hope there is to be seen at the moment, Abram didn’t care for the premise.

“Hope is dead,” he said.

“It’s not about hope. Hope creates helplessness – we have the ability to change this process, this system.”

There are now young people from over 100 countries participating at the conference building capacity, developing skills and connecting to each other for work that will continue well past the conference according to Abram.

“That’s what it’s about, as this process will never deliver what we need,” he said.

In asking what Canadians back home should be doing to support their work – Caron and Abram were in sync: call your MP, your Premier, your Prime Minister; write a letter to the editor; raise your voice.

“Ask Stephen Harper that he prepare sufficiently to go to Copenhagen to raise Canada’s targets and commit to making reductions domestically,” said Caron.

The Canadian word on the Danish street says that despite the headaches, progress will come with hard work. There is a lot of good noise coming from the conference: the more domestic noise and the more international pressure, the greater the likelihood that Canada could display a greater willingness to either participate productively, or at least step aside.

And if the words and history of these two Canadian climate savers prove true, nobody’s going away anytime soon. This movement is in it for the long haul, because it needs to be.

Follow Zoe Caron on twitter at http://twitter.com/zoecaron

Follow folks tweeting on the conference (1,500 new tweets since I started writing this article) at http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23cop15

Follow the Canadian Youth Delegation on their blog at http://cydcopenhagen.org/