When Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination was confirmed in October of 2018, many of my acquaintances speculated Americans would soon be traveling to Canada for their abortion care.

Progressive pundits have pointed out that Roe. V. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in America, is in danger of being overturned by the court’s conservative majority. Given Kavanaugh’s track record of blocking women from terminating their pregnancies, I understand where the prediction that American women could end up crossing the border for abortions comes from. Many Americans view Canada as a liberal haven, the refrain of “Well, time to move to Canada” likely passing through every Democrat’s mind every time more conservative legislation is enacted. But is the idea of Canada as a hypothetical abortion tourism destination a realistic one? If you’re a feminist activist living in Canada, you know the answer is probably not.

Soon after Kavanaugh’s confirmation, my friend Kaley wrote on Facebook, “Now everyone will know Canada’s secret shame.” That secret shame being abortion isn’t so easily accessible here.

In Canada, abortion is theoretically considered “an essential healthcare service.” It is available at a mix of publicly funded hospitals and private clinics. However, each province has its own limitations, and in many parts of the country, hospitals will not provide abortions of any kind past the 12-week mark in many parts of the country. And, much like in America, access to terminations is uneven, with major urban areas enjoying the best resources. Frederique Chabot, the Director of Health Promotion for Action Canada For Sexual Health and Rights, explains Canada’s abortion access problem like this: “In the US, there are more regulatory policies to delay access or close down clinics. But when it comes to vast geography and being able to access that service in a timely manner, Canada is in a similar situation.”

Women in the Northern regions of the country typically must drive long distances – or sometimes fly – to have their procedures. For example, a woman living in Moosonee, a city in the far North of the province of Ontario, could find herself taking a 7.5 hour bus ride to the nearest provider. She’ll also be on the hook for travel expenses and hotel accommodations, which makes abortion a privilege only some can afford. A similar situation plagues people living in the Northern parts of other Canadian provinces, such as Manitoba, Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

In Ontario, the most populous province, there are a mere 11 abortion clinics for approximately 14 million residents. That’s not even one facility for every million people! To make matters worse, all but one of these clinics is located in the two largest cities, Toronto and Ottawa. For a breakdown of abortion access by province, please see this chart. It does not paint a progressive picture.

Much like in America, access to terminations is uneven, with major urban areas enjoying the best resources.
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In 2015, medical abortion (the abortion pill) was finally approved by Health Canada after a long, drawn out process. At the time, it was touted as a way to help women in isolated communities take control of their reproductive destinies. However, the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan still refuse to cover the cost of the drug. Add to this the issue that some doctors refuse to prescribe the it for religious reasons, and the fact it can only be used within the first ten weeks of pregnancy. Combined with the gestational limits, this is yet another hurdle for rural women who do not live in close proximity to the hospitals where the procedure is available. The abortion drug has not been a magic pill.

While I am lucky enough to live in Ontario, there are areas where abortions at private clinics are never reimbursed. In 2013, my friend Lily sought an abortion at a private clinic in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Already a mother of one, Lily and her husband conceived a second pregnancy by accident. They did not have the time or the money to devote to another child. While publicly funded abortions were in theory available to her at a local hospital, Lily discovered she would have to wait at least a month for the procedure. This was a scary prospect, because abortions in New Brunswick are only available for the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. Waiting for a free abortion would mean cutting the process down to the wire.

These long wait times at hospitals are common. In Nova Scotia, where the abortion pill is not provided by provincial healthcare, wait times for surgical abortions can easily be more than six weeks. This presents a significant obstacle, because the province does not provide abortions after the 15-week mark. Once an individual discovers they are pregnant, they have little time to weigh the options before scheduling a hospital abortion. And God help the person who doesn’t discover they’re pregnant until a couple months along!

Instead of waiting, Lily turned to a private clinic. However, the price of the procedure was around $700, a huge sum for Lily, who was paid per hour to work a part-time gig in publishing; her husband earned close to minimum wage as a day laborer. The nearest clinic only provided abortions one day a week, so Lily would be forced to take time off work. To make matters worse, it was Christmas time, and the couple did not want their young son to be deprived of presents. Remembering her experience, Lily told me, “It was a lot of money to pay, but I knew I couldn’t stay pregnant.” Fortunately, Lily’s father agreed to foot the bill her province would not pay.

The idea of Canada as a feminist utopia where getting an abortion is as easy as buying milk is a misconception built on good press and the belief that our country is cool. You know, because our Prime Minister donates money to Trevor Noah on Twitter.

As a Canadian feminist, it’s disconcerting—through admittedly flattering—when our neighbors to the South speculate my country has solved sexism, but we haven’t. Abortion access is not the only example of how Canada has failed women and non-binary people. For example, I could spill boundless ink discussing the crisis regarding missing and murdered indigenous women. Abortion access is one of many problems with which we’re still grappling.

It’s easy to see why people outside of Canada may be taken aback to hear we aren’t an abortion care paradise. In 2014, Justin Trudeau declared each candidate fielded by his political party was required to be pro-choice. Per his decree, Anti-choicers would be kicked out of his caucus and barred from running as Liberal candidates. At the time, Trudeau was a year away from becoming prime minister. Trudeau’s policy of zero tolerance for anti-choice politics was a splashy statement, one that set a feminist tone for his election campaign.

Trudeau’s declaration shocked many of our American cousins. On Fox and Friends, Jeanne Mancini, who organized the March for Life, contended Mr. Trudeau was “out of touch with mainstream America” (as if the Canadian PM should be primarily concerned with what Americans think). And despite pearl-clutching on the part of right-wing US pundits, you might be surprised to learn Trudeau talked the talk of promoting abortion rights without walking the walk.

Over three years after Trudeau became Canada’s self-identified “feminist prime minister,” women in much of Canada still do not have meaningful access to abortion. At present, we have no hope of becoming a reliable safe haven for Americans seeking abortion care. After all, we’re already failing people who live North of the 49th parallel.

When Prime Minister Trudeau was elected, I hoped no Canadian women would ever have the stressful abortion experience my friend Lily had again. It’s now been five years—and one federal election—since she had her abortion, and regrettably little has changed. There’s still only one abortion clinic in Fredericton, clinic 554. They are only allowed to provide terminations until the 15-week mark. And patients are still not reimbursed for the cost of their procedures.

Over three years after Trudeau became Canada’s self-identified 'feminist prime minister,' women in much of Canada still do not have meaningful access to abortion.
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So why, in a supposedly feminist country like Canada, do women and non-binary folks have wildly different access to reproductive healthcare depending on where they live? In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada threw out the country’s laws criminalizing abortions in a landmark decision called R. v. Morgentaler. In accordance with this decision, the Federal government has no power to prevent a woman from obtaining an abortion at any point during her pregnancy. However, since healthcare is provided to Canadians by our provincial governments, those seeking terminations are at the mercy of the sort of care their provincial healthcare system offers. Most provinces do not provide this access past the 15-week mark.

Because tourists do not typically have access to pregnancy terminations in Canadian hospitals, hypothetical abortion tourists would be forced to use our private facilities. On average, over 650,000 abortions occur in the United States each year. It’s unlikely Canada, with a total of 55 clinics, could make a significant dent in that number, but it would increase wait times for people living in Canada. Next, there’s the matter of cost. In the province of Ontario, documented residents who have provincial health insurance will have the cost of their procedures covered by the government. Those who lack such documentation will pay anywhere from 450 to 900 Canadian dollars. However, out-of-country patients would likely have to pay around $2,000 for the procedure. That’s on top of the plane or bus ticket American patients would already be purchasing to get here, and we must not forget that those with criminal records and precarious immigration statuses would sadly not permitted to enter our country.

In 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be up for reelection. There are certainly things he could do to improve abortion access across the country. He could provide additional funding to the provinces, funding that is earmarked specifically for reproductive healthcare. To bridge the access gap, he could also establish federal funding for women who do not live near abortion providers to travel for such treatment. It is time for our feminist prime minister to walk the feminist walk he talks so well.

The Heroic Actions Of Some In Toronto Can’t Erase Canada’s Shameful Truths

‘We are comparatively free of racial, sectarian or ideological strife’? Absolutely not.

Unsplash/Pam Menegakis

“The Truth Canada Needs To Remember,” by John Ibbitson, was published in the Globe and Mail on April 24 — the day after one of the deadliest acts of terror in recent Canadian history, when a 25-year-old white man in Toronto weaponized a large van he had rented to plow into unsuspecting pedestrians, killing 10 people and critically injuring 15 others. The public is still reeling from the atrocity.

Yet despite the tragedy of the situation, much has also been made of one positive fact: The assailant was taken down without the use of force.

Focusing on the heroism of benevolent bystanders is right. But the officer simply did his job by actually adhering to his training. Moreover, most framings of this incident have failed to address a crucial fact: Lack of force by law enforcement is something rarely afforded Black and Brown people in this country.

In the Globe article, Ibbiston takes this erasure one step further, stating that in Canada, “we are comparatively free of racial, sectarian or ideological strife.” The basic premise of his article is an ode to the so-called tolerance, diversity, and benevolence of Canadian society, and how we are better for it (while touting that we are far better than our American neighbors and to a greater extent, the entire world).

Let me repeat the part which immediately pained me to read: “We are comparatively free of racial, sectarian or ideological strife.”

Ibbitson calls this a “truth.” But the truth is, I have never read such a one-dimensional white-privileged view in my life.

Yes, innocent bystanders heroically showed up to help in trying times. Yes, the officer involved did what he was supposed to by not using excessive use of force against a white man. But this does not make Canada some beacon of freedom.

How do you say that to the countless Black and Indigenous lives that have been ruined by this state?

I have never read such a one-dimensional white-privileged view in my life.

How do you say that to the hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people who have been victimized by the residential school system — the last of which didn’t close until the ‘90s?

How do you say that to the families of Indigenous youth like Colten Boushie, Indigenous girls like Tina Fontaine, and Black men like Jermaine Carby, whose lives were taken by white men who were never held accountable for their actions by a broken justice-less system? How do you say that to the countless Black and Brown people — some children even — whose lives have been taken because they were clearly never really free under this white supremacist system?

The lives of these and other victims have been deemed disposable by not only those responsible for their deaths, but a broken system that has declared their deaths somehow their own fault. Even after such tragedies, the Canadian media, investigating officers, and general public took to victim-blaming, evidence-tampering, and spewing racist anti-indigenous and anti-black hatred about these victims, instead of giving their families the dignity of fair and just trials that honored the lives of their loved ones.

Moreover, how do you say Canada is free of racial strife when there is such an alarming rate of Black and Indigenous kids in the crumbling racist foster care system? When there are so many children who have been (and continue to be) victimized as wards of the state when they are supposed to be protected? When there are cases like that of Abdoul Abdi, yet another refugee child failed by a broken racist foster care system?

How do you say that when the so-called “heroic” actions of the police officer don’t extend to people like Abdirahman Abdi, who was mentally ill and shot down like a rabid dog, instead of supported during a mental health episode in which he had harmed no one?

How do you justify such a low bar set that a police officer actually adhering to his training is somehow a heroic revelation? How do you not see that this also proves what racialized people have been protesting since Ferguson: that police are indeed capable of apprehending suspects without shooting and killing them?

You Can’t Avoid Racism By Moving To Canada

How do you explain such a fact to the countless Black, Brown, and Indigenous civilians, like Sammy Yatim, Dale Anthony Chatrie, Duane Christian, or Joey Knapaysweet, whose interactions with police have far too often turned fatal before police properly assessed the situation in which these individuals were deemed suspects?

How do you account for a litany of such staggering facts?

Like this: Black people account for 36.5% of all police-involved civilian fatalities despite representing only 8.3% of Toronto’s overall population. In the 52 instances of police-involved fatalities since 2000, nearly two-thirds (35 of the 52) were killed by being shot, while the remaining died from excessive physical force or medical complications while being restrained during their interactions with Toronto police. And yet, only seven officers have ever faced charges and only one has been convicted for their involvement in the death of a civilian.

In Saskatchewan, of the 16 people who have died in police encounters since 2000, 10 were Indigenous — accounting for 62.5% of all victims, despite Indigenous people representing only 11.7% of Saskatchewan’s population.

Black people account for 36.5% of all police-involved civilian fatalities despite representing only 8.3% of Toronto’s overall population.

I surmise these numbers are actually much higher, considering police departments have often failed to adequately collect race-based statistics about their encounters with racialized civilians.

And still, I am not done with my questions yet.

How can you say Canada is free from racial strife when it has one of the highest child poverty rates among developed countries, and when the majority of the hundreds of thousands of starving children are Black, Brown, or Indigenous?

How do you say that to the countless Indigenous families that have been devastated by the alarming rate of suicide among Indigenous youth, which our government has failed to adequately address? How do you say that to the dozens of Indigenous communities that have been under boil water advisories for decades without end, without access to basic necessities like clean water on their own land, while their resources are plummeted for white supremacist capitalist gain?

How can you say Canada is free from racial strife when it has one of the highest child poverty rates among developed countries?

How do you say that to the tens of thousands of Black and Brown people locked up in immigration detention centers across the country without basic necessities that are afforded even to incarcerated Canadian criminals — like access to basic medical care, sanitary products, internet, or access to lawyers to help them get out? As a result of Canada’s broken immigration system, hundreds still remain indefinitely held in immigration detentions at remote locations with little to no access to the outside world to even properly appeal their denied asylum applications.

How do you say the country is free to those who have been impacted by Canada’s broken refugee claimant system, which has failed people like Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam over and over again — particularly when the claimants are Black or Brown?

How do you say that to the families of people like Skantha Navaratnam, a Tamil man at the margins of his already marginalized community, who along with other men of color like Kirushna Kanagaratnam were targeted by a serial killer because of their race, and whose lives, disappearances, and eventual murders were dismissed repeatedly, carelessly, and callously by Toronto Police Services?

These Indigenous Feminists Are Ready To Lovingly Detonate The Patriarchy

How do you say that to African-Canadians who only represent 3% of Canada’s population yet account for over 10% of the overall prison population? How do you say that when the Black prison population has grown 69% in the last 30 years despite remaining such a tiny portion of the overall state population? When Black inmates are not only overrepresented in incarceration, but also subject to nearly 15% of all use-of-force incidents, and are more likely to be placed in maximum security institutions despite being at a lower risk of reoffending? (The numbers for Indigenous incarceration statistics are even more abysmal.) How do you say that when Toronto’s Black residents are targeted in 85% of racially motivated hate crimes and 27% of carding incidents?

“Freedom” and what it means to be free seems to only be a basic right guaranteed under the premise of whiteness, on this stolen land. Those of us that fall outside of that scope were never really free — no matter the comparatively small advancements we have managed to carve out thanks to our own determination, mobilization, resistance, and resilience.

Using the instance of an extreme tragedy as fodder to push some kind of “inclusive” and “tolerance” and “diversity” propaganda, when there are thousands of us who have never seen this equity play out in our lived experiences, is disillusioned at best. For those of us facing these very real realities, this is ahistorical, dishonest, and only continuing the cycle of unchanging conditions for the countless racialized people who do not benefit from the alt-reality that privilege and whiteness affords.

We can indeed be grateful to our brave fellow Torontonians who put their safety on the line and helped during the terror attack on Yonge street, and we can speak of their benevolence and strengths. But we must be mindful to do so without blatantly erasing the many racialized and marginalized people who still suffer under this white supremacist patriarchal capitalist system — people are who are in no ways close to being “free.”

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