What does a feminist education look like to you? We’d like to think it includes teaching students about justice, encouraging critical thinking about power and inequality, and giving young people tools that they can use to help themselves and others to live happily and freely. With the addition of a social justice elective for grade 12 students and the work being … Read more Five ways to bring feminism into the high school classroom
West Coast LEAF wrote to the Mayor and Council of the City of Vancouver in support of a motion to investigate pervasive sexual harassment and sexual assault in the hospitality industry and identify steps the City can take to promote safer workplaces. Read our letter. Submissions
In 2019, we prepared a backgrounder comparing pay equity regimes across Canada, including indicators of success and a comparative table summarizing findings. Read our backgrounder. Submissions
In June 2019, West Coast LEAF made submissions to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services urging the government of BC to commit in Budget 2020 to making financial supports more accessible for families dealing with the child protection system and those in informal kinship care arrangements. Read our submissions. Submissions
“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”- Louis Riel The above quote from Metis leader Louis Riel has been resonating with me, as I reflect on the incredible richness of the Indigenous arts scene across Turtle Island (North America) and … Read more A mixtape to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day
One of the ways that West Coast LEAF uses the law as a tool for social change is through public legal education. Our public legal education program encourages people to think critically about the law and society, and to understand and exercise their legal rights. For the last 20 years, part of the way we conduct our … Read more Celebrating 20 Years of Youth-to-Youth Legal Education
West Coast LEAF provided submissions as part of a public consultation process on modernizing the Employment Standards Act. We explained how gender-based discrimination results in particular difficulties in the labour force for women and gender and sexual minorities, and we called for legal protections to help ensure that people of all genders can participate in the … Read more Submissions regarding the Employment Standards Act
In March 2019, West Coast LEAF submitted input as part of the consultation regarding a universal basic income in BC. We shared our analysis of the gendered dimensions of poverty and echoed the call of BC Poverty Reduction Coalition (of which we are a member) to implement a basic income framework only if it is grounded in … Read more Submission to the BC Basic Income Consultation
VICTORIA – Today, the provincial government released Budget 2019. The budget takes important steps towards addressing poverty in the province. The budget also leaves disappointing gaps in services that will disproportionately impact women and other people impacted by gender-based discrimination. “This budget indicates political will to address poverty and implements some important measures to address … Read more Release: Budget 2019 brings welcome improvements in benefits but falls short on legal aid
Read our 2018 Annual Report. to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2017/2018 fiscal year. Publications