Alright, Now What?

With Rhiannon Wong at Women’s Shelters Canada. The Tech Safety Canada website says technology-facilitated gender-based violence “happens when someone uses technology to harm or control you.” It can take the form of “harassing text or social media messages, restricting access to technology, non-consensually sharing intimate images, using location-tracking technology, or threatening to do any of the...

With Barbara Perry, Professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University, and Director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University. A recent House of Commons report speaks to the rise of ideologically motivated violent extremism in Canada, based on xenophobic, gender-driven, anti-authority, and other personal grievance-driven ideas and ideol...

With Yamikani Msosa, Executive Director at the Ottawa Coalition To End Violence Against Women. Misogynoir, a term coined by Dr. Moya Bailey, describes the distinctive form of anti-Black sexism faced by Black women. We’ve explored it in previous episodes. How does it show up in digital spaces?  The data available paints a distressing picture. UK and US data shows that racialized women are 34% more...

With Alicia Mccarvell, creator and social media influencer (@aliciamccarvell). There’s a lot of research on how social media can impact users and expose them to harmful content. But those with a prominent online presence experience more digital harassment themselves - politicians, academics, journalists, and professional content creators and highly-followed influencers. Creators and influencers ca...

With Hannah Sung (@hannsung, @hannah_tok), veteran of Canadian media and co-founder of Media Girlfriends. Communication in the western world has changed a lot: in 1800s, it was printing presses and telegraphs, then telephone, radio, movies, and television. Next came satellites, email and the internet, mobile phones, and smartphones, all the way to today’s social media, digital content, and remote...

With Dr. Nasreen Rajani. Gendered digital abuse can take lots of forms: threatening or damaging communication, cyberstalking, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, online dating abuse, hacking, doxing (publishing private information about someone online), flaming (posting insults or personal attacks), impersonation, gendered and sexualized disinformation, and more.  Studies show that tho...

With Fallon Farinacci, social media influencer (@fallonfarinacci). There are good resources designed to help you better respond to and take care of yourself in situations of digital hate and harassment. Right to Be  says there’s “no right or perfect response to harassment.” Their online harassment survival guide says it’s ok to feel vulnerable and turn to your support network when you need it. The...

With Stephanie Jonsson at Ontario Digital Literacy and Access Network (ODLAN). Organizations working on gender justice, feminist, and 2SLGBTQIA+ issues are subject to online attacks intended to delegitimize and devalue their efforts. Employees who deal with these attacks have little protection. Their mental health is impacted, and their time and resources are wasted. They’re likely to have to leav...

With Libby Ward, social media influencer (@diaryofanhonestmom). Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Libby have a lot to teach us about it. Kelly Odenweller’s research identifies gendered stereotypes and assumptions about mothers and motherhood. They can eas...

With Chris Bail, Founding Director of the Polarization Lab. The fact that social media platforms draw out and reward anti-social, polarizing behaviour goes hand-in-hand with the gendered hate and abuse so common to digital interactions. We can’t fix one without fixing the other.    Nor can we ignore what social media does for us psychologically and socially. We use these platforms to build our per...

With Brynta Ponn, social media influencer (@bryntaponn, @brynstagram). Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Brynta have a lot to teach us about it.  Body shaming is defined as “unsolicited, mostly negative opinions or comments about a target’s body” that “ca...

With Imran Ahmed from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, dating, messaging and meeting apps, or on game sites, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence.   It’s easy to forget the basic facts of digital media. Take social media. Social media spaces are run b...

With Florence-Olivia (Floli) and Marie-Emmanuelle (Emma), together known as The Sis. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, dating, messaging and meeting apps, or on game sites, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence.  1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Younger people are amongst...

With Sarah Sobieraj, author of Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy. The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Council of Europe says, “just speaking out … about issues online, often when related to feminism, gender equality, sexual abuse or specific aspects of women’s rights, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, may be a trigger for violence and a...

With Kairyn Potts, social media influencer and creator (@ohkairyn) and writer, actor, model, and TV host. Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Kairyn have a lot to teach us about it. 1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Indigenous, Black, and...

With Nina Jankowicz, author of How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, game sites, or dating, messaging, and meeting apps, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence.   1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Y...

With Dr. Stacey Bélanger, pediatrician at CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montréal and Mental Health Task Force member at the Canadian Pediatric Society. Young people in Canada aged 12 to 17 say their mental health has declined since 2015, and the decline is more pronounced amongst young women. On top of that, children and youth who are recent immigrants or refugees, racialized, or in rural and rem...

With Taylor Meissner at Intersections Therapy Collective. Young people in Canada aged 12 to 17 say their mental health has declined since 2015, and the decline is more pronounced amongst young women. On top of that, children and youth who are recent immigrants or refugees, racialized, or in rural and remote communities are less likely to get appropriate mental health care.  Think social media pres...

With Molly Hayes, national reporter with The Globe and Mail. Women and equity-seeking journalists investigate under-told stories. We need them to give voice to gender justice matters that otherwise go unheard. Think about the most stunning contemporary stories you’ve seen on gender and equality issues. Chances are that women and equity-seeking journalists were behind them.   Every year, the Canadi...

With Simone Saunders, founder of The Cognitive Corner. Family violence refers to many kinds of abuse and neglect in families. Umbrella terms like this can be challenging. They cover a range of experiences, but they can obscure gender and power dynamics in their broadness. Women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people face family violence at disproportionate rates that are only on the...

With Hazel T. Biana at DLSU College of Liberal Arts, Paola Ricaurte at Harvard University, Paulette Senior at the Canadian Women’s Foundation, and Benjamin Prud'homme at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving at breakneck speed. What are its possible benefits for women and equity-seeking people? Can we implement AI in a way that doesn’t contribu...

With Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden, Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research at the University of Ottawa. Like many things related to sexual and reproductive health, there’s elevated stigma about gynecological cancers. Like many health issues for women, girls, and gender-diverse people, there are serious gaps in knowledge and treatment, too. The gaps are bigger for those who face discrimination ba...

With Dr. Shafeena Premji, physician and Director of Mahogany Medical Clinic and The Village Medical, and Janet Ko, President of The Menopause Foundation of Canada. It’s interesting how Western medicine has framed women’s sexual and reproductive health. It has a history of presuming normalness means youth and reproduction, so ageing and not reproducing means “abnormal”. Take the term “menopause”, s...

With Natalie Philbert, Manager of Women’s Programs and Services at Hemophilia Ontario, and Dr. Meghan Pike, pediatrician and clinical fellow in Pediatric-Hematology Oncology at Dalhousie University/IWK Health Centre.   We don’t always have the language to speak about our periods – let alone menstrual bleeding disorders. What are the signs and symptoms? What are the gaps in care and diagnosis? And...

With Dr. Tara Sedlak, the only certified Women’s Heart Health Cardiologist in Canada. The link between discrimination and your health and wellness is undeniable. It's all about the social determinants of health. The World Health Organization describes them as “non-medical factors that influence health outcomes”, the “conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider...