Three Feminists on Fear, Love and Liberation
Beverly Bain and Judy Rebick join Alexa Conradi in conversation about populism, feminism and the left in the context of the launch of her book Fear, Love, and Liberation in Contemporary Quebec.
In response to rapid and unsettling social, economic, and climate changes, fearmongering now features as a main component of public life. Right-wing nationalist populism has become a hallmark of politics in Canada and around the world. No less so in Quebec.
In Fear, Love, and Liberation in Contemporary Quebec, Conradi invites us to take off our rose-coloured glasses and to examine Quebec’s sore spots. Through her personal reflections on Quebec politics and culture, she calls for a rethinking of politics of solidarity.
Beverly Bain teaches in Women and Gender Studies in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She currently teaches and researches in the area of Caribbean and Black Diasporic sexualities, Black and Caribbean queer feminist organizing, sexual assault and violence against women. Bain is the author of “Fire, Passion and Politics: The Creation of Blockorama as Black Queer Diasporic Space in the Toronto Pride Festivities” in “We Still Demand: Defining Resistance in Sex ad Gender Struggles” Edited by Patrizia Gentile, Gary Kinsman and L Pauline Rankin and “Uncovering Conceptual Practices: Bringing into Lived Consciousness Feminist Activities on the Toronto Police Services Sexual Assault Audit” Canadian Women Studies (2010). Bain is currently working on a series of essays on Black radical feminist queer organizing in Toronto from the 80’s to the present.
Judy Rebick is a well-known social justice and feminist activist, writer, journalist, educator, and speaker. She is the author of Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political, Occupy This!, Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution, Imagine Democracy. Founding publisher of rabble.ca, Canada’s popular independent online news and discussion site, Judy continues to blog on rabble.ca. She is the former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group, and was the first CAW Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University. During the 1990s, she was the host of two national TV show on CBC Newsworld and is a frequent commentator on CBC Radio and Television. In the 1980s, she was a well-known spokesperson for the pro-choice movement during the fight to legalize abortion. She lives in Toronto.
Alexa Conradi is best known for work as chair and spokeswoman of the Fédération des femmes du Québec (Quebec Women’s Federation) from 2009-2015. She is a founding member of Québec solidaire and acted as its first president from 2006-2009. With an MA in Communication Studies from Concordia University that focused on discourses of reconciliation, Alexa is committed to decolonization and true justice for indigenous people. Living in Germany, she works internationally as a freelancer.
BOOK REVIEWS “Alexa Conradi’s new book “Fear, Love, and Liberation in Contemporary Quebec” is a must read for anyone interested in the challenges of contemporary feminism. She explores some of the most difficult issues facing modern feminism through the lens of inclusion, challenging some of our old thinking and providing guidance based on a broad base of personal and intellectual knowledge in a most accessible and enjoyable form.” – Judy Rebick
“It’s a brave person who dares to shine a light into the corners of Quebec society, uncovering contradictions and flaws that so many would rather deny exist. Feminist and activist Alexa Conradi has never been one to shy away from difficult topics. The Anglophone Quebecer, who learned to love and live comfortably with the other solitude, is sure to make some readers angry with this well-written,thoroughly documented book, mais tant mieux!” – Sue Montgomery, Mayor of CDN-NDG, Montreal and co-creator of #BeenRapedNeverReported
“Analyzing the problems of Quebec society, from a feminist decolonial perspective, the author proposes a critical vision largely nourished by her activist experience and appropriately invites to address the hard questions and thus raise the level of public debate.” – Diane Lamoureux, Associate Professor, Université Laval
The book is the English translation of Les angles morts, published by Les Éditions du remue-ménage.
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