Did you know Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms
celebrated its 30th this year? I'm going to go ahead and assume you didn't. No one, including the federal government, really made a big deal about it. Maybe you forgot, but the Dalhousie Feminist Legal Association didn't. And they've taken it upon themselves to do the Charter right. Their evening of celebration starts with a screening of Constitute!, a documentary profiling women's democratic activism in Canada, and worldwide. That'll get your brains prepared for what comes next; five of the country's most influential feminists, ladies who've contributed to the growth of the Charter's gender and equality provisions, will sit down and talk about objectives discussed at the time they were drafted (see page 39 for details). Then there'll be cake, and a birthday card station inviting you to send wishes (well, or otherwise) to the prime minister, the minister for Canadian heritage and official languages, or event to dear Charter. But the DFLA aren't the types to take an anniversary sitting down. They've also lined up an evening of badass female DJs (Anderoc, Regalia and Michu), who'll provide the jams as you dance, write birthday card poetry and eat a cupcake, or two or three. "The dance party is really in the spirit of community building and ensuring that we don't forget the joy that is necessary to sustain a movement," says Bailey Duller of the DFLA. "We believe in democracy, we believe in expansive and substantive rights and we believe in the power of movement building to achieve both these ideals." Forgetting a birthday is really awkward, especially when it's one this monumental. Don't be that person. And did you really need an excuse to dance anyway?
Fri Oct 26, FRED. beauty food art, 2606 Agricola Street, 10pm-1am, $5
