Day One: Ups and Downs

                                                    Photo: UN Headquarters, display focused on rural women

Day one: Ups and Downs

The lineup to get my UN grounds pass this morning was an event in and of itself.

My morning commute into New York for the first time made me feel like a true New Yorker. I made my train on time, caught the right train, and got off at the right stop. So far so good.  As I walked through the busy New York City streets, I spotted a surprisingly familiar picture on the side of a truck- an inukshuk! The picture was accompanied by a short note on the inukshuk and its relation to the Canadian landscape. What a wonderful coincidence, I thought to myself. I am clearly set to have a wonderful day...right?

Upon my arrived at the UN office, my excitement came to a stand still...a literal stand still...for two and a half hours. I was told later that two and a half hours was a cinch in comparison to the day prior and the day before that. It turned out, however, to be two and a half hours well spent - a gentleman, who was in line behind me, and I struck up quite the conversation.  I learned that he had been a scientist in the past, working in a lab looking at the world through a microscope in a petri dish or slides.  His interests are in cells and medical advancements, but today (and for the last few years) he has been  working as UN staff for a peacekeeping UN Mission. We discussed everything from the policy and societal implications of new scientific advancements in medicine (which was quite exciting as I am quite interested in the policy and societal implications of any and all technological advancements from medicine to bitcoin), to world politics and the ethical and moral complications that arise from any decisions that affect, or are made by, humans.

It turns out, however,  that we had both been directed into the wrong line...a mistake which extended our wait by roughly two hours. What a lucky mistake!

Once getting my grounds pass, I wondered around the UN and then around the city to locate all the locations for the sessions (and found my way into a few), but the one I am going to write about was the 4:30 session on this day.

The Highway of Tears: Gender Based Violence in Rural/Northern Canada, hosted by the YWCA Canada, was a really challenging session. Of course I did not go into it thinking that it would be easy, but nothing can prepare you for hearing the stories and challenges of the women in our rural communities from the very women who have dedicated their lives to supporting and raising up our rural and northern women. Although as a student of Political Science we are taught, we debate, and examine issues, this session reinforced for me that this does not even give me the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding. I realized later that this session would be what set the tone for the rest of my time in New York: listen, listen, listen, for you have so much left to learn. 

Here is just a few things that knocked me of my seat:

1. There are no 911 services in Canada's North West Territories...none;
2. Our northern communities are still forced to pay for the 911 service;
3. Climate change is directly keeping our indigenous women in abusive situations, as they cannot escape by riding snowmobiles across frozen lakes anymore;
4. As a society, we are doing nothing to help by continuing to allow bus services to be cancelled;
5. Violence against our northern women is 8x higher than anywhere else in the nation;
6. Up until roughly 5 months ago, women from rural communities were banned from bringing their       birth partners to the birth of their children;
7. For most rural women, giving birth most often means having to commute  anywhere from 2+ hours before boarding a flight to Yellowknife....
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Thank you Amanda and Donna for sharing your stories with us.