Item I1 - Constitute! : women's constitutional activism

Constitute! is a documentary film on the Women's Constitutional Conference which took place on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, February 14, 1981 to insure equal rights for women in the Canadian Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Sections 15 and 18). The documentary was created by Susan Bazilli and Robert Rooney as part of the International Women's Rights Project (IWRP), University of Victoria. The documentary was produced by Rooney Productions. IWRP made the documentary available on Constitute.ca. The description on the website reads: "Constitute! tells the story of the largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions were entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Sections 15 and 28). The film celebrates their constitutional activism and passion for democratic renewal. Constitute! educates and informs about how important citizen engagement is for democracy in Canada and beyond. Interviews, speeches, songs, debates and images tells the story of what happened on that cold Valentine’s Day in 1981 and what it means to future generations of young Canadians." The end credits of the film have a statement that reads: "With special thanks to Marilou McPhedran for conceiving and organizing The Canadian Forum on Women's Activism in Constitutional and Democratic Reform in February 2006, which made this film possible." Marilou McPhedran was the director of the Institute for International Women’s Rights at the University of Winnipeg. The section titled "The Interviews" on Constitute.ca, it states that Sally Armstrong is a Canadian journalist and human rights activist who interviewed the women in the film Constitute! The interviews were conducted in 2006 at the Canadian Forum on Women’s Activism in Constitutional and Democratic Reform in Ottawa. Women identified in the film are in order of appearance : Marilou McPhedran (Ad Hock Committee), Doris Anderson (former president of CACSW), Michele Landsberg (columnist), Lynn MacDonald (president, National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)) Betsy Carr (member of executive, NAC), Linda Palmer Nye (Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution), Pat Hacker (Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution), Flora Mac Donald M.P., Caroline Egan (International Women's Day Committee, Toronto), Marlene Pierre (president, Native Women’s Association of Canada), Jenny Margetts (president, Indian Rights for Indian Women), Sharon McIvor (Native Women's Association of Canada), Pauline Jewett M.P., Linda Ryan[Palmer?] Nye (Ad Hock Committee).