Courtesy of York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, Toronto Telegram fonds, ASC04612.
Note From Andrea: Thank you all so much for your patience with me while I finish up this condensed summer course! Our last special blog post comes from none other than Shannon Stettner! I am so pleased to be able to share this post with you, since I think it is, unfortunately, extremely topical given events of the past few weeks. That, and Shannon is an extremely talented historian, as well as a wonderful friend. And she’s probably going to kill me for saying that. So I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did! And I’ll be back next week with a brand new post from me!
Shannon Stettner teaches in the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Waterloo. Her research examines women’s abortion rights activism, reproductive justice, and public opinion on abortion in Canada. She is the editor of Without Apology: Writings on Abortion in Canada (Athabasca University Press), and co-editor of Transcending Borders: Abortion in the Past and Present (Palgrave MacMillan) and Abortion: History, Politics, and Reproductive Justice After Morgentaler (University of British Columbia Press). She is also a founding member of the Reproductive Activism and Abortion Research Network. Shannon tweets from @slstettner.
In this post, I would like to share some of the initial reactions to the Abortion Caravan in the immediate aftermath of the event.[1] I do so in light of recent conversations about civil disobedience, especially suggestions that there are right or wrong ways to protest.[2] After writing this piece, conversations about civility came to the fore and commentators have also offered ideas about “proper” ways to protest.[3] Arguments about the effectiveness of a particular tactic suggests that there is only one goal or outcome of an act of civil disobedience. But, the varied reactions to the Abortion Caravan suggest that there are multiple takeaways and when we judge an event as successful or not, we should be aware that the outcome observers may be focused on could well be a secondary (or even a non-) consideration for the organizers and participants. Change does not generally occur through a single act of protest. An event that isn’t “successful” or well received in one respect may still have a lot of value in another. What is valuable to remember is that it is through such actions that activists evolve and grow their messages and techniques.[4]
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