The Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre

As you may already know, on Saturday, June 14th, the NB Rebelles will be having a large community yard sale! Click here for more details.

Half of our proceeds are going towards the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre (link), and I thought it might be nice to share some more information about that organization.

The Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre was formed in the summer of 1975 as a result of local community concern regarding the need for sexual assault services. By January 1976, with a grant and support of volunteers, the Centre was able to offer a 24-hour phone service which still continues today with funding from various sources.

This line is an amazing resource for the community, offering information and support to all callers, as well as the option of accompaniment services for callers in the Fredericton area who choose to go to the hospital or police station following an assault.

You can become involved by:

* supporting the centre - all donations are tax deductible and gratefully accepted
* becoming a volunteer (email fsaccadmin@nb.aibn.com)
* inviting us them address your group (contact the same email shown above)

Please come out to the yard sale on Saturday, or contact nbrebelles@gmail.com prior to that to arrange a drop-off for items that you wish to donate. It's going towards a great cause!

Information has been adapted from fsacc.ca and from the authors experience.

Interesting Twitter Study Findings

"Researchers followed a random sample of more than 300,000 Twitter users in May 2009 to find out how people are using the service...

The study ... looked at who follows whom on the network. It found the average man was almost twice as likely to follow another man than a woman, while the average woman was 25 per cent more likely to follow a man than a woman.

"These results are stunning, given what previous research has found in the context of online social networks," the study said.

On a typical network, most of the activity is focused around women, with men following content produced by women they do and do not know and women following content produced by women they know. Generally, men get comparatively little attention from other men or from women, the study said.

Researchers said one explanation for men finding the content produced by women less compelling may be the lack of photo sharing, biographies and similar material found on other social networks."

Yard Sale - Sat. June 13th

NB Rebelles present:

A community yard sale

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

8am to 1pm

Two locations:

278 Church St. and 295 University Ave.

Half of the money raised will be donated to the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre (FSACC).

Fredericton Vigil for Dr. George Tiller

Where: Fredericton, NB
When: Saturday, June 6, 2009
Time: 9:30pm
Location: Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic (554 Brunswick St.)

On Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at around 10:00am, Dr. George Tiller was shot to death at the church he attended in Wichita, Kansas.

Dr. Tiller was an abortion provider, one of a very small number of doctors who provided late-term abortions. Dr. Tiller was a kind, compassionate, intelligent and gentle person who had the courage to go to work every day to provide abortion care to women with nowhere else to go. He endured constant threats and attacks on his physical safety, including being shot previously.

Dr. Tiller dedicated his life to helping women. He saved many, many lives. His murder is a blow to his family and friends, his community, the women he helped and those he had yet to help, and to the international pro-choice community. He will be greatly missed.

We wish to gather together peacefully to remember and honour Dr. George Tiller. We also stand together against the continued marginalization of women’s reproductive rights in New Brunswick. We stand in solidarity against this province’s illegal abortion policies and restrictions, and against our own Minister for Health, Michael Murphy, who has stated publicly that he is “not entirely comfortable” fulfilling his role as health minister because of his anti-choice views.

We wish to come together as peaceful pro-choice people, to remember and celebrate Dr. George Tiller, and to stand against the continued restrictions to abortion care. We insist on abortion on demand, no exceptions, no apologies. We will support women in their choices, we will stand in solidarity with abortion providers, clinic staff and volunteers, and we will not give in to threats, violence and terrorism.

Please join us for a peaceful vigil on Saturday, June 6th, beginning at 9:30pm outside the Morgentaler Clinic (554 Brunswick Street). Everyone is welcome. We will walk together to City Hall.

Spread the word.

“Attitude is everything” – Dr. George Tiller.

Government of Canada to amend Indian Act in wake of landmark BC ruling

"On April 6, 2009, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that certain registration provisions of the Indian Act are unconstitutional as they violate the equality provision of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms...

The ruling stems from a civil law suit that Sharon McIvor launched in October 1989, in her bid to acquire Indian status for herself and her son. She claimed that section 6 of the Indian Act was discriminatory in that it treated the descendants of Indian women who married non-Indian men differently from the descendants of Indian men who married non-Indian women."

Backgrounder - McIvor: an Overview

"From 1869 to 1985, an Indian woman who married a non-Indian man would lose her status as an Indian under the Indian Act and her children were not entitled to status. However, an Indian man who married a non-Indian woman would retain his status and his wife and children would gain status. Moreover, if a child's mother and paternal grandmother did not have a right to Indian status other than by virtue of having married Indian men, the child had status only up to the age of 21(commonly referred to as the Double Mother Rule)."