LEAF's Personhood Speaker Series will create a space to discuss what makes a ‘person’ and whose voices need centering in conversations about gender equality in 2021 and beyond.

Our fourth panel "Gender Equality for Migrant Women and Gender-Diverse People in Canada – Reflections from the Middle of the Pandemic" asks what gender equality means for migrant women and gender-diverse people in Canada in 2021. Specifically, how do Canadian laws and policies on migrant labour impact personhood? How has mainstream feminism historically participated in denying the personhood of migrant women and gender-diverse people in Canada? What is the impact of devaluing groups of people and treating them as expendable sources of labour, despite the fact that their work serves an essential purpose in our daily lives? What steps need to be taken to recognize and affirm the personhood of migrant women and gender-diverse people?

Panelists will discuss how discriminatory labour policies have been reinforced throughout Canadian history, leading to a denial of personhood for migrant workers. Panelists will also unpack how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing systemic inequalities for migrant women and gender-diverse people, and discuss ways in which migrant women and gender-diverse people have organized to expose the injustices they face in order to reassert their personhood.

Please join LEAF in discussing what it means to affirm the personhood of migrant women and gender-diverse people in 2021.

The funds raised through LEAF's Personhood Speaker Series will continue to support our work to advance substantive equality rights in Canada through litigation, law reform and education.

Thank you to our generous sponsors for making this event possible: CUPE National, UFCW Canada, Delaney Capital Management, BMO, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Koskie Minsky LLP, Ontario Nurses' Association, Goldblatt Partners LLP, The Law Society of Ontario, Stockwoods LLP, Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP, Kastner Lam LLP, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Lerners LLP, AMAPCEO, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) and Madame Premier.