President Cathy Skene opened the meeting with the club's land acknowledgement and the singing of O'Canada led by Dave Morris.

Sarge Mike introduced our guests as President, Brenda Buleziuk and Past President, Arlene Draffin Jones from the Council of Women Winnipeg.

Chair Announcements

President Cathy began the meeting with an apology to all the Jets fans that were a little worried on Sunday. She has found if she follows the game, by checking the score every 10 or 15 minutes, the Jets usually win. If she doesn't, they lose. Yesterday she forgot, and by the time that she checked in they were behind 2-0. The solution was to get onboard and then, and then magically, they soon caught up and then some. So…while her inattention may have worried some people, it all came out nice in the end. And maybe made the game just a bit more exciting?

On Friday Cathy spoke to the Carlton Breakfast Club. They are a little bit like us. They meet, they eat, and they have a speaker. And they ring a bell to signal that the meeting is over. And, as usually happens when she meets a group, someone asked “Do you know Mike Dudar?” The group was interested in our club. Someone even asked how much it cost to belong. And they gave her a coffee mug with their logo on it as a Thank you. Last meeting many of us signed a petition asking that the age to qualify for breast cancer screening be lowered to 40. And this week, the media reported that that will happen. Good job.

President Cathy reported the club is in the process of forming a steering committee to plan an event to celebrate our club’s 40th anniversary. The first meeting of the steering committee will take place this Wednesday, October 23rd at her building, 1010 Taylor Avenue, at 2 pm. The meeting will be held in the residents’ lounge so feel free to bring a coffee if you’ll need one. Cathy promises no one will get the whole job dumped on them. Just come and share some ideas, and we’ll see where we can go from there. The front parking lot is all for visitors.

Last year we took part in postsecondary student volunteer fairs at MITT and the RRC Exchange campus. We were at MITT again, on October 16th, and will be at the RRC Notre Dame campus on November 27th. Iain and Cathy will be hosting our table. If you have any suggestions for information we can provide students, particularly volunteer opportunities related to our club, please let one of them know.

The best thing that happened at MITT was when a lady came and said that she was there with her students, and that she was Cameron Ruhl’s wife. For those not on the Forest Committee, Cameron is the person from the City Forestry Dept who is responsible for the Forest.

SOCKS. We do intend to collect socks at our Christmas party for Feet Fit for the Street, as we usually do, but Nancy Hansen has further challenged us. The Main Street Project has put out a call for 30,000 pairs of socks. Our satellite club has collected 30 pairs, and I think that we can easily top that. Warm, new socks for men and women are needed. If you choose to bring them to a meeting someone will make sure that they get where they are supposed to, or there are a number of drop-off places you can take them.

On Saturday both Glenn and Cathy spent about an hour at the Sacred Fire in celebration of Winnipeg 150 at the site of the Assiniboia Residential School that was on Academy Road. They had a fire going, and were very welcoming. They even gifted Cathy a bag of sage. It was in a McDonald’s take-out bag, which she didn’t think was intended to be reusable, but it was reused. They heard some of the story of the school, and extended an invitation for them to speak to our club. If you weren’t able to go on Saturday, try to find an opportunity to stop by some day. There probably won’t be a fire, but you can honour the legacy of the school and its students by visiting.

Cathy was touched by their land acknowledgement, and the grace and forgiveness in it. Here it is:

Land Acknowledgement

Assiniboia Residential School Commemorative Monument & Gathering Place is located at 621 Academy Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. We acknowledge we are on First Nations land, Turtle Island, inhabited by First Nations from time immemorial. For thousands of years, First Nations people—the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Dene, and Anishininew Nations—walked and lived on this land and knew it to be the centre of their lives and spirituality. The Anishinaabe call this land Manitou Ahbee, the place where the Creator resides. We acknowledge this became the homeland of the Métis people. We acknowledge and welcome the many people from countries all over the world who have come to join us, Turtle Island’s First Nations, in calling this land our home. We acknowledge we are now all bound together by Treaty 1. —Theodore Fontaine

After dinner, President Cathy introduced our guests.

“On September 28th, the Council of Women of Winnipeg held a luncheon to celebrate their 130th anniversary. You may remember that I shared that I held the door for the Lieutenant Governor. As you can see, she got in safely. This evening, we have with us two women from their group, who will tell us more about the CWW. Please welcome Brenda Buleziuk and Past President, Arlene Draffin Jones to present to the members the history of the Councils of Women.”

Brenda explained that the Council of Women of Winnipeg (CWW) was established in 1894, the organisation is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian, volunteer network of organisations (called federates) and individuals who advocate to improve the quality of life for women, families and the community. Through this network they liaise with the Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba, the National Council of Women of Canada and the International Council of Women, and are one of the few women’s organisations who have status at the United Nations - a voice for women around the world. Locally they hold workshops, forums, conduct research, present briefs on the environment, health, housing, safety and other issues.

They develop resolutions about issues impacting our community, work with the Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba if they relate to provincial concerns and for those that have national relevance take them to the National Council of Women where they are debated which then become “policy”. For 130 years they have continued to work in many ways to help improve life in our city.

Recently CWW presented a brief to Mayor Scott Gillingham which highlighted some current issues in the city. It included:

• Women and safe, affordable housing
• Women and safe, accessible transportation
• Women and security
• Safe injection sites, illegal drug use and harm reduction

On-going CWW concerns: safety, affordable housing, environment, green spaces, reduction of carbon footprint to minimise climate crises, relocation of the railyards, public washrooms, and homelessness.

There are challenges as they have chosen some pretty difficult issues. Factors such as:

• Women today are working outside of the home whereas years ago while there was lots of work at home, they somehow managed to be able to meet.
• Communication methods are constantly changing.
• It is costly to carry out the activities needed to operate a volunteer organisation.
• They do not have a charitable number. They are an advocacy organisation! They do not receive any government funding.

So funding is always an issue. To raise money to help cover costs of the work doing research, preparing briefs, holding workshops, and holding fundraising events. keeping their small office open. They do have a membership fee for individuals and federate organisations.

A Pink Tea in the history of women's movements. "Pink tea" was a code for women gathering to organise and strategize in their quest for women's rights. Then Arlene shared some of the history of the women who made and continue to make the council a force to be reckoned with.

The council has a storied history as well as a “reputation” as the group to go to. They also have some pretty feisty gals who were and are part of the story of Winnipeg.

Lady Agnes Schultz - It all started in 1894 with Lady Agnes Schultz as the first president when the council was called the Winnipeg Council of Women. Lady Schultz’s husband had been arrested by Louis Riel after fighting with the settlers. She rounded up some of her “friends” and helped him escape jail. Then she was arrested. They were a colourful pair but eventually Sir Schultz was the province’s first Lt. Governor.

Mrs. Annie Bond (4th President) - Annie Bond, a former British military nurse, had moved to Winnipeg with her husband. She was concerned about the number of sick children in the city due to serious outbreaks of disease. She asked the Council of Women to provide the funds to pay for the very first children’s hospital in 1909. The house was on Beaconsfield in Point Douglas. She became the matron of the children’s hospital.

A story (heard from her grandmother) is that some of the council women helped push the streetcar over in the 1919 strike!

Nellie McClung was a member. She was part of the “Famous Five” who helped get women the vote (Manitoba was the first province to win the vote in 1916). She went on to live in Alberta and became one of the first women to be elected an MLA in the Alberta legislature.

Recent presidents have been involved in many efforts to deal with safety, especially for murdered and missing women, aboriginal reconciliation, women and affordable housing, homelessness, drug use, climate issues, preservation of green spaces, transportation, relocation of the railway, and many other issues. CWW supported the need for women to be the guards in women’s prison, child care initiatives, the Phoenix Sinclair Daycare on Selkirk Avenue.

The council is continuing to work to improve the quality of life for women, families and the community.

If you wish to support this worthwhile organisation and to learn more, please visit https://councilofwomen-winnipeg.ca

After the presentation, President Cathy thanked Brenda and Arlene for taking the time to visit our club. They were both presented with forest grocery bags with an explanation of the work we do to preserve and maintain Assiniboine Forest.

Before Dinner, Sarge MIke introduced our guests followed by member happy bucks and anniversaries:

• Sharon was happy to report she has moved into her new apartment in St Vital and is thankful for the help she received from Ed Toews for painting her home she sold. She has also celebrated a birthday. Congratulations Sharon.
• Lloyd met with members of Tree Canada who were experts in forest management during their tour of Assiniboine Forest. They were very impressed with what they saw. They were here in Winnipeg as part of their National Conference. They arranged field tours where delegates were able to discover the City of Winnipeg as they showcased municipal innovations, ambitious projects, and unique programs through a variety of field tours, including visits to tree nurseries, cideries, urban forests, and downtown infrastructure explorations! Tree Canada arranged programs for attendees: https://treecanada.ca/research-engagement/canadian-urban-forest-conference/field-tours/
• Jagdesh was happy to let us know that he celebrated the Festival of Lights (Diwali) at the Convention Centre with 3-5000 others from the community. He also went for his annual check-up plus vaccinations and received a clean bill of health. Diwali runs from Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 5:22 a.m. – Fri, Nov 1, 2024, 7:46 a.m.) “Diwali honours the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. The lights and lamps are said to help Lakshmi find her way into peoples' homes, bringing prosperity in the year to come! 5) It's also a celebration of good triumphing over evil, and different legends based on this theme are associated with Diwali.”
• Dave M. was happy that someone dropped off a big sack of 110 beer cans for which the money will go to polio eradication. Ed Toews kindly took them to the Beer Store to hand them in and in turn returned the money to Dave for donation
• Iain was happy to have accompanied Caroline to Birds Hill Park where they hiked the Chickadee Trail on an absolutely gorgeous day during which they fed Chickadees from their hands.
• Ed Thompson enjoyed a great trip with Elaine to St. Maarten. He found that many people living in St Maarten stay indoors due to the high humidity and heat. He appreciated the cooler temperatures on his return to Manitoba.
• Ezekiel confirmed with Corey that Breezy Bend will be grooming trails for Cross Country Skiing this Winter. He also was happy to report that The Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact (GLFFC) had their training here in Manitoba. These agencies from Manitoba, Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin collaborate to provide support where required. The GlFFC is made up of 3 U.S. States and 2 Canadian Provincial Natural Resources agencies. They have created a formal association in order to promote effective prevention, pre-suppression and control of forest fires in the Great Lakes Region of the United States and adjacent areas of Canada.
• Lyle was happy to report he heard the Girl Guides of Canada are accepting digital payments and this would in turn aid a member who does not carry coins or cash.

Next week, President Cathy explained our guest speaker will be Amy Tung, founder of the “I am love” project. The project empowers women who are coming from vulnerable circumstances. They have a shared workspace on Osborne Street, and also an online presence, selling jewellery that they design. One of their most recent creations has a very special place in Cathy’s heart, which she will leave to Amy to tell us all about.

Cathy was at a celebration of life for a cousin-in-law this week, and left us with one of his favourite sayings. He had a lot of sayings. In the gospel according to Howie there are three things essential for a good life: health, happiness and cash flow. Have a healthy, happy and wealthy week.