Anti-69: Against the Mythologies of the 1969 Criminal Code Reform (Ottawa, March 23-24, 2019)

The Anti-69 Forum, to be held next weekend in Ottawa (March 23-24), will provide a forum for activists, academics, and community members to critically examine the mythologies surrounding the 1969 Criminal Code reform. As explained by the organizers, “We are Anti-69 because the federal government has planned and funded several efforts at commemorating the 50th anniversary of the so-called ‘decriminalization’ of homosexuality,” yet, as they note:

The so-called decriminalization of buggery and gross indecency between only two adults in private merely recognized the obvious: the state did not have the resources to police the bedrooms of the nation using these Criminal Code provisions. Two people having sex completely in private would not usually be caught by law enforcement, and these are not the types of cases found in the historical records.

After 1969, police forces across Canada (who opposed the reforms in the Omnibus Bill) mobilized to charge queer people for their consensual sexual activities. This was in part because the 69 reform directed their attention to ‘public’ displays of queer sex. As nothing was repealed in 1969, the Omnibus Bill did not remove the construction of queer sex as ‘indecent.’ The ‘public’ was defined as basically anything outside shut bedroom doors with only two people.

Kersplebedeb and PM Press are both pleased to be participating in this radical queer conference in ottawa, canada, on the weekend of March 23-24. If you’re able to make it, attendees are encouraged to register for the Anti-69 conference (income-based sliding scale registration fee, $0 for low income people). Registration includes access to conference panels and plenaries, and lunch on Sunday March 24. Register for the Anti-69 conference by clicking here.

More information can be found on the Anti-69 website (https://anti-69.ca) or facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/events/368008980467761/). A preliminary Programme follows:

Saturday March 23

12:00pm – Registration – Room: Richcraft Hall Atrium

12:30-1:45pm – Symposium Opening
Room: Richcraft Hall Atrium

• Welcomes
• 1969 101: Brief contextual presentation on the Omnibus Bill

1:45-2:00pm – Break

2:00pm-4:00pm – Plenary: Critiques of the Just Society
Room: Richcraft Hall Atrium
Chair: Suzanne Lenon

• Laura Hall, “White Settler Homonationalism and the Roots of Heterosexist Patriarchy”
• Christo Aivalis, “P.E. Trudeau, the Just Society, and Attacks on Workers’ Rights”
• R. Cassandra Lord, “Disturbing Trudeau’s ‘Just Society’: Tracking the Demarcations of Sexuality & Race in Canadian State Policies”
• Danielle Normandeau, “Disability and Resistance: Intersections of Disability in the 1969 Criminal Code Reform”
• Rinaldo Walcott, “The Black 1960s: Black Life after Sir George Williams & Other Stories of the Nation”
• Punam Khosla, “A Debonair Deception: The Racist, Sexist, Heteronormative Violence of Nascent Canadian Neoliberalism”

4:00-4:15pm – Break

4:15-5:30pm Panels:

8:00pm – Film Screening of Forbidden Love
Location: SAW Video’s Knot Gallery
Tickets required, click here to register
See Film and Video Program for more info

Sunday March 24

9:00-9:30am – Coffee and Pastries
Richcraft Hall Atrium

9:30-10:45am – Panel: Reproductive Justice
Room: Richcraft Hall Atrium
Chair: Sarah Rodiman

• Judy Rebick, “The Omnibus Bill on Abortion: Sabotage or a Step Forward?”
• Christabelle Sethna, “Seeing Red: The RCMP, the Abortion Caravan and the Omnibus Bill”
• Shannon Stettner, “The 1969 Omnibus Bill & Forced Reproductive Labour”
• Jula Hughes, “Abortion Law in the Rear View Mirror”

10:45-11:00am – Break

11:00am-12:15pm – Panels:

12:15-1:15pm – Lunch
Richcraft Hall Atrium

1:15-2:30pm – Panels:

2:30-2:45pm – Break

2:45-4:00pm – Panels:

4:00-4:15pm – Break

4:15-5:30pm – Closing Plenary

Beyond Anti-69
Room: Richcraft Hall Atrium
Chair: TBA