Was it only two years ago that we read headlines such as “Feminism is over, the battle is won. Time to move on?” Last year, rising fundamentalism around the world with Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president at its pinnacle exposed the vulnerability of hard-fought women’s rights that were considered done and dusted. The threat galvanized millions of people to take to the streets across the globe, smashing bystanderism and launching a pipeline of young leaders. One year later, some of those young women led the thousands gathered in Toronto on Saturday for the second Women’s March, one of at least 38 rallies in the country, with the mission of “inspiring, unifying and leading the charge for advancement of women across Canada.” Its theme was defining a new future. On Saturday, that future looked diverse and Indigenous. When Rana Nasrazadani spoke of systemic barriers to ableism, thanking her supporters as well as those who tried to hold her back, and Zainab Arkani brought people to tears with stories of atrocities against her fellow Rohingyas, and Kassandra Neranjan hailed the power of unacknowledged, impoverished female heroes of colour, and Janelle Hinds talked about the importance of hope for young Black girls, they expanded the scope of feminist focus to include white supremacy, immigration and refugee rights. When Jessica Bolduc talked of walking for the future that is lost and the future that wants to emerge, she folded into feminist resistance the tragedies of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. Together, the dozen women on stage represented a striking change in the fundamental makeup of Canadian feminism. It’s a change that came about when the long-standing leadership of intersectional feminists — women of varied backgrounds, races, ethnicities, sexualities, abilities, trans women, immigrant women and other marginalized women — gained visibility and prominence. “They (white fem ...
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