To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, it’s time to know this list of Canadian activists
By: Kinza Zafar
(From left to right, top to bottom) Freda Huson, Jennifer Bernard, Samra Zafar, Vivek Shraya and Shina Novalinga. (Kinza Zafar/CanCulture)
The purpose of International Women’s Day is not to merely celebrate women’s accomplishments—it’s to spark a much larger discussion regarding liberation beyond patriarchal standards and decolonizing our minds. For some, it’s a push towards awareness of the existing disparities among genders and the absence of equal opportunity. For women, non-men and gender non-comforming folks, it’s a time where recognition deserved year-round is granted and voices are platformed. These are five Canadian women who are challenging the status quo.
1. Shina Novalinga
If you’ve ever scrolled down on #IndigenousTok, content creator Shina Novalinga’s face is one you may be familiar with. Known as @ShinaNova online, the 24-year-old from Puvirnituq, Quebec has grown her platform to nearly six million followers across TikTok and Instagram.
Indigenous communities have found a home on TikTok by sharing parts of their lives with the world and connecting with each other across Turtle Island and beyond. Novalinga rose to fame by correcting misconceptions and prejudices regarding Indigenous Peoples while also offering a lens into her life as an Inuk person in so-called Canada. The popularity and passion around videos of her and her mother throat-singing on TikTok has led them to release a full-length album, which you can check out here.
2. Samra Zafar
After arriving in Canada in 2000 as a child bride in a forced arranged marriage to a man a dozen years her senior, Samra Zafar was trapped in an abusive marital union for over a decade.
Kept from leaving the house, she wasn’t allowed a job or post-secondary education. After finishing her high school diploma through virtual learning and slowly stowing money away by babysitting at home, Zafar enrolled at the University of Toronto and fled with her daughters, aged 10 and five.
Today, she has become the first person of colour and woman to not only sit on the Board of Governors at U of T, but also chair one of its campus councils. Zafar has notably delivered three TEDx Talks, written an international best-selling memoir, A Good Wife: Escaping the Life I Never Chose, and has been recognized twice as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, Top 25 Most Inspirational Women in Canada and a Top 25 Canadian Immigrant.
The Pakistani Canadian is currently embarking on a second career as a first-year student at McMaster University’s medical school while continuing to share her story on the global stage.
3. Jennifer Bernard
Jennifer Bernard is the first Black CEO of a Canadian hospital foundation and has often found herself as the sole visible minority in the room throughout her career. Bernard has devoted her life to serving marginalized communities by working in children's hospitals and eventually becoming CEO and president of the Women’s College Hospital Foundation. In 2018, Women of Influence, an organization that highlights female success stories, recognized Bernard among the 25 most influential women in Canada.
Two years later, she was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada with the Inclusion Vanguard Award, given to those championing to advance human rights. Bernard has utilized her platform to advocate for marginalized communities to receive equitable healthcare by advocating for free gender-affirming surgeries and fighting to close gaps.
4. Vivek Shraya
Creative powerhouse Vivek Shraya’s boundary-blurring art welcomes people into queer experiences, gender and identity. In her non-fiction best-seller, I’m Afraid of Men, Shraya explores how the impacts of toxic masculinity and patriarchal roles followed her through her transition.
As a trans woman of colour, Shraya understands intersectionality and hopes her art can change perspectives, demand awareness and expose prejudices. She is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Calgary and is now adapting her debut play, How to Fail as a Popstar, for television, in partnership with CBC.
5. Freda Huson
Freda Huson is a woman chief (Dzeke ze’) from the Wet’suwet’en people in Canada. She has been relentlessly advocating for Indigenous communities, frequently at the forefront of land defending protests in the face of multi-billion dollar pipeline construction projects backed by police with heavy machinery.
As a leading voice, Huson is determined to reconnect communities with their land and ultimately reclaim control to ensure Indigenous peoples are granted the same quality of living as settlers in this country.
Also known as Chief Howilhkat, at four feet 11 inches tall, the 57-year-old’s holistic approach to dismantling the pipeline project strikingly differs from the violent crimes and genocide committed against Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Huson’s bravery and leadership undoubtedly deserve the utmost recognition and support.
In 2009, she established the Uni’stot’en camp, a communal healing place incorporating Wet’suwet’en culture to guide people through their trauma-healing journeys by connecting to nature.
These women have achieved success in spite of adversity — not because of it. No matter the day, spend some time to reflect on the world around you, practice gratitude, recognize your privilege and celebrate resilience. Remember, silence always sides with the oppressor.