Ottawa Launch: Just Watch Us

Morisset Hall, University of Ottawa, 65 University Private, Ottawa, ON
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Join co-author Christabelle Sethna for the Ottawa launch of Just Watch Us: RCMP Surveillance of the Women's Liberation Movement in Cold War Canada. The format will be a presentation and exhibit of archival materials in relation to the book, with support from the University of Ottawa Library's Archives and Special Collections.

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, in the midst of the Cold War and second-wave feminism, the RCMP security service - prompted by fears of left-wing and communist subversion - monitored and infiltrated the women's liberation movement in Canada and Quebec. Just Watch Us investigates why and how this movement was targeted, weighing carefully the presumed threat its left-wing ties presented to the Canadian government against the defiant challenge its campaign for gender equality posed to Canadian society.

Christabelle Sethna is professor in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. Steve Hewitt is senior lecturer in the Department of History and the American and Canadian Studies Research Centre at the University of Birmingham.

“The authors describe the history of RCMP's security service, highlight women's demand for the reform of restrictive abortion laws, and describe the role of an international women's conference advocating an end to the Vietnam War (which further increased the RCMP's spying activity). After reviewing the heavily censored RCMP files, the authors reflect on the ethical challenges encountered in researching the historical legacy of state surveillance. This volume is an important addition to gender and state security studies. Recommended.” Choice