News Release

Book Launch of Daily Struggles:
The Deepening Racialization and Feminization of Poverty in Canada

May 29, 2008

(TORONTO) The gap in Canadian society between the representation of how we are living, and what the majority experience as daily struggles to live a quality life, is very wide. Community, labour, and anti-poverty groups and activists will gather tomorrow (May 30, 2008) to discuss action strategies at the launch a new book Toronto launch of Daily Struggles: The Deepening Racialization and Feminization of Poverty in Canada, edited by Maria Wallis and Siu-ming Kwok, published by Canadian Scholars Press 2008. This book bears witness to this increasing depth of poverty in Canadian society.

"The illusion of a prosperous Canada for all persists," Maria Wallis, Co-Editor said today referring to passages in the new book. "The denial of the deepening and widening poverty in Canada is deafening."

For example, racialized women are segregated into low-paying sectors and occupations. The work they do is often precarious employment that is part-time, contract, with little or no benefits. Many take on more than one job to survive.

Where: Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto Ontario

When: Friday May 30th, 2008, 10-11:30am

Speakers include:
Peggy Nash - MP for Parkdale High Park
Estella Muyinda - Executive Director, National Anti-Racism Council of Canada
Maria Wallis, PhD â€" co-editor

About the book:
Daily Struggles opens with theoretical frameworks that examine the racialization processes at work in Canada, with special attention to the consequences relevant to gender. The social construction of "race" and its subsequent devaluation and marginalization has several implications for racialized individuals, especially racialized women. In addition, this text examines the economic consequences of race and gender are profiled; how poverty, race, and gender are criminalized; the ways in which racialized people - specifically women - are socially constructed to experience their lives as second-class Canadian citizens; and the additional consequences of the racialized and gendered nature of poverty - consequences that have a fundamental impact on quality of life.

This event is co-sponsored by: Chinese National Council of Canada (CCNC), National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), National Anti-Racism Council of Canada (NARCC), South Asian Womenâ's Centre (SAWC) and Steelworkers' Toronto Area Council.

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For media interviews, please contact: Maria Wallis at 647-344-4970 or Victor Wong at (416) 977-9871.

Estella Muyinda
Executive Director
National Anti-Racism Council of Canada
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 122, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2C7
Phone: 416-979-3909
Fax: 416-946-1983
e-mail:estellamuyinda [at] narcc.ca
Web site: www.narcc.ca

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