Below is a list, in alphabetical order, of the presentations taking place at the 2008 Women’s Health Matters Forum & Expo. Click here to see the program schedule.

Acting Locally: Linking health and environment in your community
Smog, toxins, garbage . . . how can we gain control over environmental factors affecting our health? Do we need to go beyond “lifestyle choices”? Join health promoters Caryn Thompson & Paul Young, health promoters from the South Riverdale Community Health Centre. They will share their experiences working to change individual behaviour and to change neighbourhood factors. Projects include renovating a school to improve indoor air and organizing for a bike lane. This interactive workshop will draw on specific examples from Caryn and Paul’s health promotion work and explore challenges that participants may bring to the workshop.

Beat the Break! Take Charge of Osteoporosis and Your Bone Health
New Canadian data shows that in women over 50 years old, almost 80% of spinal fractures are not detected and 45 – 79% with a low trauma fracture do not get diagnosed or treated for osteoporosis, yet these women are at the highest risk for another fracture. Learn how to take charge of your bone health with the latest information on prevention, diagnosis and new treatment options for osteoporosis as well as practical information on how to get help and support. Speaker: Dr. Sophie Jamal, Head, Osteoporosis Research Women’s College Hospital; Osteoporosis Canada Scientific Advisory Council. Sponsor: Alliance for Better Bone Health.

Breastfeeding Tips in an Age of Environmental Awareness
Learn how breastfeeding protects the health of the mother (not just the baby). Both mother and baby benefit from breastfeeding even though pollutants are found in breast milk. The importance of breastfeeding in 2008 is obvious and a key factor in protecting the earth.
Speaker: Dr. Jack Newman, Hospital for Sick Children

Canada's Arctic: A Holistic Approach to Health And Healing. Polar Perspectives on Women’s Health & the Environment.
Rapid social change impacts health practices in Nunavut. Wellbeing is a complex and all-encompassing concept reflecting a broad range of factors that determine health. This presentation focuses on holistic approaches to Inuit women’s health and wellbeing, and the integration of traditional Inuit values with modern-day medicine to work in harmony as grounding features of Nunavut’s health strategy. Women play an essential role in the health and wellbeing of their families and communities. Although Inuit women face a range of challenging circumstances affecting their health, the presentation also highlights the positive aspects of women’s strengths, community, family, and traditional knowledge. Speaker: The Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health and Social Services & Minister responsible for the Status of Women for Nunavut Territory

Canada’s Arctic:  We are all Learners
Youth envision Canada’s North and our collective future. The Arctic may seem far away, but less than one year ago, based on action learning in a unique “Arts One” first year program, our class was able to bring the Arctic and the International Polar Year into focus close to home. Six talented and committed students from this class present individual perspectives on our environment. Their diverse experience and environmental interests provide a framework for discussion. Together with the audience, we examine pressing current issues connecting our local environment with the Arctic, where indeed, as the changing environment proves, we are all still learners.

Speakers: Dr. Nancy Doubleday, Chair; Laura Tucker, Livia Soares de Jesus, Emma Slaney Gose, Marny Girard, Brittany Parsons and Trevor Joines; Student Panelists, Carleton University

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Cancer 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic
Cancer is epidemic in Canadian society (nearly half of all males and 40% of females will be diagnosed with a malignant tumour at some point during life) but it really is a myth – and a cop-out – to believe that ‘everything causes cancer’. The majority of cancers are made, not born - that is, they result from exposures to toxic substances and other - mostly avoidable - factors, including radiation during our lifetime, and not from the genes we inherit. Liz Armstrong will inspire women attending this session to become positive cancer prevention activists, starting where a surprisingly large number of common, cancer-causing agents can be found – in our homes and schools. Liz will address these key points: cancer statistics have a human face; there are many simple, healthy, affordable alternatives to toxic, carcinogenic substances and women have huge power to slash the odds of getting cancer in Canada.

Cardiology 101
Everything a Woman Needs to Know About Heart Disease but was Afraid to Ask
Heart disease was once considered a man’s problem but the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada tells us that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women.  1 in 9 women between 45 and 64 will have some form of heart disease and once women are over 65 the number jumps to 1 in 3.  It is essential that women learn the signs and symptoms of heart disease and adopt healthy lifestyles to deter the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease. This presentation will focus on giving women the up to date information they need to know in order to be heart healthy.  We will review the statistics of heart disease in women, explain what exactly heart disease is, look at the risk factors for heart disease including environmental risks and then present how we diagnose and treat women with heart disease. Speakers: Dr Leonard Sternberg is Chief of Cardiology and Jennifer Price, Advance Practice Nurse, Cardiology at Women's College Hospital  

Clear Heat, Relieve PMS, Improve Fertility and Manage Menopause with Traditional Chinese Medicine
Why do we feel hot inside and out? How does the impact of global warming affect our bodies? Dr. Mary Wu explains how heat toxins affect women’s health, disturbs energy balance and cause women’s diseases and how Traditional Chinese Medicine can help promote women’s health to prevent and treat these diseases. Simple remedies and Qigong exercises will be shared that can be used on a daily basis for better health. 

Diabetes – a modern epidemic
What’s it about and why is it happening? Speaker: Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, Women’s College Hospital.

Diseases without Borders: A Call for Humanitarian Action
In an increasingly global economy, when environmental degradation, war, international terrorism and poverty in one part of the globe impact all others, through what lens should we be looking to set priorities for action? Access to health care, medicines, essential health technologies are critical global health issues today, especially for poor people. Dr. James Orbinski shares his vision for how we can shape the world we live in to create a humane, global future. (Special luncheon presentation, tickets $85. More info.)

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Everything You Want to Know about Sex, but Would Rather Not Ask
Answers to your questions. Panel from the Bay Centre for Birth Control & Planned Parenthood Toronto.

Exercise Matters: how to promote brain health in the golden years
This session reviews evidence for physical exercise as a protective factor in brain aging and dementia. The importance of an active social and mental life, and of control of vascular risk factors, will also be underlined to encourage healthy lifestyle choices as a way to keep your brain young while aging. Speaker: Dr. Sandra Black, FRCP, Brill Professor of Neurology, Dept. of Medicine Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Exposure: Environmental Links to Breast Cancer is a documentary video (53 minutes-colour) which is accompanied by an Education Resource Action Guide, Taking Action for a Healthy Future.

WINNER '2001 BEST HEALTH DOCUMENTARY' - NEW YORK INT'L INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL, NOMINATED FOR A GEMINI AWARD, 2000, the video was conceived in response to the growing public debate about the implications of our contaminated world on the health of women. Today one in three people will get cancer. One in four will die from it. In the 1950's, women in industrialized countries were at a one in twenty risk of developing breast cancer over their lifetime. Today that risk has skyrocketed to one in eight. Cancer can have many causes. Seventy to eighty percent of women with breast cancer have none of the "official" risk factors: family history (5-10%), hormonal and reproductive factors and a high fat diet. However, breast cancer rates are increasing all over the world and may be but the tip of the iceberg of other environmentally linked diseases.

The film can play a major role in raising awareness around the little discussed , long-term connections between environment, health and disease prevention. It introduces issues, raises questions, awareness and opportunities. It offers strategies for dealing with current unacceptable environmental health conditions and for generating the social and political changes needed for a cleaner, safer world. It features: Bella Abzug, Former U.S Congresswoman, President, Women Environment & Development Org., NYC.; Sharon Batt, Author, Patient No More: The Politics of Breast Cancer, founder, Breast Cancer Action, Montreal;. Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D, Epidemiologist, Past President, Int'l Institute of Concern for Public Health, Toronto; Dr. Devra Lee Davis, PhD, M.P.H., formerly with World Resources Institute, Washington, DC currently Director, Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh; Eva Johnson, Coordinator, Environmental Health Program, Mohawk Nation, Kahnawake, Quebec; Vuyiswa Keyi, former Executive Director, Women's Health in Women's Hands, Toronto; Diana Matherly, Artist, Cancer Survivor and Activist, Boston; Matushka, Artist, Cancer Survivor and Activist, Woodstock, New York; Dr. Susan Love, Surgeon, Author, Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, Los Angeles; Olivia Newton-John, Actor, Singer, Songwriter, Cancer Survivor and Activist; Dr. Ana Soto, Cancer Researcher, Tufts University, Boston.
A discussion with Devra Lee Davis PhD and Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg PhD will follow.

Food Empowers - What you buy can affect your health and the sustainability of our local food supply
Food can empower, rather than induce guilt and confusion, if we draw the connection between the sources of our food and its health value. Learn why the effort to obtain organic food and locally-grown may be worth it, and how to choose it. Recognize the hype, the myths and the illusions that have led us to unhealthy choices. Bring back the joy of cooking food and the satisfaction of reconnecting with those who produce it. Speaker: Ellen Desjardins, Registered Dietitian, MHSc

He/She loves me, loves me not: Exploring relationship issues and the signals of a relationship that’s on track.  Speakers: Dr Robin Mason, Research Scientist Women’s College Hospital and a panel of diverse young women.

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Herbal Remedies & Your Prescriptions, Talk to your Pharmacist First
A look at the safety and efficacy of natural health products and how complementary/alternative medicine is (or is not) being integrated with the Canadian health care system.  Dr. Heather Boon will review the safety and efficacy of common herbs and other complementary/alternative therapies to provide practical advice about what works and what doesn't.  Products discussed will include black cohosh for symptoms of menopause, ginkgo for memory loss, echinacea and ginseng for colds and St. John's wort for depression.  Dr. Boon will critically explore whether there is any evidence to support claims about these products and identify any possible adverse effects or interactions with other medications.  The presentation will end with tips for patients thinking about using herbs and web sites for additional information. Speaker: Heather Boon, BScPhm, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and a Canadian Institutes of Health (CIHR) research New Investigator. 

HPV Vaccination & Prevention of Disease
In 2007 the Province of Ontario launched a campaign to vaccinate grade 8 girls to protect them from human papilloma virus (HPV), a factor in the development of cervical cancer and other diseases. Learn about the nature of this virus and the details of this important development in disease prevention. Speaker: Dr. Nancy Durand, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto. Sponsor: Merck Frosst Canada

How to change the world in which we live and work to make cancer history.
Speaker: Dr. Devra Davis, PhD, MPH.

Learn to Juggle: Multiple roles are good for your health
Women’s lives are often a “juggling act” aimed at balancing the many roles they play in their personal and work lives.  Women are often given messages that their busy lives will negatively impact their health.  Contrary to popular belief, however, new research suggests that having multiple satisfying roles is actually a protective factor for women’s health.  Dr. Heather Maclean will explore this new research and what it means for women. Sponsor: Janssen-Ortho.

Linking Environmental Impacts and Women’s Health
Speaker: Dr. Devra Davis, head of the world's first Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and National Book Award Finalist for, When Smoke Ran Like Water, 2002, Basic Books. Tickets are $30 (includes an autographed copy of Dr. Davis’ NEW book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer , or $15 (without book). More info.

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Looking in the Arctic Mirror: Polar Perspectives on Resiliency in Health and Well-being
This session explores connections among health, well-being and livelihoods in the Canadian Arctic and southern Canada, and how we need to think in northern terms about change for sustainability everywhere.

What does “health and well-being” really mean? Where does it come from? What supports health and well-being for individuals and communities? By reflecting on the experience of Arctic communities which face many challenges to health and well-being from a wide range of environmental and social stressors, we are learning about nurturing resilience and empowerment. By investigating complex systems we learn about sources, receptors and pathways by which environmental change occurs. By opening a wide-ranging discussion of environmental, social and economic justice, we become aware of the system drivers. As a result, we are better able to understand how practices of southern industrialised society adversely affect health and well-being, both of people in northern communities, and of people in highly urbanised and rural regions of southern Canada. By looking closely at our needs for institutional change and multi-level governance in response to realities of radical social and environmental change, we find new models for citizen engagement. Most importantly, we begin to define an agenda for change that includes transparency and accountability, and for putting the “public” in “public health” and “public policy”. The Arctic mirror shows us that we can act now to sustain resiliency and to protect the well-springs of health and well-being, in ourselves and in our communities, by claiming our rights, accepting our responsibilities as citizens and “daring to dream”.  

Speaker: Dr. Nancy Doubleday, Carleton University

Mood Swings
What they are and how to help people manage. Speaker: Dr. Anthony Levitt, Psychiatrist in Chief, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Mould and Sick Building Syndrome: Protect your occupational wellness
Respiratory conditions and flu-like symptoms can be triggered by mould in the workplace and in the home. Recognize the symptoms, the problems and then take action. Speaker: Dr. Om Malik, Ph.D., P.Eng., C.I.H., R.O.H. Principal and Director of ECOH Management Inc. Sponsor: Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario .

Occupational and Environmental Medicine: What is it?
Learn how your work or home environment can impact you. Details about the Community Right to Know or Access to Environmental Information movement now forming in Toronto explained by Nancy Bradshaw. Speakers: Dr. Alice Dong, Occupational medical consultant, Corporate Health and Safety Services, St. Michael's Hospital. Nancy Bradshaw, Community Outreach Coordinator, Environmental Health Clinic – Women’s College Hospital.

Osteoarthritis & Pain Management
Speaker: Dr. Gillian Hawker, Prof of Medicine and Rheumatology
U of T; Women’s College Hospital.

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Overcoming Social Phobia
Social Phobia is recognized as the third largest mental illness and yet so little is known about it. Earla Dunbar presents her story of overcoming social phobia. She will let people know they are not alone, that it’s not their fault and that their health can be improved. Earla shares her experience of how treatment at the age of 44 transformed her life and helped her live a productive life with a positive outlook.

Parent Alert: Environmental risks in Child Development
Practical choices that mitigate risks for children from pre-conception to adulthood. Healthy child development can be impacted upon from a number of different environmental sources that include not just contaminated food, water, soil and air but also preconceptual and prenatal exposures to the parents and mother of the child. Windows of vulnerability of the different developing organ systems leave a child at risk of teratogenic effects as well as neurodevelopmental, reproductive, endocrinological and cardiorespiratory problems. Children are politically powerless and have unique exposures that we as adults can avoid. Exposure in utero, through breast milk and other sources coupled with a higher absorption and assimilation rate than adults, leave their rapidly differentiating cells at risk of genetic error. We need to understand, on a global scale, what is impacting or has impacted on our children. Toronto has inherited a multicultural richness that carries with them a legacy from “back home.” Lead, mercury, pesticides, home products and foods are some of the areas to be covered in this regard.
Speaker: Dr. Riina Bray, Medical Director, Environmental Health Clinic, Women’s College Hospital.

Patient/Caregiver Solutions: The value of integrating natural medicine in disease prevention and treatment.
In the journey of either a patient or a caregiver, naturopathic medicine can offer a valuable holistic approach to the prevention, management or treatment of disease. This seminar will outline the benefits of a range of natural therapies. Naturopathic medicine can be safely integrated with conventional medicine. Above all, discover how incorporating naturopathic medicine may offer solutions to achieving optimal wellness. Speaker: Christine Matheson, B.A., N.D.

Keypoints that will be covered include:

• Will touch on the challenges of patients and caregivers seeking solutions to acute and chronic illness,
• Stress factors and the impact of stress on our health when trying to find the right combination of care to suit ones needs (i.e. financial stress will be mentioned as a stress factor),
• Explaining the popularity of and value of integrative or complimentary medicine,
• How naturopathic medicine integrates safely and effectively with conventional medicine,
• How naturopathic medicine offers a holistic and preventive approach that aims to address the root cause of disease,
• Outlining the range of naturopathic therapies,
• The process of seeking out a qualified naturopathic doctor and learning about insurance coverage,
• A review of naturopathic strategies for disease prevention and examples of how naturopathic therapies can be integrated with conventional treatments.

Protecting your Fertility, and Getting Help if you are Infertile
Speakers: Dr. Cliff Librach, Women’s College Hospital & Sunnybrook HSC Fertility Clinic
& Jan Silverman, Support & Education Program for Infertility and Reproductive Issues, Regional Women's Health Centre, Women's College Hospital.

Raising Our Game: Women and Sport for Sustainable Living
At the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, sustainability touches everything. Speaker: Ann Duffy, Program Director, Sustainability. Ann will share how Canada’s Games are being planned to deliver outcomes on environmental stewardship and impact reduction, social inclusion and responsibility, Aboriginal participation, economic benefits through sustainability, and sport for sustainable living. She will provide examples of leadership and innovation within and beyond the 2010 Winter Games and introduce opportunities for engagement on a national scale. Sponsor: General Motors of Canada Ltd.

Redefining Retirement: New Realities for Boomer Women
Elizabeth Shilton is a lawyer. She was a partner for many years with one of Canada’s leading labour and employment law firms. In retirement, she is pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Toronto Law School in pension policy, and is a member of the Ontario Financial Services Tribunal.  Together with Dr. Margret Hovanec, she is the author of Redefining Retirement: New Realities for Boomer Women (Second Story, 2007).

The Sexual Paradox: Extreme Men, Gifted Women and the Real Gender Gap
Have you ever turned down a promotion because you felt that making a difference, or flexibility matter more to you than having the highest status position?  In this session about sex differences in the workplace, Susan Pinker will walk you through the latest research evidence pointing to average differences between men and women in ambition, altruism and long term health. Now that more than two thirds of women combine careers with family, their individual choices matter more than ever.
Speaker: Susan Pinker, Psychologist, Columnist Globe & Mail.

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Sleep: We all need it and why don't we get enough  
What are the signals that should cause you concern and when you need to seek help.
Speaker: Dr. Anu Tandon, Women’s College Hospital & Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centr

Sugar and Spice and Not so Nice: Securing Your Way to Healthy Relationships
An interactive seminar designed to highlight aspects of abusive patterns in relationships and how to create positive relationships with the people in your life. This workshop will assist participants to identify integral parts of healthy relationships, and conversely provide insights into aspects of relationships that are or have the potential for becoming unhealthy or abusive. Participants also will have an opportunity to practice identifying aspects of relationships that are either healthy or unhealthy. The workshop underscores three key points that are the foundation for healthy relationships: power, boundaries and consent. The workshop is intended to provide today’s young women with the knowledge, insight and skills to enable them to make more proactive, informed and therefore healthier decisions in relation to the types of relationships in which they choose to participate in the future.
Speaker: Anne Paré R.N., B.A. and Tatjana Singer M.S.W., R.S.W. Scarborough Sexual Assault / Domestic Violence Care & Treatment Centre.

The L Word: Insights on Lesbian Health
Using examples from the popular TV show, The L word, our panel will present a lively and informative session on barriers to health care access for lesbians, key health issues, and lesbian parenting. Speaker: Anna Travers, MSW, Program Manager, Sherbourne Health Centre’s LGBT Team, with Panelists Michel Clarke MSW, Health Promoter & Rachel Epstein M.ED. LGBTQ Parenting Network Coordinator.

The Relaxation Experience: Meditations for Optimum Wellness
This session will appeal to a wide range of women. In our fast paced lives today, we all experience the negative effects of stress at times. Symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty with sleep, headaches, anxiety, and a decreased ability to focus and concentrate are just a few of the signs of stress that we may be experiencing.  Relaxation training is an important aspect of stress recovery and overall resilience. It is considered a powerful tool in maintaining health and balance in life.

In this one hour experiential session participants are introduced to the latest research, theory and background of relaxation practices. The session allows participants to discuss and practice three distinct relaxation skills. Discussion will include a focus on stress in our lives today and the practice of relaxation training as an effective coping skill.  

Practice of 1st Relaxation: Breathing Awareness
Participants will be led through a 5-7 minute experience of Breath Awareness training.

Practice of 2nd Relaxation: Body Scan with Calming Imagery
Participants will be let through a 15 minute guided body scan.

Practice of 3rd Relaxation: Relax Face and Jaw
Participants are guided through a 10 minute calming experience.

Wrap Up:
Discussion will include the role of relaxation and meditation practices as tools for recovering from daily stress-load and building resilience.  

Question period.

For Health Wellness Consultants have produced a CD entitled The Relaxation Experience, Mediations for Optimal Wellness. This CD is currently being used at Bridgepoint Hospital, Mt. Sinai Wasser Pain Clinic, Sunnybrook Hospital Pain Clinic and Toronto Rehab. The CD will be available to the participants for ongoing practice.

Speakers: Kimberly Murdoch, Marla Warner (For Health Wellness Consultants)

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The Right Choice of Oil/Fats for your Health (Cantonese, with Mandarin translation)
The objective of this workshop, led by Julia Tao, is to help participants understand how oil/fats can heal or lead to degenerative diseases. This session will address specifically the wrong kinds of fats, right kinds but wrongly prepared, commonly found in Chinese home cooking, restaurants and commercial foods.  Samples of nuts, seeds, and oils will be displayed and discussed in the session.

The Science & the Ethics of Stem Cell Research
Discovery of the potential of human stem cells to generate new cells has shifted fundamental understandings of cellular and developmental biology in the last decade. Stem cells can serve as sources for cellular and organ replacement in tissue damaged by trauma or genetic influences, and for disease intervention. Speakers: Dr. Mick Bhatia, Scientific Director and Sr. Scientist, Stem Cell Research Institute and Dr. Lisa Schwartz, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, both at McMaster University

Thinking Outside the Scale – Cultivating Healthy Attitudes about Weight, Eating and Body Image
In our world we are told almost daily that obesity kills and at the same time that skinny is ideal and perhaps as a consequence unhealthy dieting thoughts, eating behaviours and body image distresses abound. Today we will talk about the true impact of reality on weight, giving you new ways to think about obesity, body image and eating, and hopefully deprogram some of society’s more destructive messages. Speaker: Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, MD CCFP Dip ABBM Obesity Medicine Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute.

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Tiny Doses, Immense Consequences: Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment
There is growing recognition of how chemical exposures, particularly during prenatal and early life, can impact upon the development of the fetus and infant and in turn, have impacts on health in later life.  An important field of toxicology that looks at the impacts of substances on endocrine function is contributing new knowledge to our understanding of how a child’s health may be influenced from environmental exposures early in life.  For example, prenatal exposure to substances that modify normal thyroid hormone function may alter the development of learning, cognitive abilities and behaviour.  Endocrine toxicants may also alter normal reproductive development and have been implicated in causing diabetes and obesity as well.  This session will examine the possible contribution of environmental exposures in early life to a range of important disorders in children.  It will discuss the need for preventative policies and practices in the home as well as the benefits in terms of reduced health care and societal costs from prevention. Speaker: Loren Vanderlinden, Supervisor, Environmental Health Assessment & Policy, Toronto Public Health. Sponsor: Glen Bernard Camp

Towards a Healthier Home
Having a healthier indoor environment is crucial to our overall health. Indoor air can be 2-3 times more toxic than outdoor air, even standing at the corner of King & Bay! Our expert panelists will offer advise on how to have a healthier home including: an explanation of Indoor Air Quality, filtration & ventilation systems; an overview of healthy home décor and furnishings; and how to maintain your home with environmentally friendly cleaning products. Speakers: Stacey Fruitman, Gord Cooke, Andrea Kantelberg, Lisa Borden
Sponsor: Tridel

Toxic Toronto – toxic you?
From the auto body shop next to your child's school to the warehouse across from your local park, you have a right to know what toxic chemicals are used, stored and released in your community. Yet all that is reported to the public are a few releases from large polluters. These toxic secrets hurt our health and our environment.  In this session, Lina Cino from the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), an environmental advocacy NGO, will present a unique map Toxics in Toronto, that depicts nationally reported releases of known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, developmental, reproductive, respiratory toxicants.  These releases are only the tip of the iceberg and that is why TEA has been calling on the City of Toronto to stand up for our right to know and adopt a bylaw that will give citizen's more access to information about chemicals used and released in Toronto. At the provincial level,  health and environmental advocates continue to push for aggressive policies to reduce toxic chemical use and emissions.  Anne Wordsworth, from the Canadian Environmental Law Association will outline how a provincial carcinogen-use reduction strategy will impact our heath and the environment. Join us and turn words into action.  Learn what you can do in your neighbourhood with your neighbours to reduce our toxic chemical exposure. 

Toxic Trespass
“I am polluted.” A powerful statement. These three words should never be heard from a child or to a greater extent your own child. But this is the reality for Ada Cohen daughter of Barri Cohen director of the film Toxic Trespass.

The documentary investigates the growing evidence that we are conducting a large-scale toxicological experiment on our children. Barri confronts polluters, researchers who see little conclusive link between environmental poisoning and childhood diseases, and the government officials who are supposed to be protecting us.

She journeys into polluted communities all too common in industrialized countries and on the Native reserve of Aamjiwnaang, ringed by Sarnia's “chemical valley,” where the film reveals a startling birth rate problem that officials just can’t ignore. And she learns how quickly barriers can go up when questions are raised about the connection between toxins and serious health problems. In each community she meets passionate activists working for positive change, along with doctors and scientists who see evidence of links between environmental pollution and health problems.

As Toxic Trespass reveals relationships between industrial chemicals, environmental degradation and childhood illness. It asks why our governments are doing so shockingly little about the problem. It’s a call for citizens to engage in preventing the pollution that affects us all and introduces us to communities, scientists and physicians who are doing so. U LOVE OUR CHILDREN Toxic Trespass is accompanied by a comprehensive guidebook for educators, health professionals, parents, activists, and concerned citizens, "Taking Action on Children's Health and the Environment" produced by the Women's Healthy Environments Network. A discussion will follow the screening witih (Devra Lee Davis PhD and) Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg PhD.

Urban Traditional Music with Anne Lederman, October Browne & Kelly Hood

Three gifted and distinctive musicians create a potent brew of swirling melody and rhythm:

• Ancient Scottish pipe music dance with klezmer rhythms
• Irish jigs weave through French Canadian songs
• English ballads groove to a Bulgarian beat

Voices of Women: Early Warnings from Canada’s Arctic
Women, catalysts in creating a sustainable future for all our children. In 1980, I went north for the first time, to Greenland, to the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. It was a transformative experience. Since then I have been privileged to be a participant in land claims, in northern political development, in changing the Canadian Constitution, in establishing the northern contaminants program to address health impacts of toxic contaminants from local sources and from long range transport, and in a host of other initiatives. I have been directly involved in the struggle for cultural survival and for subsistence rights that the Inuit organisations continue to pursue. I have documented traditional ecological knowledge, studied anthropogenic combustion particles, and negotiated co-management relationships, and researched ecosystem and health effects and environmental impacts of development proposals of all kinds. In each of these successful struggles, I have found strong women, as well as men, contributing to this work. During this session, I share some of my personal experiences, reflect on the leadership roles of women, and tell stories about Canada’s Arctic, with respect to important milestones in struggles for lands and resources, for environmental protection, for social, cultural, political and economic rights. Women, some widely recognized and some less well-known, have been and continue to be at the forefront of advancing knowledge of climate science, human rights, and social and environmental justice. Their advice continues to sound the early warnings and to provide the wisdom that will enable us to make the links between our increasingly urban society and those of us living in remote and rural communities at the edges of northern Canada; links essential for the health and well-being of all of our lands, waters and peoples.
Speaker: Dr. Nancy Doubleday, Carleton University

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What is in the Air we Breathe?
We breathe in a cocktail of chemicals in cities, from smog in summer to acidic aerosols in winter.  Health impacts from air pollution range from immediate effects on your blood pressure and ability to breathe, including the triggering of asthma, to longer term effects on your kids’ respiratory system, to cardiovascular disease and lung cancer, and to impacts on the unborn.  Since the impacts are greatest for those living near road ways, we need to reduce traffic in order to improve our families’ health! Speaker:  Miriam Diamond, Research Director of the Centre for Environment, University of Toronto. Named Environmental Scientist of the Year (May 2007) by Canadian Geographic.

What's Up Down There: Cross-Cultural Attitudes to Vaginal Health
This workshop will report on the partnership project between Black Woman and Child and the Canadian Health Network in exploring cultural and systemic barriers to getting women of African descent to talk openly about vaginal health (November 2007). We will then move forward and bring the topics discussed to the larger circle, encouraging women from all cultures (at the event) to give feedback on the issues raised in the report, share experiences and propose solutions. This workshop will also be a platform to promote the upcoming article written from the report, to be released by Black Woman and Child and the Canadian Health Network in February 2008.
Speaker: Nicole Osbourne James

Women Wading Through the Web
A presentation to help you navigate the often confusing maze of health information on the Web. If you’re among the many women who frequently use the Internet to find health information and support for yourself and your family; or sometimes find it difficult to find, analyze and understand this information this session’s for you! The Women’s Health Matters website team at Women’s College Hospital created Wading Through the Web: A Health Toolkit to assist the women who have asked us for help in navigating the often confusing maze of health information on the Web. Presented by: Speaker: Sheryl Mitchell, Director, womenshealthmatters.ca.

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