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Rita macneil weight1/20/2024 “What’s radical about equal pay for equal work? And trying to empower women to reach the potential that they have?” “If you wanted to see a bunch of women sitting around talking about issues and going on demonstrations that are peaceful and non-violent, then so be it, but I don’t think there was a reason to do that,”MacNeil said in 2008. She began attending meetings in Toronto in the early ’70s that she found out - years later - were being monitored by the RCMP. While struggling to make ends meet, she found comfort in the fledgling women’s movement. Meanwhile, she turned heads with appearances at Toronto’s famed Riverboat folk club and performances at the Mariposa folk festival, but wasn’t earning enough to pay the rent. Once there, she endured a succession of low-paying jobs, including a retail gig at Eaton’s and a stint as a cleaning woman. She relocated to Toronto at age 17 in 1962. She fell in love with singing by the age of six, despite her shy disposition and a cleft palate that eventually required surgery. Her only regret of not being privy to her RCMP-imposed renegade classification any sooner? "The only thing I'm sorry about now is I didn't know I was under surveillance, or I would have got them to drive me home." Amen, sister.Born in Big Pond, N.S., in 1944, MacNeil grew up with three brothers and four sisters. For MacNeil, there was nothing radical in the notion of trying to “empower women to reach the potential they have.” Though she never considered herself a radical, she gained notoriety with the authorities by being outspoken, and was one of the first to champion causes like equal pay for equal work-issues that are still being fronted on in Canada by ignoramuses nationwide. And she always cited that it was the framework of feminism and the growing advent of women’s rallies within an outdated and pretty shell-shocked Canada of the time that gave her the confidence to get over her crippling stage fright and just do the damn thing. It’s true though, MacNeil first lent her voice out to cry sisterhood before she gained any recognition as an independent singer. The report further went on with observational gems about anti-abortion rallies “consisting of about 100 sweating, uncombed women standing around in the middle of the floor with their arms around each other crying sisterhood and dancing." Keep in mind this was the handiwork of our now defunct Canadian Secret Service, bang up powers of deduction, my dudes. Uncovered RCMP memos that seem almost comical in their base observations read: “She’s the one who composes and sings women’s lib songs.” Damning evidence. Because, as a notion, feminism was radical, and anything radical was leftist, and therefore anything leftist was communist. A framework she said was, “good…while I was in it, but better when I was out of it.”Ĭhalk it up to our ever dutiful and always on-point RCMP to target MacNeil in something of a communist sting in the late 1960s, citing that her involvement with the feminist movement and the Toronto Women’s Caucus was grounds for an undercover investigation she was only made aware of in 2008. She moved to Toronto as a single, working, mother, and also gave the women’s liberation movement credit for opening her eyes to the shortcomings of the traditional framework of marriage and partnership which permeated just about everything at that time. This sense of community was what got her involved in the feminist movement. MacNeil said she, “Waited for that part for years.” A role where she harvests weed at gunpoint. Her natural sense of humour finally got its due though, when she was asked on as a recurring character on Trailer Park Boys. The Maritimes are a labour economy that have, since Confederation, revolved around industries now collapsed or collapsing such as lumber, mining and fishing, and Cape Breton is sort of the hub of that maltreated wheel.īut have you ever noticed it’s the people who come out of the pretty grim places that always exude the most PMA and are ingrained with the best senses of humour? If you watch any interview with MacNeil she’s always got this great, coy little smile going on and responds to questions like “Why are you so happy?” with something resembling a shrug. She lived through sexual abuse, plus she faced rampant alcoholism in her immediate family: an ailment of the Maritimes that’s notoriously underlooked and almost shrugged off as simply part of the culture at some points. MacNeil was born and raised in Cape Breton which-while Canada has its fair share of places tough to grow up in-is a pretty tough place to grow up.
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