About the social media toolkit

West Coast LEAF is proud to present a social media toolkit featuring eight images to raise public awareness of findings from our BC Gender Equality Report Card 2019/2020. The images feature beautiful illustrations by Sam Bradd of Drawing Change. By sharing the collection of images on social media, you help make change:

  • Amplify the knowledge shared by community contributors to the Report Card, including members of Urban Native Youth Association, the Coalition Against Trans Antagonism, and PACE Society
  • Help our Report Card reach a larger audience than ever before
  • Build public support for necessary changes to laws, policies, and systems in BC
  • Increase pressure on the BC government to take action to advance gender justice

First page of toolkit on Google Docs, linked to toolkit

Images and messages

Please refer to our social media toolkit for messages and high-resolution images suitable for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We’ve made it easy to share our content by providing text you can copy and paste from and suggestions for improving accessibility, in one place! As a preview, we have provided thumbnails (low-resolution images) with brief messages below!

 

Image 1: Sex Workers’ Rights 

Violence against sex workers is not an occupational hazard, but the product of marginalization, including misogyny, transphobia, and racism. Let’s call on BC to get proactive to address violence against sex workers.  

Four people under red umbrellas. Text: “Workers’ safety includes freedom from gender-based violence. Workers’ rights include sex workers’ rights.”

 

Image 2: Fair and Equal Pay

BC has the worst gender pay gap in Canada. Men earn about 19% more than women in BC on average—to say nothing of pay gaps based on race, disability, Indigenous identity, gender identity and expression, and more. And BC is one of the last provinces without pay equity laws. We need to do better!

People with raised fists representing different jobs. Text: “Women and racialized people keep society going—during the pandemic and always. They deserve fair and equal pay.”

 

Image 3: Trans Rights in Prison 

Several transgender women have filed human rights complaints about discrimination they have faced in BC prisons, including rules restricting their gender expression, privacy violations, and inappropriate placement in men’s prisons. BC needs to get proactive in tackling transphobia in the prison system. It should not be up to incarcerated women to launch legal challenges to defend their human rights!

Three people with raised fists looking out from inside a prison, and three protestors outside with a sign that says “Prisoners’ rights are human rights.” Text: “The human rights of transgender people don’t stop at the prison gate.”

 

Image 4: Children Cared for by Kin

Only a small minority of children and youth in kinship care arrangements in BC are receiving adequate financial support. BC needs to extend financial supports to all children and youth being cared for by their relations other than their parents. These young people and their caregivers need extra supports to cope with family separation.

Three happy-looking family groupings of adults with children. Text: “Every child being cared for by kin needs strong supports without exception.”

 

Image 5: Community Safety

In 2019, BC passed the Community Safety Amendment Act, a law that allows neighbours to police each other and increases the likelihood of eviction for communities that already face deep injustices, especially Indigenous women. Surveillance, punishment, and displacement are the opposite of community safety.

A diverse neighbourhood where people are interacting in a friendly and connected way. Text: “Community safety is looking out for all of our neighbours.”

 

Image 6: More Justice in the Justice System

More than half of applications for family law legal aid in BC are denied. Women and Indigenous people are especially likely to need this kind of legal help. When they can’t get it, they often face danger from an abusive ex or struggle to get a fair share of the money they need to start a new life. That’s why West Coast LEAF has launched a legal challenge over BC’s broken family law legal aid system, Single Mothers’ Alliance v BC.

A group of people gathered around the scales of justice. Text: “Let’s put more justice in the justice system. Justice for all who need it.”

 

Image 7: Gender-Affirming Care

BC has introduced coverage for gender-affirming lower surgeries, a big positive step. But people in BC are still being advised to organize fundraisers to cover the full costs of gender-affirming health care. Let’s remove barriers to essential health services.

An adult having a supportive conversation with a health provider while a child plays with a toy in the background. Text: “Gender-affirming care saves lives. Let’s make it accessible for all who need it.”

 

Image 8: Reproductive Choice

Let’s call on BC to cover contraception as part of the public health system. Research suggests that providing free contraception to all young people in Canada would actually pay for itself. What on earth are we waiting for?

Three hands holding different kinds of contraception. Text: “Reproductive choice is a basic health care need and a human right.”

 

Find us on social media

Please follow West Coast LEAF on social media, share our posts, and tag us when you share our content!

 

This work is made possible by generous funding from: 

Law Foundation of BC logo