"Reduced to a pile of ashes"

Yesterday Rene Ross, executive director of Stepping Stone, a non-profit organization that supports sex-trade workers in Halifax, announced she was leaving the organization due to funding shortages. Local spoken-word artist Ardath Whynacht posted this response to the news on her Facebook page:

"We become nothing but ash. EVERY strong; uncompromising; politically courageous; fearlessly loving; activist woman I know has been reduced to a pile of ashes. Shit on. Fearless, courageous women who work to build us all a better world, work until they are broke, exhausted, abandoned, imprisoned, attacked...

The real Albert Schweitzers are handing out condoms to sex workers and struggling to pay their power bills.

The real Stephen Lewis' are staying long after their office hours to provide support for students who have been raped.

The real MLKs are running from bounty hunters in Cuba.

The real Gandhis are waiting for their sons to come home from Guantanamo Bay.

The heroes we desperately need are working 80-hour work weeks and barely making enough to feed their families...

No glory for feminist warriors. No peace in capitalism. No respect for women.

We should ALL raise holy hell until someone agrees to give long term operational funding to one of Canada's oldest sex work advocacy organizations.

Sex workers are 17 times more likely to be raped. We cannot allow Stepping Stone to fold as the Province capitalizes on Rehtaeh media coverage by offering funding that was too late to save the programs our city needs the most.

If community programs were properly resourced - we would not have such tragedy."

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