From left: Chatelaine 2020 Women of the Year Annamie Paul, Aurora James and Lisa Campbell (Photos: The Canadian Press, Getty Images, Canadian Space Agency)
My glass typically veers toward half-empty around November, and that’s without factoring in a global pandemic. But working on Chatelaine’s annual Women of the Year feature—and lifting up some of the amazing women who are making our country, and our world, a better place—is an honour and a salve, and never more so than this year. (Oh, and a hat tip to my partner on this year’s package, assistant editor Radiyah Chowdhury.)
This year, we’re honouring women like federal Green Party leader Annamie Paul, whose recent win has made the Canadian political system more accessible to people who previously felt shut out of it. Women like labour organizer Sonia Aviles, who played a pivotal role in highlighting the injustices that migrant farm workers experience in Canada. And women like journalist Kayla Grey, who is doing the work to make Canadian sports media more inclusive so that, in her words, “the next Kayla can be 1,000 times better than me because there are fewer hurdles she has to jump over.”
We are all better for their efforts. Read on for more from our 2020 Women of the Year—all of whom share their own highlights from this highly eventful year.
