BCAM IS 20 YEARS OLD! In the recent BCAM Bulletin, we invited six women to reminisce about the birth of the organization and to comment on its achievements and challenges. Some have been involved with the organization since its inception, some for well over a decade, and one is our newest board member representing a new wave of activists.
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Why FemmeToxic? It all started with an idea. Constructive frustration.

Breast Cancer Action Montreal (BCAM) is a non-profit group directed by women who have been sensitized to the trauma of breast cancer and who are committed—long-term—to erasing the disease. We believe the focus of breast cancer research must move beyond its current emphasis on treatment to also embrace a serious search for the causes of the disease and its prevention.

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Safe Cosmetics Campaign

BCAM wants the safety of cosmetics and personal care products to be improved and we provide information about dangerous ingredients so you can make informed decisions. BCAM offers opportunities for action as well as educational workshops about safe cosmetics for youth and adult audiences. Call to book!

BCAM Bulletin

BCAM's Bulletin is a lifeline to members, providing news of BCAM activities, upcoming events related to breast cancer, original reports on breast cancer, events, opinion pieces by BCAM members, book reviews, and more.

FemmeToxic

FemmeToxic's goal is to educate young Canadian women about the potential dangers of cosmetics ingredients and provide people with the tools they need to create personal change and to influence national legislative reform. Refuse to be “toxified”! Demand safer cosmetics!

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CONFRONTING THE PINK RIBBON AND CORPORATE PROFITEERING

Written by Deborah Ostrovsky

I belong to the generation whose understanding of breast cancer has been shaped almost entirely by pink ribbon campaigns. I’ve shopped for pink tote bags, votive candles, and other trinkets – all to support the respectable cause of breast cancer research and awareness.

Throughout university in the mid- to late-90s, I spent October weekends with friends running for the cure. At that time, feminist activists like Barbara Ehrenreich were just starting to lament the demise of the women’s health movement and the sabotage of the breast cancer sisterhood by pink teddy bears, runs, and rhinestone bracelets. Meanwhile, a tidal wave of well-meaning but naïve consumers, ready to buy and jog for the cure, was just coming of age.

Samantha King, speaker at the Seventh Annual Lanie Melamed Memorial Lecture

And then there was Samantha King. As a young graduate student in 1997, she picked up a copy of BCAM co-founder Sharon Batt’s, Patient No More (1994) and started asking some very important questions. Despite being a young person deep in the thick of a growing consumer culture, King began analyzing prior moments in the social and political history of breast cancer while observing the rapid rise of pink ribbon campaigns from a critical distance – a distance she’s maintained ever since.

Jan 20 2012 - 9:53am
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MY DIAGNOSIS CHANGED HOW I FELT

Written by Deena Dlusy-Apel

I never joined anything. I was an individual with my own thoughts that did not suit belonging to a group – but a breast cancer diagnosis seemed to change how I felt.

A couple of years later, I read in the paper about some women who wanted to do something about breast cancer and the rising statistics. I went to the first meeting of (what became) BCAM at the Unitarian Church downtown. There I found well-informed women focused on getting answers and making changes. I stayed.

With these women I had the opportunity to learn from the best; I was actually taught to think like an activist – to question the status quo, to question what I initially accepted and to question the system, the government and everything holy. These women never hesitated to do what was necessary for our organization’s cause and to make it easier for breast cancer to come out of the closet and become a public concern. I learned you must become involved. I learned that you get back in many multiples what you give.

Jan 2 2012 - 11:00am
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