Judy Rebick is a social justice activist, writer, educator and speaker. Founding publisher of rabble.ca, Canada’s popular independent online news and discussion site, Judy continues to blog for rabble and for The Walrus. She is a former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group. During the 1990’s, Judy was the host of a two national TV show on CBC Newsworld and is a frequent commentator on CBC radio and television. She was also a prominent spokesperson for the pro-choice movement during the fight to legalize abortion in the 1980s.
Judy was the first CAW Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy. She was also a regular on the media panel for Q on CBC radio.
Judy’s latest books are Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political and Occupy This!Her other books include Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution (Penguin 2005) and Imagine Democracy (Douglas and McIntyre 2000). Her memoir, Heroes in My Head, was published in April 2018.
HEROES IN MY HEAD
In her new memoir Heroes in My Head, Judy Rebick tells the story of healing from childhood sexual abuse through activism and therapy. Different than many stories of healing, hers is deeply political. As we are learning through the #MeToo movement, the secrets of sexual abuse are central to maintaining the status quo of a patriarchal society. Judy explains that her brain’s reaction to the abuse not only saved her as a child but made her a more effective advocate for equality as an adult. There is much literature on the impact of trauma on mental health but we still tend to look at most mental illness as a disease. In her case both depression and Dissociative Identity Disorder were not from an illness but from a brain injury caused by trauma. By telling her compelling story, Judy is contributing to a feminist approach to what most people call “mental illness”.
To book Judy Rebick, contact Rob Firing at speakers@transatlanticagency.com.