More Than a Footnote

There are women throughout Canada's history who when faced with a locked door, have looked for a key — or a battering ram. Award-winning writer Karin Wells tells the stories of women like the fierce and iconoclastic Mina Benson Hubbard, who finished the mission to map northern Labrador that had killed her explorer husband, and Vera Peters, MD, who revolutionized treatments for Hodgkins lymphoma and breast cancer.

Or the painter Paraskeva Clark, child of the Bolshevik Revolution, who rattled staid Toronto when she took Norman Bethune as a lover and spoke out for art as a tool of social change. And have you heard of Charlotte Small, a Métis woman who canoed and trekked 42,000 km — more than three times further than the American explorers Lewis and Clark — and had five babies along the way?

Some were outrageous, some were unassuming, most were not polite, but they all ignored the voices that said women could not paddle a canoe, program a computer, understand the universe, or cure a disease. They lived big lives—often at great cost — and they made a difference. (From Second Story Press)

• Karin Wells reflects on a long career in documentaries
• 40 works of Canadian nonfiction to watch for in spring 2020

Wells is a lawyer, a CBC Radio documentary maker and a three‐time recipient of the Canadian Association of Journalists' documentary award. She has reported from more than 50 countries. Her debut book, The Abortion Caravan, was a 2021 finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

Interviews with Karin Wells

The Sunday Edition39:49Documentary: 'The Women Are Coming' by Karin Wells

Last week's historic vote to overturn Ireland’s ban on abortion grabbed attention around the world. And it reminded us of a gem in our documentary vault. Almost 50 years ago, a group of Canadian women set out on a cross-country trek to Ottawa in what became known as the abortion caravan. They took Parliament by a storm, literally. We’ll taste of Karin Wells's 2010 documentary "The women are coming".

Sunday Edition4:06Karin Wells on Mary Pratt

Documentary producer Karin Wells visited Mary Pratt's exhibition at The Rooms in St. John's, along with the artist. After that visit, Karin wrote an essay, which we broadcast in September 2013.