ECHO Award
20th Anniversary Day of Pink Gala
Ottie Lockey Honouring Eve Zaremba
Acceptance by Ottie Lockey
Thank you to Mayor Olivia Chow, to Adrienne & Lamar and The International Day of Pink for recognizing Eve’s life as a trailblazing lesbian feminist. A few weeks before Eve died—exactly 6 months ago—Adrienne sent Eve a message renewing contact after many decades. She wrote: “You taught me what it meant to be a feminist mensch.” When Eve got Adrienne’s message, she enjoyed remembering those exciting days and Eve would have loved being here today with you all.
Some of you may remember Eve’s kick-ass lesbian detective who first saw the light of day in 1978 in A Reason to Kill, published by Paperjacks. But that wasn’t her first book. House of Anansi published Privilege of Sex—an anthology of Canadian women writers—back in 1975, before Canadian literature was considered worthy of study in university literature courses. It’s been out of print for decades. Happily, McClelland and Stewart is going to publish a second edition of Privilege of Sex next year, with an introduction by Canada’s most famous author, Margaret Atwood. Atwood credits Eve in her recent memoir The Book of Lives for supplying the idea behind The Handmaid’s Tale.
In the 1970s, before she started writing, Eve was one of Toronto’s Women’s Liberation activists—but we called ourselves lesbian feminists! I was there too, in the background, while others (some of you are here tonight), like Eve, co-founded the Lesbian Organization of Toronto LOOT, Women Against Violence Against Women WAVAW, and BROADSIDE. Did you know that Eve actually signed the lease for A Women’s Place on Dupont in the early 70’s because she was the only one who appeared professional with a career and a full-time job in advertising. We loved watching Mad Men by the way.
Eve and I met in 1977 thanks to WAVAW meetings, which we attended religiously two or three times a week! By then she had left 9-to-5 forever, and her priority was living her life as an activist. Many of us are grateful to Eve, who was so solid in her beliefs and openly lived her life as a lesbian. She was not only a mentor and role model; she became a bookstore owner and independent publisher who believed in open, honest intellectual discourse. As well she was a creative artist, putting together boxes, collages and marvelous collections she called Trash Art. One day we will have another gallery exhibit of Eve’s creations.
But as a writer she left behind dozens of opinion pieces published in Broadside. By the way, Eve’s op-ed articles and many political and cultural stories can be found online in the Rise Up Feminist Archive. (Eve was part of the Broadside collective that made this possible ten years ago).
I hope you are enjoying the pages of Work For A Million published by McClelland & Stewart (on the huge screen in front of you), the graphic novel adaptation of Eve’s thriller starring the first lesbian detective, Helen Keremos. This is Eve’s description of Helen: “(She) embodies the 80’s dyke persona. Keremos doesn’t act nice as a woman should, and isn’t bound by conventional standards of behaviour or morality. Her dynamic presence commands attention.”
Eve loved the graphic novel adaptation published in 2021 and the process of working with young bi and queer women. In fact the illustrator of this graphic novel is with us tonight—Selena Goulding. Thanks to the generous donation from Penguin Random House we have many copies here. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and look for others in the Helen Keremos series. Finally keep an eye out for Eve’s memoir The Broad Side—reflections on a long life, published by Insomniac Press in 2015.
At this point Eve would be telling me to “Get on with it already” so once more, thank you for this wonderful honour!
Inspire Awards
HONORARY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Recipients
Eve Zaremba
Eve Zaremba was a feisty trailblazing activist writer born in Poland who created the first lesbian detective Helen Keremos. A founder of LOOT, WAVAW, and Broadside, Eve shared her life with Ottie Lockey for 47 years.
Sam: Eve Zaremba was a trailblazing activist, writer and thinker who helped shape Toronto’s women’s and lesbian movements of the 1970s and ’80s. Proudly out at a time when very few lesbians could safely be visible, Eve co-founded Women’s Place, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto, Women Against Violence Against Women, and the feminist newspaper Broadside.
Kristyn: As a writer, Eve broke new ground by creating Helen Keremos, the first lesbian detective in mystery fiction — a smart, fearless and unapologetically queer character who gave lesbian readers a hero of their own.
Sam: Eve passed away in 2025 after a remarkable life of activism, creativity and challenging the world around her. She shared 47 years of that life with her partner, Ottie Lockey.
Kristyn: Tonight, we celebrate Eve’s extraordinary legacy and the generations of women and queer people who continue to benefit from the doors she helped open.
Sam: Please join us in honouring Eve Zaremba with this year’s Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award. Accepting the award on Eve’s behalf, please welcome her longtime partner, Ottie Lockey.
The ARQUIVES – Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives
