This series consists of documents on the national office of DES Action Canada in Montréal. The documents include letters patent; financial statements; minutes of meetings of the board of directors; documents on annual congresses and international congresses, including the texts of speeches given by Harriet Simand and individuals from the medical field or other stakeholders about infertility, breast cancer, estrogen treatments, new reproductive technologies; requests and reports on grants from different federal departments, including Health and Welfare Canada, Employment and Immigration Canada; information bulletins; files on different projects, including the publication of brochures, posters, information kits, information campaigns, collaboration with the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies; statistics on individuals who were in contact with DES; press clippings; referral lists of physicians who can treat people exposed to DES; requests for information and testimonials provided in letters, e-mails or by phone by people who have been exposed to DES or think they might have been.
A big part of the fonds consists of correspondence, which is contained in most of the files. It covers many things, including the controversy involving advertising by the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company, which marketed DES in Canada; the campaign against the Depo-Provera drug; requests for grants; awards earned by Harriet and Shirley Simand; numerous activities organized by DES Action Canada, including the bus information campaign and DES awareness weeks. The correspondence also includes copies of letters from DES Action Canada.
Correspondence is mainly with Canadian federal ministers of health, members of parliament, senators (women), political party leaders and prime ministers, and numerous organizations, including the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women / Conseil consultatif canadien sur la situation de la femme; the Breast Cancer Forum / Forum national sur le cancer du sein; D.E.S. France; McGill University; the Law Reform Commission of Canada; McMaster University; the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada / Le Conseil national des femmes juives du Canada; "La Gazette des femmes"; the Centre for Excellence for Women's Health Collective / Centre d'excellence pour la santé des femmes; Merck Frosst, ELJB Foundation, DES Dublin; Boston University School of Medicine; and the Salon de la Femme. It includes names such as Monique Bégin, Perrin Beatty, Benoît Bouchard, Diane Marleau, Jake Epp, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, Victor Goldbloom, Jacqueline Vézina, Simonne Monet Chartrand, Warren Allmand, Dr Michel Roy, Audrey McLaughin, Kim Campbell, Sheila Copps, Sylvia Gold, Sheila Finestone, Robert R. de Cotret, David C. Dingwall, Bernard Landry, Harriet Simand, Shirley Simand, Dr Jean-Paul Déry, Dr Pierre Audet-Lapointe, Dr Effat A. Macramalla, Lucie Pépin and many others who came in contact with DES.
The series also contains publicity posters on publications prepared by the organization, posters on an information campaign on DES used in buses, and a poster from the play entitled "A Play about Women and Pharmaceuticals"; a three-panel information board on the consequences of exposure to DES, audio cassettes and videos on interviews and discussions on DES taped during annual and other congresses.
