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PRIME MINISTER HARPER DECLARES WAR ON WOMEN
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October 26 - November 1, 2006 |
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Canadian women rejoice—Canadian Heritage and Status of
Women Minister Bev Oda has declared you equal.
Or rather, that you don’t need any more help. Recent slashes
to the operating budget of Status of Women Canada suggest
women’s rights have come far enough and any additional steps
forward aren’t a priority for the Conservative Government.
In addition to scrapping the word “equality” from the
agency’s mandate, Conservatives have reduced the agency’s
operating budget by 40 per cent and banned funding to groups
who do research, advocacy and lobbying. It’s an overhaul some
say is out of touch with the reality of Canadian women and
impedes their ability to do anything about it.
“Cutting the budget of Status of Women Canada by 40 per
cent sends no other message than this federal government would
like to take steps away from any commitments made at the
international or federal level to ensuring women’s equality,” says
Pam Kapoor, co–founder of statusreport.ca, a website tracking the
current changes to Status of Women. She feels the cuts to Status
of Women are premature and that Canadian women still have a
ways to go. “Sure we have made some significant gains, (But) can
we also point out the fact that many of those gains could not have
been made without the work of an agency like Status of Women
Canada?”
Status of Women Canada was set up in 1971 to address
issues of gender inequality in Canada. In addition to its role of
providing research and policy analysis on women’s issues to the
government, the agency works to improve resources for women,
funds women’s shelters and job–skills training programs. It has
been instrumental in eliminating Sha’ria Law, prohibiting sexual
harassment and criminalizing domestic violence.
But many issues, such as pay equity, workforce
discrimination, and disproportionate poverty levels, suggest
women still falter on the national landscape. With the agency’s
ability to carry out research and advocacy compromised, many are
wondering how the government will solve the problems facing
Canadian women if Parliament has no way of finding out what
they are.
“(That’s) the million–dollar question and no one has been
able to get an answer,” Kapoor says. While some have suggested
that some of the agency’s work could be performed by other
departments, the government has said little about its intentions
to do so. “The government has not identified where, in fact, that
work will be picked up,” says Kapoor. “We are led to believe that it
won’t take place at Status and therefore it won’t take place.”
Marika Morris, research coordinator for the Canadian
Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), one of
the groups affected by the cuts, feels that there’s a widespread
misconception about the position of women in Canada. “A lot of
people think Canada’s doing pretty well in terms of women’s
equality,” she says. But the reality is actually quite different. “In
terms of the wage gap, Canada’s the 38th in the world. There’s
37 other countries in which the wage gap is smaller than
Canada’s and there’s a reason for that—a lot of it is social and
economic policy.”
When it comes to social policy, some feel the legislative
input necessary to protect women’s equality are now pushed to
the wayside. “By crippling the administrative budget of Status of
Women, what (Minister Oda) has done is effectively eliminated the
ability of that department to engage in the policy and analysis
work that it has done,” says Kapoor. While proponents of the cuts
say the newly streamlined department will more effectively deliver
services to women, Kapoor points out it’s no different in structure
than many other agencies, such as Indian Affairs, that also have
departments for research, policy and communications, areas
banned under the new SWC rules. “It’s a very similar model to
other federal departments,” she says.
Some have suggested the cuts aren’t due to any fiscal
responsibility (the government is, after all, riding a $13.2 billion
dollar surplus), but rather the Conservative Government bowing
to pressure put on them by the right–wing group REAL Women,
who advocate for the elimination of the department altogether.
REAL Women claim the government funds an out–dated agenda
and that Status of Women Canada goals favours radical feminist
organizations to the exclusion of other perspectives.
Morris disagrees with this characterization. “I wonder when
we came to believe that equality for women is some kind of
radical concept. That’s what people thought when women
campaigned for the vote for women!”
Women’s equality, she notes, isn’t some leftist idea, rather
it’s a Charter right, one which Status of Women works to uphold.
Nonetheless, while she can’t say REAL Women was responsible for
the shift in national priorities, she is troubled that some groups
may be unduly influential on this government. “I am a little
concerned about the amount of power they seem to have,” she
says. “I don’t think it’s a perspective that is really representative
of most Canadian women.”
It’s also not the perspective of the international community.
In its recommendations on Canadian women’s equality, The UN
suggested Canada can do more by providing legal aid, ensure
equal pay, and include gender–based analyses when approaching
public policy. The Conservative Government, on these points,
have responded as follows: eliminating the court challenges
program, ignoring the recommendations of the Pay Equity Task
Force and refusing to adopt new pay equity legislation, and
restricting women’s groups from commenting on public policy. By
ripping out the federal capacity to address these areas, Prime
Minister Harper shows he’s not at all concerned about the status
of women in Canada. In fact, he’s willing to ignore his obligations
to them at home and abroad.
Have women come as far as they can go? “In terms of human
dignity, in terms of capability, in terms of all the things that make
us who we are, we are equal,” observes Morris. But the picture
isn’t as rosy as Conservatives would have women believe. “But in
terms of how much money we earn, our numbers in terms of
decision makers in the country. No, there’s still a ways to go. We
need to make the equality that we feel and the equality that’s on
paper a reality for all women.” V
[SARAH VEALE]
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