NAC condemns changes to Status of Women
TORONTO, Oct. 13 /CNW/ - Last week the
National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) held its Annual General
Meeting in Toronto. NAC membership, composed mainly of grassroots women's
equality-seeking organizations from across the country, came out of that
historic meeting more determined than ever to fight for equality rights in
Canada.
The re-emergence of NAC came on the
heels of the federal government's dismantling of the Court Challenges program,
and the 38.5 percent funding cuts to Status of Women Canada with a fundamental
change in its mandate. "Equality is not a part of the Women's Program
agenda under this government", explained NAC's
newly elected president, Dolly Williams. "Minister Bev
Oda,
is simply applying Conservative Party ideology to propagate the notion that
women have reached equality. This is especially puzzling when only 7 of the 27
of Harper's cabinet are women. Is this what they mean by equality?"
The federal Conservative government
says it will no longer fund women's groups that do advocacy, lobbying or
general research as part of the new terms and conditions for grants. This is
seen as a deliberate tactic to cripple women's organizations that rely on these
funds to promote substantive equality rights for women in
The elimination of the Court Challenges
Program also confirms the new government's game plan. "NAC has been able
to use this program in the past to question the constitutionality of cuts to
core funding for equality-seeking women's organizations," affirmed Ms.
Williams. "The government thinks that it has found a way to silence us and
our sister organizations, but we will not be deterred." The federal
government is abandoning its duty to uphold the democratic process. Without the
Court Challenges program and with the devastating cuts to Status of Women
Canada, women will have little to no access to bring their injustices to the
legal and political forefront.
In the face of the Harper government's
new tactics to yield women's issues non-existent and near invisible, NAC's membership is determined, despite these obstacles, to
assert a national voice to advocate and lobby for equality. There is an
absolute need for coordinated women's voices at the national level. The Harper
government's dereliction of duty to sustain and protect access to democratic
accountability measures must be exposed. NAC and its membership are prepared to
work to ensure this happens.
"Women will not stand by passively while this minority government unravels the work accomplished by the equality-seeking women's movement and its social justice allies over the past thirty years", concluded Williams.
The National Action Committee on the Status of Women has
been one of