Status of Women Committee on Feb. 7th, 2007

[Gwendolyn Landolt]

On September 21, MP Mrs. Minna got up in the House of Commons, addressed the government, and said, “On behalf of all the women of Canada, I'd like to ask about the funding.” Who gave her the choice to speak for all of us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Order, please.

[Gwendolyn Landolt]

She doesn't speak to the grassroots element.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Landolt, I'll finish it off. You went over the time, and you've now quoted Ms. Minna. I'll have to get her to respond to it.

Ms. Minna, I'll give you half a minute, please. Go ahead.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I don't have the quote here, but with all due respect, as a member of Parliament, when I stand in the House of Commons to read a question, it's usually a result of having received petitions or what have you from constituents, and I'm speaking on behalf of the women I have spoken with. Yes, of course.

Maybe Ms. Landolt could someday get elected and she could speak on behalf of the women in her riding as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Ms. Genaille, go ahead.

[Sheila Genaille]

I would like to thank you for inviting me here today.

I think when you're contemplating this issue, you should take away the labels “feminists” and “women”. We are not at a place where we should be. If you look at the history of this country, when all your ancestors came here, you called us bloody savages. You called us idiots. Those were labels. We weren't at the same level as all of you. Take away the labels, please.

We're here for women's equality. When the first issue for aboriginal women is everyday survival, they need voices like mine to say don't cut funds, because the projects that we do give them a voice.

With great respect to what you're saying and your particular views, I am a woman. If you want to call me a feminist, that's fine. I've been called worse. I've been called a half-breed. I've been called a slave. I've been called a maudite Indian. So take away the labels, and remember there are women in Canada, and the aboriginal women are in poverty. They don't have voices. To cut funding that allows us to find answers to our issues, and to cut funding to people like NAWL and the other organizations that do work that we can use to bring our issues together.... It's very valuable. Please, take a really hard look at it, take away the labels, and keep Status of Women. In fact, funding should be increased and not decreased.

Again, thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Thank you, once again.

Thank you, committee members.

Yes, Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I don't want to prolong the meeting, but I want to follow up on Mr. Hawn's point.

In the routine motions that we adopted on May 11, 2006, I noticed that when you as the chair made the decision to continue in the same pattern as we used through the normal second round of questioning, the final speaker should in fact have gone to the Conservative side as opposed to the Liberal side.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

I agree with you, but I'm going to reply to what you said.

I felt I was being fair to you, and I shouldn't have done that. I should have started with that round.

I had enough complaints that we won't do it again. It's done. We were fair to everyone, and we gave everyone seven minutes. It's done and finished. We can't do anything about it now. I'm not going to cry over spilt milk. It won't happen again.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Nor would I. I was only going to suggest that perhaps for the next meeting you could consider a different approach to make sure we obtain the balance that was achieved and set out in the standard motions that were originally decided.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

From the next time onwards, we will stick to starting fresh, and we won't be fair.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Merci.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

This meeting is adjourned.