Canadian Heritage committee  I can tell you a lot about that. I have also been chair of the status of women committee at the University of Victoria. I just came back, actually, from a meeting of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which at a national level is very much concerned with the diversification and the inclusivity—or lack of inclusivity—of our university environments, with respect to staff but also with respect to faculty particularly.

Canadian Heritage committee  You know, it's one of these truly wicked problems where we can talk about a number of features that play out to over-determine this under-representation. I'll begin, again, by referencing this notion of unconscious bias. This idea has shown to be incredibly important at every stage of entry, to every stage in an institution like the university, the association of characteristics that are not typically leadership characteristics with women regardless of what women themselves might actually possess.

Canadian Heritage committee  I do get the interpretation, so speak in the language of your choice.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely, and I understand the current government to really have a commitment to gender mainstreaming as well. One of the important features of taking gender equality seriously is that it becomes a metric in every measure that you undertake in your regulatory and lawmaking capacity.

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me add to this conversation concerning the relationship between search firms and boards of directors that it should be a close relationship. I've been involved in a number of searches that have had search firms involved. It really is the board's responsibility to articulate clearly to the search firm what the requirements for the candidates are.

Canadian Heritage committee  I wasn't given explicit directions about precisely what you wanted me to talk about, other than gender parity and gender representation on cultural and arts boards, so I'm going to talk very briefly about the sorts of things that I'm happy to take questions on. First, I think it's clearly important to be concerned with diverse representation on these boards, particularly as recipients of federal government funding.

Human Resources committee  I was going to say the obvious, about how complex this is, and that there's not a single solution, but I won't.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We've taken commitments internationally to have a gender-based analysis to all policy development. It's a condition often of the international aid that Canada gives to other countries, yet we fail miserably to do that at home. I didn't say so specifically, but I meant to capture that in saying a strategy must be developed with an eye to those groups that are most vulnerable to poverty, and we must talk specifically about women.

Human Resources committee  I think the problem is just a lot more complex than saying there is one measure that is going to fix it: we can just put more money in everyone's pockets and the issues around poverty will go away. Importantly, more money in a low-income person's pocket is a piece of the picture, but I don't think that is the only piece of the picture.

Human Resources committee  It's in the interest of those with the most in a society like Canada to decrease inequality because they will be better off in terms of their social indicators as well.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's right. That is what it's about. I think this book he's written along with Pickett is a phenomenal accumulation of lots of research and data, and shows in such a powerful way the link between the social health of our society for everybody and economic inequality. We're familiar with what happens to people who live in poverty, in terms of the vast range of indicators about their own personal welfare.

Human Resources committee  I have to say it's a phenomenal embarrassment for Canada at the international level and in the hallways of the United Nations. We've gone from being a proponent of human rights to appearing before various United Nations bodies looking at our own human rights performances as a kind of international human rights scofflaw.

Human Resources committee  I think that's just wrong, and I think it's part of the waffling and the shell game our government has played in international fora for years now. One of the difficulties these international treaty bodies have in dealing with Canada is that whichever level of government you're speaking to, it's always the other level that's at fault.

Human Resources committee  Thanks. It's really a pleasure to be here. As you mentioned, I teach constitutional law and social justice topics, but I've also worked with a number of NGOs on things like poverty reduction strategies and documents to the United Nations about respect for Canada's international human rights commitments.

Status of Women committee  I hope it's a good position.