Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much for coming here today.
Ms. Russell, you are still with the National Association of Women and the Law, even though this association had to shut down its operations further to the cuts to Status of Women Canada. Congratulations on continuing your work on a volunteer basis. That is a remarkable accomplishment. We need women like you to defend women's rights.
Ms. Birenbaum, is LEAF, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, funded by Status of Women Canada?
You spoke of the erosion of the right to equal pay for work of equal value. One thing concerns me greatly, Ms. Birenbaum, and that is the $50,000 fine that unions will have to pay if they want to defend an employee who challenges the current legislation. That employee has no recourse to assert her rights. Because of the demise of the Court Challenges Program, that individual is all alone and without help if she wants to assert her rights. What is the point of collective bargaining if the union cannot defend the individuals on whose behalf it is bargaining?
One other things also concerns me a great deal. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal used the same language and the same policies in its recent decision. For example, I read in today's Ottawa Citizen that for the past 30 years, the government has been discriminating against a group of women nurses who were in fact more like medical advisers than nurses. Eighteen months after the federal government was found guilty of discriminating against these women, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal informed this group of women that while it believed them and knew they were right, it would have to ask the government to create a nurses subgroup, a medical advisors group, within 60 days, with the salaries to be determined through collective bargaining.
I was completely floored by this. How is it that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is using the same language as the government with regard to the new legislation?
In all, 840,000 people do not fall within the scope of this act and their cases will also have to be reviewed by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. How long will that process take? I find the situation quite worrisome.
What is your take on everything that is happening—and not just on recent events? We are seeing an erosion, not only from the standpoint of salary, but in every respect. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter.