Status of Women Committee on Nov. 24th, 2011

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Point of order--

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

--so we will proceed with the rotation. We have five minutes with the government caucus.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Point of order.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Yes, Ms. James.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I don't think it's fair for you to say that you suggested a compromise when we decided in the first two meetings that we had to set the order of rotation and the number of minutes per rotation. You cannot sit in a committee and change that rotation on the fly or tell us who is to get what number of minutes. It goes by rotation. It should never be up for discussion, period.

So I'm sorry that you think you tried to suggest a compromise, but in all fairness I don't think you're in the position to suggest a compromise at all.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you very much, Ms. James.

I can see that my effort to be fair and accord everyone a chance is not acceptable.

We go to the government caucus for five minutes.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

It's my pleasure to have the opportunity to ask questions of both of you on work that clearly matters and that clearly is work that will make a difference. Thanks to both of you for the good work you do.

I just want to focus briefly.... Bonnie, you mentioned your work with Status of Women. Our government is very proud to fund Status of Women significantly. I'd love to get an explanation of exactly how—

Madam Clerk, a little quieter please.

Madame la greffière, less loud, please: I'm talking to a witness.

As a courtesy, I'd like my time adjusted by at least 30 seconds, because I've been trying to get your attention, and I think the translators could verify that.

[An hon. member]

That was two seconds--

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

I don't think it was two seconds, but we can verify that.

Anyway, Bonnie, could you explain exactly your interactions with Status of Women? Also, could you explain your funding components? How are you funded? Is it directly with Status or...?

[Bonnie Brayton]

It's pretty skinny right now. We receive some funding from the Office for Disability Issues under the social development partnerships program, the SDPP-D.

I became executive director five years ago. When I did, DAWN Canada had been in service to Canadian women with disabilities for about 20 years, but my responsibility as the first national executive director was, first and foremost, to establish a national head office and a national strategy for addressing women with disabilities issues.

We had one seed grant from Status of Women at that time. That would have been in 2007. We did a project called “Bridging the Gaps”. That project was to look at and update work that we had done quite a few years ago on access to shelters for women with disabilities and for deaf women. The result of that study was quite clear: nothing had changed significantly for women with disabilities. There were some updates—certainly, yes, there were more ramps at shelters--but in terms of the fundamental practice of inclusion, it wasn't there, and it still isn't there.

As I was saying when I was speaking to Dr. Fry, in terms of the violence against women sector, we're still at the outside of the sector. DAWN has been working hard to develop paradigms for inclusion, including paradigms for inclusion in the women's sector. Women's Worlds 2011 was a wonderful example of that because DAWN was involved for two years in advance of Women's Worlds. As a consequence, two of the plenaries, 39 presenters, and several hundred women with disabilities participated. This was a first, a global first.

As I was going to say, certainly both the Office for Disability Issues and Status of Women had a huge impact on our ability to participate in that, because we were hired as consultants, which was an appropriate way for us to be involved, because we have an expertise. we have the ability to develop those paradigms and practices that can take us from a place where women with disabilities are on the outside. This committee is a wonderful example--

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

What year was that?

[Bonnie Brayton]

It was in 2007.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

In 2007.

[Bonnie Brayton]

Yes, and Women's Worlds 2011 was of course held this summer here in Ottawa.

In terms of our interaction with Status of Women and where I was going with this, there has been access to funding for us, as there has for every women's organization over the last few years, through the community fund. We took the hard decision not to go after funding until we really had a solid strategic plan, which brings me back to what I've been talking about today. DAWN has been carefully building partnerships and relationships over the last few years with our partners in the disability sector and the women’s sector because that's the only way we're going to see systemic changes: if we engage with government and with the people who really are on the ground and present for women with disabilities across this country.

This is the first application we've made since 2007 because we felt that our strategic mandate was to develop medium- and long-term plans, and not some quick fix, not “let's do a project and create a little tool here”. It's really about long-term change and real inclusion for women with disabilities.

I will come back to Women's Worlds and what that represented. The fact is that DAWN Canada will be at the second World Conference of Women's Shelters in Washington, D.C., in March 2012. The subject of my abstract is precisely that: breaking down the barriers between the disability sector and the violence against women sector so that we are finally and completely part of the sector.

One in five Canadian women is a woman with a disability—one in five. The World Health Organization and the World Bank released a report in July 2011, the first report done on disability over the last 20 years, and that report—and I can certainly send it to anyone on the committee who's interested—reveals that there are more than one billion people with disabilities on the planet. If you remember the seven billion we've been talking about recently, this means one in seven people on the planet, and more than half of those people are women.

In this country and around the world, we are the largest minority in the world. I hope it stays with you after I leave and take my train. We're the largest minority in this country because we're inside every population you look at. If you look at aboriginal women, immigrant women, white women, black women, or any women in this country, you're looking at women who face disability. You're looking at women who will age into disability.

To come back to the question of elder abuse, this is not something that's going to get better. It's going to get worse. That is why it's really important for all of you to remember that when you go forward in your work for the government you support every initiative that will bring about better housing and better economic, social, and health inclusion for women with disabilities in this country, because they are the most overlooked, most forgotten women in this country.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you very much.

In your details—

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Excuse me. I'm sorry. I have given you more than your time.

Ms. Brayton, I am very aware that you have a train to catch. Please feel free to stay or go as it meets your needs and suits your schedule. If I don't have an opportunity again to say so, thank you very much for your generous contribution.

Now we'll go over to the NDP caucus for five minutes.

[Bonnie Brayton]

I just wanted to point out that I've also brought to the committee a fact sheet about violence against women with disabilities. I have 20 copies here in French and in English. I would really encourage everybody here to take this, tuck it in your files, and remember us. Every time you come here and every time you have an issue, you should invite me to speak, because every time you listen to any issue on women, you need to hear from women with disabilities and deaf women.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you very much.

My sincere apologies to the NDP caucus and to Ms. Fry. I deeply regret that you did not have the opportunity to ask your questions. Please accept my apologies.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

On a point of order again, Madam Chair--

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Yes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

--I'm not sure what you're apologizing for, because in all reality this was all discussed in the first committee meetings as to who would go first and what rounds. I'm not sure whether you need--

Please don't cut me off. I would really appreciate it if you would listen.

In all fairness, I think for you to apologize to the NDP and the Liberal because they didn't get another opportunity to speak is like saying that we all have to have equal opportunity to speak, and that's not the case when we have rotations. We could have three or four guests up here that may take longer, with not the correct percentage of Conservatives getting an opportunity to speak. It's the rotation; it's based on the percentages of the number of seats in the House. I think for you to sit in this committee and publicly announce an apology to the NDP and the one Liberal member is really an atrocity to this committee, and I think you should be apologizing to the Conservative side.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

I'm sorry, but I saw that as a matter of good manners.

Yes, we do have a rotation, and the rotation is very clear that each caucus gets a certain amount of time.

My apologies were extended to the witnesses because we kept them beyond the time that they had indicated they would be here.

So again, I apologize to the witnesses for inconveniencing you and thank you for the time you've spent here.

Let's suspend, please, so we can go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]