Evidence of meeting #111 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was candidates.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

William McBeath  As an Individual
Brenda O'Neill  Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Calgary, As an Individual
Bob Bratina  Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
K. Kellie Leitch  Simcoe—Grey, CPC
Sonia Sidhu  Brampton South, Lib.
Madeleine Redfern  Mayor, City of Iqaluit
Arezoo Najibzadeh  Executive Director, Young Women's Leadership Network
Daniela Chivu  As an Individual

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Bryan May Liberal Cambridge, ON

I try.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

Okay. We are voting on the motion, and the motion is to include the testimony from the special committee.

(Motion negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

That's your time.

5:20 p.m.

NDP

Sheri Benson NDP Saskatoon West, SK

Thank you.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

We will now go to Terry Duguid for seven minutes. That will probably be the last question.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

Thank you to our witnesses for excellent and passionate presentations.

I'm going to pick up on a line of questioning to earlier witnesses. I led a consultation this summer on engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality. All of us would agree that we all need to be involved in advancing gender equality: men, women, boys, girls, people of all genders. I learned some really great things travelling from coast to coast to just about coast. I got up to Yellowknife but didn't get to Nunavut, so I apologize. We will get there, though.

We had some great examples of men and boys stepping up to advance gender equality. For instance, the banks had some very important leadership by CEOs. All of the banks are led by men in very powerful positions, but through their leadership they have been systematically advancing women. Many women occupy the VP spots and, I have no doubt, will be sitting in the C suite in not too long, at least in some of those institutions. In the workplace, the union movement had men participating in “Don't be a bystander” campaigns reducing toxicity in workplaces. We had football teams, such as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the BC Lions, participating in school programs to be good role models for young men in how to reduce many of the things that all of you have talked about.

As we heard earlier, the political landscape is dominated by men: 27% of parliamentarians are women, and the rest are men. I think the statistics are actually worse at the municipal level. I am a former city councillor. I ran for mayor but wasn't successful. I think it's 12% women. The average is around 20%, so it's below that.

I'd like an opinion from all of you. How can men in leadership positions, who do occupy positions of power, step up and change Canadian politics, as well as provincial and municipal politics?

5:25 p.m.

As an Individual

Daniela Chivu

I believe, yes, that was going in the right direction of trying to educate and engage boys.

There is something that is missing within the education system, and that is life skills in education. Within life skills in education, children should be very much aware of their civic responsibilities, which include women's rights. Unless our education system develops a formula to integrate women's rights as part of boys' education, we're not going to be able to do it. Yes, a father, an uncle or a brother can do that, can say that you treat a girl with the same amount of respect as your sister or your mother, but that's the education a child gets at home. We need our education system to change; therefore, men play an important role by listening and promoting women's rights and equality.

When you listen to a woman's problems, for many men, it's like, women are crying again, they always want something, it's never enough, where does it stop? However, if you had done that listening previously, you wouldn't have to listen to me speaking right now and asking for my rights. This shouldn't even be happening, me asking for my rights as a woman to be part of a political system, or that girls should be protected, or that boys should know how to behave. That should be a given. Men need to take active action and deliver real results on women's issues.

I believe, yes, you are going in the right direction with the consultations you have started, but the United Nations has a program called “HeForShe”, and I believe that you, as a member of Parliament, and your male colleagues, should start promoting that program throughout your riding. The HeForShe program should be a priority throughout Canada, beginning with the mentoring of little boys concerning women's rights, consent, respect and compliance.

That's my personal advice.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

Thank you.

5:25 p.m.

Executive Director, Young Women's Leadership Network

Arezoo Najibzadeh

I think what we should be mindful of is that, in our current culture, respecting women has been so rare in our history that once a man says, "I'm a feminist" or "I respect gender equality", we kind of put him on a pedestal. I think that's been happening nationally and internationally as well, even HeForShe. There was a man who was the leader of the International Youth Council Chapters of HeForShe at the UN, and last week he was removed from his job because of sexual violence. We get a lot of lip service and we congratulate a lot of men for publicly coming out and hashtagging MeToo and talking about this, but again that education piece is missing. So we don't get to recognize who is actually being genuine and who is delivering, and who is just talking about the work happening.

Having curriculums that include equal amounts of women's history and highlight the contributions of women to our society, but also include consent culture at different levels, is very important. We were talking about cyber violence, but we live in a society where women are seen as public property, so that cyber violence is a violation of our digital spaces. That harassment is a violation of our spaces and our existence in these spaces, and it goes up that ladder of consent where at the end we reach a level where we're dealing with sexual violence and rape.

Having that consent education and that education starting early on in our school system and investing in programs like the ones you were talking about will bring about that culture shift that prevents gender-based violence and brings about gender equity.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

That's our time, and the bells are going.

I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today.

Our next meeting will be on Monday October 1, at 3:30. We will see you then.

The meeting is adjourned.