Status of Women committee  The reason for submitting this to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is that in CEDAW, on the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination, there are explicit provisions to guarantee and promote equal pay for work of equal value. The internationa

Status of Women committee  Hello. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to make a presentation to this important committee, which has always played a role in ensuring that women's rights are respected and promoted in Canada. I truly appreciate it. The Public Service Alliance of Canada is the lar

Status of Women committee  The current series of cuts will cause many women to lose relatively good paying jobs with decent retirement plans and social benefits. Often, they will be losing the benefits of unionization. The women who are left will be subject to a great deal more stress and illness in the wo

Status of Women committee  I think men and boys are engaged by most of the ministries of this government, and I would hope that Status of Women Canada would focus on the advancement of girls. There are very few programs left that actually focus on girls. If you look at the data and the statistics, there

Status of Women committee  Of course, education programs directed towards human rights and non-discrimination in schools would be very helpful, so that the boys themselves find it normal that girls start integrating in non-traditional jobs, so that we actually stop using the expression “non-traditional” an

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. This is a really important issue. It has impacts in many ways. The cuts in the long-form census will have a huge impact on our capacity to implement employment equity, because employment equity is based on the market availability of women and the othe

Status of Women committee  We've lost dozens and dozens of advocacy organizations. Really, the changes that have come about in Canadian society and in the provinces have been the result of advocacy by women's groups. It is feminist advocacy that brought forward the need for maternity benefits and explained

Status of Women committee  Many of our members are certainly active in some of those charitable groups, as are many Canadians. We know that a lot of people give up their time to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society can eat and have access to housing, training, and mentoring. I think we rely very

Status of Women committee  We're concerned about the shutting down of the voice—the advocacy space for the charitable sector that we're seeing in this budget and in current initiatives federally. When David Suzuki feels he must resign from his very own foundation because he doesn't have the freedom to spea

Status of Women committee  There's absolutely a chilling effect going on in the charitable sector. People are afraid to talk. It's very sad, because they are often the people who know most about what is happening on the ground, where the problems are, and how we can remedy those problems. It's a very scary

Status of Women committee  I think the answer is obvious. This is not helpful for girls, women, or citizens in general. It's very worrisome. The unions are also currently facing an attack because of their charitable status. There's a current bill to examine in detail the financial...the functioning of the

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  The outcome will be less good public policy, and policy that is more often influenced by the market, by business, and by private interests that have their own profit at heart, or possibly by other actors. But certainly it is not in the public interest to weaken the advocacy voice

Status of Women committee  We would hope that the constitutional right to freedom of expression be extended to organizations such as those, and that we recognize the need in a democracy for informed dialogue.

Status of Women committee  Obviously we rely on that kind of data, and more. We need that kind of labour market information to address unemployment policies, and so on.