Status of Women committee  As someone who's actually never had a union, there are times when I have wished that I had a union to help me out. I did not have the information. I did not have the backing. I did not know where to turn. So I am personally very much in favour of unions, and I would have them neg

Status of Women committee  I would agree with that statement. I feel that it's very important to have the right to pay equity enshrined. I feel that it's difficult for people to bargain. I feel that it affects long-term poverty, because people are not as well able to put away money for old age. This is s

Status of Women committee  I believe—

Status of Women committee  Yes. I believe that pay equity is a fundamental right, and it's very easy to get it bargained away. A lot of the discourse around this table about court challenges, unions, and so on and so forth is all about democracy, and I have to tell you that democracy is not efficient, but

Status of Women committee  From the perspective of CFUW, I would say no. We just think this legislation takes away the access to pay equity because it takes away the ability to challenge, and it takes away the ability to get the kind of help that people need. There are no court challenges. Unions can't hel

Status of Women committee  In my view, the government has several responsibilities, the first of which is to enact good laws that abide by the human rights conventions to which we are signatory. I think this is absolutely crucial. I suspect that this law was formulated without full consideration to those

Status of Women committee  Thank you. On behalf of the membership of the Canadian Federation of University Women and the National Association of Women and the Law, we thank you for this opportunity to present today. CFUW is a non-partisan, self-funded organization with over 10,000 women graduates and st