Status of Women committee  I'm not sure of the exact process, but I think countries come up on a rotating basis. Every four years or so, people feed into the human rights issues that they're concerned about, and it's taken to the UN. I think there are different levels to intervene on: the individual, the c

Status of Women committee  Well, MATCH had been in existence for 34 years, so the term “gender equality” has been in existence for a number of years—and maybe somebody else on the committee can speak to that—because it was more comprehensive and inclusive term that noted the power differences and the cultu

Status of Women committee  Yes, and it's consistent with the international norms used throughout the development community.

Status of Women committee  Yes, and just to make a point: this concept paper where it was noted that women couldn't be the drivers was outside our core funding from the partnership branch. So it was different funding.

Status of Women committee  The usage of the term “equality between women and men” was happening at about the same time. It was almost concurrent. So anything we were submitting had to use the term “equality between women and men”. This other process was happening almost simultaneously. It was a concurrent

Status of Women committee  Yes. It seemed the discussions around other agencies funded by CIDA had the same request for those agencies not to use the term “gender equality” in their proposals.

Status of Women committee  Yes, it would be the public servants, the bureaucrats within CIDA.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Let me just take a moment to talk about getting materials to the committee. MATCH is no longer in existence so I'm not sure how we could do that, except maybe through somebody submitting an ATIP request. Because there is no office, there are no materials; the office i

Status of Women committee  I think it does matter. If we look at the circumstances in which the government shows its outrage, I think we're all kind of...we know it. I think what's happening--and I may be skirting your issues--is just the parallels between how we have traditionally coined women as madonnas

Status of Women committee  I think it's again a question of who matters. I think it was out west--and maybe some of the MPs know this better--but how many aboriginals committed suicide before it became even a news story? If that would have happened to white middle-class men, it would have been front page n

Status of Women committee  Again, I think it just seemingly looks like Canada is not the compassionate leader in terms of our international reputation. I think, as mentioned before about the child soldier, our generosity seems to be eroding in both these instances by taking out the word “humanitarian”, as

Status of Women committee  I'm not a lawyer, especially on international law, but from common sense.... in our own country we have an age of majority. We switch from being a child to being an adult and we become responsible and culpable for our actions. We have that cut-off point where we think we're fully

Status of Women committee  Maybe I'll speak to the first one briefly. Ms. Neville, we haven't had an opportunity to know what underlies or motivates the change in language, so it's unfortunate when you see who is being impacted--that is, women. You think, could this be a sexist decision? With the DRC, it

Status of Women committee  If I could just.... I think it speaks to the issue of gender equality. It was framed under the issue of gender equality. It was making a point about the difference between gender equality and equality between men and women. I hope that point was clear.

Status of Women committee  Good morning and thank you for the invitation. I appreciate the opportunity to come here this morning and speak on this important issue. The importance of the change in the language, whether it be deemed semantics or policy change within DFAIT and the Government of Canada, is us