• 

Women and Human Rights

March 8 campaign focuses on women’s equality

International Women’s Day is the date for a countrywide campaign to protest federal government cutbacks against women’s programs.
The Ad Hoc coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights – which includes the Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada, the YWCA, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), la Fédération des femmes du Québec, MATCH International, the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), and the National Association of Women and the Law – is organizing a rally to take place on March 8 on Parliament Hill, and encouraging groups across the country to take action on the same day. This is a follow-up to the rally held on December 10, protesting recent federal government decisions, including:

• the cancellation of the federal provincial child care agreements;
• the elimination of funding to the Court Challenges Program;
• the refusal to introduce a proactive pay equity law, one of the recommendations of the federal Pay Equity Task Force;
• a 40-per-cent funding cut from Status of Women Canada, the closing of 12 out of 16 offices, and elimination of “equality” from its mandate; and
• a change in rules so that women’s groups which do research or advocate for equality are no longer eligible for federal financial support.

In response, the federal opposition parties have declared their support for women’s equality and rallied together to support a bill which would make the provision of child care a national concern. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Status of Women has been holding meetings on the effect of the cuts and the changed funding policies towards women’s groups.