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 Coalition for Women's Equality (CWE) |
| Federal Elections |
| Electoral Reform |
| Jurisfemme Articles on Women & Politics |
In September 2006, NAWL was forced to shut its doors for one month because of delays in the approval of our Status of Women Canada funding application. On September 22, we were greatly relieved when the Honourable Bev Oda, Minister responsible for the Status of Women, confirmed that we would receive funding, albeit for only twelve months.
However, on September 25 the government announced a 5 million dollar cut to the budget of Status of Women Canada (SWC). This cut will not directly affect
the Women’s Program, which funds NAWL and other women’s groups. But it will drastically reduce SWC’s capacity to sponsor independent
research, to ensure that other ministries take into account the impact of their policies on women and to report to the United Nations
on Canada’s international commitments to women.
On October 2, NAWL, FAFIA and other national and provincial groups held a press conference in Saint-John, New-Brunswick. We asked Ministers on
the Status of Women from across the country to speak out against this budget cut. A joint statement
was presented to the Ministers, and we trust that several ministers will engage the federal Government on this issue.
On this occasion, NAWL had prepared the following press release.
On October 2, women’s groups were also informed that the Women’s Program was officially renewed on September 27 for a five years term.
However, the government has drastically changed its mandate. SWC will no longer be funding advocacy and lobbying. NAWL and other equality-seeking
groups met with Minister Oda on October 3, to convey our profound disappointment with this new policy. A
press release was issued on October 4.
A month-long campaign leading up to December 10th, International Human Rights Day and the 25th anniversary of Canada’s ratification of the
UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), took on a new urgency following the announcement
that the government was further restricting the work of women’s groups by closing 12 out of the 16 Status of Women offices across the country.
On December 1, NAWL wrote to the Prime Minister Harper to call him to actively pursue the progressive
realization of women’s human rights.
On December 6, NAWL did a presentation to the Standing Committee
on the Status of Women regarding the regressive changes to the Women’s Programme.
On December 10, the Coalition for Women's Equality organized a Rally and March for women’s rights,
for equality, for access to government and the courts in Ottawa. At the National Press Club, NAWL and Coalition partners released the
December 10th Statement for Women's Equality and Human Rights signed by
several hundreds of local, provincial and national organizations,
and sent a strong message to Harper: reverse the cuts, uphold equality rights.
Coalition for Women's Equality
The Coalition for Women’s Equality (CWE) works with all political parties to create mechanisms that will ensure that the government delivers on the equality guarantees for women set out in the Canadian Charter, the Canadian Human Rights Act and in international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The Coalition’s members are the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, the Fédération des femmes du Québec, Mediawatch, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the National Association of Women and the Law, the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Womenspace and the YWCA-Canada.
Now that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Status of Women has been formed, the Coalition is working for:
Electoral Reform
In 2000, the Canadian Women’s March Committee’s published a document called It's Time for Change. This document set out a list of demands for the Federal Government aimed at ending poverty and violence against women. However, few of these demands have been implemented.
The lack of response to the Women’s March’s demands points to the fact that the lobbying strategies used by the women’s movement are perhaps less effective today than they once were.
NAWL decided to look into how changes to the federal electoral system might help us get women’s issues back on the political agenda. We found that the current riding system, in which the candidate with the most votes wins all, means that women’s issues are not likely to become a priority for the Canadian Parliament. This is so even where there is significant popular support for an alternative agenda.
NAWL looked at three mechanisms for political reform: establishing a feminist political party, setting up legislated gender parity within political parties, and moving to a system of proportional representation within the federal electoral system.
Jurisfemme Articles
Winter 2006
“Coalition for Women’s Equality Makes Encouraging Progress”, by Charlotte Thibault
Spring 2005
“Working Together for Women on Parliament Hill”, by Bonnie Diamond
Fall 2004
"How a Wee Campaign Nudged a Law of Science”, by Pam Kapoor
Summer 2003
“Reaffirming the Indivisibility of Human Rights at the Roundtable on Women and Politics 2003”, by Jackie Steele
Fall 2002
“First Nations Governance Act: Same old Indian Agent Mentality”, by Terri Brown
Fall 2002
“Reinventing Globalization and the Power of Positive Thinking”, by Jackie F. Steele
Winter 2002
“Métis Women and Aboriginal Self-Governance: Entrenching Inequality Through the Devolution of Discrimination”, by Kathleen A. Lahey
Winter 2002
“Pursuing a Feminist Policy Agenda through Electoral Reform”, by Nancy Peckford
Winter 2001
“Political Parity and the Charter of Rights”, by Andrée Côté
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