Minister Meets with Canadian NGO Delegation

On Thursday, February 24, following her statement at the UNCSW55, the Canadian Minister on the Status of Women’s, Rona Ambrose, met with representatives from the Canadian NGO delegation. The delegation had agreed on some key messages and decided that 4 representatives would speak : Patty Ducharme, National Vice-President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Louise Mercier, Vice-President of the Québec Federation of Labour, Alexa Conradi, President of the Fédération des femmes du Québec and Ann Decter, of the YWCA. Patty Ducharme expressed the profound disappointment and strong disagreement of the NGO delegation with what the policies and positions that the government of Canada has been adopting in the last few years. She informed the Ministers that we feel there is a huge disconnect between what the government’s priorities are, and the reality of women’s lives. For example, at the UNCSW the Minister boasted about Canada’ s work on the tragic situation of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, and the fact that the government has committed 10 million dollars to address this issue. But as Patty pointed out, this  money is essentially going to fund RCMP and Department of Justice general initiatives, rather than any Aboriginal-driven initiatives. Indeed, several organizations, including organizations representing Aboriginal women have denounced the lack of funding for the Sisters in Spirit initiative, and the absence of a concerted action plan against violence against Aboriginal women. Still on the theme of violence, the Minister addressed the issue of honour killings in her UNCSW address. Patty pointed out that during the years 2002-2009 there were in total only 13 honour killings in Canada, while there were 4,836 homicides. Of these homicides, one in 5 were spousal homicides and 83% of the victims were women. In other words, more than 800 women were killed in Canada by a partner during this period of time. If the government were serious about ending violence against women, it would focus on this larger problem, and it would commit to ensuring that the gun registry remain open and operational. Indeed, the gun registry had a proven track record of reducing violent crimes in general and domestic violence in particular. Patty also expressed our concern about the funding cuts to feminist organizations. Patty informed the Minister that we are here watching what Canada is doing at the UNCSW, and that we will report and blog on the positions that will be advocated by Canada. She expressed our disappointment that despite the CSW theme on education in science and technology and access to full employment for women, the Minister did not mention jobs, let alone decent work, education or science and technology. Finally Patty ended by informing the Minister that we will be closely analyzing the upcoming federal budget, and that we hope to see budget items that will promote women’s economic equality. If the minister is serious about wanting to make a difference, we would need to see some pretty significant changes in the Conservative government policies. Reporter: Andrée Côté, Public Service Alliance of Canada