As you may have heard recently, the Conservative government has done some major damage to groups working for women’s rights and social justice in Canada.
Stephen Harper and Beverley Oda, Minister of Heritage and Status of Women, slashed 40 percent ($5 million) of Status of Women Canada’s administrative budget, removed references to “equality” from its mandate and have made it so that groups that lobby or do advocay work (hello? that’s a major part of feminist activism) don’t get federal funds.
This will have a terrible impact on groups across the country working on important issues: “These actions represent a serious attack on the sole federal department engaged in monitoring and promoting women’s equality and women’s rights in Canada, and the organizations it supports,” say Audra Williams and Pam Kapoor, who have set up Statusreport.ca, a site dedicated to raising awareness of SWC and related issues.
What I like about the site is the “What to do” section, which has concrete steps you can take on the ground and online to do something — it quells the slight feeling of helplessness (and naseau) this news induces.
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Judy Rebick provides some context and implications over at rabble.ca: http://www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml?s...
Posted by Nicole
October 17, 2006, 9:37 AM
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