Edited Evidence - FEWO - Standing Committee on the Status of Women

Study: Potential impact of recent funding and program changes at Status of Women Canada. The transcript for the meeting held December 6, 2006 can be found here

Ms. Leslie MacLeod (President, Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women - Newfoundland and Labrador): " I am here from Newfoundland and Labrador. I come here with the women in the province with me in spirit. They had a message for me to bring, and that is that women are not equal simply because somebody says this is so. We know that women are not equal. We have not achieved equality yet."

Ms. Andrée Côté (Director, Legislation and Law Reform, National Association of Women and the Law): ".....the current minister for the Status of Women, Ms. Bev Oda, stated, during a meeting with the representatives of women groups last October that those who spoke out against inequality of women were exaggerating, that they were victimizing women and that, when all was said and done, they were all somewhat hysterical.

........The loss of the NAWL would mean the loss of a unique voice that has been making itself heard for 30 years on the federal scene, one of the rare voices to defend the rights of women in crucial areas such as family law, violence against women, poverty, pay equity, the protection of human rights, immigration law reform and the constitutional and international rights of women. "

Ms. Leilani Farha (Co-Chair, Human Rights Committee, Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action): On the change in the SWC mandate by removing the words “equality” (also “political” and “legal”): "..... by removing the three that you mentioned--equality, political, and legal--basically it straps women, it makes women unable, in our opinion, to make the gains necessary to reach equality. They're saying on the one hand that we've reached equality, so don't work on it, and they're taking away the means we would normally use to ensure our equality: political means and legal means."