Women's groups to protest office closure at March 30 rally

Jan Lukas knows women have made great progress in their fight for equality.


As a young woman, she was forced to ask her father's permission to move into her own apartment and to get her own telephone line. When she got married, her credit cards reverted to her husband's name, a common practice at the time.



Some things have changed, but others remain the same. The latest figures from Statistics Canada reveal women earn just 71 cents for each dollar a man earns. Now recently retired, the Ancaster woman plans to protest the closure of Hamilton's Status of Women office. The office will close its doors forever on March 30.



"I believe in a society where everyone has a right to be whatever they wish to be and if I see wrongs, I work on committees to try to right them," Ms. Lukas said. "This is wrong, very wrong what this government is doing and women everywhere need to stand up and say enough is enough."



The Hamilton office is one of 12 being shut down across the country. The cost-cutting measure was announced last November by Conservative Status of Women Minister Bev Oda. Following the restructuring, a single office in the Ottawa capital region will service Ontario. Status of Women has also lost $5 million from its $23 million administrative budget. On March 8, Minister Oda announced the $5 million cut from administration will be redirected to provide direct services to women. Advocacy and research projects are no longer financed under the new funding formula.

PROTEST INFORMATION

DATE: Friday, March 30th, 2007
TIME: 10:30 am
WHERE: 55 Bay St. N. Hamilton (in front of the federal government building)

LINK: News Story at Ancaster News
LINK: Contact sacha@sacha.ca
LINK: Website - SACHA 905-525-4573