BC activist wins right to restore status rights for First Nations women

For close to 20 years, Sharon McIvor, a First Nations woman from Merritt, BC, has fought to have her case challenging sex discrimination in the Indian Act, heard in court. McIvor is a member of the Lower Nicola Band, a Professor of Aboriginal Law, and a long-time feminist activist. She was recently recognized with the Carole Geller Human Rights Award for her advocacy work.

In June 2007, McIvor won a groundbreaking BC Supreme Court judgment that stands to restore equal Indian status for 200,000 or more Aboriginal women and their descendants.

Judge Carol Ross has ruled that ongoing discrimination in the Indian Act violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She has ordered the Canadian government to remove sex discrimination from the determination of Indian status, and to restore equal Indian status to First Nations women and their descendants.

The federal government is appealing this ruling, while eliminating funding for the Court Challenges program that would financially assist McIvor with taking her case forward.

Union members and Canadian allies are urged to speak up for justice for Aboriginal women. Tell Prime Minister Harper to:

• drop the appeal of the McIvor case
• if the government refuses to drop the appeal, then provide funding for the Sharon McIvor case equal to the amount the government spends appealing it;
• re-establish the Court Challenges Program so that rights in the Charter are not upheld only for those who can afford it;
• establish an open, accountable process to put United Nations recommendations to address discrimination against Aboriginal women into practice.

Please send any donations to support Sharon McIvor’s case to: “Heenan Blaikie, in trust for Sharon McIvor" Attention: Rob Grant c/o Heenan, Blaikie, Suite 2200, 1055 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9.

LINK: NUPGE

Home care workers know poverty first hand

Home care workers are an example of how government actions have meantpoverty wages for almost an entire employment sector......home care workers in Ontario have no benefits, no pensions,and receive no travel allowance except a mere 26-cent per kilometre for usingtheir own vehicle to travel from client to client.

98 per cent of home care workers are women.

Many are singleparents and new Canadians and are easily exploited by a system that puts costsaving before service.

"Home care workers are not even protected under the Employment StandardsAct," Stewart said. "They are considered elect-to-work workers, because theytheoretically have the right to choose when they work. Who chooses to work ata below poverty level paying job? Especially, when you have to have two orthree of those jobs just to get by."

By eliminating the competitive bidding process for home care services,and eliminating the elect-to-work designation from employment standards forhome care workers, Stewart said, the Premier could help lift an entireemployment sector out of poverty.

LINK: SEIU

“Reasonable Accommodation”: A Feminist Response

As anti-racist, anti-colonial feminists in Québec, we have serious misgivings about the Commission de Consultation sur les pratiques d’accommodement reliées aux différences culturelles. The Conseil du statut de la femme du Québec (CSF) has proposed that the Québec Charter be changed so as to accord the right of gender equality relative priority over the right to religious expression and to ban the wearing of “ostentatious” religious symbols in public institutions by public employees.

Our concern is that the Commission and the CSF’s subsequent intervention pave the way for legislation that will restrict rather than enhance the rights of women. We invite you to join us in questioning the exclusionary structure of the Commission, the assumptions it supports, and the negative impact it is likely to have on women’s lives.

So, why call into question the legitimacy and the effects of the Commission?

1. because although we see the urgent need for dialogue about racism and sexism in Québec society, we object to how this consultation process has been undertaken. Listening to people “air out” their racism is not conducive to promoting critical reflection and dialogue, but instead creates a climate of fear-mongering and moral panic. Furthermore, in asking whether or not “difference” and “minorities” should be accommodated the commission assumes and perpetuates “commonsense” racist understandings of some “cultures” as homogeneous, backward and inferior. In addition, the Commission’s reliance on the notion of “reason” must also be critically examined. Historically, white men have been positioned as the exclusive bearers of reason, and the Commission runs the risk of reproducing this in a context of ongoing social inequality.
2. because the design of the Commission and the language of “accommodation” assumes and perpetuates a system of power whereby western “hosts” act as gatekeepers for non-western “guests.” A better consultative process would start with the recognition that Canada is a white-settler state, and that its history is one of colonial and patriarchal violence against Indigenous people.
3. because the public debates that the Commission has sparked construct certain ethno-cultural communities as perpetual outsiders and as threats to Québec identity rather than as integral to it. Concerns about ethno-cultural others as socially regressive obscure the everyday homophobia, sexism and racism that pervade Québec society.
4. because the ways that the Commission has been represented in mainstream English media promotes the idea that racism is a feature exclusive to Québec society and is not a problem—or is less of a problem—in the rest of Canada.
5. because the preoccupation with veiled women serves to deflect from the sexism and racism that has historically pervaded Québec and Canadian society. As feminists, we must challenge our complicity with the state’s violence against women both in its colonial relations with Indigenous people and in its use of the figure of the veiled woman as an alibi for imperialist war and occupation in Afghanistan.
6. because appeals to secularism as a guarantor of gender equality effectively function to promote Christian culture as the norm and to scapegoat Muslims as inherently sexist, erasing secular forms of sexism.
7. because although it is still underway, the Commission has already prompted the proposal of laws that could restrict, regulate, and otherwise impede the lives of immigrant and racialized people in Québec.
8. because regulating women’s public religious expression is gender discrimination insofar as it takes away women’s freedom and inhibits their civic participation.
9. because the CSF is failing to meet its mandate of “defending the interests of women.” The CSF would better serve the interests of women in Québec by focusing on the conditions of poverty, violence, criminalization and racism that many of us face, and not on what women wear.

Signed: The Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, November 2007
A list of further resources can be found on the Simone de Beauvoir Institute website: http://artsandscience1.concordia.ca/wsdb/
Please circulate widely. To endorse this statement please email acarastathis@gmail.com
Media contact: Viviane Namaste, Acting Principal, Simone de Beauvoir Institute 514.848.2424×2371 or viviane@alcor.concordia.ca

Photo Credit: The Dominion :Women's studies student Lily Tandel presenting the statement (below) to the Commission's Citizens' Forum on November 20, at the Bibliothèque Interculturelle in Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal. Also pictured, Nada Fadol, a member of the statement-writing committee. Photo credit: Tanya Déry-Obin.

Women and the Employment Insurance Program

A study released by the Centre for Policy Alternatives has found a significant gap between the number of women and men that receive unemployment insurance – 40% of men compared to 32% of women. The current hours/weeks formula used for benefit eligibility has been the biggest barrier to women securing benefits. The authors recommend the federal government make 360 hours the new number for qualifying for employment insurance benefits.

Links: Women and the Employment Insurance Program, by Monica Townson and Kevin Hayes, Centre for Policy Alternatives, November 22, 2007, (40 pages, PDF); New Urgency for Adoption of Bill C-269 to Modernize Employment Insurance - New study show two-thirds of jobless women can't get employment insurance, November 25, 2007, CLC website.

Bathtub helps abused women

The Bathtub Project collects toiletries for a local battered women’s shelter

A bathtub in front of York University's Student Centre is going to make a huge difference in the lives of women in a North York shelter.The tub, which is scheduled to appear Nov. 26 to 30, is being used as a collection area for donations of toiletries and bath products, which will be distributed to the North York Shelter for Women.

According to Statistics Canada, 58,486 women sought assistance and refuge in 473 shelters across Canada between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.Of those women, 76 percent were escaping abuse, whether physical, emotional, financial or sexual.

Donations of toiletries provide women who have to escape dangerous situations with basic necessities that they might not have the opportunity to take with them when they leave their homes

RELATED LINK: Dalhousie Bathtub Project
RELATED LINK: McMaster Bathtub Project
RELATED LINK: Nipissing U Bathtub Project
PHOTO CREDIT: Dalhousie photo

Local woman wants law to let midwives practise in the Atlantic

Kathleen MacDonald was birthed by a midwife and she doesn’t see any reason why midwives shouldn’t be able to practise their art in this province.

MacDonald has been circulating a petition calling on the province to enact midwifery legislation. So far, she’s gathered about 400 names. Copies of the petition are available for signing at the Women’s Centre in Corner Brook, along with several locations on the west coast, including the Newfoundland Aboriginal Women’s Network in Stephenville.

She said the country’s other nine provinces have legislation covering the practice of midwives — Nova Scotia added their law last November. That means Newfoundland and Labrador does not have a framework in which midwives can work.

A midwifery implementation committee was struck by the Health department in November of 1999, but it did not bear fruit.

In 2003, a report entitled The Newfoundland and Labrador Midwifery Consultation Meeting Final Report points out a path toward legislation.“Women in Newfoundland should enjoy the privileges other provinces have — plus it’s a gentler, cheaper method,” MacDonald said. “The government says there’s not enough money, the nurses are crying, the doctors are crying there’s not enough nurses, there’s not enough doctors. Bring back the midwives. When you’re pregnant, you’re not sick, you’re pregnant, so why should doctors be spending time with women who aren’t sick.”

COMMON MISSION: building a poverty-free Quebec

The "COMMON MISSON: Building a poverty-free Quebec" campaign was launched today. It is centered around a petition to the National Assembly which has three main goals: obtain universal access to quality public services, increase minimum wage to a level which makes it possible to work one's way out of poverty, and increase social benefits to insure health and dignity to those lacking sufficient revenue.Signing this petition is a civic contribution toward a poverty-free Quebec and human rights, leading to a society enriched by all of its people.

Active since 1998, the Collective for a Poverty-free Quebec's membership unites 32 provincial organisations whose work shapes issues of public interest, community affairs, workers' rights, religious, feminist, student or regional affairs; regional collectives are present in fifteen Quebec regions.These organisations share a mission to fight against poverty, defend civic rights and promote social justice. Hundreds of groups and individuals from many sectors of civil society form the Collective's support network.

Ontario to phase in full-day learning for 4 and 5 year olds starting in 2010

Ontario will start to phase in full-day learning for four-and five-year-olds in 2010, seven years after Premier Dalton McGuinty first promised to introduce full-time junior and senior kindergarten.

McGuinty said studies consistently show that four-year-olds in full-time learning programs score higher in math and language skills than other students.

The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care called McGuinty's announcement "terrific," but said they would like to see the full-day learning plan implemented faster and with better funding.

Statistics Canada data from 2006 shows there are 272,000 four and five year olds in Ontario, but the province said the numbers in school are somewhat lower because kindergarten is optional and some parents don't enrol their kids.

FULL STORY: CP

Pole Dancing is not a Sport

The Dissenter writes: Just the other day I was in one of my classes and a new student who had been looking for a decent place to take Yoga announced that she had found pole dancing classes instead.

This caused quite a stir. .......Pole dancing in its traditional form (if I dare call it that) is situated within the context of the sex industry and its sole aim is the titillation of men.

....Pole dancing, then, is not a legitimate form of exercise. Walking is exercise. Running is exercise. Lifting weights is exercise. I find it very sad that exercise for women needs to be sexualized and turned into a pole-humping session to titillate men

RELATED LINKS: Feminism = Pole Dancing?

RELATED LINKS: Pole Dancing Kit For Girls

RELATED LINKS: Feministing

RELATED LINKS: Is Feminism Polarized By Pole Dancing?

RELATED LINKS: WIMN

RELATED LINKS: Colbert's segment featuring Johnna Mink, owner of a pole dancing studio who views it as "a form of feminism." is no longer available....what a shame....

RELATED LINKS: Women Now Empowered By Everything A Woman Does According to a 2003 study, women—once empowered primarily via the assertion of reproductive rights or workplace equality with men—are now empowered by virtually everything the typical woman does. I guess we can add pole dancing??

Women happier when babies delivered by midwives: Statscan survey

The majority of new Canadian mothers are happy with their labour and the birth of their child, suggests new data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada, though midwife deliveries are seen in a more positive light.

The Maternity Experiences Survey, a national snapshot of women's experiences during pregnancy, birth and early parenthood, shows that 54 per cent of Canadian women who gave birth during a three-month period in 2006 described the experience as "very positive." Twenty-six per cent described their delivery as "somewhat neutral," and 20 per cent described it in neutral or negative terms.

The findings suggest women are happier with births overseen by midwives, with 71 per cent of women who had a midwife delivery rating it as "very positive." Only 53 per cent of women who had their babies delivered by obstetricians/gynecologists, family doctors or nurses and nurse practitioners said they had a "very positive" experience.

Other findings included:

• Sixty-five per cent of women surveyed said they were "very satisfied" with the compassion and understanding they received from their health-care providers.
• Sixty-two per cent were very satisfied with the information they received from caregivers.
• Fifty-seven per cent said that their pregnancies had been "somewhat stressful" or "very stressful." These stressors included moving to a new home, arguing with a partner, losing a family member or financial problems.
• Fifteen per cent of the women surveyed had been previously diagnosed with depression while 7 per cent had current symptoms of depression.

The Maternity Experiences Survey is an initiative of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System of the Public Health Agency of Canada and was developed and implemented in collaboration with Statistics Canada. It included the responses of 8,542 mothers, who were interviewed over the phone in the fall of 2006.

Gender inequality distorts politics

Although there have been great strides in equality among men and women in Canada since Agnes MacPhail became the first woman elected in the House of Commons in 1921, we have a long way to go before we achieve equality in political expression.

For Canada to truly be an equal-opportunity society, bringing women into one of the most important roles in the political domain is critical. Yet it is precisely in this area where we are failing most embarrassingly.

After the last federal election, only 20.7 per cent seats were held by women, despite the fact that women constitute 52 per cent of the nation's population. The picture is no better at the provincial level, with women winning only 26 per cent of the seats in the recent Ontario election.

How can Canada claim to be an equal-opportunity society when the demographics of our decision-makers are so out of proportion with the gender demographics of Canadian society?

LINK: TorStar
IMAGE LINK: Flickr

Today, the NPD’s Women’s Caucus launched its Fairness for Women Campaign, aimed at getting women back on the political agenda and increasing women’s participation in Parliament.

Margaret Mitchell, former NDP MP for Vancouver East and an activist in the fight to end violence against women, joined the Women’s Caucus.“Only 20 per cent of MPs are women,” said NDP Status of Women Critic, Irene Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe). “That puts Canada 49th in the world in terms of female representation – trailing countries like Rwanda, Sweden and Costa Rica. That’s not right. Women deserve an equal voice in Canadian politics.”