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30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPORT OF
THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

In 1970, the Report on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women was tabled in the House of Commons. It was at a time when feminism was at its height and most influential in Canada. The report reflected totally the feminist ideology, e.g., abortion on demand, universal day care and, of course, recommended that federal and provincial Status of Women councils be established to further the feminist agenda.

Thirty years have now passed since the Report was tabled. This anniversary was unheralded in the press but remembered by the Women's Studies Department at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. They presented a public lecture on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission Report, on November 24, 2000. The moderator was Carolyn Andrew, Joint Chair in Women's Studies. The speakers were:

1. The Honourable Monique Begin: Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, and former Secretary General of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, Minister of Health in the Liberal government 1977-84, and first Joint Chair in Women's Studies in 1986; and

2. Terri Brown: President of NAC (National Action Committee on the Status of Women).

Monique Begin

Monique Begin was disappointed that women's issues were "nowhere" in the recent federal election and that women Members of Parliament, at 20%, were far from ideal of 50% in the House of Commons. She noted that in the recent Maclean's Magazine survey asking "who can best protect or promote women's issues?", the NDP came first. She praised the extraordinary initiative" of the World March of Women held in Ottawa in October 2000.

Canadians "Fed Up" with the Violence Issue
Madame Begin recalled that violence against women was not an issue at the time of the Royal Commission, but has now evolved as an issue ending with the 1993 final report of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women. She regretted that the report did not even define violence and had no plan of action. She stated that as a result "violence is no longer on the map… because it is at the root of society, what can we do to bring it back?" She said that "people are fed up with the issue", there are contradictions between the Panel's report and Statistics Canada findings, and there are numerous unfounded accusations of violence. She claims the majority of men and women have no experience of physical and sexual violence and have difficulty conceptualizing it. She suggested that the women's movement switch to highlighting the day care issue which can obtain a wider range of support. "Violence is not for the majority of women," she said.

Profound Divisions in the Women's Movement
The wage gap, women's poverty, especially the poverty of female single parents, and the pension needs of older women have not changed and thus should be addressed. She painted a depressing picture of the failure to deal with women's poverty on the part of society, governments and global institutions. She regretted that the women's movement experiences "profound divisions" and contends that NAC has lost a lot of support because of its choice of issues. "NAC has marginalized the majority," she claims.

The Honourable Monique Begin's has reiterated that the issues for the future of the women's movement are poverty and day care.

Terri Brown
Terri Brown is President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She is from Northern British Columbia, and left her aboriginal community to obtain a B.A. at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

She has been involved in band offices, tribal councils, women's groups and the Vancouver Status of Women.

NAC Seriously Disabled
Terri Brown commended native mothers for building the aboriginal nation, stated that native women are oppressed on reserves, and praised abortion rights. She noted that "labour women" have made an important contribution to NAC. She stated that lesbian women "played a huge role in the women's movement", she's "thankful that they're different from me" and commented that if we were all the same it would be boring. She recognized that NAC is "suffering a great deal at this point" with core funding taken away, it is "seriously disabled", has been "silenced" and is "not the force it used to be." She lamented that the 13 demands of the World March of Women were "totally ignored" even though 50,000 women "spoke, marched, screamed and yelled". It was a rebirth of the women's movement and mobilized the movement all over the world, she said. Terri Brown was involved in the three week rafting Journey for Justice along the Fraser River as part of the World March. She said the Creator influenced her journey when "she stopped the rain when I got on the raft."

She linked her "militancy" to the suffering of indigenous women from violence, poverty, sexual harassment, colonization, racism, drug abuse, the sex trade, etc. Her mission is to make known the true situation of women in Canada. She was impressed by the "intelligent" and "brilliant" young people who attended the anti-globalization demonstration in Seattle at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting last January. Terri Brown said women should not focus on divisions and that NAC is the place for marginalized women - blacks, lesbians, francophones… She regretted that the UN's Beijing + 5 document completed in New York City last year was weak and watered down.

Patriarchy is the Real Enemy
The president of NAC identified the "real enemy" as patriarchy which controls women at all levels and in all institutions, and shuts out NAC.

Question period elicited an interesting comment from Carleton University Professor of Journalism Barbara Freeman. She contends that the women's movement received better media coverage 30 years ago; at least we had the women's pages. She saw some hope when "Izzy Asper took over Conrad Black (the National Post)" and felt that the "chill in the media" started with Barbara Amiel.

The sparsely attended 30th anniversary public lecture illustrated the unpopularity of feminist attempts to pit women against men and the family. All indicators, from female poverty, to prostitution, to drug use, to violence, show no sign of the great progress which the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women promised in 1970. Yet tax money keeps pouring into our own brand of Canadian government-fuelled feminism, aided and abetted by Ottawa's Status of Women.

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