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THE
STATUS OF WOMEN MUST BE DISBANDED
In 1973,
in response to a recommendation by the 1970 Royal Commission Report
on the Status of Women, the Status of Women section of the federal
Department of Secretary of State was established. The purpose of
the Status of Women was to advance the equality of women in Canada.
However,
in the nearly thirty years since it was formed, this government
agency has degenerated into a caricature of what was intended, and
has become an agent for the promotion of a radical feminist revolution
in Canada. It remains locked into the ideology of feminism and its
discredited policies, established back in the 1960s and 1970s. That
is, although women’s needs and interests have moved on, the feminists
at the Status of Women haven't noticed. They are still busily promoting
pay and employment equity and universal day care, long discarded
policies. Women today are more concerned about the stress in their
lives caused by divorce and family breakdown, job insecurity, excessive
taxation, and lack of support and respect for the effort of parents
in raising their children. Yet, the Status of Women keeps sputtering
the extreme left-leaning agenda of the old-time feminists and lesbians
in Canada.
Moreover,
the fact that the Minister for Women’s Issues, Hedy Fry, represents
the riding of Vancouver Centre in the House of Commons is significant,
since the riding has a large homosexual/lesbian population. This
has considerable influence on Ms. Fry's support and advocacy for
lesbian groups.
In fact,
the Status of Women, under Hedy Fry, has paid out $253,918 to lesbian
causes alone in the fiscal years 1996–1998. More than half of this
went to lesbian groups in Ms. Fry’s own BC province. Lesbian advocacy
groups there received $145,418 during this twenty-month period (April
1996 - December 1998). The grants to lesbian groups are as follows:
|
Group
|
Purpose
|
Amount $
|
|
Newfoundland
Amazon Network (St. John's, NFLD)
|
To hold
a two-day conference for the purpose of identifying the human
rights issues affecting lesbians
|
4,000
|
|
Lesbian
and Bisexual Wimmin in Action (Prince George, B.C.)
|
To identify
gaps between needs and services for lesbian victims in abusive
relationships
|
15,800
|
|
La Collective
Lesbienne (Ottawa, Ontario)
|
To research
the reality of lesbian francophones in Ontario
|
20,000
|
|
Collective
lesbienne (Ottawa, Ontario)
|
To develop
a tool to avert social injustices affecting lesbians and to
provide a platform for francophone lesbians to promote their
needs
|
15,000
|
|
Equality
for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere – EGALE (Ottawa, Ontario)
|
To disseminate
the First National Survey on Same-Sex Relationships, Discrimination
and Violence Against Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals in Canada
|
20,000
|
|
Environments
for Women (Vancouver, B.C.)
|
To investigate
concerns regarding a lack of gender perspective in school
curriculum and to provide a proposed curriculum to encourage
discussion about the impact of environments on women, including
lesbians, Jewish women, women with disabilities, aboriginal
women and women of colour
|
10,000
|
|
Lesbian
and Gay Immigration Talk Force Vancouver (B.C.)
|
To formulate
recommendations on federal immigration regulations to recognize
same-sex relationships
|
45,525
|
|
Quesnel
Women’s Resource Centre (Quesnel, B.C.)
|
To increase
the access and participation of lesbians in the community
of Quesnel
|
22,093
|
|
Ad Hoc
Committee of Accessibility and Lesbian Issues (Ottawa, Ontario)
|
To develop
tools based on the needs of abused lesbians and abused women
with disabilities
|
21,500
|
|
Vancouver
Status of Women (B.C.)
|
To research
the impact of globalization and immigration policies with
a particular emphasis on ensuring the perspective of aboriginal
women, women of colour, lesbians, etc.
|
52,000
|
|
Provincial
Partnership Committee on Family Violence (Regina, Saskatchewan)
|
To produce
a video for victims of domestic violence in Saskatchewan which
will include marginalized groups of women, including lesbian,
immigrant, disabled, aboriginal women, etc.
|
18,000
|
|
Urgence-femmes
du Temiscouata (Cabano, Quebec)
|
To integrate
lesbian women and women's organizations in Bas-St-Laurent
|
10,000
|
REAL Women
of Canada, which supports traditional marriage, applied for
and was denied a grant by the Status of Women in 1999. We apparently
don’t rate as a genuine women's group by the Status of Women.
The lesbian
groups which are the beneficiaries of such generous funding from
the Status of Women are intolerant and discriminate against REAL
Women and other traditional women's groups. (See, "REAL Women Experiences
Discrimination at Federal Conference," p. 1.)
The Status
of Women is an embarrassment and must be disbanded. Please
write to:
The
Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien
Office
of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington
St., 2nd Floor
Ottawa,
Ontario K1A 0A2
The
Hon. Paul Martin
Minister of Finance
Esplanade
Laurier,
East
Tower, 21st floor
140 O'Connor
Street
Ottawa,
Ontario K1A 0G5
Tel:
613.996.7861
Fax:
613.995.5176
The
Hon. Hedy Fry
Secretary
of State
Status
of Women
Terrace
de la chaudiere
14th
floor, 25 Eddy Street
Hull,
Quebec J8X 0M5
Tel:
819.997.9900
Fax:
819.953.8055
Your
MP
The House
of Commons
Ottawa,
ON K1A 0A6
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