PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

On behalf of the Board of the Directors, I wish you all many blessings throughout the first year of the 21^st century. As we begin this new millennium, it will be a surprise to me if our organization is any busier then we have been in the past few years — it just couldn't be possible!

Taking a brief look at last year: In March, we laid a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council against Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux Dubé for her failure to impartially apply the law and decide cases in accordance with their merit rather than her personal ideology.

On April 22, we presented a brief to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, objecting to the inclusion of same-sex partners as spouses in Bill C-63 (Amendments to the proposed Citizenship Act).

In May, REAL Women presented a brief to the Sub-committee on Finance. We recommended a base taxation of family (not individual) income through income splitting or joint filing, in order to assist single income families.

In June, a brief was presented to the Senate Banking, Trade and Commerce Committee. We expressed our concern that Bill C-78 had eliminated the clear term "spouse" and "surviving spouse," as well as "wife" and "widow," in the public service pension schemes and replaced them with he word "survivor." This new term, "survivor," included a person married to the contributor or "cohabiting in a relationship of a conjugal nature with the contributor," i.e., same-sex partner.

By the beginning of September, we had two new pamphlets ready for distribution. One was the combining of our two brochures, "Historical Perspective" and "Canada's Alternate Women's Movement," while updating and consolidating the information in them. We also produced a completely new pamphlet on the issue of spanking, which explains the issue and the ensuing problems that could result if S.43 of the Criminal Code, which now protects parents, is repealed.

In October, we made a submission to the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel. Human Rights Commissions have proven themselves to be biased political bodies enforcing "politically correct" speech, contrary to the moral and religious beliefs of many Canadians.

In November, REAL Women was represented at the World Congress of Families II, a world-wide conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, by several of our members, including myself and our National Vice President, Gwen Landolt, who presented a paper to the conference entitled "The Family at the United Nations:

Where Do We Go From Here?"

In December, REAL Women joined a pro-family coalition of groups to intervene against the court challenge to remove S.43 from the Criminal Code.

This year has also seen the completion of a REAL Women promotional video. At last! It is a tool that can be used by our chapters and individual members who wish to explain to their friends and relatives what we are all about. The video will be ready for distribution in February. If you would like to show the video to your relatives and friends, church groups or other organizations, please place an order with our national office in Ottawa. (For address, see back of this publication.)

Throughout the year, REAL Women issued numerous press releases, letters to the editor, attended many meetings and were interviewed by radio and TV.

But, it is you, our dedicated members, who are our greatest treasure. It is your letter writing, your financial and moral support, and your prayers that bring it all together. Such pro-active initiatives as your telephone calls to local school boards, your MP, or visits to your local corner store about children's access to sexually explicit displays of videos, books and/or magazines, etc., that are of crucial importance. Each action, no matter how small, makes a difference. Stay informed, be on the alert and let us continue this team effort in the coming year.

Together we are a genuine and effective voice!

May God bless you all.

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