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REAL WOMEN OF CANADA 2002 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

"THE IMPACT OF FEMINISM ON SOCIETY"

This year's conference held in North Bay, Ontario, was one of the most successful conferences we have ever had with participants coming from 8 provinces. Our deepest thanks to the Northern Ontario Chapter of REAL Women, which not only organized the conference, but also so very generously underwrote much of its costs. Our special thanks go to Chapter President, Cheryl Lebel, and her team for all their outstanding and gracious leadership.

SUMMARIES OF SPEAKERS' TALKS

THE SEX DIFFERENCES INHERENT IN MEN AND WOMEN
ARE NECESSARY FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL

Summary by Jill Cahoon
Alberta Board Member, REAL Women of Canada

A Talk by Jeffrey Asher
Former Professor, Dawson College, Montreal

The so-called New Male is a creation of classroom radical feminism, media hype and politically correct governments. For more than thirty years, our culture has rigorously censored information which shows that males and females choose and need sex-specific roles in life. Every parent knows that girls and boys behave differently. Boys choose to play noisy, competitive games that test one against the other, while girls prefer co-operative fantasies that develop emotional skills.

Schools in Canada, USA and the UK are expelling pupils at record rates and over 90% are boys. Boys outnumber girls by six times in schools for behaviour problems. From the boys' point of view, boring lessons and a feminized curriculum rank high among their problems.

Men and women respond very differently to stimuli. The male alarm system is more protected from fear and panic. The male brain needs more stimulation than those of females. Males seek ever-stronger stimuli: contact sports, new experiences and ability-testing experiences. But the need for stimulation has not prevented boys from becoming scholars, historians, poets, and philosophers. Far too many boys now leave school with an inadequate education, doomed to lives of failure, poverty and crime because the curriculum is not directed to them as males distinct from females. Boys are massively over-diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and are drugged with Ritalin to curtail their perfectly normal male characteristics.

For this reason, children succeed best in single-sex schools. Boys need competition, challenges, rewards and disappointments. Girls show more success in artistic, emotional, verbal and communicative subjects. Boys excel in sports, science, mathematics and engineering. Although girls can do well in these fields, far fewer females than males do so because these areas are generally not within the interests of most females.

Men are nature's warriors, but very few men are ruthless killers. Man's strongest drive is to protect his loved ones, neighbours and community. Men feel duty-bound to protect women, children, the weak, even strangers. Nothing is more dangerous than the attempts of the politically correct democracies to integrate women into combat duty. Women are just as capable as men in many areas of warfare - but not in open ground combat. This is due to the fact that women are unable physically to fulfil warrior standards, i.e. are not equal physically to men.

Men have superior vision compared to women. Almost all mechanical, chemical, electronic and cybernetic inventions were made by men. For most inventions, material and intellectual, and conquests over nature, men have dominated. In most nurturing, human and compassionate relations, women have rescued the human race. However, the lives of women have been transformed by independent work and income and the pill, allowing them freedom to choose motherhood and financial independence from fathers or husbands. This has its advantages, but it has not necessarily all been to their good, because it can also lead to an increase in divorce, an epidemic of single-mother families, and rising unemployment for men. (Men define their lives by their ability to earn money through work to support a family.)

Men are usually reluctant to discuss or even recognize their emotional responses to any situation. Their aim is to fix the problem at hand. Most women aim is to nurture an enveloping intimacy.

Marriage provides the natural and best conditions for raising children, facilitates the longest life span, the highest income arrangement and the best promise of happiness for spouses and children. Men and women are designed by nature to live together to create families and to add to the sum of happiness and joy in the world.

PORNOGRAPHY IN THE AGE OF FEMINISM

Summary by Lorraine McNamara
National President, REAL Women of Canada and

A talk by Barbara Laing
Member, Durham Chapter, REAL Women of Canada
and Co-Founder of People Against Pornography

Before discussing this topic, Barb Laing provided us with some background information. In the 1980s, she became involved in the anti-pornography movement when her sister and a friend founded a Durham Region organization entitled People Against Pornography. Barb is a speaker/facilitator for this group, which has an extensive book and video library, and she endeavours to educate the public about the dangerous, addictive and destructive components of pornography. People Against Pornography is in contact with the Children's Aid Society and the police department, and of course it has a close working relationship with CASE (Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation).

According to Barb, in 1963, Betty Friedan's book, The Feminist Movement, sparked an interest in the new "women's philosophy", around the same time the "Playboy philosophy" was also developing. The early feminists certainly did not promote any kind of pornography, and they would never have realized that eventually feminism and pornography would go hand in hand.

The feminist movement, promoting women's rights in the early part of the 20th century, was based on Christian values and, as a result, the role of motherhood was respected. This changed with the "new" feminist movement of the latter part of the century, and the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. Because children were devalued, the woman's role in bearing, nurturing and raising children was devalued as well. A career was emphasized and promoted as being the real achievement in a woman's life, while her feminine (nurturing, homemaking) side was regarded with disdain.

In her book Feminism - Mystique or Mistake, author Dianne Passno, Executive Vice-President of Focus on the Family, states that feminism as something that is hurtful to women. She describes it as a love affair with abortion and lesbianism, and the devaluing of children. Since the feminists no longer appear to highly value children, there is not the protest one would expect from feminist ranks when it comes to child pornography. It is no wonder that people like Robin Sharpe and Eli Langer (both of whom have been able to use the "artistic merit" defence for their pornographic works) were treated so lightly by the justice system!

Despite the feminist aversion to pornography, the feminists were unwilling to join with more conservative women to fight pornography. However, Barb noted that in its local efforts to fight pornography and lap dancing, People Against Pornography linked with several other groups - including an exotic dancer who made representations on behalf of her fellow dancers who opposed lap dancing.

It is not possible to conclude that there is a clear cause-and-effect relationship between the rise of pornography and that of feminism, but it should be noted that they both demand sexual freedom. Pro-sex feminists suggest that pornography is beneficial to women because, they claim, pornography provides sexual information which allows women to safely experience sexual alternatives, and also it allows women to fantasize scenes and situations which would not be safe in real life. In addition, they say pornography provides an outlet for those women who have no partner, or can be used by couples to experience variety in their sex lives without committing adultery. It is also suggested that pornography has a cathartic effect on men who display violent tendencies toward women, and that legitimizing pornography would protect female sex workers.

But high-profile feminists such as Kate Millet, in her 1970 book, Sexual Politics, objected to pornography as being demeaning to women. Feminists Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon also strongly disagree with the pro-sex feminists, and have been vocal in their fight against pornography. In fact, in 1984 Ms. Dworkin and Ms. MacKinnon drafted the Indianapolis anti-pornography ordinance which defined pornography as anything that represented women as sexual objects. The underlying assumption of the ordinance was that pornography plays a causative role in rape and domestic violence.

Over the past ten years or so, however, a growing number of pro-sex feminists have defended a woman's choice to participate in and consume pornography. Nina Hartley, an ex sex worker, states that posing for porn is an un-coerced choice that can be enriching. The reality is that drugs and coercion are a big part of the porn business.

Perhaps the two most interesting points Barb made in her talk are that there appears to be a link between the legalization of abortion and the proliferation of child pornography, and that the demand of many feminists for so-called "sexual freedom" has resulted in an acceptance of pornographic material, which is anything but respectful toward women. It would appear that the feminist movement has been more harmful than helpful in stemming the tide of pornography in Canada.

(Editor's Note) This divergence of views among feminists on the pornography issue caused some turbulence within the feminist movement in Canada. LEAF, the legal arm of the feminist movement in Canada, adopted the Dworkin/MacKinnon approach to pornography in its intervention in the Supreme Court of Canada Butler case in 1992. The Supreme Court of Canada adopted the LEAF approach in its entirety, and decided that pornography included sexually explicit materials that are degrading or dehumanizing to women and children. This definition led to Canada Customs and Revenue seizing gay/lesbian material destined for the Little Sisters Book Store in Vancouver. The bookstore challenged the Customs Department in court, with the seizure of their books. In contradiction of its own position argued in the Butler case, LEAF intervened in the Little Sisters case, apparently in an effort to redeem itself in the eyes of their lesbian sisters. LEAF argued in the Little Sisters case that gay and lesbian material should be judged by different standards than those of the heterosexual culture because sado-masochism is an integral part of homosexual/lesbian culture. Fortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada disagreed and stated that homosexual/lesbian material cannot be awarded special treatment under the pornography law. (See Reality, January/February, 2001. "Pornography and Gay Bookstores", p.15.)

THREE FUTURES FOR MANKIND

Summary by Michelle (Green) Bitto
NB representative,
REAL Women of Canada Board

A Talk by Link Byfield, Editor
Report News magazine

Mr. Byfield's talk was originally to have been on "The Effect of Feminism on the Media", but he declared that the topic was simply too depressing. He spoke, instead, on his view of "Three Futures for Mankind," two of which are quite dark, while one is bright. Which will become our eventual fate?
In order to change the world, Mr. Byfield stated you need two things, faith and technology. You need a belief, a philosophy on which to base your goal of world dominance. Then you need a technology to implement it.

Nazism and Communism were exposed as hollow by faith and technology.

The three scenarios Mr. Byfield envisioned were that either Islam, materialism (secular humanism) or Christianity will prevail in Canada's future.

Scene I. If Islam Prevails

An invasion by Islam will not be by force of arms, as they do not have the technology for that. The power of Islam is in its birth rate. Islam cannot be removed or replaced, and it grows by way of its large families. In Britain, there are entire Muslim communities, with mosques going up everywhere. Although Muslims share the Christian notion of family, Islam also demands submission. Democracy is a Christian philosophy and, therefore, does not exist or, at best, is only a peripheral force in most Muslim countries.

Scene II. If Materialism (Secular Humanism) Prevails

Since the 17th Century, secularism has had to rely on technology, and it still does. To populate the nation, society has implemented the ideas set out in Aldous Huxley's book, "Brave New World." For example, we are increasingly playing with providing babies in nurseries without mothers and fathers and families, just as predicted by Mr. Huxley.

Mood altering drugs will keep us happy and productive. We will have state-guaranteed health until a certain age, then we will die. Sex, outside of family life, is worshipped in the Brave New World.

Technology is good, but materialism turns man into God. The Brave New World morality will be a blasphemy, based on laws which man makes up rather than on the laws of God. Since couples will not be needed to produce children in families, boys and girls will be sterilized before puberty so the state can keep the upper hand. The state can do it better, so who cares about Kate and Tom? It's all happening: sterilization, abortion, test tube babies, designer babies, sex-change operations.

Scene III. If Christianity Prevails

Christianity. Some say its time is over, but it's not. Christianity is about God saving man from himself. God saves us out of an unfathomable love. He saves us from idolatry. He saves us from our enemies. Women, men and families must be defended against those forces that enslave us as we speak. That's why it is necessary for REAL Women to exist and to persist in its work on behalf of the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and family life.

Will we win? Who knows? Looking at the Christian case, it seems to be the weakest. But Mr. Byfield believes Christianity will prevail.

THE IMPACT OF FEMINISM ON THE COURTS AND THE UN

Summary by Cecilia Forsyth
Western Vice-President, REAL Women of Canada

A Talk by Gwen Landolt
National Vice-President, REAL Women of Canada

Gwen Landolt highlighted the takeover, by feminist ideology, of the judicial system in Canada, as well as its takeover of the UN. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, the radical feminist ideology was gradually instilled into the cultures of education, work, government and societal life.

Gwen traced the growth of feminism in Canada back to the Royal Commission Report on the Status of Women, which was tabled in the House of Commons in February 1970. It called for both federal and provincial governments to establish and fund Status of Women Councils to work for the "equality of women." This recommendation led to millions of dollars of tax monies being used to establish networks of women's groups across the country. These groups became paid "agents of change" to promulgate feminist orthodoxy.

Continuing her exploration of the feminist takeover, Gwen discussed how feminists have acquired control of our justice system, which could only have been accomplished with the support, both morally and financially, of the federal government. For example, the federal department of the Status of Women funded the creation of LEAF (the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund), the legal arm of the feminist movement. Gwen said, "It is no accident that the equality section of the Charter of Rights, Section 15, came into effect the same month and year as LEAF began." Since its inception in 1985, LEAF continues to receive large amounts of taxpayers' dollars, mainly through the Court Challenge Program (a federally funded foundation accountable to no one) to mount court challenges and interventions. LEAF is one of the most frequent intervenors in Canadian courts today.

Feminist influence has also been responsible for the proliferation of feminist judges being appointed to the bench. These include Supreme Court of Canada judges Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux Dubé, Madame Justice Louise Arbour, and the Chief Justice, Madame Justice Beverly McLachlin.

One of the saddest effects of feminism has been its impact on men, who have been relegated to a position of being unnecessary to a woman's life, particularly in matters of separation and divorce. Gwen said that, "… amendments to the Divorce Act four years ago provided that men were regarded as little more than wallets for support of their children." On separation, there is no complementary requirement that mothers provide fathers with even court ordered access to the children of the marriage." In the 1992 Supreme Court decision of Young and Young, which dealt with a custody matter, Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux described the father as merely an "interested visitor" to the home of a former spouse and their children.

Some male judges are also under the influence of feminists by way of the National Judicial Centre, which is feminist controlled and provides a mandatory gender sensitivity program for judges.

The courts are being used to bring about fundamental changes to the social fabric of Canada on several social issues, including abortion, the homosexual agenda, child pornography and freedom of religion. The passage of the Charter of Rights in 1982 gave unprecedented power to the Courts to ensure that legislation is in compliance with the Charter. The trouble is that the wording of the Charter is so vague, it has allowed the Courts to interpret its words in accordance with their own ideological and philosophical perspectives.

Government agencies and departments also impose feminist ideology on us. In 1995, at the Fourth World UN Conference on Women, the Liberal government announced the immediate implementation of "gender equality analysis" for all aspects of the federal government. The purpose of this was to integrate feminist ideology into all federal policies and legislation.

Feminism has also influenced international UN documents and treaties. Western nations are uneasy about the growing population in developing countries. As a result, the west is using the UN as a tool to promote abortion, contraception and sterilization programs in order to curb population growth. With the support of the feminist movement, the west wants adolescent children (defined as between 10 - 19 years of age) to have access, without parental consent, to contraception, abortion and sex education.

Under the guise of raising the status of women in the Third World, western nations are attempting to export, to the developing nations, the failed feminist revolution of the west. It is anticipated that once women are educated and economically independent, they will be freed from the "slavery" of home and family. Gwen noted, however, that since the election of US President George W. Bush, the US delegation to the UN has reversed its position on these controversial issues. The US is now the leader in defending the rights and responsibilities of the traditional family.

REAL Women of Canada does its best to publicize what is happening at the UN as well as in Canada. We will confidently move forward in the 21st century with hope, resilience and determination, knowing that our example of love, concern and capability will remain as a beacon of strength to those who follow us.

AUDIO TAPES

Audio tapes are available at a cost of $6.00 for each talk or $20.00 for all four tapes, by writing to:

Cheryl Lebel
Box 599
Powassan, ON
P0H 1Z0

RESOLUTION 2002

DIVORCE: SHARED PARENTING

WHEREAS the 1998 Report of the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access made 48 recommendations addressing problems in the family law; and

WHEREAS central to the new direction was the concept of "shared parenting", when the parents have divorced; and

WHEREAS after a three-year delay, many of the recommendations of the Committee are being ignored by the Minister; and

WHEREAS society has an interest in using the tools of public policy to discourage divorce, but if a divorce occurs, to encourage shared parenting of the children from that union,

BE IT RESOLVED that REAL Women lobby the federal government and the Official Opposition to support the implementation of the 48 recommendations of the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access, especially the resolution in support of joint custody and access for divorced parents.

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