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CONCERNS OF CANADIAN FAMILIES EXCLUDED FROM CANADA'S REPORT TO THE UN

Canada is required to report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva on measures which have been taken to implement the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Canada ratified in 1976. As a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the UN, REAL Women of Canada was invited to participate in an information and discussion session held on October 11, 2005, in Ottawa prior to Canada's official presentation of our Fifth Report to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva on October 17 and 18, 2005.

Canada's Fifth Report on ICCPR

The Fifth Report, published since Canada ratified the Covenant, unfortunately caters to the demands of disgruntled feminists and left wing NGOs determined to change Canada's culture which they view as oppressive, patriarchal and intolerable. Increased participation of women in the labour force is praised as an economic improvement in S. 25 of Canada's report, ignoring the working family balancing act that so many mothers, fathers and children find so stressful. The "right to life" section (33 - 40) deals with the death penalty, immigration and homelessness, but not the vulnerable unborn child. S. 138 reports that marriage remains the predominant family structure in Canada but diversity is viewed as progress in that Statistics Canada now defines family for census purposes as "a married or common-law opposite-sex or same-sex couple, with or without children of one or both spouses or partners, or a lone parent - regardless of that parent's marital status - having at least one child living under the same roof." S. 142 confirms that the Canadian government is "fully committed" to Charter rights in the area of civil marriage for same-sex couples but also to freedom of religion. The 199 sections reveal a UN Covenant agenda for a distorted interpretation of "equality", "freedom" and "human rights" with no regard to the experiences lived by the majority of family oriented Canadians.

Discussion Session in Ottawa

Representatives from the Departments of Justice, Foreign Affairs and Heritage Canada were present at this pre-Geneva discussion session in Ottawa. The Métis National Council expressed their major concern that the report only refers to Aboriginals and doesn't even include the Métis as a group in their considerations. EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) wanted to know whether transgendered and gender identity were to be included as new prohibited grounds for discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA). The Department of Justice representative answered that transgendered and gender identity are still being developed as "part of bigger review developing options." She stated that an Independent Panel chaired by Mr. Gerard La Forest, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, conducted a review of the CHRA and released a report on June 21, 2000 containing 165 recommendations including the possibility of adding new grounds for discrimination to the Act. Adding new identities is a goal of homosexual activists at the national and international levels (see REALity, Homosexuals' New Agenda: Transsexualism, July/Aug 2004).

REAL Women of Canada pointed out at the meeting that the report fails to represent all Canadian women. Our organization promotes the equality of women and our concept of equality includes the choice women make to care for the next generation at home, especially while the children are young. We reminded those present that the Vanier Institute of the Family recently released a study which showed that 90% of Canadians believe that, in two-parent families, one parent should ideally stay at home and raise children. Day Care centres rank fifth when Canadians are asked whom they would prefer to care for pre-school children. We also noted that the discriminatory, high taxation of the single income family is one of our concerns. This report makes no reference to these Canadian realities. The report assumes that, as stated in Section 154, Canadians are interested in "promoting parental attachment to the labour force." This is the opposite of what Canadians tell us they want more attachment to their families and are having difficulty achieving that because of economic pressures. An Ipsos-Reid poll released in October 5, 2005, found that 85% of Canadian parents with children 17 years old or younger wish they had more quality time with their families, with two thirds feeling strongly about this (National Post, Parents want quality time, but don't make it, October 6, 2005.)

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=2807

At the meeting, we reminded government representatives that in the area of childcare and family policy, Canada does not provide what the country needs to prosper. Australia gives parents vouchers that they may use for the childcare of their choice and provides family tax benefits to stay-at-home parents as well as a $3000 grant to new parents. Finland offers $500 per month to stay-at-home parents and the vast majority of Finnish parents choose this option. Canada's birth rate does not provide for the replacement of our population without immigration. We have a fertility deficiency that will impact on social services and pension programs which will seriously affect the poorest of Canadians.

We stated that Canada's Fifth Report on ICCPR to the UN Human Rights Committee has not caught up with the current Canadian reality regarding this economic and demographic time bomb. We made clear that as an organization which recognizes the importance of the family unit, we do not think that Canadian views are represented in the narrow agenda of the Fifth Report to the UN on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We said that a more expansive concept of equality needs to be adopted in order to accurately represent the reality of Canadian life.

Unfortunately, there is a great chasm between the views of the delegates Canada sends to the United Nations and the values of Canadians themselves. 58 organizations were asked to give their views on the issues to be covered in this report. A response was received from Focus on the Family. However, none of its concerns were, as usual, adequately conveyed in the report, which were: assisted suicide, hate crime accusation for views on sexual orientation, the plight of the Canadian family and changed definition of marriage.

Needless to say, our clearly stated views were not exactly what the bureaucrats wanted to hear! But hear them they did.

Left Wing NGOs in Geneva

Clearly, Canadians are not being heard at the UN via these government reports. The Canadian family, (which includes Aboriginals, new and older immigrants of all races, those on welfare and the working family), is especially not well served by the Fifth Report. Further, the left wing's distorted view of Canada, expressed internationally, has sullied Canada's reputation as a free country. The major concerns of Canadian men and women need to be addressed at the UN, not the special interest discontent and the views of radically left wing bureaucrats.

Yet, NGOs from Canada went to Geneva and painted there a bleak picture of human rights in Canada. The National Council on Welfare reported that our welfare programs are an "utter disaster." The Elizabeth Fry Society pointed to violations of human rights of women in Canadian prisons. The Native Women's Association wants $10 million over two years instead of $5 million over five years from the government to "document the scope of human rights violations involved in missing and murdered Aboriginal women." The African Canadian Legal Clinic highlighted racial profiling and "human rights violations experienced by Canada's diverse African Canadian population." The Feminist Alliance for International Alliance, represented by Shelagh Day, a well-known lesbian, formerly a vice president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) and former chair of the Equality Rights Panel of the federal Court Challenges Programme, questioned the cutting of social programs in British Columbia. Amnesty International was concerned about Canada's counter-terrorism practices, and KAIROS brought up alleged violations of Canada's obligations under the ICCPR.

So effective are NGO activists and Heritage Canada's Fifth Report in criticizing Canada's human rights record, that it has affected our credibility on the international stage. Canada's motion to the UN General Assembly calling for reforms in Iran, including bans on torture and execution by stoning, prompted Iranian officials to peruse our Fifth Report and find evidence against Canada. As the National Post reported, "Iran has launched an attack on Canada at the United Nations, claiming Ottawa is in no position to censure the Islamic republic over its human rights record" (National Post, Nov. 4, 2005, Iran calls Ottawa rights abuser). This is all thanks to these left wing NGOs and their distorted portrayal of Canada. Left wing extremist NGOs never seem to find Canadian policies extreme enough. What an image Canada has internationally! The Canadian Government's reports to the UN, coupled with the NGO's complaints to the UN, paint a picture of Canada that most of us would never recognize and traditional families, which truly are discriminated against, by the Canadian government, are left out in the cold.

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