Federally funded feminists are traumatized by funding cuts to two of their major concerns: feminist groups and foreign aid for abortion. Outdated and unpopular radical feminist ideologies, out of control mismanagement of tax dollars and a lack of demonstrated accountability have finally led to a long overdue evaluation of grants and contributions by the federal government (see REALity, March/April 2010 “Mismanagement at Status of Women”).
Feminists Meet to Discuss Cuts
Upset by the loss of taxpayer dollars, about 80 professional feminist foreign aid advocates gathered in a Senate conference room on May 3, 2010 to agonize over funding cuts to what they call “gender equality and women's rights.” Announced on AWID letterhead (Association for Women's Rights In Development), international feminists came to give the Canadian sisterhood some sympathy and encouragement. AWID is described as “an international ... feminist, agenda-setting ... organization working for women's rights and economic justice.”
The participants reported a deep chill in Canadian government bureaucracies and NGO's. Many foreign aid organizations, focusing on “gender equality” and “reproductive rights”, apparently can no longer count on Canadian tax dollars to export feminism to the third world. Suggestions were made that the government had been listening to extremist, fundamentalist, religious groups.
One of the speakers, Joanna Kerr, formerly of AWID, North-South Institute, Oxfam, Nobel Women's Initiative and Society for International Development, listed the following funding cuts, which will affect international feminism:
Match International, that received $400,000 a year from CIDA, has now closed down after receiving funding for 34 years;
International Planned Parenthood Federation, received $6 million from CIDA in 2009, and $44.5 million in the last 10 years, funding that has not been renewed this year;
The UN feminist agency, UNIFEM’s bilateral funding has dropped from $4.5 million to $230,000;
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) which delivers 80% of Canada’s foreign aid has had its gender equality specific programming cut from 1.85% to 1.01% of the total $3 billion budget, down to merely $32 million a year for gender centered foreign aid;
Foreign Affairs has eliminated its Women's Equality Division, which promoted the feminist package of demands at the United Nations.
Legal Challenge of Funding Cuts
Joanna Kerr also stated that lawyers were hard at work planning to legally challenge the government on funding cuts to feminist groups on the basis that the cuts are a breach of the ODA (official developmental assistance) Federal Accountability Act. That is, the feminists claim these cuts are not consistent with international human rights standards – although it is feminists only who view contraception and abortion as human rights. This legal challenge is reportedly being coordinated by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (which received $1.7 million last year from the federal government), an organization made up of other leftist government funded organizations, whose funding is also in question.
Robert Fox, of Oxfam Canada (which received $29 million last year), praised women as “important change agents”. He admitted, “we are adrift” and “have been silenced by the environment in which we find ourselves.” Oxfam Canada “has recently made a strategic decision to shift its programming, including its campaign and advocacy work in Canada, to focus on women's rights” (FAFIA website 2007.)
Senator Nancy Ruth’s Advice
It was the advice of their sister feminist, Senator Nancy Ruth, that really set the participants’ teeth on edge.
In response to fears that Canada would not include abortion in its maternal health care proposal at the G-8 meeting, to be held in Huntsville, Ontario, June 25 and 26, 2010, Senator Nancy Ruth (a conservative senator appointed by former Prime Minister Paul Martin) stated that she attends Conservative caucus meetings and thought the best strategy for feminists was to “shut the f__k up” on the abortion issue. She warned of a backlash. “Canada is still a country with free and accessible abortions. Leave it there. Don't make it a national issue or a G-8 issue.” She recommended that instead, feminists should “take over” the Foreign Affairs Committees in the House of Commons and the Senate to make the feminist agenda “structural.” The women in the room were in no mood to ?take her advice! In fact, her sister feminists turned against her, deliberately misrepresenting her advice as yet another effort by Stephen Harper to implement his hidden agenda. Apparently, females in the Senate are not supposed to think for themselves and are mere marionettes under the control of male leaders.
Feminist Meeting Co-ordinated with Parliamentary Committee Hearings
Foreign Affairs Committee
The next day, May 4, at a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Margaret Biggs, the President of CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency - annual budget $3 billion) assured worried Liberal, Bloc and NDP Members of Parliament, whose questions consistently focused on abortion, that “nothing has changed at CIDA regarding funding and policy. Canada has never funded abortion directly, she said, but funds “health systems” which then can choose what to do with the Canadian money. She added that CIDA “continues to integrate gender equality in everything we do”. While the foreign aid feminists at the Senate meeting had confidently proclaimed that contraception and abortion are established human rights and part of family planning, Margaret Biggs stated that there was an international consensus is that “abortion is not viewed as a form of family planning.”?
Status of Women Committee
On the following day, May 5, another House of Commons Committee, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, heard from a panel of carefully selected witnesses, who were all abortion advocates. These included:??
- - ACPD, Action Canada for Population and Development (Katherine McDonald)
- - Oxfam (Robert Fox)
- - The Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood) (Sharon Camp)
- - White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (Maureen McTeer).
All lamented the possibility that third world women might not advance because of a lack of abortion services and gender equality training from Canada. These feminist activists rejected the Canadian government's preference for genuine health care for women over abortion. This, they said was undemocratic, a breach of international standards and a move which would ruin Canada's international reputation as a global leader in “human rights.” Maureen McTeer pointed to religious beliefs as the source of opposition to the feminist agenda.?
No pro-life, pro-family group was included in this “democratic” consultation. Any effort by the Conservative MPs on the Status of Women Committee to add a fresh perspective to the narrow feminist preoccupations was swiftly curtailed under the unyielding control of the Chairperson, Hedy Fry, MP (Vancouver Centre).?
It is significant, however, that even the pro-abortion Globe & Mail in several recent editorials stated that fixation on abortion by feminist groups instead of other key maternal health issues, was harmful. Even the pro-abortion UNICEF has warned against this fixation on abortion.
The Canadian public and journalists are not interested in this feminist agenda: The Status of Women Committee had been hastily moved to a larger room to accommodate journalists and cameras, which didn't show up! All is not well for feminists.
|
