Over the years, ever since REAL Women began, the federal Status of Women has recoiled in distaste whenever they have been forced to deal with us.
We are definitely not their kind of women. This has occurred despite the fact we are the backbone of this nation. We are faithful to our families and to our husbands, give birth to and raise the future generation of responsible citizens, pay taxes, volunteer both in schools and in our communities, and in general, serve as the life force of this country.
Nonetheless, at the Status of Women we are viewed as persona non grata, and, at best, ignored. Apparently, however, the Status of Women does not have a similar distaste for women who sell their bodies for sex and who do not in any way contribute to society. Prostitutes appear, along with feminists, to be their favorite kind of people, who receive remarkable care and respect – and loads and loads of money from their agency.
We learned all this when we applied under the Access to Information Act for information about the prostitutes’ organization, which operates under the grand name of the Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Women (CNCEW). (Looking in the dictionary, we found the word “experiential” means experienced – and that they are!) The information forwarded to us, under the Act was quite an eye-opener!
The Liberals and CNCEW – 2004 - 2006
The prostitutes’ organization, CNCEW, received its initial grant of $157,305 from the Status of Women in 2003-2004 in order to assist it in developing a network of “experiential” women (prostitutes) across Canada in order to develop and implement a strategic plan of action. Its first “national” meeting (thanks to this government funding) of all of 20 prostitutes (there was a total of 23 women only in this coalition) took place in June 2004. At its second “national” meeting a few months later, in September, the organization presented its recommendations to federal policy makers from five different government departments:
Human Resources and Skills Development;
Canada Border Services Agency;
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA);
Health Canada;
the Status of Women.
Also present was Senator Landon Pearson (now thankfully retired) as well as ministerial staff from the offices of Claudette Bradshaw, Minister Responsible for the Homeless, and Stephen Owen, Minister of Western Economic Diversification. According to the documentation, Senator Pearson was “amazingly impressed by the Coalition’s presentation at this meeting”.
The five federal representatives then met soon afterwards to determine how the government departments could work together to activate the key priorities identified by the Coalition.
Some of the key priorities of the CNCEW were perfectly valid, such as youth (they recommended the raising of the age of consent), e.g., health (treatment centres for substance abuse), safety, eliminating violence, and “social justice” (whatever that encompasses). The recommendation, however, in which the Liberal government took a particular interest, was the recommendation to decriminalize the prostitution laws, such as those relating to “communicating” for sex, bawdy houses and “living off the avails”. The prostitutes thought that eliminating the prostitution laws would end the stigmatization of their “labour force”.
The CNCEW further recommended that government officials “… be counseled by experiential women when enacting policy in regard to any aspect of the sex industry”.
To achieve these ends, the prostitutes recommended that women in the sex industry “deserve devoted funds for law review because of the increased risk that the current laws pose for them”. And did they ever receive funds from the Status of Women to achieve their goals! The funding by the Status of Women, according to its financial statement of September 28, 2007 indicated that a total of $693,091.00 had been paid out to the CNCEW to carry out their “national strategy” by way of the following grants:
2004 - $157,305
2005 - $322,646
2007* - $213,140
Total $693,091
* Although this grant was paid out in 2007 under the Conservatives, the application and approval had occurred in 2006, before the Conservatives changed the policy on Status of Women funding which occurred in September 2006.
Decriminalizing the Prostitution Law
As stated above, the Liberals took a particularly keen interest in CNCEW’s priority to decriminalize the prostitution laws. According to this documentation, CNCEW had private meetings with Justice Minister Cotler and senior justice officials. They also were given amazing access to other government officials such as the Solicitor General and the RCMP. Senator Romeo Dallaire chaired a meeting at which CNCEW made a presentation and at which representatives from 15 federal government departments were in attendance. The Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice formed a committee on prostitution and awarded funding (the amount not specified) for CNCEW to conduct a needs assessment of “indoor sex workers”. At the meeting with Mr. Cotler, he assured them that the Liberals would insist that evidence given by CNCEW, at the Sub-committee of Justice reviewing the prostitution law, would be carried forward when a new Justice Sub-Committee is struck to continue the Committee’s work (with the special blessing of the Liberals). Normally these committees, under the House of Commons Rules and Procedure are dissolved, when the House of Commons is prorogued. This particular Committee was resurrected time and time again (See REALity January/February 2007 “Political and Judicial Manipulation on the Prostitution Issue”, p.8).
Taxpayers may be interested to know that CNCEW’s presentation to this Justice Sub-Committee on prostitution cost them a large wad of money. The grant of $322,646, awarded in 2005, included the sum of $45,903 designated for just research and writing CNCEW’s brief to the Sub-Committee. This sum was broken down as follows:
| Research Assistant: |
$350.00 per day x 10 days = |
$3,500.00 |
| Research Assistant: |
$350.00 per day x 40 days = |
$14,000.00 |
| Research Assistant: |
$350.00 per day x 8 days = |
$2,800.00 |
| Research Assistant: |
$350.00 per day x 10 days = |
$3,500.00 |
| Evaluation Consultant: |
$500.00 per day x 6 days = |
$3,000.00 |
| Evaluation Analyst: |
$350.00 per day x 20 days = |
$7,000.00 |
| National Meetings Facilitator: |
$350.00 per day x 4 days x 2 Mtgs. = |
$2,800.00 |
| Communications Consultant: |
$350.00 per month x 18 mos. = |
$6,300.00 |
| Media Monitor: |
$500.00 per month x 18 mos. = |
$9,000.00 |
And to think that REAL Women’s brief to the Subcommittee did not cost the taxpayer a cent!
This huge grant in 2005 also included for example:
items for staff travel $69,141.00;
salaries and benefits, for project coordination and management $153,216.00;
“other”, for $24,700.00 which includes child care and out-of-pocket expenses for women and note takers at meetings.
As it happened, REAL Women was asked to testify before the Justice Sub-Committee on February 14, 2005 on the same panel as CNCEW. REAL Women is not overly sensitive (we can’t be after all the years we have been politically incorrect!) but it was painfully obvious to us at that hearing that whatever we said would be inconsequential and be instantly ignored by the Committee (with the exception of the only Conservative member, MP Art Hanger, Calgary Northeast). The Committee was on a first name basis with the representatives of CNCEW, while REAL Women was treated with barely concealed hostility. (See REALity March/April 2005 “Legalized Prostitution Next on the Liberal Agenda”, p. 9).
We knew from this Committee hearing, with utmost certainty, that the Liberals were intent on overturning the prostitution law using the Committee as the tool to do so. The election of the Conservatives in January 2006, however, interfered with CNCEW’s and the Liberal’s “plan of action” to decriminalize prostitution.
Thus, we avoided by a hair having unrestricted prostitution in Canada. This documentation on prostitution has also revealed the lack of respect for the public held by the Liberal government. The elites in the party decided the policy, a large number of bureaucrats worked on the issue, the favoured group was heavily funded to push the policy – all without public knowledge or input, or consent.
Moreover, the Liberals would certainly have succeeded in pushing decriminalized prostitution through Parliament as it pushed same-sex marriage, pressuring their MP’s to vote for the government policy and requiring the Cabinet to do so. A completely undemocratic process, but this was of no concern to the Liberal elites. These elites determined all policies and whether the public agreed with them did not enter into their consideration.
The Conservatives and the CNCEW – 2007 – 2008
With the election of the Conservative minority government in January 2006, CNCEW met an obstacle in its path towards the decriminalization of the prostitution law. According to CNCEW’s application for a grant from the Status of Women, dated February 2, 2006, CNCEW stated:
…with the changes within government there have been obstacles that have arisen, such as REAL Women’s attempts to disband the Status of Women and Justice Committee Vic Toews’ lack of support regarding proposed decriminalization of the sex industry. CNCEW’s response … [was] the submission of a letter counter-reacting REAL Women’s agenda sent by all members to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and MP’s within their region.
In September, 2006, the Conservative government announced that the criteria for funding by the Status of Women would no longer be made for lobby and advocacy groups, nor would “research” be funded. Instead, funding would be restricted to organizations that promoted actual services to women within their communities and which could show measurable results for their activities (See REALity, Nov/Dec. 2006, “Conservative Government Cuts Left-Wing Agencies”, p. 7).
Therefore, feminists and organizations like CNCEW were, in one stroke, cut off from the public trough.
CNCEW Applies to Status of Women Under the Conservatives
REAL Women next applied under the Access to Information Act for the list of grants made by the Status of Women in 2007-2008 (under the Conservatives). In response we received a relatively thin package, indeed. We will provide an analysis of these grants made under the Conservative government in a future issue of our publication, REALity.
Included in the list of these recent grants, however, was one for $195,569 given to CNCEW of Victoria B.C. to assist 150 women to exit the sex trade and reintegrate into mainstream employment and the social life of their communities. This is one grant to CNCEW which REAL Women heartily endorses!
Conclusion
In providing a rationale for all the generous grants made to CNCEW in 2004-2007, the Status of Women stated:
One of Status of Women’s outcomes is to achieve a strengthened and more equitable public policy, one that will consider the diversity of women’s perspectives…
The Government of Canada [has] a commitment to build a society inclusive and respectful of all Canadians … and the full participation of all women in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the country…
This is outrageous hypocrisy, since REAL Women and other similar thinking women in Canada have never been included in the Status of Women’s agenda. Diversity to Status of Women merely means “diversity” among left-wing organizations – never women who hold a traditional or conservative approach to issues. |
