DECEMBER 10: WOMEN TAKE ACTION
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From: Indigo S.
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2006, 3:42 PM
Subject: December 10: Women Take Action
ID: 254726

Dear Korona,

I received this news today, from our local chapter of UNIFEM. 
This is am opportunity for Canadian women to make their voices heard 
and to reclaim the losses of the past 2 months. We are also demanding 
much more.

As for your concern about a petition that all can sign regarding the 
Military Commissions Act, I am asking my contacts.

The facts are that Canada is under the very same "law" and most 
Canadians don't know this. We are totally under the control of the 
current American administration and we are not an independant nation.
Our RCMP and "Intelligence"(an oxymoron) agencies are working with 
the American government.

Staying in touch with all grass roots movements, especially Women's 
Groups, is the best way to work for justice.

Putting Human Rights First and refusing all compromise, will help in 
creating the foundations for All change.

Last month was the first time that the upper eschalons of the United 
Nations actually acknowledged that Women's Rights are Human Rights 
and that Violence Against Women is a Human Rights Violation. Now we 
need to press governments to enforce this "LAW" at the local and 
national levels.

The campaign outlined below is a step towards affirming our rights 
and taking a position of authority in an otherwise very confusing 
political environment.

Clare Morgan
Women Of The Blue Rose
http://womenofthebluerose.com


"Join the December 10th Campaign for Women’s Equality and Human 
Rights in Canada  

The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), in 
concert with an ad hoc group of nationally and regionally based 
organizations (see below), has launched a month-long campaign for 
women’s equality and human rights in Canada. This is because we are 
very concerned about the negative impact on women of many of the 
federal government’s recent decisions. These decisions include: 1/ 
changes to the funding criteria for women’s groups, i.e. the removal 
of the word equality and the barring of all advocacy and lobbying by 
women’s groups (with federal funds); 2/ cuts to the operating budget 
of Status of Women Canada in the order of approximately 40%; 3/ the 
cancellation of the Court Challenges Program; 4/ the refusal to adopt 
improved pay equity legislation and; 5/ the cancellation of a pan-
Canadian child care program resulting in cuts of $1.2 billion 
annually to provinces and territories for child care services. 

These decisions are an affront to women, and the groups that defend 
women’s rights. They are also a departure from Canada’s long-
standing commitment to the promotion of women’s equality and human 
rights. 

In response, we are organizing a campaign which will challenge the 
federal government to immediately improve its own record on women’s 
equality and human rights, and encourage all Members of Parliament to 
speak up on behalf of women. It is critical that Canada maintain its 
leadership as a forward looking country that values the progressive 
realization of all women’s human rights, in the international arena 
and here at home. 

The campaign begins on Monday, November 13th and will go until 
Sunday, December 10th, International Human Rights Day. It has four 
components. We invite individuals and organizations to join us in one 
or all of these initiatives: 

1. Lobby your Member of Parliament (MP)

2. Write to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

3. Mobilize locally before December 10 (and, specifically, on Friday 
December 8, 2006)

4. Rally in Ottawa on December 10. 

Members of Parliament (MP) will be in their ridings the week of 
November 13th for the Remembrance Day break of the House of Commons. 
We invite you to contact your MP at this time or anytime before 
December 10th. We need as many of our federally elected 
representatives as possible to show their support for women’s 
equality and human rights advocacy. 

To assist you, we have prepared: 
 model letter to Prime Minister Harper that groups and individuals 
can use or adapt ; 
one page fact sheets on the following key issues: pay equity, 
childcare, cuts to Status of Women Canada, changes to the terms and 
conditions of the Women’s Program at Status of Women Canada and 
Canada’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of 
Discrimination Against Women (available at www.criaw-icref.ca); 
a one page lobby guide for your efforts with your Member of 
Parliament; 
a model statement (called a Standing Order 31) that MPs can read in 
the House of Commons 
a model press release that you can use or adapt to share the news of 
your activities between now and December 10th. 
WHY DECEMBER 10th ? 
December 10, 2006 is International Human Rights Day. It will also 
mark the 25th anniversary date of Canada’s ratification of the UN 
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against 
Women (CEDAW). Instead of celebrating this historic milestone, we 
will be mobilizing to ensure that Prime Minister Harper respects his 
own election commitment to uphold women’s equality and human rights 
in Canada. During the 2006 election campaign, Mr Harper stated: 

If elected, I will take concrete and immediate measures, as 
recommended by the United Nations, to ensure that Canada fully 
upholds its commitments to women in Canada. (January 18, 2006, 
http://www.fafia-afai.org/en/node/68 ). 

In 2003 the United Nations recommended that Canada double its efforts 
to: 
*implement pay equity, 
*support a national childcare program, 
*enhance the Court Challenges Program; 
*consult women’s equality-seeking groups regarding the preparation of 
Canada’s next CEDAW report.

In addition, the Committee recommended Canada accelerate its efforts 
to eliminate the persistent and system discrimination faced by so 
many Aboriginal women, increase its efforts to combat high levels of 
poverty among particular groups of women, fund civil legal aid, 
effectively address violence against women, improve maternity and 
parental benefits, change immigration laws to respect the rights of 
live-in caregivers, and ensure a more equitable participation of 
women in the political institutions. 

This campaign is important because we need to protect and advance the 
rights and freedoms that we have won after patient and determined 
struggle throughout the 20th Century. 

Women in Canada can not afford to have further setbacks and our 
country has the wealth and know-how to honour and respect women’s 
equality and human rights. It is a question of choices. 

TO CONTACT US: 
womenactionfemmes@gmail.com

Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne

Canadian Council of Muslim Women

Canadian Federation of University Women

Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action

Canadian Labour Congress 

Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women

Canadian Women's Community Economic Development Council

Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

Coalition of Provincial and Territorial Advisory Councils on the 
Status of Women 

Fédération des femmes du Québec

National Association of Women and the Law

National Council of Women of Canada

Regroupement provincial des maisons d'hébergement et de transition 
pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale

Women’s Space

YWCA Canada 

"At the end of the day, our only security,the only peaceful world 
that we can give to our children,is one that is based on an 
international community.....interlinked and interwoven through peace 
and hope."

-Noeleen Heyzer
Execcutive Director
UNIFEM