A quick question: can you name the federal
Cabinet minister responsible for the status of women?
If you’re like most folks, even those among us
who keep a close eye on public affairs, chances are you aren’t able to
identify this minister. That’s hardly surprising because under the
regime of Stephen Harper the prominence given to issues that directly
affect Canadian women has sunk to levels not seen since the 1950s.
As we prepare to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8 it is profoundly
disturbing to review the deliberate steps the Harper government has
taken since 2006 to claw back many of the legislative, policy and
funding achievements women thought they had secured over the previous 40
years. The list is lengthy with no sign of change under our current
Prime Minister.
Topping the list was Harper’s cancellation –
enacted within months of taking office in 2006 – of a national
child-care program, the product of years of negotiations between Ottawa
and the provinces as women’s groups forced the two sides together. As
recently as three weeks ago, Harper’s Minister of Human Resources, Diane
Finley, dismissed a national plan by stating parents would be "forced to
have other people raise their children." What planet was she speaking
from?
In place of a well-regulated, quality national
system, the Harper government offered taxable $100 monthly payments to
parents with children under age six.
We’ve become the laughing stock of the world.
In a United Nations survey of 25 developed nations we rank absolutely
last in terms of providing child care services.
For women, it only gets worse under the Harper
Conservatives.
Since 2006 the government has closed 12 of 16
regional offices of the Status of Women Canada across the country. It
has eliminated funding for the Status of Women Independent Research
Fund.
The government has refused to push the pay
equity envelope any further than the law currently requires. Without any
legislative committee hearings or consultation with women’s groups,
Harper simply rejected the idea, put forward by a federal task force, of
a "proactive pay-equity system."
In fact, on the issue of pay equity it took a
giant step backward when it introduced the Public Sector Equitable
Compensation Act which, to many human rights and women’s advocates,
actually reintroduces sexual discrimination into pay practices. As
writer Murray Dobbin has pointed out in The Tyee, the law (which
was mischievously buried in the fine print of the 2009 budget)
introduced additional criteria that would allow public sector employers
to consider "market demand" in determining compensation – in effect
ensuring higher pay for men even if the work is of equal value.
Sadly, the Harper government views women’s
issues through the prism of old TV sitcoms like Father Knows
Best and the illusory world of the Cleaver family in Leave it to
Beaver. Few women occupy positions of prominence in Cabinet and the
handful who develop some profile like Helene Geugeris, are publicly
humiliated before being booted from Cabinet. Matters will only get worse
for women should Harper gain the majority he so desperately craves
following the next federal election.
This is not where Canadian women expected to
find themselves on the eve of the centenary of International Women’s
Day. For a nation so rich in human, social and financial resources, it
is bewildering that we find ourselves with a national government that
pays such scant attention to the issues that matter to more than half
the population. Indeed, the status of women has improved over the
decades but that progress has abruptly stalled under the watch of
Stephen Harper.
Finally, for those who might still be
wondering, Canada’s Minister Responsible for the Status of Women is Rona
Ambrose. Next question: can anyone cite one achievement during her 10
months in office? I thought so.
