The National Action Committee
on the Status of Women recognises a direct relationship between
the attitudes and practices of government and the potential
for peace and security for women in Canada.
Women are treated unfairly
in our society. By every measure available to the federal government,
women in Canada are held in positions of inequality in relation
to men; financial well being, security of person, legal, human
and political rights, social policy and socially constructed
attitudes.
Statistics Canada, needs
studies commissioned by most departments of government, statements
made by the Prime Minister and most Cabinet Ministers, Leaders
of Opposition parties, international treaties at the level of
the United Nations, self examination studies by most significant
professional associations from Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons
to Associations of Engineers document the reality of gender
inequality. These most conservative of voices from our community
now confirm the twenty year old assertions of Canadian feminists.
It is past time to consider the long standing feminist advice
as to how to advance the situation of women and move toward
a more Peaceful and Just social order for all.
We think that there
are three critical areas of concern at the moment. The Federal
government must stop criminalizing women who have to cope with
legislated poverty, racism and physical vulnerability. The Federal
government must demonstrate in all it does, an improved and
in fact exemplary tolerance and respect for the liberty of each
of us.
The federal
government must design and engage in social programs which acknowledge
the current unequal status of women and which promote the future
equality and liberty of all.
These are the meaningful
commitments to crime prevention that could be made by the federal
government.
There
must be no cynical "law and order° propaganda campaigns
embellished with death sentences, inhumane and ineffective jail
sentences, surveillance of community/political groups, ridiculously
expensive levels of policing, breaches of established civil
rights nor vicious anti- sex and or anti-art raids conducted
even while the government undermines Canadian media thereby
reducing the chances of Canadians even establishing our own
community standards. These brutalities could never serve women
well.
The government is wise
to be seeking advice since people in Canada are sickened by
the increases in violent crime particularly the increases in
violence against women and children. The public is also alert
and sophisticated. We are not willing to settle for the degradation
of the human spirit that west coast Canadians endured recently
when our American neighbours executed a man for public consumption
and then debated as public issue whether it is better to die
by hanging or lethal injection. Instead we expect changes that
move us all toward respectable and respectful lives.
Within
the criminal justice system we require a massive redistribution
of time money and energy so that those laws and procedures which
actually protect liberty, peace, security of persons are upheld
with vigilance and good effect. The resources to do so can only
come by redirecting the excessive amounts now used to protect
corporate property and used to punish and control women and
the rest of the poor.
There is a great deal
to do to release women from the vulnerability to being victimised
by criminal activity. That vulnerability is enforced on us.
Although we will speak more about our recommendations for law
reform and law enforcement it is important to call your attention
to what has already been clearly said to government by the national
women's groups. We hope you have read and considered the presentations
made to the Health and Welfare subcommittee on the Status of
Women which accepted briefs about violence against women in
January of 1991. There was clear and particular advice from
women's groups. And there was unprecedented agreement among
women's groups. I particularly refer you to the comments of
The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, The Legal
Education and Action Fund, The National Association of Women
and the Law, The Inuit Women's Association and The Native Women's
Association of Canada. There is also a great deal to do to free
women from criminal charges that stem from coping with the vulnerability
forced on us.
STOP CRIMINALIZING
WOMEN FOR DEFENDING OURSELVES FROM SEXIST VIOLENCE
In a situation where
we all know that violence against women is rampant and that
the justice system is biased against women, it is outrageous
that women are currently jailed for defending themselves and
their children from rapists, wife abusers and child abusers.
The Elizabeth
Fry society has taken on the cause of these women and called
for their release. These women are no threat to society and
in fact have been abandoned by Canadian government to their
own devices.
Not only has our society
failed ,these attacked women and children but it has brought
the full weight of the law to bear against them for their desperate
actions. Similarly women are being threatened or charged with
kidnapping for hiding their abused children from ridiculous
custody judgements. They are being threatened or charged with
mischief for complaining of sexual assault just because the
police fail to substantiate their charges. They are being subjected
to polygraph tests and other invasive procedures when they try
to complain of abuse and try to engage police action.
Young
women have been and continue to be locked up in jails like Grandview
or psychiatric jails like Willingdon without even the protection
of criminal charges. Generally those young women have engaged
the destructive arm of the law simply by offending authorities
as to how women especially young women should behave. "Acceptable
behaviour" for young women especially poor, native or women
of colour was determined by white middle class men. We know
now that great numbers of young women held in institutions (residential
schools or reform schools or jails) have been further crushed
with sexual assault by their jailers.
The understanding of
self defence must be extended so that women sexually subjugated
by fathers, husbands and lovers have fair recourse in the law
when they lash out. Until the police and courts have dropped
their bias against women against native people and against people
of colour this is the only alternative.
STOP CRIMINALIZING
WOMEN FOR COPING WITH MURDEROUS POVERTY
Prostitution, welfare
fraud, pension fraud, shoplifting, nonpayment of fines are all
ridiculous reasons to jail women in a situation where even the
federal government admits that these women do not have access
to fair or equal pay and are often held in abject poverty and
left with the economic responsibility for the children the sick
and the old. Decriminalising prostitution, establishing adequate
pension and welfare rates, adequate minimum wage laws, employer
responsibility for benefits to part time workers and establishing
or protecting community care programs like Medicare and universally
available day care is the only logical alternative. To do otherwise
is to scapegoat those already bearing the burden of the bias.
Too often
there have been witch hunts for these desperate women up to
and including breaches of their basic civil rights as though
they were the cause of the squalor in which they are forced
to live. Too often too the law has shifted to the disguise of
public health interests
to regulate and punish these women. The AIDS crisis is no excuse
for legal trickery.
STOP THE RACIST LAWS
AND PROSECUTIONS
The racism of the system
of laws and orders in our country is also well documented and
cannot be further tolerated. What remains for NAC is to particularise
the outcome on women.
The disproportionate
numbers of Aboriginal women charged and jailed is an outrage.
It points to nothing about these women and everything about
how they are treated by men of all races and by our system of
laws and legal procedures.
The very small numbers
of women registered as successful refugee claimants is intolerable.
Women all over the world are active in the promotion of democratic
rights and are at risk from their repressive governments because
of it. Everywhere there are men running to freedom there are
women too and the inequality in the numbers recognised by our
immigration officers and boards is simply a revelation of sexist
discrimination which causes women to stay underground.
So is it unacceptable
that the federal government refuses to comply with the wishes
of many women in Canada to offer refuge to women from other
countries who have need to escape their governments simply because
they are women and have come head on against some particular
sexist ruling. We are quite clear that there is no country where
women can expect consistently equal treatment before the law
yet. But we can see that some women's lives are at stake in
their country of origin because of some choice they have made
to live as free human beings and that Canadians could save lives
by opening our doors to them. What better citizens to attract.
The immigration policy
and labour policy regarding farmworkers and domestic workers
is yet another example of the interwoven racism and sexism and
must be untangled. We support the call of these groups for legal
change. Domestic and farm workers must be accorded fair and
equal protection.
STOP CRIMINALIZING
WOMEN'S CONTROL OVER OUR REPRODUCTION
In the last few years
women have been variously threatened by the federal governments
initiatives to interfere with our reproductive control. The
interference with Chantal Daigle, the women who wanted access
to abortion clinics, the women who wanted access to midwives,
have all been threatened with legal punishments including jail.
On the other hand the government has done nothing to make available
the abortion pill technology which we seek. The government has
failed to prosecute effectively those who have blackmailed women
into sterilization those women who wanted abortions or safe
deliveries or basic medical care. We are delighted by the end
to abortion law and we hope now to proceed with providing women
access by legal right to safe medical procedures for birth control,
abortion and birthing under universally available medical plans.
In the current controversy
about new law to regulate reproductive technology the federal
government has alienated the women most likely to advise it
well with regard to women's rights and is careening toward a
new catastrophe. The issues of genetic manipulation, scientific
determinations of normalcy, renting the wombs of poor women,
racist genetic engineering are of great concern to us and the
government would do well to seek the cooperation of progressive
women in solving these legal questions so as not to set up a
situation of further criminalizing women who simply seek their
own liberty.
It would be much more
to the point of our joint well being to limit the powers of
the corporations that have preyed on women and their needs for
reproductive control. The Dalkon Shield case, the companies
selling sex selection techniques, the companies blocking access
to the french abortion pill, the drug companies promoting over
drugged birthing, even the old Thalidomide case all point to
the potential for useful law and legal procedures to protect
women and their children from wanton corporate interests.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
MUST DEMONSTRATE IMPROVED AND EXEMPLARY TOLERANCE AND RESPECT
FOR THE LIBERTY OF ALL ITS CITIZENS AND A PRO PEACE INTERNATIONAL
STANCE
There are far too many
examples of irresponsible statements or silences on the part
of federal politicians and officials.
In relation to violence
against women we have had to endure the laughter in the house
when Margaret Mitchell addressed the question of wife abuse
to the silence of the Prime Minister regarding the physical
threats to feminists during the Montreal Massacre. Surely Canadian
women had a right to expect that the Prime Minister would call
for the respect and protection of the women named in Lepine's
hit list. To call "shame" to anyone who menaced a
civil rights activist seemed the least one should expect. This
is not a small point to NAC since among those named are some
of our members.
Currently Canadians squirm
at our new position as war partners with the United States.
We have had the abominable statement from the new Defence Minister
that she knows that it is "not time to turn tanks into
ploughshares". This mockery of the peace movement and its
slogans does not answer the questions in the minds of Canadians
about what we are doing in tanks and does produce permission
for avoiding real debate. The unlawfulness of joining in the
middle east war without parliamentary debate and decision is
brushed off. Women in Canada are alarmed and upset by the current
reports of rape as part of the Eastern European wars and are
calling on the Canadian government to say clearly that they
consider rape to be a war crime, that they will see to it that
Canadian soldiers are prevented by rape exploits and that they
will be tried legally if they are complicit in such rapes and
that Canadian troops will aid in the trials of any other soldiers
committing rape. The silence has been very telling and has contributed
to the demoralising of the public.
The current discussions
of Human Rights legislation have also been a disappointment
to those citizens looking for political leadership on the questions
of women's rights and women's equality. During the drafting
of the bill the government cut off the funds to The Court Challenges
program. Everyone involved is aware that this will limit the
capacity of women and the poor to use the court system to advance
the Charter Rights. In fact the likelihood is that only those
white and middle class interests who want to minimise the meaning
of Charter rights will have real access to the courts. While
some politicians in the opposition to speak to restoring the
program, the debates clearly abandoned the issues as they relate
to women. This does and will have an impact on the public discussion
of how seriously we are meant to take the federal governments
commitment to women equality.
During the consultation
processes about reproductive rights, violence against women
and the proposed Human rights legislation, the government openly
dismissed the widespread agreement among women groups. While
disagreement between community groups and government is to be
expected, there is no excuse for the public disrespect shown
by the government for these women groups. The public display
of that disrespect reduces useful debate and demonstrates exactly
why the public has trouble taking politicians seriously as workers
in the public interest.
Slipped into the Human
Rights legislation is an attempt to evade the responsibility
of the federal government to pay equity. How can one expect
anything like honesty and adherence to legal principles from
the citizens if the government practices such a cynical politics.
To hide unequal treatment of women and the simple level of equal
pay within a proposal to better protect Human Rights call to
the worst in all of us.
That
Same Human Rights legislation failed to advance the cause of
Lesbians. It failed because the government failed to adequately
consult, failed because the government refuses to be seen to
defend the rights of a significant percentage of its female
population. The political bankruptcy of refusing to stand up
for the rights of ordinary Canadians is not lost on the public.
Some will be reinforced in their belief that they do not have
to behave fairly, some will be reinforced that they such not
expect fairness from government and some will be reinforced
to believe that some peoples rights can be sacrificed for the
benefit of others privilege.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
MUST DEVELOP SOCIAL PROGRAMS WHICH LEAD TO A MORE PEACEFUL AND
DEMOCRATIC CANADA
This must include a responsive
justice system which acts to prevent assaults that women know
are coming as is argued more fully in the briefs named earlier.
But we know there are other factors which have kept crime statistics
below those of the Americans. Canadians want the promotion and
protection of Canadian culture and history; CBC, National film
board particularly Studio D, CRTC regulation including Canadian
content, Canada Council and other arts funding.
Feminists and the National
Action Committee have not wavered from our basic demands for
social programs that most affect women and the quality of life
for women. Equal pay for work of equal value and the social
net in relation to jobs; minimum wage laws and labour laws to
protect Canadians from poverty plus adequate UIC and or adequate
pensions and welfare rates to amount to a liveable guaranteed
income to everyone. Universally accessible medical care and
child care are key stones to equal treatment for women as are
social programs that deal with the rest of the needs of the
sick and the old. Until there is an end to it there must be
social programs that ameliorate the effects of violence against
women and the daily discrimination against women and that set
affirmative action agendas for the benefit of women. These must
include programs which promote sexual choice for all women and
the protection of the human rights of lesbians.
There must be effective
government responses against those corporations promoting and
profiting from the objectification of women and children. And
of course there must be government commitment in the form of
government dollars and programs which can ensure the reproductive
rights of women are in our own hands.
All NAC' s positions
regarding social programs are part of the public record. What
must be understood here is that it is our position that such
social programs promote justice and without justice and therefore
fair law, we are not talking about the same thing when we speak
of crime prevention.
