We Won't Allow Women To Die

The results of the Harris government cuts to welfare, legal aid and women's advocacy centres are in:

A dramatic increase in the number of wife murders in Ontario.

WE WON'T ALLOW WOMEN TO DIE!

Women's Advocacy Centres
- transition houses
- rape crisis centre
- women's centres
Legal Aid & Welfare

Save Women's Lives

LEGAL AID CAN SAVE LIVES!

The Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees our right to have legal representation. The provincial government has taken this right away from women.

The provincial government is cutting legal aid 40% - abandoning 8,000 mothers dependent on family law for protection. 6,000 more families will not have representation about their poverty. Thousands more women don't have the option of class action suits for human rights violations.

The provincial government claims that preventing violence is a priority. Stopping violence is not a priority when battered wives can't get restraining orders, safe custody and access agreements, or fair divorce settlements.

Without legal representation, more women will be criminalized for poverty related crimes such as petty theft or prostitution.

Kimberly Rogers was 9-months pregnant when she died under house arrest for a welfare fraud she did in order to get an education.

Don't let the province kill a BC "Kimberly Rogers."

WELFARE CAN SAVE LIVES!!

Adequate welfare ensures food, shelter and some options to escape a violent husband, father or employer.

Women have already seen inadequate welfare checks reduced by 18%. A woman with one child receives $827 for rent, food, clothing, transportation and all other costs of living. Any additional money including earnings and gifts is clawed back by the provincial government.

Waiting periods, reclassifications and new assessment policies disqualify women before they ever see a welfare check. Already women have been left without any money for far longer than the already unacceptable 3 week waiting period.

In a better world Women's
Advocacy Centres, Legal Aid,
and Welfare would not
be necessary but in this
world, at this time they are crucial.

"In Canada, the feminization of poverty is an entrenched social phenomenon. The patterns of relationships within marriage disproportionately lead to women taking responsibility for child care, foregoing economic opportunities in the workforce, and suffering economic deprivation as a result.
Issues involving parents who are poor necessarily disproportionately affect women and therefore raise equality concerns and the need to consider women's perspectives." Supreme Court Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé

* * * *

"Sadly, our worst fears about the impacts of all these cuts have come true. Last week we learned that murders of women by their male partners have increased in Canada, with virtually all of the increase in Ontario. It is no surprise that when the conditions and supports women need to escape violence are removed, there will be dire consequences."
Eileen Morrow, Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses

* * * *

"We refuse to wait until there are more dead women to use as evidence that cuts to legal aid, welfare and women's advocacy centres are dangerous to women in BC."
Pauline Funston, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter

What can you do?

Keep this leaflet. Ask other people to read it and discuss how these issues affect all of us.

Sign the placard at the October 4, 2002 demonstration. The signatures collected will be sent to the premier's office to encourage him to reconsider his decision to make these cuts.

Visit our website for updates on actions. You can also find links to other feminist groups on our site. www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca

Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter

(604) 872-8212

2002