(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

The Conservative government's changes in funding policies to women's groups have now forced the National Association of Women and the Law to lay off all staff and shut down its national office. Formed in 1974, NAWL now says that its Board "will keep the organization alive on a volunteer basis, but our capacity to consult with women's groups and advocate for feminist law reform will be greatly diminished."

     At a Sept. 20 news conference on Parliament Hill, the organization was sharply critical of the silencing of women's advocacy and research organizations by the Harper government.

     "The Harper government is trying to silence women's groups who speak out against its right-wing agenda," according to lawyer and NAWL Board member Pamela Cross. "These are ideologically driven cuts that demonstrate a defective concept of women's equality and democracy."

     The new funding guidelines implemented by the Harper government for the Women's Program specifically exclude law reform, advocacy and research from its funding criteria. These are the core functions of NAWL which have yielded many landmark decisions on women's equality over the past three decades.

     NAWL has identified many issues on its law reform agenda that need to be addressed in order to ensure real equality for women. These include working to achieve proactive pay equity legislation, improved maternity and parental benefits, funding for universally accessible child care and early learning initiatives, funding for civil legal aid, reform of the Divorce Act, family reunification for domestic workers, equality rights for lesbian mothers, improved living conditions and respect for the matrimonial property rights of Aboriginal women living on reserves, improvements to the Canadian Human Rights Act and equality in the workplace and in the family.

     Many of these issues have also been identified by the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Committee as areas where the federal government needs to take action.

     "Minister Oda, who was responsible for these changes to Status of Women Canada's funding priorities on behalf of the Harper government, has repeatedly stated that she considers that women in Canada are already equal," said Louise Riendeau of the NAWL Board. "This demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the challenges that continue to confront women, particularly women who are most vulnerable, such as Aboriginal women, immigrant women, poor women, and others from historically disadvantaged groups."

     NAWL has written to the new Minister responsible for Status of Women Canada, Josée Verner, asking her to provide emergency funding for NAWL and to reinstitute the previous funding criteria which acknowledged the need to fund advocacy work on behalf of women.