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| The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights |
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The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights came together in 2006. International Women’s Week 2007 was the beginning of
an ongoing
campaign to reverse the Harper cuts and pressure the federal
government and the opposition to commit to concrete and meaningful
measures to advance women’s equality in Canada.
For more information about the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights and how to join, please visit About Us. |
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| Contact Us |
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| To email the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights, please click here. |
Watch the Coalition's short animated
film
"Put Equality Back on Track!" |
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On this page:
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Don’t Play Politics with Women’s Lives Says Equality Coalition: Women Tell Leaders to Support the Gun Registry and Women’s Safety |
| An Open Letter on Violence Against Women and the Long Gun Registry: on-line petition |
| Leaders’ Debate Reveals Conservative Contempt for Women |
| Good child care makes Canada more democratic: Code Blue for Child Care |
| List of Women’s Organizations whose funding has been cut or ended by the Harper Government |
| Take Action! |
| The Cookbook For Women's Equality
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| To see past Ad Hoc Coalition media releases and information, please click here. |
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| Don’t Play Politics with Women’s Lives Says Equality Coalition |
Women Tell Leaders to Support the Gun Registry and Women’s Safety |
Ottawa, April 28, 2011 – Women across Canada are endorsing an open letter to party leaders urging them to preserve the long gun registry to prevent an increase in gun deaths of women and children. The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, representing 42 women’s groups, unions and human rights organizations, is calling on women to sign on to support the long gun registry as a tool for women’s safety.
“We issued this letter to say to party leaders, don’t play politics with women’s lives,” said Paulette Senior, CEO of YWCA Canada, the nation’s single largest provider of shelter for women and children fleeing violence, “the registry is here to stay. That was confirmed when Bill C-391 failed. And it failed because Canadians understand the long gun registry is a modern database that police use every day for their own safety and always before they go on a domestic violence call. People got the message that ending the registry is not in the best interests of women living with violence.”
“Women across Canada know the gun registry works,” said Barb Byers, Executive Vice President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “Women know it makes our communities and our workplaces safer. It’s that simple. Doing away with it would make women less safe. It would make our workplaces less safe, and it would make the jobs of police officers and first responders less safe.”
Long guns are the guns most commonly used in spousal homicides, especially when women are the victim. The Domestic Violence Death Review Committee found firearms to be present in 47% of domestic homicides in 2007. Since the registry’s creation, gun deaths in Canada have fallen significantly. In 1995, 1125 Canadians were killed with guns. In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, Statistics Canada reported 723 deaths due to firearms. By 2009, the rate of murders with rifles and shotguns had dropped by more than 62% from 1995.
Police and physicians on the public record in support of the long gun registry include the Canadian Association of Police Boards, the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and the Canadian Paediatric Society.
Supporters are invited to sign on to the Open Letter at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportguncontrol/. |
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An Open Letter on Violence Against Women and the Long Gun Registry:
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A petition sponsored by YWCA and the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights
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| Please visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportguncontrol/ to sign this petition in support of the Long Gun Registry |
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To:
Stephen Harper, Leader, Conservative Party
Michael Ignatieff, Leader, Liberal Party
Gilles Duceppe, Leader, Bloc Québécois
Jack Layton, Leader, NDP
Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party
Violence against women is a $4 billion problem in this country. Every year, 100,000 women and children leave their homes fleeing violence and abuse. Almost 20,000 of those come through the doors of the 31 shelters operated by YWCAs across Canada looking for safety, for a roof over their heads, for care and support.
As the nation’s largest single provider of shelter to women and children fleeing violence, YWCA Canada knows the long gun registry is a public safety tool that makes women’s lives safer. Across the country, our shelters tell us the long gun registry is useful and needed. Our rural shelters tell us police consult the long gun registry every time they go to a domestic violence incident. These are not automatic checks, but deliberate and specific searches for the presence of firearms in the home, especially long guns.
Among service providers working in violence against women there is no rural-urban divide on the registry. YWCA Canada’s national network of shelters is urban and rural, and includes Sudbury, Niagara Region, Brandon, Prince Albert, Lethbridge, Peterborough, St. Thomas-Elgin, Saskatoon, Banff, Yellowknife and Iqaluit, where shot guns and rifles are part of the culture. In every province and territory, the shelter and transition house associations support the long gun registry.
Why? Because shot guns and rifles are the guns most commonly used in spousal homicides, and especially when women are the victims. Not handguns. Shot guns and rifles. In the last decade, 71% of spousal homicides committed with a firearm involved a shot gun or a rifle.
Women’s voices from rural Canada tell the tale. Lyda Fuller, Executive Director of YWCA Yellowknife, which operates shelters in Yellowknife and Fort Smith for women and children fleeing violence, reports that, “Women have told us that the guns used here in the North predominantly for hunting – that is, long guns – are also used to intimidate, subdue and control them. We hear this over and over again, in small communities without RCMP and in larger communities with RCMP. Women do not want these guns to be unregistered, but do not feel safe expressing this opinion other than in whispers to people who may be able to voice these ‘unpopular’ opinions and who may be heard.”
When YWCA Canada addressed the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Lyda Fuller said, “Please make it clear that it is not city-born, city living folks who are asking for this registry to continue; it is the voices of northern women who fear for their lives and their mental health who are asking for protection. We see women who have experienced years of brutal intimidation. These women cannot safely express their need for protection themselves, and it is up to Canada to understand this and respond in an appropriate way.”
Dismantling the long gun registry would not serve the interests of women and children vulnerable to violence. It would put them and the police services who respond to domestic violence at greater risk.
As a nation, it’s time to listen.
Paulette Senior, CEO YWCA Canada |
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"Support the Long Gun Registry - Support Women’s Safety" |
| To sign this petition, please click here. |
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| Leaders’ Debate Reveals Conservative Contempt for Women |
So-Called “Tough on Crime” Agenda Will Put More Women and Children at Risk |
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Ottawa, April 13, 2011 – In an unprecedented abuse of the democratic process, the Harper government now proposes to consolidate multiple Conservative crime bills into a single bill, literally ramming it through Parliament at breakneck speed, without any meaningful discussion or debate, and regardless of the consequences to ordinary Canadians. If passed into law, the bill will cost Canadian taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, while putting the safety of women and children at significant risk, says the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights.
“Stephen Harper bragged about his plan to implement his proposed Law and Order Agenda in tonight's leaders' debate, but didn’t mention women once. He proposes to “get tough on crime” but abandons proven strategies that actually keep women and children safe, such as gun control. In fact, his agenda will not help women and children who are victimized. “Our government should be investing these billions in child care, affordable housing, social, educational and health services, all of which are proven means to prevent crime and benefit all Canadians,” said Kim Pate of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. Imprisoning woman for a year in federal prison costs an average of $185,000. Over 80% of women in prison are incarcerated for poverty-related offences. Eighty-two per cent of women who are federally sentenced in Canada have experienced physical or sexual abuse, 75% have less than a junior high school education, 34% are Indigenous, and the majority live with mental health issues.
“Money allocated to the tough on crime agenda would be better spent addressing poverty, education, violence against women, mental health issues, homelessness, addictions, and services that enable women and children to escape violent situations,” said Leighann Burns of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), the largest shelter association in Canada. “Nobody wants crime, but this tax money is better spent preventing violence and other crimes and the factors that lead to crime rather than building prisons. There are currently over 580 documented cases of missing and murdered First Nations, Inuit and Metis women in this country but not a single word about that from Mr. Harper. Canadian women expect more.”
The Conservative government fell on a non-confidence motion, following revelations that it had withheld critical information regarding the costs implementation of its ‘law and order agenda’ would impose, leading to the current election.
The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights is comprised of 37 organizations including women’s organizations, human rights organizations and Canada’s major unions. |
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| Please click here for a PDF of this media release |
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| Good child care makes Canada more democratic: Code Blue for Child Care |
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| Tuesday, April 5, 2011 |
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A national child care program is fundamental to a democratic Canada, says Code Blue for Child Care, a cross-Canada campaign to make child care a central issue in this federal election. The Code Blue coalition will join with other groups to support the Day for Democracy activities on Wednesday, April 6.
“Good child care promotes and exemplifies democracy in action,” said Shellie Bird, Ottawa coordinator of Code Blue. “A universal, public early childhood education and care system provides an environment where children and adults practise respect for diversity and social inclusion. It is also a community institution in its own right, and critical to women’s equality.”
A key principle that unites the groups in the Code Blue campaign is that Canada’s national child care system must be built on publicly-managed, democratically-controlled services.
“Child care is not a business,” said Sue Delanoy of the Child Care Advocacy Association on Canada. “When child care is run as a business, decisions are made by owners and shareholders – not by the community and parents. The priority is making a profit—not quality services or children’s well-being. This flies in the face of democratic participation and the public interest.”
Code Blue says a national child care program is not only the “smart thing” for a society to put in place but also the “right thing” – a human right and a children’s right. The coalition’s goal is to elect a federal government that will commit to developing an early childhood education and care system available to all families of young children in Canada. Code Blue brings together national, provincial/territorial child care organizations, labour and women’s organizations, social justice and anti-poverty groups – Canadians from all walks of life. |
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For more information: |
Shellie Bird- Code Blue for Child Care- 613-233-0228 |
Sue Delanoy - Child Advocacy Association - 306-241-4952 |
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Authorized by Code Blue for Child Care |
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| Please click here for a PDF of this "Code Blue for Child Care" media release |
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List of Women’s Organizations
whose funding has been cut or ended by the Harper Government |
• Aboriginal Healing Foundation
(cuts affected several healing centres that focused on providing support to abused women, such as the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal) |
| • Action travail des femmes |
| • Alberta Network of Immigrant Women |
| • Association féminine d’éducation et d’action sociale (AFEAS) |
| • Canadian Child Care Federation |
| • Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) |
| • Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition féminine |
| • Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada |
| • Child Care Resource and Research Unit, SpeciaLink |
| • Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail (CIAFT) |
• Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women Toronto
(funding cut by CIC in December 2010) |
| • Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP) in Nova Scotia |
| • First Nations Child and Family Caring Society |
| • International Planned Parenthood Federation |
| • Kelowna Women's Resource Centre (KWRC) |
• Marie Stopes International,
a maternal health agency, has received only a promise of "conditional” funding IF it avoids any & all connection with abortion |
| • MATCH International |
| • National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) |
| • Native Women’s Association of Canada |
| • New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity |
| • Older Women's Network |
| • Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) |
| • Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care |
| • Réseau action femmes |
| • Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec |
| • Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre, Toronto |
| • Sisters in Spirit |
| • South Asian Women’s Centre |
• Status of Women Canada
(mandate also changed to exclude "gender equality and political justice" and to ban all advocacy, policy research and lobbying) |
| • Tri-Country Women’s Centre Society |
| • Womanspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, Alberta) |
| • Women and Health Protection |
| • Women for Community Economic Development in Southwest Nova Scotia (WCEDSN) |
| • Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative – Nova Scotia |
| • Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program |
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| As of April 25, 2011, this list includes 35 organizations. |
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| For a PDF of this list , please click here. |
| To add another name to this list, please email the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights. |
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Take Action! |
| Visit the In Action page to find out what
other women across the country are doing. In-depth analysis
of the issues and news about lobbying initiatives can also be found
on
our site. Let us know about your events. We want to use our website to advertise as many
of your events as possible. Please use this form to send
us your information. Together we can make sure that women's voices
are heard. Together we can "Put Equality Back on Track!" |
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The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights presents: |
"Cookbook for Women's Equality:
Out of the kitchen, cooking up equality!" |
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This handy little book shows you how to make some tasty recipes
contributed by women's organizations in Canada, as well as how to
whip up a batch of old-fashioned organizing around key issues of
importance to women. Child care. Pay equity. Cuts to Status of Women
Canada . Cancellation of the Court Challenges Program. Get your
crayons out because there's even a kids' colouring page featuring
the one and only Stephen Harper! |
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The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights can
take your orders. The price is $5 per Cookbook. Please click here to order the Cookbook for Women's Equality using the online order form. Please specify English and/or
French copies of the Cookbook. All proceeds from Cookbook
sales go to the Ad Hoc Coalition to support a Canada-wide fight
back campaign around these issues. |
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Don't miss out . . . |
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