McLeod-Group-18-February-2011

							McLeod Group Presentation

Leilani Farha, Executive Director – Centre for Equality Rights in
Accommodation

18 February 2011

I reckon if each one of you represents 1,000 like-minded individuals,
we’ve got the beginnings of a pro-democracy movement of our own!

I am Leilani Farha, the Executive Director of CERA – the Centre on
Equality Rights in Accommodation. CERA is a human rights organization
focused on economic and social rights in Canada. CERA appears on the
list of groups that were defunded by the current government. CERA as a
whole wasn’t defunded. We received support from Status of Women
Canada for 8 years to establish and run the first and only national
network of advocates focused on women’s housing and homelessness.
That network was a casualty of the current governments’ attack on civil
society generally and women’s rights, more specifically.

This is the third or fourth time in the past year or so that I have sat on
panels like this – to talk about the demise of democracy in Canada and
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more specifically the erosion of women’s equality and rights in Canada.
At the same time, over the past year I have sat on an equal number of
panels at the international level – particularly within the UN Human
Rights system. At the UN and internationally I am called upon because
of my Canadian advocacy experience, because of our progressive
understanding of equality in this country. In some respects Canadian
advocates and courts invented substantive equality.

It still makes me shake my head. How did we get here?

So these days when I leave the UN to come back to Canada I feel
entirely mixed. I mean I am leaving a place that is comfortable to me
and my values and that of my organization. A place where other
governments understand that Canada is not fit to sit on the Security
Council, a place where other governments and institutions care enough
about women’s poverty, homelessness, and equality to convene and
attend panels on these topics. And I return to Canada, “home”: a place
I once had some pride for, a place I now feel is hostile territory. Hostile
to me personally as an Arab Canadian and to my work, particularly on
women’s rights and economic and social rights.

Am I exaggerating? Is there really hostility against civil society and
women’s rights in this country? Is it really part of the current
government’s agenda? I think the answer is an unequivocal yes. In fact,
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I think the attack against women’s equality is one of the Prime
Minister’s entral targets and has had a huge impact on democracy. But
let me try to convince you – let’s review recent facts (non-exhaustive):

  - In the very first year that Stephen Harper was Prime Minister he
    took steps to undermine women’s equality:
       o His government cancelled the national child care program
          that had taken years to negotiate and that women had
          fought to have for decades. The universal program was
          “replaced” by a taxable $100 a month payment to parents of
          kids under 6. At that time I had two kids in private childcare
          arrangements and it was costing me $2,400/mos.
       o They eliminated the equality portion of the Court Challenges
          Program – one of the most admired programs in the world
          helping to protect the rights of disadvantaged groups,
          especially women. CCP provided funding to disadvantaged
          groups challenging government legislation that was
          discriminatory. It made constitutional rights accessible to
          ordinary people.
       o The government cut the budget of Status of Women Canada
          – in particular its research arm. 12 of 16 SWC offices across
          the country were closed and the criteria for funding through
          SWC changed to prevent any advocacy, lobbying, or law
          reform. Many women’s organizations combine front line
          services with advocacy which meant their funding was in
          jeopardy. And we now know, I have the list in front of me,
          how many women’s organizations have closed their doors or
          have reduced in size or are struggling to stay alive.
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o The newest news from SWC is that they have a new funding
  stream available to organizations that are willing to basically
  implement projects that SWC has designed – without any
  consultation with women’s groups, community groups, etc.
  And of course none of these projects have any advocacy
  component at all. Basically it’s a contracting-out of
  government work, so NGOs have an opportunity to become
  what we call GONGOs.
o The government has basically gutted pay equity legislation,
  stripping it of its meaning.
o The Stimulus budget - which the IMF said fell far short of
  the 2% of GDP governments were encouraged to spend post
  recession - basically offered nothing of relevance to women.
o The elimination of the mandatory long form census – which
  provided information for example on the extent of women’s
  unpaid work at home …
o An overall disdain and disregard for the economic and social
  rights (rights to housing, health, education, work and other
  employment related rights) of the most disadvantaged,
  rights that matter most to women. Internationally – GOC has
  been completely obstructionist. For example, denying the
  right to water exists as a right, one of the many ways this
  Government is completely out of step with the rest of the
  world;
o And I would add to my list – an addition that doesn’t always
  appear in these lists – this Government has adopted often
  racist policy positions against Muslims and Arabs,
  contributing to a culture of Islamaphobia in the country,
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           creating an atmosphere of permissible hate and fear and
           inequality against Muslim women especially those who wear
           hijab, niqab, etc.

THE IMPACT
There are real ramifications for these decisions. When we discuss what
is happening to women’s organizations, and attacks on equality, we are
not less concerned that people are losing their jobs (though we care
about that too), or simple disagreements over policy strategy. We are
concerned because we are witnessing the undermining of human
rights, particularly women’s rights.

Organizations on the front lines, social services in particular, are seeing
an increase in demand; but at the same time a decrease in their
budgets.

In Ontario, more than 160,000 people joined the ranks of the
unemployed in only eight short months (Statistics Canada, 2008, 2009).
Official unemployment rates approached double digits.

In the last recession, 85% of unemployed men and 81% of unemployed
women could rely on benefits if they lost their job; today only 45% of
men and 39% of women can. The last time the unemployed were this
exposed to economic risk was in the 1940s (Yalnizyan, 2009: 5).

It should also be noted that the real value of weekly unemployment
insurance benefits is roughly 20 percent lower now than during the
recession of the early 1990s (Mendelson, Battle and Torjman, 2009: 3),
and “much below the OECD average” (Osberg, 2009: 3).

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Across the country we are seeing dramatic increases in food bank and
meal program use. Hunger Count 2009 revealed an 18 percent increase
of food bank use across Canada for the 12-month period leading to
March 2009, representing “the largest year-over-year increase on
record” (Food Banks Canada, 2009: 1-2).

Also, we are seeing more demand on employment services and job
training programs, increased use of bankruptcy and credit counselling
services, and impacts on health services, mental health counselling, and
suicide and crisis intervention programs.

Welfare benefit levels in Ontario are at a historic low, now 45 percent
lower in real terms than they were in 1993 (Stapleton,2009c: 4).

Of course, with increased poverty, though there is sometimes a lag, we
will generally see an increase in homelessness, evictions for arrears of
rent, increased shelter usage … many of these people using these
services had never used these services before. Middle classes are
becoming poor.

What makes all of this worse is the silence that this government has
attempted to create. By banning advocacy, controlling projects,
blacklisting those who speak out, stifling voice, it is very difficult to
create national women’s dissent or voice.

BUT THERE ARE THINGS WE CAN DO …

  1. Use the Opposition Parties better – there are some good
     examples - Bill C304
  2. Use the international system to continue to show up Canada’s
     human rights record

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  3. WE have to become the news stories. Our DISSENT, OUR
     DEMANDS FOR TRUE DEMOCRACY. Like the people in Tahrir
     square. The story has to be about us.

I know everyone wants to take a page out of Egypt’s book, of course
what happened there was a result of a unique set of historical and
contemporary socio-economic political circumstances. But it was a
reminder that people, each of us and all of us, have some power, when
we come together.

I think we need to somehow find a loud, unified voice and we need to
use that voice to make demands. To make clear what we will not
tolerate. I have started in a small way some discussions with some of
Canada’s women’s rights leaders – we have started to think about this
in a serious way. I think we need to be courageous. We need to stop
waiting for “The Truth” to emerge. We keep thinking, if the right article
is written, it will make a difference, if the right message gets out …

Revolution, as we saw it so recently, isn’t about a newspaper article …
It’s about US.

It’s Spring, let’s get out of our seats, let’s move our bodies and let’s use
our voices. Thank you.




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