VICTORY FOR SOCONS AND TAXPAYERS OF CANADA

Torie

s to cut funding for womens' advocacy work
Updated
Wed. Oct. 4 2006 5:16 PM ET
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- The federal
Conservative government says it will no longer fund women's groups that do
advocacy, lobbying or general research, leaving some to wonder what's
left.
The drastic change to the mandate and operation of Status of Women
Canada also drops the word "equality'' when listing the agency's
goals.
Previous objectives such as helping women's organizations participate
in the public policy process and increasing the public's understanding of
women's equality issues have been eliminated from government
literature.
Organizations that receive funding from the Trudeau-era agency
were stunned.
"When you look at this Conservative government's policy it's
like, `Be good girls, be quiet.' It's shocking really,'' said Monica Lysack of
the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.
Groups initially thought the
agency's core program had escaped the axe during a government-wide spending
review announced last week, when only the administrative side of Status of Women
Canada was cut.
But they were told this week by Status of Women Minister Bev
Oda that they would no longer be able to receive funding for projects that
involved advocacy work, lobbying of the government or general research, as part
of new terms and conditions for grants.
Oda was not available for comment
Wednesday.
The changes are consistent with program cuts the government made
to policy branches and advisory committees in several departments. Government
watchers say it's indicative of a move away from "government-funded lobbying,''
in favour of results-oriented projects.
Alia Hogben, executive director of
the Canadian Council of the Muslim Women, argues without the funding the
government provided her group, it would never have successfully struck down the
use of Muslim shariah law in Ontario family court cases.
"That makes it very
difficult, because if you don't lobby and you don't advocate, you're not going
to make systemic changes,'' said Hogben.
"A majority of us are new
immigrants, we don't know all the systems, we have to struggle with adaptation .
. . to say we're going to get money, or any large sums of money to do this work
is just not reasonable.''
Also in the new terms and conditions for grants is
a general statement of objectives for the women's program.
The last document,
published in 1993, said the program supported organizations that sought to
"advance equality for women by addressing women's economic, social, political
and legal situation.''
It also had a list of four other key objectives that
included women's involvement in the decision-making or public policy
process.
The new, shorter stated objective is to "facilitate women's
participation in Canadian society by addressing their economic, social and
cultural situation through Canadian organizations.''
Michele Asselin,
president of la Federation des femmes du Quebec _ the largest women's
organization in the province _ said Canadians expect their government do what's
necessary to uphold Charter equality rights, and sometimes that includes funding
outside groups to raise issues.
"It's fundamental to Canadian democracy
because all groups and lobbyists aren't all equal. There has to be financing
that supports independent groups that can question and analyze and give
different perspectives to government,'' said Asselin.
"That's part of a
democratic society to finance groups that defend rights.''

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061004/tories_women_061004/20061004?hub=Politics

Tax money will no longer be wasted on useless programs such as SOW thanks to the dedication of fellow bloggers and our new Conservative Government that is representative and accountable to Canadians everywhere.We will no longer be lining the pockets of pro-abortion baby killin lobbyists anymore.The SOWs are also the same pigs who support the homofacist agenda and the discrimination of christians in Canada.It's about time they got the trough pulled away.Thank You Mr.Harper, you have done a great service to Taxpayin Canadians.

To All Those Leftoid's who supported the SOWs-GET YOUR HEADS OUTTA YOUR ARSES!IT's CALLED ACCOUNTABILITY, GET USED TO IT!