Politics

Court Challenges Program

10/18/2006 by Debra

Tories and their supporters must be so proud

Reg Warkentin is challenging the military pension act’s “gold diggers clause,” but his legal battle is in jeopardy after the federal government cut a program that funds human rights court challenges.
Reg Warkentin married Hilde when he was 62. Because he was older than 60, she will not get his military pension when he dies.
“Virtually we’ve been cut off at the knees,” he said. “Unless somebody comes up with more money, this thing will never get to the Supreme Court.”
The clause in Section 31 of the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act says a woman who marries a veteran who is 60 or older cannot receive her husband’s military pension if he dies.

Good thing that was nipped in the bud! [Read more…] about Court Challenges Program

Hmm where have I seen this before?

10/16/2006 by Debra

The Bush administration guts another set of laws and policies that protect workplace equity for women.
And this example of the Bush administration’s efforts to weaken women’s rights is not the only case. For example, the Administration has repeatedly sought to weaken the 86-year-old Women’s Bureau, the only federal agency whose work is solely devoted to the concerns of women in the workplace. Early on in the Bush administration, the Department of Labor erased all information about eradicating the wage gap from the Women’s Bureau website. Recently, it announced a plan to outsource half of the career positions at the Women’s Bureau national office, which would cripple the Bureau’s ability to advance working women’s concerns. And in 2001, the Department of Labor tried but failed to close the 10 regional offices of the Women’s Bureau.
The administration has also championed efforts to restrict the availability of overtime pay for workers, both by narrowing the categories of employees eligible for overtime, and by enabling employers to coerce their workers to take comp time rather overtime. This is especially harmful for women, because many women rely on overtime pay to supplement their inadequate wages.
Moreover, in an alarming example of selecting the fox to guard the henhouse, President Bush recently recess-appointed Paul DeCamp, an attorney who has spent his career trying to curtail legal remedies for women, to head the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Among other things, DeCamp represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women — the largest employment class action ever certified — from suing the company for sex discrimination in pay and promotions.
AlterNet

Anti abortion/anti woman

10/12/2006 by Debra

The latest tact by the anti abortionists is to say that women cannot make their own decision re abortion.

The task force took as a statement of biological and psychological fact that a mother’s connection to her unborn baby was more authentic than her own statement of desire not to be pregnant.

They trot out women who have regrets about their abortion, stats on women who have committed suicide, (perhaps the suicides had more to do with other things in their lives but lets not go there)and generally manipulate the tear ducts like a maudlin Disney film. [Read more…] about Anti abortion/anti woman

Oh say, can you see?

10/11/2006 by Debra

Being able to see and therefore work helps people stay out of poverty.

CBC

About 153 million people worldwide have easily correctable vision problems that lead children to fail at school and leave adults unable to work, according to a new report released Wednesday.
A simple sight test and glasses or contact lenses could allow people to live productive working lives, said the authors of the report by the World Health Organization. [Read more…] about Oh say, can you see?

Good for Irene Mathyssen

10/05/2006 by Debra

NDP demands Oda resign as Minister for Status of Women

OTTAWA – Today, NDP Critic for the Status of Women Irene Mathyssen demanded Bev Oda resign as the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. The changes Oda has made to the funding mandate for the department will severely limit the ability of organizations promoting equal rights for women. These restrictions are unacceptable. They prove that Oda is not committed to promoting the interests of Canadian women.

“The Minister refuses to face the fact that women have not yet achieved equality in Canada,” said Mathyssen. “Study after study and report after report have all come to this conclusion, but the Minister refuses to acknowledge the importance of the work that women’s advocacy groups do.

“Instead, she shuts down organizations or cripples them by cutting their funding. She does not represent women in this country. She must step down,” insisted Mathyssen.

Tuesday, Oda released the new federal guidelines for funding to women’s programs. These guidelines will eliminate federal funding for research programs and cut all advocacy and lobbying activities on behalf of women.

“This is an outrage!” said Mathyssen. “These absurdly restrictive guidelines will mean the end of essential research relating to women in Canada. Long-term and national initiatives will no longer be eligible for the crucial funding they rely on.”

The Minister’s dedication to the Status of Women file is shaky at best. The new mandate was released Tuesday; a week after the last mandate expired.

“This is a clear attack on women’s rights in this country. The conservatives are trying to silence Canadian women.” said Mathyssen. “We are moving backwards. Instead of promoting women’s equality in Canada, the Conservative government is abandoning its obligation to 52% of the population.”

“5 things feminism has done for me”

09/27/2006 by Debra

1. I am entitled to express my opinions without having my organs removed

In Victorian times, if a woman’s temperament could not be “controlled” by loosening her corset or being kept in a quiet place with a cold compress applied to the head and neck, it was common for her reproductive organs to be removed.

or being placed in an asylumn or solitary confinement

The idea of the Wondering Womb developed during this time, as madness was associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and the menopause. The womb itself was deemed to wander throughout the body, acting as an enormous sponge which sucked the life-energy or intellect from vulnerable women? (Ussher 74). Thus, women became synonymous with madness, as they were deemed to be emotional and unstable. If a woman of the Victorian era were subject to an outburst (due to discontentment or repression), she would be deemed mad. The word Hysteria became the general term for women with mental illness and cures included bed rest, seclusion, bland food, refrain from mental activities (such as reading), daily massage, and sensory deprivation. Though these treatments do not seem too appalling, they were comparable to solitary confinement and would often drive a woman to further insanity.