AS I SEE IT: International Women’s Day in Canada: Progress for all?
by Carol Metz Murray, executive director of the Tri-City Women's Resource Society
Tri-City / Maple Ridge
March 05, 2010

International Women’s Day celebrates the political, economic and social achievements of women worldwide and, each year, the United Nations designates a general theme to highlight an area of women’s rights that requires attention. The theme for this year's International Women’s Day, on Monday, March 8, is “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.”

For the government of Canada, this year’s theme will have an unpleasant sting. Our federal government has received a humiliating reprimand by several UN human rights bodies for its handling of the issues of women’s poverty and endemic violence against Aboriginal women and girls. In his official 2006 report, National Council of Welfare chairperson John Murphy called Canada’s welfare rates for women “shameful and morally unsustainable in a rich country.” Between 2004 and 2009, Canada managed the formidable task of slipping from seventh to 25th place on the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index, and was ranked a shameful 73rd in the 2009 UN Gender Disparity Index.

The joint report released last month by the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action details the list of sins that have contributed to our embarrassing fall from grace. Among these is the Stephen Harper government’s reallocation of funding from organizations that support advocacy for women’s rights to those that provide front-line services only, and its decision to close 12 of Canada’s 16 Status of Women offices.

The report ominously documents “a systematic erosion of the human rights of women and girls in Canada.”….

In its commitment to the elimination of violence against women and its dedication to the protection and development of a continuum of sustainable services, the Tri-City Women’s Resource Society, a non-government agency reliant on community support, invites this community to celebrate International Women’s Day not only with a sober recognition of the progress that this country must make in the area of equal rights and equal opportunities but, also, with immeasurable pride in our capacity to unite effectively in the struggle for social justice and human rights. To continue the critical work we do, the Tri-City Women’s Resource Society calls the community to action to continue to build equal rights and equal opportunities for all….