HOUSE OF COMMONS - WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008
Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on International Women's Day all Canadian women should mourn the effective silencing of their voices by the Conservative government. From the day they took office, government signalled its intent to embark on a concerted, continuous campaign against women in Canada who advocate for equality.
First the Conservatives cut the court challenges program denying vulnerable women access to justice. Then they closed the doors of Status of Women regional offices denying them access to program funding. Next they gutted the research capacity of the department denying them the evidence-based data that showed continuing barriers to gender equality.
The Harper government may consider women to be a special interest group but we are the majority in Canadian society and Canada is signatory to the United Nations declaration that women's rights are human rights. Erosion of these rights may move women to heed Dylan Thomas' advice to “go not gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light”.
