By Shahnaz Rahman

Since its inception in the early 1900s, International Women’s Day has served to draw the world’s attention to the gender injustice and inequality that has plagued our societies for years. With the uphill struggle of the women’s movement, the past few decades have seen a significant change in attitudes and a shift in society’s perceptions.

Women now hold positions and achieve goals once deemed impossible for them. Female astronauts and women police officers are no longer a rarity, girls enter universities freely, women can balance work and families, and women are actively engaged in political careers. However, despite all of these achievements, women still continue to be disproportionately liable to be poor, underpaid, underemployed, and disgracefully at risk for sexual harassment and violence.

Equality principles, as recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada, demand that government be accountable for policy changes that impact women. Yet in the area of legal aid, the provincial government has neglected this obligation and embarked on an aggressive campaign of significant cuts to legal aid services.

Since 2001, the cuts to legal aid in B.C. have had a devastating impact on all women. The impact of this is even more severe for women living in poverty, women of colour, aboriginal women, and other marginalized women. These cuts are taking place at a time when Canada is being openly criticized for its failure to meet its international obligation to ensure that women have equal access to the justice system.

The current legal aid crisis has impaired women from accessing legal representation in family law matters, leaving them at risk of losing the custody of their children and unfair property division decisions. This has clearly disadvantaged women’s equality in B.C.

In 2009, West Coast LEAF embarked upon the Mapping the Gap project to capture a snapshot of existing legal resources for women in B.C. The report also captured some significant challenges and gaps for women who are going through the family law process without the legal representation they need. In particular, the report found that isolation, transportation challenges, and a lack of advocacy services create multiple barriers for rural women seeking legal help in family law matters.

West Coast LEAF’s CEDAW Report Card was designed to raise public awareness about the shortcomings and success of B.C. in meeting its international obligations on women’s rights, and to advocate responses to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women’s concerns. The report card graded the government on how well it has adhered to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Issues such as social assistance for women, missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in Canada, violence against women and girls, access to justice, and housing are still impacting the equality promise of the charter.

Unfortunately, violence against women still plagues our society. Since 1970, at least 500 aboriginal girls and women have been identified as missing in Canada; two-thirds of them have been reported murdered. There have been no charges laid and no arrests made in the overwhelming majority of the missing women cases.

On this International Women’s Day, as we focus on how far we have come and celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women, we also need to fulfill our obligation for the future of all women to be equal, safe, and free of discrimination. Each one of us needs to take a personal pledge to work toward abolishing the poverty, violence, and racism that have destroyed the lives of countless women. We all must hold our government accountable for the impact of its policy decisions—disguised in the form of fiscal restraint—and examine their demoralizing impact on women.

Let’s remind ourselves that International Women’s Day is not the only day to celebrate women and call for equality. We continue with our sisters to strive for a world where gender is not the cause of being disadvantaged in society.

Shahnaz Rahman is the manager of community outreach for the Family Law Project at the West Coast Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund. The majority of her work focuses on equality issues that arise in the context of the family law system.