International Women’s Day a reminder that women still face barriers

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      While many successful battles have been fought for the equality of women since International Women’s Day was first celebrated 101 years ago, marginalized women still face many challenges, according to one advocate.

      “Many of the battles that have been fought in the past by women in Canada…a lot of them have been about formal equality, ostensible equality issues,” Kasari Govender, the executive director of West Coast Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, told the Georgia Straight by phone. “Aboriginal women couldn’t vote until the 1960s, women couldn’t sit on the Senate until the 1920s—those kind of explicit forms of inequality. Now I think, because we’ve won some of those battles, that often we feel like as women we are treated equally.”

      But in reality, she argued, “it’s when you scratch beneath the surface, a lot of what’s still there is…the social and economic inequality, and you don’t have to scratch very hard to find that.”

      Govender described what she said are two major issues currently facing women in British Columbia—violence against aboriginal women and girls, and inadequate access to legal aid and justice.

      “Legal aid is severely underfunded, and while it often doesn’t play into the forefront of our minds for most citizens in B.C., it actually is one of the most outrageous equality issues in the province,” she said.

      Govender assessed violence against aboriginal women as reaching a “crisis level” in Canada, and particularly in British Columbia. A database of about 600 missing and murdered aboriginal women established by the Native Women’s Association of Canada shows the highest number of cases were from B.C.

      West Coast LEAF is part of the B.C. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) group, which made a submission to a United Nations committee last month on the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. The group was joined by several others that raised similar concerns, including the Assembly of First Nations and Amnesty International.

      Craig Benjamin, a campaigner for the human rights of indigenous peoples with Amnesty International Canada, sees public concern over the issue of missing and murdered women as reaching a boiling point.

      Since the human-rights group began researching the issue nearly a decade ago, Benjamin said, there has been “a substantial turnaround” in public attention to the problem.

      “On the one hand, I think that the public awareness has never been greater,” he told the Straight by phone from Ottawa. “The organizing and advocacy by indigenous women, especially really at the grassroots, and the families who have lost a sister or a daughter or a mother, these families have really come together in a powerful way.”

      However, Benjamin called the current situation “more frustrating than ever”.

      “We see governments on the one hand acknowledging the seriousness, the severity of the violence, but then also telling us that they’re already doing enough,” he said.

      Benjamin sees the missing women inquiry taking place in Vancouver as a factor contributing to the increased public frustration about the issue.

      On March 5, independent counsel Robyn Gervais, who was appointed by the commission to represent aboriginal interests, withdrew from the process over allegations that the inquiry had failed to provide adequate hearing time for aboriginal witnesses.

      Her withdrawal follows continued criticism of the inquiry process by aboriginal and Downtown Eastside advocacy groups.

      “There’s a profound need for those experiences and that expertise at the grassroots to be heard and recognized and built upon,” Benjamin said.

      Amnesty International and other organizations, including the B.C. CEDAW group, called on the Canadian government in their submissions to the UN to enact a national plan to address violence against aboriginal women and girls.

      Benjamin said among the measures the organization wants to see included in such a plan is for police to record when victims of violent crime are aboriginal.

      He added that the increased public awareness of the issue is “the first step” in addressing the problem.

      “We can’t expect to see change at the political level or change at the level of police services without that kind of sea change in public perception, and I think that that really in many ways is happening,” Benjamin said.

      Comments

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      Mar 8, 2012 at 6:55am

      In reality, when you scratch beneath the surface, a lot of what’s still there like the social and economic inequality, still exists in marginalized groups like the Aboriginal community, ...and you don’t have to scratch very hard to find that.

      The situation with the lives of many Aboriginal people in Canada is disgraceful. There are too many women AND men suffering with inequality and difficult challenges.

      Feminists often skew statistics and do a disservice to Aboriginal women by lumping their problems like poverty, violence, and lack of education with the larger population when they compile statistics. This is done so that women in general look like they are more of an disadvantaged group than they are. Thereby more money and resources go to (general) women's groups instead of the marginalized people who need it the most -like helping the Aboriginal community.

      We can’t expect to see change of this exploitation at the political level or change at the level of police services without that kind of sea change in public perception.

      Chris M

      Mar 8, 2012 at 8:58pm

      Do you have some stats to that effect?

      scratch beneath the surface

      Mar 9, 2012 at 12:22am

      What I constantly find stunning is regardless of issue, regardless of politic - women are universally hated in the comment sections of blogs / news articles / ...

      Hated more than Iranians, or whoever the war is attempting to be waged.

      Taxpayers R Us

      Mar 11, 2012 at 9:56pm

      @Chris M

      They would have statistics on it if they were taught how to falsify them them way feminist (women's) groups are.

      Isn't a "Women's Studies" degree basically a training certificate on falsifying statistics and promoting hatred without crossing the line?