You will be happy to know that over the last 9 years Harper made cuts to essential services for women, unless you are a woman, than “oopsies!” Oh look a cupcake! You ladies like cupcakes right? The shocking treatment of over half of Canada’s population includes ignoring 1181 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Ignoring murders.
Meanwhile Stephen Harper was busy giving tax cuts to the rich, dismantling the long-form census and clear cutting our hopes of bridging the income gap between men and women.
In 2015, Canada is barely recognizable. Our environmental policies are an embarrassment, our economy is in the toilet and we are starting to look like our weird cousins down south. And women are further behind than they were a decade ago. We crunched the numbers and the Conservatives did a smash up job in putting on the brakes and reversing hard over the advancement of Canadian women.
When Conservatives asked about important issues for women today, they took very specific notes and then shredded them along with the Long Gun Registry. So we would like to congratulate all of the women who survived domestic violence during the past 9 years, you did it with less resources than some of the women before you!
The conservative government just can’t come out and say how much they hate women, that would be weird. But they can, and they have, taken everything they could away from us!
Ladies, maybe he just isn't that into you. 17 ways Harper and the Conservatives have hurt and ignored women.
Harper just can’t really be bothered to address gender inequality. “According to a report issued by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last fall, Canada lacks the political will to achieve equality between men and women.”
- Harper would rather not talk about women. Plans for a women's-issues debate in the current federal election campaign collapsed after the Prime Minister declined to participate and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair later chose not to participate without Harper's attendance.
They voted against a national action plan to end violence against women, despite the fact that on average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
They voted against a pay equity bill despite the fact that Canadian women make $8000 less yearly than their male counterparts at the same job - a gap that’s double the global average.
They closed the long gun registry, a crucial form of gun control created in the wake of the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique femicide, where 14 women were shot and killed by a man. Long guns are the most common type of firearm used in spousal homicides. Over the past decade, 71% of spousal homicides involved rifles and shotguns.
The Conservatives removed a question on unpaid work like domestic chores and childcare (done primarily by women) from the long-form census. In the 2006 census, StatsCan reports that, on average, “women spend about an hour a day more on basic housework chores than their male counterparts."
Omnibus bills C-38 and C-45 significantly dismantled Canada's environmental protection WAVAW (Women Against Violence Against Women) staff suggested this item for this list because, “as Lee Maracle Says, “Feminism begins with considering the earth our Mother. All violence against earth is violence to us.”
Harper ended the Court Challenges Program which provided an essential source of financial assistance for important court cases that advance equality rights guaranteed under Canada’s Constitution. The cuts effectively silence very marginalized groups of Canadians as it removes from them an opportunity to challenge federal and provincial laws which may affect them at some point in the future. When questioned, Harper said, “Mr. Speaker, this government intends to behave in a constitutional manner.”
They cut $1 billion in childcare funding within 3 hours of being elected.
There are 1181 documented murdered and missing Indigenous women across Canada and the United Nations has called for urgent action. In response the Prime Minister said the issue “isn’t really high on our radar” then lied and said “I haven’t said that all.”
They eliminated funding to six different Canadian women’s health organizations.
- They changed immigration rules to force women to stay with a spouse who sponsors them for a minimum of two years. This forces untold numbers of migrant women to stay in relationships with abusive spouses.
They eliminated a human rights agency that provided women's health, training and counselling projects in 17 countries around the world.
- Women of colour are 48% more likely to be unemployed than white men. The Conservatives have eliminated the National Council on Welfare which had existed to advise the government on effective welfare policy for 43 years. They then changed Employment Insurance rules require laid-off workers to take jobs they might previously have considered unsuitable, possibly with up to 30 per cent less pay or lose their EI benefits.
Canada has fallen to 23rd in the United Nations world ranking of gender inequality.
- The Conservatives have the lowest percentage of female politicians and Canada now ranks 42nd in the world in terms of female political empowerment.
You might read this and think "Man! He makes me feel like a woman...from the turn of the century." Get angry, sign our petition and know that we are half of the populationand we can vote out Harper. On October 19th, be a voter.
Our guest comedian for this post is Alicia Tobin. She is the host of Alicia Tobin's Come Draw with Me, the co-host of Retail Nightmares Podcast and a cookbook author. @AliciaATobin
