By Gudrun Schultz
OTTAWA, Ontario, April 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Feminist organizations with a mandate for women’s equality are still receiving millions in federal funding annually, according to a report by the Western Standard in today’s National Post.
Status of Women Canada was established in 1973, after the Royal Commission for the Status of Women recommended that feminist women’s groups receive funding to help women achieve equality. The organization receives $23 million annually in federal funds.
Today, with equality for women well entrenched in Canadian society, feminist groups are concentrating on side issues such as child-care and low-cost housing.
“The biggest driving issue, as well as accomplishment for us in the past couple of years has been on the issue of child care,” Paulette Senior, CEO of the YWCA, told the Standard in reference to the Liberal government’s national day-care program passed last year.
As Standard author Andrea Mrozek points out, a promise to dismantle that program made up a significant chunk of the campaign platform for the newly elected Conservative government, indicating a lack of taxpayer’s support for the YWCA’s initiatives. The organization received $153, 453 in federal funding in 2003-2004.
$60 million in federal funding went to pro-feminist groups between 1997 and 2003, according to access of information documents obtained by Real Women of Canada, a pro-family organization that promotes equality for women under the motto “women’s rights, but not at the expense of human rights.”
Gwen Landolt, vice president of Real Women, told the Standard she believes that federally funded women’s groups are superfluous. While some do concentrate on issues of domestic violence and equality, she said many are pursuing an entirely different agenda.
“They’re acting as agents of change to promote their radical feminist agenda,” Landolt said. “Their theory is that women are oppressed by the patriarchy.”
Landolt believes these groups are front organizations for governments and unions, with little grassroots support.
Real Women, with 55,000 members, was denied further federal support in 1996 because it was not deemed an equality-seeking group.
Read the full article here:
https://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=34e65c78-f90e-419e-9347-367e539b8215