Dateline: Ottawa, Canada
By: The Star
From: BC Fathers
Via: The Honor Network

Canadian Tories Cut Feminists Purse Strings

Priority News Exchange Program News Item (PNEP)

Women's rights advocates accused the Harper government of ignoring their struggle for equality after a leading women's group closed its doors because of a lack of federal funding.

Supported by opposition MPs, the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) vowed yesterday to use volunteers to keep up its efforts to combat violence against women, improve living conditions for those on low incomes, achieve pay equity, obtain funding for universal child care and other causes.

NAWL lost its funding of $300,000 a year after government spending cuts announced last fall. Despite a $13 billion budget surplus, the government slashed outlays for women's advocacy projects and eliminated the Court Challenges Program, which funded legal actions by rights advocates. The Tories said Status of Women Canada would no longer fund organizations pressing policymakers to improve conditions for women.

"The Harper government is trying to silence women's groups who speak out against its right-wing agenda," NAWL board member Pamela Cross said. "These are ideologically driven cuts that demonstrate a defective concept of women's equality and democracy."

Opposition MPs denounced the moves by the Harper government.
"Women are being silenced in Canada," Liberal MP Maria Minna (Beaches-East York) told the NAWL press conference. "How can we ... say we are promoting rights for women in Afghanistan when our government is forcing women's organizations to close?"

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http://www.thestar.com/News/article/258956