Anti-Violence and Women's Rights

From the Friday, October 5, 2007, page A16, an article about women's rights and wanting the government to take violence against women, sexual harassment and related issues seriously and some recommendations about how to help solve the problem:

'STEP IT UP' CAMPAIGN
Anti-violence pleas ignored

Lobby group laments lack of debate on women's issues - despite action plan

Debra Black

For the past 14 months Eileen Morrow and about 60 other women have been trying to get the provincial political parties to step up to the plate when it comes to violence against women.

When they conceived their Step It Up Campaign in June 2006 they had high hopes provincial politicians would get the relevance of their pleas.

"We want the government and the parties to look at violence against women in all of its aspects," said Morrow, co-ordinator of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, who helped run the lobby campaign that has been endorsed by 100 provincial organizations.

"Governments tend to look at what they call domestic violence. There has been good work in this area, but we don't have an overall framework. What we need is a gender-based analysis in government policy, budgeting that looks at the material conditions of women's lives and how that is contributing to violence against women in their relations, sexual violence, sexual harassment in school and the workplace."

With that lofty goal in mind, the women developed a 10-point manifesto for eradicating violence against women in the province against women in the province. They met with representatives of the Liberal Party, Progressive Conservatives, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party to make their case, asking for changes in areas such as poverty, housing, child care, education, access to justice and permanent funding for women's services.

Some of the specific recommendations call for:

* An increase in social assistance rates and indexing them to the cost of living, and an immediate increase in minimum wage to $10.

* More money for affordable housing and child care.

* A $50 million commitment for women's services.

* The establishment of a provincial women's advocacy council on violence - within the Ontario Women's Directorate to guide all policy development, program development and legislation related to women who experience violence.

* A sexual violence action plan, guided by women's advocates from the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres and others.

* Amendments by the Occupational Health and Safety Act to include "harassment," including sexual harassment and a province-wide education campaign on sexual harassment in schools, workplaces and in the community.

* $5 million in annual funding for full-time legal support workers.

But with the election only days away, the parties, with the exception of the NDP, have not fully endorsed the campaign, a disappointed Morrow said, "How many years has it been since we've seen a debate on women's issues in an election campaign?" she asked.

The Liberals emphasized their own domestic violence plan, but added a promise to increase money to front-line services such as shelters and sexual assault centres.

The Tories suggested they meet again after the election, Morrow said. As for the Greens, a party spokesman said, they "love" the Step It Up campaign and endorse it. But according to Morrow the party has only incorporated some of the broader issues into its platform. And its position on violence was "disappointing," she said. The NDP were the most enthusiastic, adopting much of it into their platform.

The Liberal Party's Sandra Pupatello, a candidate in Windsor West, doesn't agree that her party has ignored the condition of the lives of women and children, stressing the Liberals recently released a platform designed specifically for women.

It includes promises to build on the government's Domestic Violence Action Plan created in 2005 that offers support for victims, training, prevention education and improvements to the justice system. It also commits to the creation of new child care spaces and the introduction of full-time junior and senior kindergarten.

"Child care, poverty and housing ... we believe that we are addressing all three of these from the Step It Up campaign," said Pupatello, minister responsible for women's issues.

"We are very supportive of the Step It Up platform," said Andrew Horwath, the NDP candidate and current MPP for Hamilton East as well as the NDP Women's Issues critic.

Representatives from the PCs did not return the Star's calls.