by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 7, 2006
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A Canadian women's group wants the nation's government there to stop funding a pro-abortion women's organization. Real Women of Canada says the Status of Women Canada doesn't represent the views of all women in the country because the organization promotes abortion.
I can't get over how this story just keeps going and going. It's amazing.
Real Women recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper which has prompted the pro-abortion group to conduct a letter campaign of its own.
The initial letter, sent to Harper and members of parliament, urged the government to stop funding Status of Women, which is technically a government agency. The letter also urged the government to disband the organization.
According to a Canadian Christianity report, Real Women's letter said Status of Women has no purpose except "to promote the views of a handful of extremist feminist organizations at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer."
The group has about 55,000 members across Canada and says the agency doesn't represent them.
Responding to the letter, Status of Women wrote to lawmakers and received the support of prominent pro-abortion groups and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. It also got Liberal Party leadership candidate Scott Brison on its side and he wrote a letter to Harper defending the group and calling the women involved in Real Women "extreme right-wing."
Real Women national vice president Gwen Landolt says its latest campaign has been receiving more support than previous efforts.
"We were shocked," she told Canadian Catholic News. "We've been saying this for a thousand years, it seems."
Hm, no mention of the blogburst. You're missing a main chunk of the story.
To those American readers not familiar with this blog, this is the blog that initiated the blogburst that fuelle internet campaign.
Status of Women has an annual budget of about $23 million and half of the money goes to grants to various organizations.
That has been a source of contention as Real Women has been denied any funding from the agency. Status of Women refused to send the group an application for funds, but when it applied using the made-up name of a left-wing sounding group, the agency responded immediately.
Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government founded Status of Women in the 1970s to promote women's equality and Real Women was founded in 1983 to combat Status of Women's bias in favor of abortion and other issues on which it has different views.
In 1999, Status of Women leaders refused to allow representatives of Real Women to attend a women's conference.
Another little tidbit: in 1996, representatives of REAL Women were invited by the government to a government-sponsored conference. The REAL Women representative was not allowed to speak by the feminist conference attendees. They were booing her and shouting her down.
This is what feminism has become. It's time to abolish Status of Women.
UPDATE: I just looked at Relapsed Catholic and saw the referenced Canadian Christianity report.
It contains a few tidbits I hadn't seen yet:
Beverly Oda, the current Conservative minister responsible for the SW, has not commented on the issue. However, a spokesperson for her told the Canadian Press that the minister receives "thousands of letters across a range of issues," and added that the government "supports the full participation of women in society and supports gender equality through all policy and legislative considerations."
That declaration stops short of answering the question of what the government will do with the government agency.
Interesting.
The second issue, Geschke claimed, is that SW does not treat women equally, choosing to support some women's organizations but not others. Years ago, when RW first applied for funding from SW, SW refused to even send an application form. When RW re-applied under the name Lesbian Mothers of Canada, it was welcomed with open arms.
That's new. Interesting.
The third issue is that many of the programs SW funds are agencies such as women's shelters, which are a provincial government responsibility.
Very much so. I was looking at some of the projects they fund last night. They're often very local. The federal government should concern itself less with such local issues and focus on big social programs like EI, funding health care, that sort of thing. Smaller programs really should be the purview of the province.
When asked if the government should fund RW instead of SW or if it should even fund both agencies, Geschke said no. "We don't think any group should be funded. If an agency is lobbying the government, it should be supported by people willing to put their own money into it."
That's exactly right.
However, Geschke noted that while most board members come from a Christian background, some come from other faiths or no faith at all. RW's membership has included Muslims and atheists, for instance. Some have expressed the concern that if Christian voices are silenced, other voices may be next.
Hm. I did not know that.
Hm. First a story from Western Catholic Reporter and now one by Canadian Christianity. I sense a pattern.
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