Your Hockey is my Birthing Story

I happen to be one of 2 female trustees on a school board of 7. This translates into 28% female elected representation on our board which is significantly higher than the national rate of female representation in municipal, provincial, territorial and federally elected seats which sits at about 21%**… though maybe the participation rate will be higher after this most recent election.

At any rate, even though there’s 28% female representation in that room, sometimes being 2 out of 7 feels a bit outnumbered. Especially given that a lot of the Administrators that are in these meetings are also men.

Now I know that some women watch hockey. I definitely KNOW in my heart that when everyone in the room starts talking about hockey except for the only women present, that they aren’t purposefully trying to exclude us. People talk about things they know, things they have in common, they use these topics to build relationships. I do it too, if I know someone has a boat, I talk to them about it because thats what we have in common.  BUT….

UNCSW 54 March 3rd

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Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations

This post is part of a series on the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Click on a link to read further.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 8 , Part 9 , Part 10

March 3rd was the day that the United Nations Celebrated International Women’s Day. The occasion is celebrated a few days before the actual event to allow Delegates to the UN the chance to get home in time to celebrate with their communities.

I started the Day at the NGO general briefing at the Salvation Army. A South East Asian delegate asked if we could lobby for a resolution specific to women in extreme poverty and women with disability with our respective government meetings and regional caucuses. The Women’s Labour Congress also asked us to join them in their lobby for a resolution on women’s economic empowerment, and women from Arabic women’s caucus would like to see a resolution on women in occupied territories, and the general women’s labour group finished and released a draft of their open letter to the Secretary General about the long lines and poor state of the UNCSW.

After the NGO debrief I moved back to the main building and made my way to the overflow room (Conference Room 2) to watch the UN celebration of International Womens Day.

It was very nice, the Secretary General made a wonderful and engaging address. He spoke about the way that he honors women because he is a husband and a father and a grandfather. He talked about how important he felt it was for men throughout the world to recognize that violence against women is a direct violation of their inalienable human rights.

Political Mavens, Mira Hall

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Political Mavens

Hello!

I am Megan, a brand new face to Antigone, but excited to be starting up a new column here focusing on the female political leaders. Political Mavens will be talking to the women who are hard working within government to get something done about feminist issues, among many other things.

Introducing our first change-maker: Mira Hall

Mira Hall (Yellowknife, NT – pictured RIGHT) is studying political economics and pursuing a career in policy development relating to food security and affordable housing.  Mira is employed at the Centre for Northern Families where she provides a range of family support and community outreach services. Mira was once roommates with Antigone Magazine Editor Amanda Reaume when they were both delegates to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women. This past fall, Mira ran for School Trustee in Yellowknife District 1 and won!

1. How and why did you get involved in politics?

I have always been politically active. My mother is an activist and she always encouraged me to be involved in the work that she was doing, or work that she saw others doing that she supported. I think that I was reluctant for a long time out of rebelliousness. At the end of the day I really care about community, about reducing marginalization, and I’m too passionate to stay away from politics.

2. Why do you think women should get involved in politics?

I think that women are the best qualified to represent women’s perspectives in government. For too long we have trusted that our male counterparts could represent our interests when they shape the policy that shapes our lives, but they haven’t been women so they couldn’t possibly have as deep an understanding of what our interests are as we do.

This was illustrated to me vividly during a forum during the last territorial election. Candidates were asked why they thought women weren’t participating in trades and non-traditional employment and how they as MLAs would encourage women’s economic participation in the lucrative employment opportunities provided by mining, oil and gas. The only candidate who pointed out that mothers aren’t often able to find childcare for the full two weeks that a standard camp rotation would be and that many mothers be unwilling to leave their children for two weeks out of every month was a mother of three.

3. What issue do you see as particularly important for women?

I think women’s economic independence is the number one issue for me, and that many other issues that women face are a direct result of their economic dependence. There is a persistent wage gap between men and women in Canada, and women are still structurally excluded from some types of employment.

The other issues that rank highly for me are violence against women, child apprehension, and the feminization of poverty.

4. Have you ever experienced any discrimination as a woman in politics? If so, describe your experiences and how you handled them.

Any discrimination that I notice is pretty subversive, and is rarely directed right at me in my presence. Although I notice that it seems to be women who are hardest on me and on other female candidates. I hear women calling female candidates things like “bitch,” “crazy,” “slut” and “shit-disturber,” generally when I hear the comments about male politicians and candidates the worst is “crazy” or “useless.” It makes me sad that women aren’t more supportive of each other.

It reminds me (as someone who is not affiliated to any party) of how leftists cling to the idea that Conservatives are “anti-woman” but in Canada they can claim the first female Prime Minister, and in the US they ran Sarah Palin. Leftist women are the first to say “well, they don’t really count” for whatever reason, and yet the “pro-woman” parties don’t even give us women “who don’t count.” They just keep feeding us “pro-woman” men. I’m really hoping that there is drastic change coming and that women step up and are supported by their parties and their communities.

5. What issues are you passionate about?

I suspect that all of my passions can be boiled down to “reducing marginalization.” I think that every school should be reflective of all the populations that share our community. Every school should be inclusive for girls and boys, for people with varying “ability,” for a variety of ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, and for fluid identities within those demographics. And not only should our schools be reflective of our multifaceted society, but our neighborhoods too, and our workplaces!

6. What is your dream for women?

My dream is to live in a world where each person can be both proud of their own culture, identity, and place in society as well as be loving and accepting of those who are different.

7. What advice do you have for young women?

Keep your chin up and know that no one can represent you or your demographic better than you! Change the world, and keep pushing!

UN Update… Day 6…

So… we’re back from the UN… but I want ot continue with posting Mira Hall’s updates! Here we are with Day Six:

UN day 6: The poverty frame North and south versus rural and urbanI’m sorry that this too has been late in coming. I’m sure that everyone who has been actively reading can see me running out of steam as the days packed with information regarding lots of different issues overwhelm my brain. In addition there has been stress on the home front, but I’m encouraged to know that when some people let you down, others are waiting to help lift you back up!

On Friday I attended a workshop hosted by UNIFEM on Economic literacy. I had been looking forward to it all week, and there are subsequent workshops building on the same theme. What I was disappointed with however is that the “economic” literacy aspect is focused on macro economics and inter country treatment of poverty.This results in the problem of “Poverty” being framed in terms of “North-South” relationships between countries, and the problem of poverty facing many people in the developed countries is not discussed.

I believe that if Canada and Australia had a stronger presence here at the CSW the discussion could be different, and I would be hearing things more relevant to my life.After a conversation with an Aussie from the Staticians conference, I came to hear that Canada has a strong delegation present for that event and that they are being impressively progressive on issues such as “China” and “India,” but I don’t know what the conversations are dealing with, so I can’t go into that.

However it was worthy of mention because while other countries have been quite active in promoting what they are doing within their own countries to implement “Gender Budgeting” and achieving the Millennium Development Goal 3 “Empower women and promote equality between women and men” our Country (with the exception of the NGOs) has been mute on the subject.Also among the conversational buzz is the lack of indigenous people at this conference. Should there have been more of a presence I believe that the poverty gap between “rural and urban” would have had a stronger buzz here. The Australian Statician also commented that much like he found I was lamenting Canada’s silence on the issues surrounding aboriginal populations and the extreme poverty they face, Australia is (in his experience) the same. He described it as this two faced hypocrisy where our respective government point to all kinds of help that they are giving to outside countries, while they repeatedly ignore the plight of marginalized populations within their own.

Following the fairly irrelevant (but interesting) UNIFEM presentation, that mainly focused on Latin America, and problems with the IMF and the world bank, and how richer countries have been able to avoid them, I moved onto a workshop hosted by the American Women’s Medical Association. This workshop went over the effort of many Universities across the US to include women in non-traditional fields of medicine. They spoke about Mentors and the difference between male mentors (providing assistance to young female med students) which often came in the form of practical and technical aspects of medicine, to the femal mentors who seem to provide mentorship around lifestyle issues associated with different fields of medicine.

It was really nice to see, especially because after I left the workshop Hillary Clinton was spouting election promises like “Lets make University Affordable for all our citizens!” and brought me back to the fact that I wish fervently that I could finish my degree quickly, and immerse myself in study, but the economic barrier is simply too great. Muriel Smith, a former Deputy Premier out of Manitoba provided me (kindly) with economic literacy workbooks that I plan to use in the territory when I get back. I’ve noticed that they are very relevant to Manitoba specifically, but I’m sure that with help from Statistics Canada, I can kind of modify them to reflect Territorial reality, and that as a result it could provide women who participate in the workshops with an additional picture of how economic policy plays out in the different provinces.

UN Update… Day 6…

So… we’re back from the UN… but I want ot continue with posting Mira Hall’s updates! Here we are with Day Six:

UN day 6: The poverty frame North and south versus rural and urbanI’m sorry that this too has been late in coming. I’m sure that everyone who has been actively reading can see me running out of steam as the days packed with information regarding lots of different issues overwhelm my brain. In addition there has been stress on the home front, but I’m encouraged to know that when some people let you down, others are waiting to help lift you back up!

On Friday I attended a workshop hosted by UNIFEM on Economic literacy. I had been looking forward to it all week, and there are subsequent workshops building on the same theme. What I was disappointed with however is that the “economic” literacy aspect is focused on macro economics and inter country treatment of poverty.This results in the problem of “Poverty” being framed in terms of “North-South” relationships between countries, and the problem of poverty facing many people in the developed countries is not discussed.

I believe that if Canada and Australia had a stronger presence here at the CSW the discussion could be different, and I would be hearing things more relevant to my life.After a conversation with an Aussie from the Staticians conference, I came to hear that Canada has a strong delegation present for that event and that they are being impressively progressive on issues such as “China” and “India,” but I don’t know what the conversations are dealing with, so I can’t go into that.

However it was worthy of mention because while other countries have been quite active in promoting what they are doing within their own countries to implement “Gender Budgeting” and achieving the Millennium Development Goal 3 “Empower women and promote equality between women and men” our Country (with the exception of the NGOs) has been mute on the subject.Also among the conversational buzz is the lack of indigenous people at this conference. Should there have been more of a presence I believe that the poverty gap between “rural and urban” would have had a stronger buzz here. The Australian Statician also commented that much like he found I was lamenting Canada’s silence on the issues surrounding aboriginal populations and the extreme poverty they face, Australia is (in his experience) the same. He described it as this two faced hypocrisy where our respective government point to all kinds of help that they are giving to outside countries, while they repeatedly ignore the plight of marginalized populations within their own.

Following the fairly irrelevant (but interesting) UNIFEM presentation, that mainly focused on Latin America, and problems with the IMF and the world bank, and how richer countries have been able to avoid them, I moved onto a workshop hosted by the American Women’s Medical Association. This workshop went over the effort of many Universities across the US to include women in non-traditional fields of medicine. They spoke about Mentors and the difference between male mentors (providing assistance to young female med students) which often came in the form of practical and technical aspects of medicine, to the femal mentors who seem to provide mentorship around lifestyle issues associated with different fields of medicine.

It was really nice to see, especially because after I left the workshop Hillary Clinton was spouting election promises like “Lets make University Affordable for all our citizens!” and brought me back to the fact that I wish fervently that I could finish my degree quickly, and immerse myself in study, but the economic barrier is simply too great. Muriel Smith, a former Deputy Premier out of Manitoba provided me (kindly) with economic literacy workbooks that I plan to use in the territory when I get back. I’ve noticed that they are very relevant to Manitoba specifically, but I’m sure that with help from Statistics Canada, I can kind of modify them to reflect Territorial reality, and that as a result it could provide women who participate in the workshops with an additional picture of how economic policy plays out in the different provinces.

Day Five – How I wish I was Nordic – By Mira Hall

For those of you who have been keeping tabs on my updates, I apologize for this one being late. I appreciate the interest that has been shown, and I am so happy to have been able to garner people’s interest in this experience. Yesterday, my fifth day was very full.

I started the day by attending a workshop/panel called “Going Dutch” a light hearted update on how the Dutch Government is working towards the goals set out in Beijing (the 4th World Women’s Conference.) Very seriously, however, was a discussion between the Dutch foreign minister and the executive director of HIVOS (the largest NGO in the Netherlands) around how and why the Dutch government funds its civil society. Both parties underlined the importance of critical evaluation within a society to creativity and responsiveness of the government. Without critical perspectives it would be very easy for any government to become complacent and out of touch with the needs of their people.

For instance, within Canada, it has been explained to me that no party really wants to run a campaign on access to affordable quality childcare because the problem is difficult to implement. Why would a candidate (with the exception of Jean Chretien) run an election on a promise that would be difficult or impossible to achieve? So then our politicians devise campaign strategies and frame election and general political promises around their own ideology that is influenced around what they believe they can get away with, while implementing the result of their ideology on the people of Canada.

Politicians end up painfully out of touch with their electorate, and Canadians have no organized or well funded lobbyists to strategically defend general interests. Canadian critical programs such as the Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 minutes, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce become our primary critical voices. (note these are all considered to be “comedy” programs.) In the end we have practical examples of Senators such as our own dear Senator Sibbeston, who instead of relaying the difficult and substandard living conditions of many Northerners, relay romanticized versions of little Indian villages who *choose* a lifestyle of trading natural resources for accommodation. Parliament then thinks “How quaint!” instead of “what an embarrassment to have Canadian citizens living in conditions comparable to underdeveloped countries!”

At any rate, I have digressed from the initial topic of the Netherlands. The Dutch Government believes that innovation and creativity is a direct result of diverse discussion, and in order to encourage a broad perspective in all areas of Dutch policy, they actively fund their “opposition.” And they fund them GENEROUSLY! The Dutch government just invested 60 million to NGO activity around women’s equality. Their primary concern was that the funding be distributed in such a way that was effective, comprehensive, and with the least amount of transactional cost possible. A

ctive accountability was also of prime importance to them, and fundees are required to include actions within their proposals and to account for the occurrence of the actions, and the results. This is something that is required of BOTH NGO and government projects. The Dutch government also recognizes the importance of core funding to organizations and provides multiyear funding in order to reduce insecurity, and patchwork initiatives, something that the Canadian government has dramatically stopped doing in recent years (ignoring the conservative extent it had been implemented in previous years.)

Okay. So then I went to *the only Canadian workshop* parallel event, organized by the group that brought me here- FAFIA, the Feminist Alliance For International Action. The workshop was on the gendered impact of Canadian Tax Policy. So the presenters were, Lynelle Anderson from the Canadian Childcare Advocacy Association, Kathleen Lahey who is an author and tax attorney, and Muriel Smith who is a former Deputy Premier from Manitoba who has a long history within the political arena and grass roots advocacy and education. The shocking news for me that emerged from this presentation is that we only actually have childcare for 20% of the population of children in Canada, excluding Quebec. And that the government has been actively involved in a long term plan to shift tax revenue from corporations to low income Canadians.

In Canada the tax shift is slowly occurring over many years, and therefore through governments headed by both Liberals and Conservatives. Currently Canadians whose income falls below 38 000$ bear approximately a 32% income tax burden, while corporations are found to bear around 5% tax burden. Corporations enjoy 1.9 billion each year in tax revenue. I totally expect to be challenged on this, not necessarily the numbers, but it occurs to me that because low income Canadians are more plentiful, doesn’t it create as much revenue as 5% on a big earner corporation? Well, I have to look into that further, however, this has impacted on our human development standing. We once enjoyed first place world wide for our rates of human development, and we have consistently fallen in our standing and are now in 18th place when compared to all other Nations.

The other thing that kind of shocked me was the comparative income between men and women. It should be common knowledge that comparatively, women make less money than men do in similar positions of work. I thought that the figure was “for every dollar a man makes, a woman earns 73 cents.” Unfortunately that is based on older data. CURRENTLY, *during peak earning years* for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes .67$, during other points of life (up until age 45 and after 65) a woman makes .38$. I definitely intend to read Kathleen’s assessments further, as this is an area (economics) that I am interested in.Where is the relevance?

Well, I’ve met many male non-northern residents that bemoan Affirmative action hiring practices. Actually I’ve met many female ones too. At any rate, because northerners are such a small population sometimes we see (personally) really inefficient people working for our government whereas without affirmative action and tenure protection, they would have been fired long ago due to their ineffectiveness. HOWEVER, when we look at WHERE our people are being hired, it adds a little bit to the story. How many female aboriginal women do we see in management positions in the government? Where are our female aboriginal workers hired at the mine sites (when they aren’t prevented from being hired at all by their family status?)

I don’t see any aboriginal females in government management positions. (There *might* be someone, but I don’t know who they are, so feel free to respond with an example if you have one) I only know a few ADMs and SAOs, but I can only think of one female, and no aboriginals. So where does affirmative action put people? Well from what I see, it puts them in secretarial positions, it puts them in front line positions (such as income support workers, or whatever they are currently calling themselves,) and it puts them in data entering, low level accounting, and janitorial positions. A

boriginal men seem to have things slightly better, however again, I am still not seeing many “P1s” in high level management. P2s are a little harder to place. At any rate, if we had a brave government, I believe that there would be more effort in determining the causes behind the “glass ceiling” and subsequently more effort put towards addressing those causes. Off the top of my head I would think that common sense solutions would be to increase basic amounts to Student Financial Assistance, increase the number of grants and scholarships available to students who are pursuing education that will benefit the Territory in the long term, and increase education accessibility.

I’m just guessing here, but I think going from living in Goa Haven all my life to attending University in Edmonton or Calgary might be a bit of a culture shock to me, a shock that would undermine the quality of education that I would be able to absorb. (I know that there have been efforts around this issue, such as the officer for northern students situated in Edmonton, but my experience as a Yellowknifer ells me that I should be able to access the education of my choice within my support network IN THE NORTH.) Why isn’t there more recognition and support for students who choose to be educated in the north? Is 700 dollars a month really an acceptable living allowance when in some communities milk is over 7$ a litre? Why is there no recognized support for the students who choose distance learning to remain home? (There are a minimum of 70 Athabasca University Students alone in Yellowknife right now.)

So that whole previous paragraph was a rant based on my assumption that northerners are blocked from high level management based on the presumption that they aren’t as educated, or the quality of their education isn’t as good as people coming up from the south.

Going back to the tax workshop, feminist groups are rightly concerned at the impact that income splitting will have on the economic dependence of women on men, that it favors legally married couples in the impact of taxation after separation and divorce over the Canadian stereotypical relationship that is common law. Taxation policy also favors workers the higher their income brackets goes. Essentially, from Lahey’s assessment what little public services we have are being provided off of the backs of the poor.This brings me back to understanding basic economic practice over misconceptions that Canadian and American Publics have embraced since the Cold War.

For ANY economy to survive (let alone thrive) aspects of BOTH capitalist and socialist economic practice must be included in overall policy. No current economy is simply a pure “capitalist” economy OR a pure “socialist” economy. Pure capitalism results in a wildly unstable economy swinging dramatically between inflationary periods and recessionary periods that can and have crippled societies (including our own. Both Canada and the US are not very far from the economic depression of the 1930s which was relieved by bringing in socialist measures to reestablish growth.) and we “know” that purely socialist systems result in gross inefficiency and insustainability, and a lack of innovation to bring technology forward.

So good economic practice is to ensure wealth redistribution to maintain minimum demand, have public access to education, health, and infrastructure in order to promote maximum production (defined by a production possibility curve.) At any rate this is getting really long, and I applaud anyone who has made it all the way through!

Mira Hall’s Reports from the UNCSW! Part 4

UN Day 4: Austrians choke at the amount I pay in day care.Today’s agenda included attending two debriefings, a panel on addressing violence against women hosted by the Nordic governments, and listening to my roommate squealing at unexpectedly getting to interview *the* Gloria Steinem.

I don’t have very much to report on today, maybe because I’m tired from the chaos and the walking. Maybe it’s because my hands are raw from washing my clothes in the bathtub. Maybe I’m just plain tired.

I’m so happy that my friends are reading this. I’m excited and it’s so nice to have my excitement shared. I’m rather saddened that there isn’t a bigger Canadian Government presence here. It seems that all the other nations are broadly represented, but the only one that is visually present from Canada is the NGOs. It’s been explained that because of the budget there was a travel ban issued because the budget was being released today however I don’t see why it would prevent the MPs sending their underlings.The Nordic countries put on an interesting panel.

They have a proactive approach to address violence against women in all stages of their people’s stages. It is included in early education in the form of implementing emotionally resiliency in daycares and schools. They have psychological counseling for perpetrators following violent acts. Sweden, I think, even has an entire University dedicated to the research of violence against women that includes a national hotline that does not show up on phone bills. They have medical clinics and all members of the justice department have handbooks that describe health based protocol relating to violence against women in order to help the justice department better investigate incidents.

I have a copy of the complete Swedish strategy that I intend to bring home. It would be nice to see something concrete happening in our community rather than perpetual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth at our overwhelmingly high rate of violence against women. Actually that didn’t quite come out right. It would be even nicer if the family violence coalition could use this information to their advantage to solidify support for the work that they have already been doing.

Because I just happen to be a cheeky brat, and their panel left me nothing really learned, but also nothing to really complain about, I decided to throw out something really controversial to this panel of socially conscious countries. So I threw up my hand and asked if any of their research indicated higher levels of success with their current treatment programs than have been shown with previous methods of chemical and physical castration. *hee hee hee* I kind of did it soley to be a brat, but the backrounder is that castration combined with psychotherapy is empirically the most effective way of treating pedophilia.So there was an audible gasp from the crowd and the head of research at the University said that she wasn’t aware of any study that compared the success rates between the two treatment plans.

Of course immediately following her saying that, a Swedish woman behind me said that the state had indeed studied the matter and found that castrations with psycho therapy is indeed more effective that either on their own. (Castration on its own does not address the expression of power within the act of sexual violation.)

So anyways, I also attended a meeting on Muslim women in business. I heard about economic strategies used in Dubai, and micro loan projects out of the Sudan. It was interesting, but not very relevant to the North.I had coffee with the executive director of an NGO from Austria. She runs high quality subsidized daycare programs throughout the country. She choked on her coffee when I told her how much I pay for childcare.

On that note, did you know that Canada is even behind Mexico in their total investment of funds to daycare? The request from the Canadian people for quality accessible daycare is 25 years old, while our government is whittling away resources that could have been moved into providing a national day care strategy, the multinational people that I’m coming across here are choking. Even including the exchange rates I figure we’re paying some of the highest rates in the world.

A lack of accessible day care simply ignores the promise that the Canadian government has made to its own population and the other member states at the UN when it declared its supposed commitment to gender equality. Lack of affordable daycare does indeed provide a gender based barrier to women’s employment, and I’m sick to death of all of the governments dropping the ball on this issue.

Grr. I just found out that they took away the millennium fund for undergrads and added 20, 000 to funding for masters programs. Now the government will pay 50, 000$ for a masters student.

Anyways I hope everyone is doing well, And I look forward to getting a full debriefing on the budget

Day Five – How I wish I was Nordic – By Mira Hall

For those of you who have been keeping tabs on my updates, I apologize for this one being late. I appreciate the interest that has been shown, and I am so happy to have been able to garner people’s interest in this experience. Yesterday, my fifth day was very full.

I started the day by attending a workshop/panel called “Going Dutch” a light hearted update on how the Dutch Government is working towards the goals set out in Beijing (the 4th World Women’s Conference.) Very seriously, however, was a discussion between the Dutch foreign minister and the executive director of HIVOS (the largest NGO in the Netherlands) around how and why the Dutch government funds its civil society. Both parties underlined the importance of critical evaluation within a society to creativity and responsiveness of the government. Without critical perspectives it would be very easy for any government to become complacent and out of touch with the needs of their people.

For instance, within Canada, it has been explained to me that no party really wants to run a campaign on access to affordable quality childcare because the problem is difficult to implement. Why would a candidate (with the exception of Jean Chretien) run an election on a promise that would be difficult or impossible to achieve? So then our politicians devise campaign strategies and frame election and general political promises around their own ideology that is influenced around what they believe they can get away with, while implementing the result of their ideology on the people of Canada.

Politicians end up painfully out of touch with their electorate, and Canadians have no organized or well funded lobbyists to strategically defend general interests. Canadian critical programs such as the Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 minutes, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce become our primary critical voices. (note these are all considered to be “comedy” programs.) In the end we have practical examples of Senators such as our own dear Senator Sibbeston, who instead of relaying the difficult and substandard living conditions of many Northerners, relay romanticized versions of little Indian villages who *choose* a lifestyle of trading natural resources for accommodation. Parliament then thinks “How quaint!” instead of “what an embarrassment to have Canadian citizens living in conditions comparable to underdeveloped countries!”

At any rate, I have digressed from the initial topic of the Netherlands. The Dutch Government believes that innovation and creativity is a direct result of diverse discussion, and in order to encourage a broad perspective in all areas of Dutch policy, they actively fund their “opposition.” And they fund them GENEROUSLY! The Dutch government just invested 60 million to NGO activity around women’s equality. Their primary concern was that the funding be distributed in such a way that was effective, comprehensive, and with the least amount of transactional cost possible. A

ctive accountability was also of prime importance to them, and fundees are required to include actions within their proposals and to account for the occurrence of the actions, and the results. This is something that is required of BOTH NGO and government projects. The Dutch government also recognizes the importance of core funding to organizations and provides multiyear funding in order to reduce insecurity, and patchwork initiatives, something that the Canadian government has dramatically stopped doing in recent years (ignoring the conservative extent it had been implemented in previous years.)

Okay. So then I went to *the only Canadian workshop* parallel event, organized by the group that brought me here- FAFIA, the Feminist Alliance For International Action. The workshop was on the gendered impact of Canadian Tax Policy. So the presenters were, Lynelle Anderson from the Canadian Childcare Advocacy Association, Kathleen Lahey who is an author and tax attorney, and Muriel Smith who is a former Deputy Premier from Manitoba who has a long history within the political arena and grass roots advocacy and education. The shocking news for me that emerged from this presentation is that we only actually have childcare for 20% of the population of children in Canada, excluding Quebec. And that the government has been actively involved in a long term plan to shift tax revenue from corporations to low income Canadians.

In Canada the tax shift is slowly occurring over many years, and therefore through governments headed by both Liberals and Conservatives. Currently Canadians whose income falls below 38 000$ bear approximately a 32% income tax burden, while corporations are found to bear around 5% tax burden. Corporations enjoy 1.9 billion each year in tax revenue. I totally expect to be challenged on this, not necessarily the numbers, but it occurs to me that because low income Canadians are more plentiful, doesn’t it create as much revenue as 5% on a big earner corporation? Well, I have to look into that further, however, this has impacted on our human development standing. We once enjoyed first place world wide for our rates of human development, and we have consistently fallen in our standing and are now in 18th place when compared to all other Nations.

The other thing that kind of shocked me was the comparative income between men and women. It should be common knowledge that comparatively, women make less money than men do in similar positions of work. I thought that the figure was “for every dollar a man makes, a woman earns 73 cents.” Unfortunately that is based on older data. CURRENTLY, *during peak earning years* for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes .67$, during other points of life (up until age 45 and after 65) a woman makes .38$. I definitely intend to read Kathleen’s assessments further, as this is an area (economics) that I am interested in.Where is the relevance?

Well, I’ve met many male non-northern residents that bemoan Affirmative action hiring practices. Actually I’ve met many female ones too. At any rate, because northerners are such a small population sometimes we see (personally) really inefficient people working for our government whereas without affirmative action and tenure protection, they would have been fired long ago due to their ineffectiveness. HOWEVER, when we look at WHERE our people are being hired, it adds a little bit to the story. How many female aboriginal women do we see in management positions in the government? Where are our female aboriginal workers hired at the mine sites (when they aren’t prevented from being hired at all by their family status?)

I don’t see any aboriginal females in government management positions. (There *might* be someone, but I don’t know who they are, so feel free to respond with an example if you have one) I only know a few ADMs and SAOs, but I can only think of one female, and no aboriginals. So where does affirmative action put people? Well from what I see, it puts them in secretarial positions, it puts them in front line positions (such as income support workers, or whatever they are currently calling themselves,) and it puts them in data entering, low level accounting, and janitorial positions. A

boriginal men seem to have things slightly better, however again, I am still not seeing many “P1s” in high level management. P2s are a little harder to place. At any rate, if we had a brave government, I believe that there would be more effort in determining the causes behind the “glass ceiling” and subsequently more effort put towards addressing those causes. Off the top of my head I would think that common sense solutions would be to increase basic amounts to Student Financial Assistance, increase the number of grants and scholarships available to students who are pursuing education that will benefit the Territory in the long term, and increase education accessibility.

I’m just guessing here, but I think going from living in Goa Haven all my life to attending University in Edmonton or Calgary might be a bit of a culture shock to me, a shock that would undermine the quality of education that I would be able to absorb. (I know that there have been efforts around this issue, such as the officer for northern students situated in Edmonton, but my experience as a Yellowknifer ells me that I should be able to access the education of my choice within my support network IN THE NORTH.) Why isn’t there more recognition and support for students who choose to be educated in the north? Is 700 dollars a month really an acceptable living allowance when in some communities milk is over 7$ a litre? Why is there no recognized support for the students who choose distance learning to remain home? (There are a minimum of 70 Athabasca University Students alone in Yellowknife right now.)

So that whole previous paragraph was a rant based on my assumption that northerners are blocked from high level management based on the presumption that they aren’t as educated, or the quality of their education isn’t as good as people coming up from the south.

Going back to the tax workshop, feminist groups are rightly concerned at the impact that income splitting will have on the economic dependence of women on men, that it favors legally married couples in the impact of taxation after separation and divorce over the Canadian stereotypical relationship that is common law. Taxation policy also favors workers the higher their income brackets goes. Essentially, from Lahey’s assessment what little public services we have are being provided off of the backs of the poor.This brings me back to understanding basic economic practice over misconceptions that Canadian and American Publics have embraced since the Cold War.

For ANY economy to survive (let alone thrive) aspects of BOTH capitalist and socialist economic practice must be included in overall policy. No current economy is simply a pure “capitalist” economy OR a pure “socialist” economy. Pure capitalism results in a wildly unstable economy swinging dramatically between inflationary periods and recessionary periods that can and have crippled societies (including our own. Both Canada and the US are not very far from the economic depression of the 1930s which was relieved by bringing in socialist measures to reestablish growth.) and we “know” that purely socialist systems result in gross inefficiency and insustainability, and a lack of innovation to bring technology forward.

So good economic practice is to ensure wealth redistribution to maintain minimum demand, have public access to education, health, and infrastructure in order to promote maximum production (defined by a production possibility curve.) At any rate this is getting really long, and I applaud anyone who has made it all the way through!

Mira Hall’s Reports from the UNCSW! Part 4

UN Day 4: Austrians choke at the amount I pay in day care.Today’s agenda included attending two debriefings, a panel on addressing violence against women hosted by the Nordic governments, and listening to my roommate squealing at unexpectedly getting to interview *the* Gloria Steinem.

I don’t have very much to report on today, maybe because I’m tired from the chaos and the walking. Maybe it’s because my hands are raw from washing my clothes in the bathtub. Maybe I’m just plain tired.

I’m so happy that my friends are reading this. I’m excited and it’s so nice to have my excitement shared. I’m rather saddened that there isn’t a bigger Canadian Government presence here. It seems that all the other nations are broadly represented, but the only one that is visually present from Canada is the NGOs. It’s been explained that because of the budget there was a travel ban issued because the budget was being released today however I don’t see why it would prevent the MPs sending their underlings.The Nordic countries put on an interesting panel.

They have a proactive approach to address violence against women in all stages of their people’s stages. It is included in early education in the form of implementing emotionally resiliency in daycares and schools. They have psychological counseling for perpetrators following violent acts. Sweden, I think, even has an entire University dedicated to the research of violence against women that includes a national hotline that does not show up on phone bills. They have medical clinics and all members of the justice department have handbooks that describe health based protocol relating to violence against women in order to help the justice department better investigate incidents.

I have a copy of the complete Swedish strategy that I intend to bring home. It would be nice to see something concrete happening in our community rather than perpetual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth at our overwhelmingly high rate of violence against women. Actually that didn’t quite come out right. It would be even nicer if the family violence coalition could use this information to their advantage to solidify support for the work that they have already been doing.

Because I just happen to be a cheeky brat, and their panel left me nothing really learned, but also nothing to really complain about, I decided to throw out something really controversial to this panel of socially conscious countries. So I threw up my hand and asked if any of their research indicated higher levels of success with their current treatment programs than have been shown with previous methods of chemical and physical castration. *hee hee hee* I kind of did it soley to be a brat, but the backrounder is that castration combined with psychotherapy is empirically the most effective way of treating pedophilia.So there was an audible gasp from the crowd and the head of research at the University said that she wasn’t aware of any study that compared the success rates between the two treatment plans.

Of course immediately following her saying that, a Swedish woman behind me said that the state had indeed studied the matter and found that castrations with psycho therapy is indeed more effective that either on their own. (Castration on its own does not address the expression of power within the act of sexual violation.)

So anyways, I also attended a meeting on Muslim women in business. I heard about economic strategies used in Dubai, and micro loan projects out of the Sudan. It was interesting, but not very relevant to the North.I had coffee with the executive director of an NGO from Austria. She runs high quality subsidized daycare programs throughout the country. She choked on her coffee when I told her how much I pay for childcare.

On that note, did you know that Canada is even behind Mexico in their total investment of funds to daycare? The request from the Canadian people for quality accessible daycare is 25 years old, while our government is whittling away resources that could have been moved into providing a national day care strategy, the multinational people that I’m coming across here are choking. Even including the exchange rates I figure we’re paying some of the highest rates in the world.

A lack of accessible day care simply ignores the promise that the Canadian government has made to its own population and the other member states at the UN when it declared its supposed commitment to gender equality. Lack of affordable daycare does indeed provide a gender based barrier to women’s employment, and I’m sick to death of all of the governments dropping the ball on this issue.

Grr. I just found out that they took away the millennium fund for undergrads and added 20, 000 to funding for masters programs. Now the government will pay 50, 000$ for a masters student.

Anyways I hope everyone is doing well, And I look forward to getting a full debriefing on the budget

Mira Hall’s Reports from the UNCSW! Part 3

UN- Day 3: In a show of their commitment to gender equality financing, the World Bank fails to show upThis morning I attended the opening ceremony of the 52nd UNCSW (United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.) There were huge line ups starting very early in the morning outside the visitors entrance of the United Nations Building. A sharp contrast between two groups filling the line was obvious.

Granola styled free wheeling feminists, and conservatively stuffy business suits of primarily male representatives from all over the globe. I originally thought that the suit clad participants were government delegates for our commission, however I later learned (while sitting in the only indoor smoking area in New York City) that the others were staticians from all member states of the UN.

I had coffee with the head of the department of statistics from Jordan as well as the head from Croatia. The head from Jordan was extremely personable, waxing poetic about his Queen. He was very proud of her contribution to gender equality, and listed off five different government departments dedicated to the study and subsequent implementation of policy to promote Gender Equality in Jordan.

I was very impressed with the pride he showed and the interest he had in the UNCSW. He mentioned that he had even made a point of stopping in on our events to hear the speakers. Mister Croatia was friendly enough, but not very personable. He didn’t seem to have much use for small talk, and I on the other hand feel uncomfortable sitting at a two person table and not speaking to the person across from me. So that conversation was more limited, but he seemed very concerned with the effects of climate change that he had noticed in his area.

Getting back to the spirit of Jordan, however, the first panel that I witnessed was a special event on actions against violence against women. There was a panel of five people including the moderator. Within the panel, there were three men and two women. The focus of the panel seemed to surround the necessity of including men as allies in the fight against violence against women.

The first speaker was a young female who works in Haiti with the Commission of Women Victims for Victims. This is an anti rape movement that started following the second collapse of Haitian society (that resulted in militarization of the area.) The first speaker (I wish I could remember her name) talked about how rapists are rarely convicted in Haiti, and how sometimes a female victim of rape will be killed to restore her family’s honor. She spoke about a grand March of women clad in white dresses and black masks in one of their demonstrations which you can read about here:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/news/CB_GEN_Haiti_Rape_Victims.php

She also talked about the importance of the day to day peer support that women victims provide to each other following rape. I am personally very aware of our own local despair surrounding high rates of violence against women, and hearing her speak led me to dream of someday gathering all victims within the Territory to March to the Legislature. Following her presentation was Michael Coffman from the White Ribbon Campaign. That organization was formed following the Montreal Massacre and is Canadian based. They employ a variety of methods to try to redefine “manhood” to remove violence from acceptable behavior within the social norm.

All members of the White Ribbon Campaign have made a solemn pledge never to use an act of violence on a woman.Kevin Powell is a young black activist who tours the country giving lectures on using Hip Hop for social change, and analyzing the effects of White Patriarchy Models on the black community.

He opened his presentation with the recognition of two violent acts that he had committed against women in his younger days. He said that following the incidents he was challenged by women in his community on the behavior, and that since the incidents he has actively attended psychotherapy stating that engaging in violence against women is a mental illness.

He gave the audience 5 points that men need to stop the violence:1- Own the behavior, own the mistake2- Get help! If you engage in this behavior you NEED mental health help!3- Learn to listen to the voices of women4- Men *must* redefine manhood.5- Men HAVE to be allies to women.He spoke passionately about engaging young men on his tours with frank discussions with language that was relevant to who they are and what social framework they come from. It was really interesting and inspiring.

Next was a lawyer from India who spoke from his experience as a male child in a family of feminists. He supported what the other panelists had already said, and then went on to say that mentoring young men in anti violence so that they can then go forth into their communities and peer groups is essential. He also stressed that within the current social framework that men will more actively listen to other men. He also said that in order to move government support feminists must try to explain benefits of gender equality in terms of the economic as well as social benefits.

I was impressed with the speakers and I am looking forward to hearing back from northerners on how relevant they feel that these ideas are to the North. It did strike me, listening to Kevin Powell that northern kids, particularly aboriginal seem to identify strongly with hip hop and rap music. It also made me think of Herb Norwegian, the former chief who was all apologies for his behavior before a judge with the power to sentence him, but dismissive of it when his behavior impacted his economic benefit. I’m very glad that he was ousted, and I hope that he uses this time to think about the five actions outlined by Powell to seriously modify his behavior.
http://www.menstoppingviolence.org/News/news.php

Following this enlightening panel event, I was finally off to hear what the World Bank had to say about financing for gender equity. I’m a political economics student with Athabasca University. School is so expensive that I usually take one class at a time and will probably be in my late sixties by the time I finish my undergrad. However, in the meantime I try to soak up anything that is relevant to the discipline and have reaped the benefits of the grades that I see when I complete my courses (at a snail’s pace.)

At any rate, I was very excited. Seeing actual people that work for the world bank and hearing them speak on any issue would be akin to going to a rock concert for me. I was so happy to be given the opportunity to be breathing the same air in the same room as these powerhouse people who determine the economic fate of the world. I even ditched out of my smoke based networking in the café early, so that I could get a seat close to them. I arrived and others where there patiently waiting. I sat with a South African woman who develops policy for the government and idly chitchatted about our respective states of health care and education. Time ticked on and on.

Disapointingly, the World Bank Reps failed to come. I was very disappointed and was the last one in the room, long after everyone else had given up and left.In closing, it was a generally good day. I have lots of food for thought, and was even surprised by a South African nun who described a primary health clinic that she works in. It mirrored the work that happens at the Great Slave clinic, except for the fact that they have an early childhood education program and a nursing program in their clinic that teaches young South African women general care and hygiene, subsequently allowing them to go on in nursing or homecare, and other health based jobs. I suppose that we have medical and nursing students who come to our clinic. We have it in a way, but because their system standards are a bit lower, it’s more informal and therefore easier for local women to access.