Last March, Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, passed second reading in the House of Commons. This bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code and to create a separate offence for causing the injury or death of an “unborn child” should a pregnant woman be the victim of a crime.

The adoption of Bill C-484 would introduce a huge change in our law that would result in massive intrusions in the lives of pregnant women, as has been the case in those states in the U.S. that have adopted similar legislation.

It is important that we take a stand now to defend women’s reproductive rights. This is a question that goes to the heart of women’s equality, dignity and human rights.

Attached is a call to action, a backgrounder on Bill C-484 and a template letter to your MP. Please join the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and register your opposition to Bill C-484.

On December 13th, 2007, federal Conservative Member of Parliament, Ken Epp, tabled Bill C-484, “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offense)”. The Bill is usually cited by its short title, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act. The Act has now passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

Bill C-484 would allow charges to be laid in the death of an “unborn child” if the mother is a victim of violent crime. As a result, many believe that it opens the door to giving de facto legal personhood to a foetus. The granting of such status could conflict with women’s rights and undermine the current legal understanding by the Supreme Court of Canada that a woman and her foetus are considered “physically one,” and that the foetus is not a separate entity. By separating the two in his new bill, Epp is advancing a position that runs counter to that of the Supreme Court and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Women’s Court of Canada (WCC) is an innovative project bringing together academics, activists, and litigators in order literally to rewrite the Canadian Charter equality jurisprudence. The WCC grew out of a LEAF-sponsored colloquium entitled “In Pursuit of substantive Equality,” held in September 2003 and February 2004. Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde, who once said “the only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it,” the WCC now operates as a virtual court, and ‘reconsiders’ leading equality decisions, rendering alternative decisions as a means of articulating new conceptions of substantive equality. The WCC is engaged in an ongoing critique and re-envisioning of Canadian case law in order to invigorate the equality debate by bringing new voices to the debate and encouraging new thinking about equality issues to the benefit of legal education and the broader public across Canada.

As part of a two piece series reporting on the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that was recently held at the United Nations in New York from February 25 – March 7, 2008, Sarah Rosenhek from the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) wrote this informative report.

Two recent studies carried out in Ontario schools, one conducted by Toronto’s School Community Safety Advisory Panel and the other by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), found that sexual harassment and sexual assault of girls are occurring at alarming rates.The Panel stressed that the problem requires immediate attention.

“Canadian women make up half the electorate and almost half the nation’s income tax payers. They contribute $42.4 billion in personal income taxes to the well-being of all Canadians. Despite this heft, the 2008 budget is written as if women are afterthoughts, mere asterisks in the larger Canadian.”

In the report “Budget 2008: What’s in it for Women,” the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives explores the gender impact of the 2008 federal budget. It highlights how the budget does virtually nothing for Canadian women struggling to balance family and work life, and how its heavy emphasis on tax cuts are strongly tilted in favour of high income men.

The paper also examines the federal government’s priorities laid out in this government’s last three budgets and finds an approach that rewards the rich, but does precious little for the rest of us. Despite availability of huge surpluses, women’s concerns are almost invisible.

Please join FAFIA to launch the Canadian chapter of the international report “Social Watch Report 2007: in dignity and rights.”

The Zonta Club of Ottawa, Canadian Federation of University Women/Kanata and UNIFEM Canada welcome you to a public forum “Human Trafficking: At home and abroad.”

Amnesty International Canada has recently launched it’s yearly human rights agenda entitled Canada and the International Protection of Human Rights: An Erosion of Leadership?. The report offers a compilation of the range of human rights recommendations AI has put in front of the government over that past year across a number of themes including: women, Indigenous peoples, refugees, security, business, and international standards.

It has been an eventful couple of years for FAFIA and women’s organizations in Canada generally. There has been significant upheaval, several setbacks as well as a few modest successes. Within this context, we invite you to participate in FAFIA’s National Symposium and General Meeting which will take place in Gatineau, Quebec between November 30 and December 2, 2007.

Last March, Bill C 484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, passed second reading in the House of Commons. This bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code and to create a separate offence for causing the injury or death of an “unborn child” when a pregnant woman is the victim of a crime. This would mean that the murderer of a pregnant woman could be accused of a second murder, that of the foetus.

Mobolize, Network, Energize, and Deepend the Roots of the Young Feminist Movement Across Canada!

Shout out! A project featuring young women’s views on human rights

Congratulations to the five young dynamic women from across Canada who have been chosen to be part of the Shout Out! Team.

Québec Native Women (QNW) is organizing a peaceful protest to urge the Canadian Government to change its current opposition to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and vote in favor of the Declaration on Sept 13th at the next session of the UN General Assembly. The UN Human Rights Council passed the Declaration in June 2006.

A petition is being circulated across Québec by the Bloc Québécois,
calling on the Prime Minister to honour his commitment to uphold women’s human rights by: 1/immediately re-establishing the Court Challenges Program; 2/re-instating the previous criteria for the Women’s Program; and 3/re-opening the twelve regional Status of Women offices that closed on March 31.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by six female Nobel Peace Laureates, representing North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Bringing together their personal experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality they seek to help strengthen work being done in support of women’s rights around the world - work often carried out in the shadows with little recognition.

NWI is currently focusing on women’s rights in Iran. To date, at least 11 women’s rights activists have been summoned by the Revolutionary Court, and another 50 cases are pending. On April 23 two more women’s rights activists were sentenced to prison, reportedly charged with “gathering and colluding to disturb national security,” “disturbing public order” and “disobeying the orders of officials.”

“Step it Up!” is our message from women to the Province of Ontario. We want better, faster government action to end violence against women.

On April 3, 2007, Quebec-based women’s group Afeas marks Invisible Work Day. This day of public awareness-raising was instituted in 2001 to make visible women’s unpaid invisible work in the family, raising children, and caring for intimates who are ill, disabled or frail.

To date, Afeas members have collected over 20,000 signed support cards, and 1170 signatures on their online petition in Quebec.

On Tuesday, March 13th , the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, in conjunction with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, launched The Building Peace, Making History Exhibit - a traveling exhibit in Ottawa.

On the eve of International Women’s Day, support women’s equality by spending an evening in the healing waters of Le Nordik Spa (only 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa!). 50% of the admission fee ($37+tax) will be donated to the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).