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In
the News - Read some recent media coverage of Advisory
Council activity.
Abuse in relationships occurs regardless of class, age or sexual orientation. For people in same-sex relationships, an additional obstacle to asking for help when they are in an abusive relationship may be fear of giving their detractors any more fodder. They don't want to reveal that same-sex relationships can be just as volatile and abusive as opposite-sex unions. And if they do look for help, stereotypes and false assumptions surrounding same-sex couples, along with the still-common homophobia and heterosexism, get in the way.
-- From the column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 21 Feb. 2008
Listen to presentations delivered at a Lunch & Learn February 21, 2008 in Moncton, by Diane Matte, specialist in matters related to international human trafficking and Member of the Research Team on the Sexual Trafficking of Women in Québec; Mark Antony Krupa, social activist for the eradication of human trafficking and actor in the acclaimed 2005 Lifetime mini-series Human Trafficking; and Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, of the Codiac region RCMP Victim Services Representative and Chairperson,NB Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Co-sponsored by Univ. de Moncton's Women and Development Committee of the dept. of International Relations and the N.B. Advisory Council, and made possible through the Univ. de Moncton Project "Engagement des francophones du N.-B. a l'internationalisation" funded by Canadian International Development Agency. (45 minutes, in French and English)
New Brunswick needs its Human Rights Commission to have the authority and clout to execute its mandate. That means it should not be subject to Ministerial control but instead report directly to the Legislature, like the Office of the Ombudsman does. The Commission's credibility depends on it being seen as independent from government. That is especially important now that new grounds were added recently and people who have been discriminated against because of their political belief or activity may now lay complaints with the Commission. As we know, a law for which there are no adequate means of implementation is a law that authorizes what we want to prevent. The Commission, which rarely advocates publicly on its behalf, recently reiterated the call for this change.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Times & Transcript, 7 Feb. 2008.
What if the best candidate was a woman and she wasn't running? Like humourist Kin Hubbard said 100 years ago, "We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate." The next election - that we know of for certain - are the municipal elections in New Brunswick in May 2008. When we pick our elected representatives from 50% of the pool, we might not be getting the best candidate. Just as importantly, an "unbalanced" elected body is often not aware of some of the issues it should be dealing with.
Moncton's municipal councillor Kathryn Barnes, said recently there are many reasons why women should get involved - for the satisfaction of serving in politics, because women must share the burden of governing - but a key reason is the fact that men and women have a different point of view. In today's society, women and men still have, in general, different lives and experiences, so the best decisions are made when everyone is represented. As the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities says, that's when policies are rooted in reality.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Times & Transcript, 31 Jan 2008.
The murder in Mississauga last month of Aqsa Parvez, allegedly at the hands of her father, allegedly for reasons of faith, has been touted as an example of irreconcilable conflict between two cultures: the culture of Islam as interpreted by Aqsa's father, and the culture of "The West". People everywhere reacted to the teenager's death.
Between too-faint condemnation and holier-than-thou righteousness, few have hit the right note. Some sought to blame Islam for the varied interpretations it allows of its teachings, like most religions. Others seek to blame Canada's religious freedoms. There are those as interested in damage control to their or their faith's reputations as in denouncing the loss of a young life. There are some who blame Mr. Parvez. There are some who paint Aqsa as a deserving target. And those who advocate for women's and equality rights were mostly silent or tentative, made uncomfortable by the Islamophobia aroung us. We lose sight of the real conflict in this situation.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Times & Transcript, 24 Jan 2008.
Residents of Newfoundland and New Brunswick recently had cause to ask themselves why a doctor who has been prevented from practicing in one province for unprofessional conduct should be allowed to continue practicing in another. All Canadians should take notice because the situation could easily happen again. Following a complaint filed with the Newfoundland and Labrador College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2005 against psychiatrist Dr. James Hanley by a former patient alleging the two had had sexual relations while she was in his care, Dr. Hanley was prevented from practicing in Newfoundland and Labrador pending a final hearing and entered an undertaking not to practice in New Brunswick and any other jurisdictions in which he is licensed. Fast-forward to 2007, and we find that Dr. Hanley has been treating patients in New Brunswick for 15 months.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Times & Transcript, 17 Jan 2008.
New Brunswick has a policy that forbids people who receive welfare from sharing accommodation. Its main result is that some people are made to live in miserable conditions without the support they might otherwise have. Simply sharing the same address is all that is needed for two adults to be considered an economic unit under the definition used by the provincial government to determine eligibility to social assistance.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Times & Transcript, 10 Jan 2008.
Sometimes it's as obvious as a slap in the face or a kick to the ribs. ... And then there's a more insidious form of abuse. Abuse by proxy. It is common but often escapes recognition. As the name suggests, the abuser controls and abuses the victim through a third party. Friends, family and organizations and branches of government can unwittingly become an extension of the abuser's arm. Misuse of family court is one strategy. ...
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 13 Dec. 2007.
It is quite a badge of failure for a society to know that it gives couples more reasons not to have children than otherwise. Indeed, it is a society shooting itself in the foot. Parents in many developed countries are having fewer children than they want, according to a new report by the well-respected Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. It compared the different approaches of 30 member countries, including Canada. Quebec gets high marks for its parental leave and child care services, but the rest of Canada is said to not provide enough support to working parents. As long as there are people with few work/family choices, there will be too few babies and too little employment. That's clear from what we know in New Brunswick, and that's what the report concludes.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 6 Dec. 2007.
When New Brunswick university students held a bake sale where sweets were offered at $1 apiece to men and 80 cents to women, the organizers were trying to upset people. "It was supposed to offend people because it is discrimination based on gender. So is pay inequity," said an organizer.
Were it so that we were all offended by pay inequity - by secretaries earning less than janitors in New Brunswick universities and other workplaces, even though secretaries require more education and skills. Were it so that we were offended by child care workers paid practically minimum wage, when we say their work is crucial to children's early years and to the economy, and by nurses and other female-dominated health care professions being undervalued given their level of training and their importance to health care.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 8 Nov. 2007.
Listen to the presentations at the Lunch & Learn in Moncton, 14 November, 2007 with Dieppe Councillor Brenda LeBlanc and Moncton Councillor Kathryn Barnes. In French and English. 80 minutes.
This session is one of a series being organized by the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, in anticipation of the May 2008 municipal elections in N.B. What if, instead of fighting city hall, you joined it?
Women are workers too - almost half of the New Brunswick workforce in fact - but you wouldn't know it from reading the discussion papers just released by New Brunswick's Independent Review Panel on the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation System. You won't find any mention of differences between women and men in coverage, claims and benefits, the appeals system or governance. None of the data is broken down by sex.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 1 Nov. 2007.
It is disgraceful that in a country as prosperous as Canada, there are over 1.2 million children living in poverty. In New Brunswick, 25,000 children, almost 17% of New Brunswick children, live in poverty. The numbers are even worse for certain groups of children, such as those of lone parents, and about half of recent immigrant families and a third of children in racialized families are poor, even though Canada guarantees equality regardless of the colour of your skin and the place of your birth. What is even worse, many of the poor are working poor.
-- Excerpt, column by Chairperson Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Moncton Times & Transcript, 25 Oct. 2007.
Listen to the 60-minute presentation on Experiences of Abused Rural Women in N.B. and P.E.I. - Firearms, Animal Abuse, Culture, by Drs. Deborah Doherty and Jennie Hornosty at a recent Fredericton Lunch and Learn sponsored by the N.B. Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Despite the growing body of literature on family violence, there are few studies which deal specifically with family violence in a rural context. None have examined extensively the social and cultural context of firearms in rural homes and the impact this may have on women dealing with abuse.
-- Read the Summary by Dr. Deborah Doherty and Dr. Jennie Hornosty
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