Stephen Harper keeps it REAL
0 Comments Published by The R Rated Blogger on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 11:06 AM.
Social Conservatives are lobbying and the Canadian government is listening.
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Stephen Harper has managed to avoid divisive topics like gay marriage and abortion, but that does not mean he isn’t appeasing his religious right followers. He managed to quietly pass at least three issues straight from the right wing lobby group REAL Women of Canada by cutting the Court Challenges Program, the Status of Women, and instituting direct payments to parents rather than Universal Daycare.
This budget scrapes the Court Challenge Program -- a program instituted to help fund court costs for constitutional challenges. This program has been widely attacked by REAL and some Christian groups
Scrapping the CCP may have long term implications should a majority Conservative government decided to repeal laws allowing abortion or gay marriage. By cutting the CCP the government may be able to prevent any serious court challenges as most groups would be unable to afford court expenses.
Also alarming was REAL's effective attack on the Status of Women. Unhappy that they had received little to no funding from the Status of Women, they decided to attack the fund. They organized an intensive lobbying campaign amongst their membership claiming among other issues that the Status of Women funding was unfairly distributed to women’s shelter across Canada, stating that in 2001, there were 344 incidents per 100,000 women, and for men, there were 62 incidents for every 100,000 - the latter is up 40% from six years ago. Although there were many more incidents of assault against women, this does not mean that men should be neglected.(April 4, 2006)
Finally, Harper also made another concession to REAL when he eliminated the plan for universal daycare in favour of his $100 a month cash for kids scheme. A program some argue favours affluent stay-at-home mothers, rather than the majority of women who must work and barely manage to pay for child care. Furthermore, Universal daycare, as well as, providing an affordable alternative for most parents would have also created employment for many women who make up the majority of child care givers.
As a minority government the Conservatives have still managed to quietly promote their anti-women agenda. Paving the way for more drastic attacks on individual right should they achieve a majority government in the future.
source
Stephen Harper has managed to avoid divisive topics like gay marriage and abortion, but that does not mean he isn’t appeasing his religious right followers. He managed to quietly pass at least three issues straight from the right wing lobby group REAL Women of Canada by cutting the Court Challenges Program, the Status of Women, and instituting direct payments to parents rather than Universal Daycare.
This budget scrapes the Court Challenge Program -- a program instituted to help fund court costs for constitutional challenges. This program has been widely attacked by REAL and some Christian groups
Scrapping the CCP may have long term implications should a majority Conservative government decided to repeal laws allowing abortion or gay marriage. By cutting the CCP the government may be able to prevent any serious court challenges as most groups would be unable to afford court expenses.
Also alarming was REAL's effective attack on the Status of Women. Unhappy that they had received little to no funding from the Status of Women, they decided to attack the fund. They organized an intensive lobbying campaign amongst their membership claiming among other issues that the Status of Women funding was unfairly distributed to women’s shelter across Canada, stating that in 2001, there were 344 incidents per 100,000 women, and for men, there were 62 incidents for every 100,000 - the latter is up 40% from six years ago. Although there were many more incidents of assault against women, this does not mean that men should be neglected.(April 4, 2006)
Finally, Harper also made another concession to REAL when he eliminated the plan for universal daycare in favour of his $100 a month cash for kids scheme. A program some argue favours affluent stay-at-home mothers, rather than the majority of women who must work and barely manage to pay for child care. Furthermore, Universal daycare, as well as, providing an affordable alternative for most parents would have also created employment for many women who make up the majority of child care givers.
As a minority government the Conservatives have still managed to quietly promote their anti-women agenda. Paving the way for more drastic attacks on individual right should they achieve a majority government in the future.
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