15 reasons why Harper is a fake feminist

When Stephen Harper stands in the House of Commons, he is surrounded by women. Earlier this month, he made a big to-do about promoting four new women to his cabinet. But any suggestion that Harper and the Conservatives genuinely care about women or the many issues women face can easily be refuted. Let's start with the following list.

Canadian women and the organized feminist movement made several gains after the Royal Commission on the Status of Women which began in early 1967 and recommended federal government initiatives to ensure equal opportunities for men and women in all aspects of Canadian society. Over the years, gains have included the legalization of abortion, improved sexual assault laws, and the inclusion of gender equality in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (leading to many favourable court decisions).

However, since 2006, Stephen Harper and his Cons have been cutting back women's rights in an unprecedented way, real time Location system, as they throw around the word “equality” and act as if the gender playing field is level. The Cons have been promoting a free-market, survival-of-the-fittest, socially conservative society. (In their first year, they tried to roll back same-sex marriage legislation.) Harper has followed the Chretien tactic of fighting the deficit by cutting social transfers to the provinces and weakening federal participation in social programmes -- health, education, and social welfare. He has ignored calls for anti-poverty initiatives, such as a national housing strategy.

The Cons have further justified their attacks on Canada's socially progressive state by diminishing government revenues with cuts to the GST and corporate taxes. Harper prefers to use our tax dollars to develop and promote environmentally unfriendly, non-renewable fossil fuels, thus poisoning and threatening our communities. He has turned away from previous "soft power" international strategies that enhanced the security of women and their families, expanded Canada's military capabilities, promoted the arms industry, weakened gun control, including the elimination of the Long Gun Registry in 2012, and put more Canadians behind bars.

Quality, affordable child care allows working parents (70 per cent of mothers now work) to maintain a better living standard with two incomes. It allows single mothers -- many of whom are poor -- to attend school or skills training, get decent jobs and accept job promotions. The incidence of single mothers living below the poverty line in Quebec has dropped since the introduction of universal access to regulated child care. At the same time, thousands of live-in caregivers, mainly from the Philippines and the Caribbean, are particularly vulnerable because immigration regulations require them to live with and work for the employer named on their work permit. The Cons have eliminated funding for community programs which helped such women at risk.

In 2006, the Harper Cons cut funding for Status of Women Canada (SWC) by 37 per cent -- from $13 million to $8 million -- forcing the closure of 12 of its 16 regional offices. As usual, they hid behind arguments of fiscal responsibility and "efficiency savings." They argued that the SWC's job was done because women were equal. The SWC mandate was also changed to exclude "gender equality and political justice." Program funding criteria were ideologically redrafted so that activities for research, advocacy, and lobbying were ineligible.

The loss of this important funding source set back or eliminated groups, including: the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women Womenspace, the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, the Feminist Alliance for International Action, le Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail, the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, Réseau des tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec, and Action travail des femmes. By cutting support for so many women's organizations, the Harper Cons contravened Canada's obligation to maintain and improve domestic human rights -- as required under the UN and other international treaties.  Sadly, with the infamous "enemies list," those women's groups which have survived are afraid to speak out against the Cons in case their future funding is cut.

The Cons regularly condemn what they call "judicial activism" -- meaning pro-equality rulings by judges. In 2006, they eliminated funding for the Court Challenges Program which for years had provided financial support for women, women's groups, and others to bring equality cases to court. This meant that Harper and company were deliberately undercutting women's ability to challenge discriminatory laws using Article 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Not only had Con cuts undermined women's ability to analyze federal policies and recommend reforms, they had also denied them the opportunity to turn to the courts to seek justice. In September, 2007, the offices of the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), a well-respected organization that had made valuable contributions to improving women's human rights in Canada, were closed. For more than 30 years, the association was involved in precedent-setting legal work on behalf of women, including amendments to the Criminal Code concerning sexual assault, improvements to the Divorce Act, and the adoption of equality rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Before he became prime minister, Harper promised Canadians his government wouldn't re-open the abortion issue. But Con backbenchers have been doing exactly that by introducing Private Members Bills in an attempt to diminish freedom of choice. The 2008 Unborn Victims of Crime Act (Bill C-484), supported by Harper at Second Reading in the House of Commons, would have criminalized harm to a foetus by establishing its "personhood." This died on the order paper after an election was called, but it was soon followed by another bill "to protect the conscience rights of Canada’s health-care workers," so they would "never be forced to participate against their will in procedures such as abortions." This failed to pass.

In spring 2010 Harper launched his G8 maternal health proposal, theoretically aimed at saving "the lives of mothers and children all over the world." When women's health advocates and others asked for details, Harper was vague, hiding behind his usual doublespeak. Canadian maternal health policy now denies funding for abortion services in the developing world, despite the deaths and injuries caused by the lack of such services. In September, 2012, the House of Commons voted on Con MP Stephen Woodworth's private member's motion to study whether a foetus should have legal rights before birth. Ten Con cabinet ministers, including Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose, voted for this. In December, 2012, Con MP Mark Warawa introduced a motion regarding sex-selective abortions -- to "condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination," but later withdrew it. He claimed he wanted to defend human rights, but many saw it as another attempt to outlaw abortion.

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