Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan

Canadians joined millions around the world to mark International Women’s Day in March to honor the achievements of women and to commit themselves anew to promoting equality, justice and respect. This year’s theme was “Equality for women is progress for all.”



Such commemorations started decades ago. In 1997 it led to the United Nations General Assembly inviting member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN day for women’s rights and world peace. But sadly women’s rights and world peace still remain elusive. One estimate is that 35 percent of women the world over suffer violence or abuse.



Canada has been in the forefront to promote women’s rights. Its governors-general include a French Canadian woman, an Asian woman who came to Canada as a child and a black woman who left Haiti with her family as a child to seek safety in this country. The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada is a woman. Canada has also had a woman prime minister.



But for many Canadian women, International Women’s Day this year was painful, especially for the family of Loretta Saunders, a 26-year-old Halifax University student who went missing in February and whose body was found on a highway in New Brunswick.



Her cousin Holly Jarrett joined a rally at Parliament Hill where about 100 people gathered to back a petition for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Since 1990 more than 800 Aboriginal have gone missing or have been found dead.



The petition has been signed by 100,000 Canadians while 23,000 Canadians signed the petition of the Native Women’s Association of Canada on the day Saunders went missing. Provincial premiers, New Democratic Party and Liberal Party politicians and James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has also called for a public inquiry.



Saunders was doing her master’s degree thesis on missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The roommates with whom she shared an apartment, Victoria Henneberry, 28, and Blake Leggette, 25, have been charged with first-degree murder.



Justice Minister Peter MacKay called Saunders’ death “heartbreaking” but said the problem should be solved by all levels of government and the private sector working together.



Aboriginal women, however, are not the only women who have been victimized. On December 6, 1989, Marc Lepine, 25, the son of an Algerian father and a French Canadian woman, shot 28 people at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and then killed himself. He targeted women in particular, killing 14 and injuring 10 other women and four men. The media reported that he had been abused by his Algerian father but that he blamed feminists for ruining his life.



Commentators say that the Montreal Massacre represented a wider societal violence against women and they blame the media as well as poverty, isolation and alienation, especially among disadvantaged Canadians including Aboriginals and immigrants. The Canadian Parliament in 1991 designated Dec. 6 as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. The incident also led to stricter gun control laws in Canada.



The federal government also established Status of Women Canada to combat violence against women and girls and to promote equality and leadership for women and their full participation in the social, democratic and economic life of Canada. Since 1971 a cabinet minister has been responsible for Status of Women. Such an action was proposed by the report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in 1970.



Women in Canada probably are doing better than those in many other countries. Still, reports suggest that Canadian women have not attained equality of safety.



Statistics Canada stated that violent crime against women is about five percent higher than for men, according to police reports. Women are 11 times more likely to fall victim to a sexual offense than men and three times more likely to suffer criminal harassment.



Statistics Canada has reported that 120,000 to 800,000 children witness parental violence each year and are traumatized, which leads to emotional problems, insecurity and maladjustment.



The reports stated that violent crime against women between 15 and 24 years of age was 42 percent higher for women between 25 and 34 and almost double the rate for those between 35 and 44.



Statistics Canada also said, on the basis of a survey of about 600 residential shelters, that on any given day about 3,300 women across the country sleep in such shelters for safety and that about 420 women are turned away every day because the shelter has no room or because of mental illness or drugs impairment.



The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives estimates that sexual assault and other such violence costs Canada about $9 billion every year in terms of health care, justice system and other expenses. Most victims are women.



These are random figures, but they show that though Canada should be gratified with the progress it has made, it has much work to do before all of its citizens enjoy safety and equality.

 

— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.