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Rights
Who
Speaks For Women?
Choice is a Woman's Right!
National
Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
Media Release
June
8, 2004
The National
Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) is appalled
that, sixteen years after a hard fought struggle that culminated in
the Supreme Court of Canada decision supporting a woman's right to
choice, women's rights are being challenged once again by the fundamentalist
right. In 1988 the court ruled that a woman had the right to choice
under section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that guarantees
Canadians the "right to life, liberty and security of life".
NAC is alarmed
by the highly inflammatory and outrageous statements that have been
made by political candidates who are intent on making a woman's right
to choice a morality issue as they pander for votes in this election.
They would take our country back almost two decades in spite of consistent
public opinion polls that show that the majority of Canadians believe
the right to choose a private decision between a woman and her physician.
NAC is calling
on women and all equality-seeking Canadians to question their candidates
on where they stand on this and other critical issues that affect
women's lives. Issues that have been decided by the courts constitute
the rule of law and cannot be changed without a constitutional amendment.
A "free vote" only makes sense if legislation has been introduced
and debated.
However, human
rights should never be trivialized by "free votes" in parliament.
It is the responsibility of government caucuses to mandate a collective
response in these situations. Unfortunately, there are still those
who need to be reminded that women's rights are human rights. Moreover,
in a legislature that has still to reflect the demographics of our
country (the Parliament that just ended was almost 80% male), policy-making
rarely prioritises the issues that most affect the lives of women
and children.
(NAC) is particularly
calling on young women in Canada to get involved in this election.
Young women are crucial in the struggle to protect women's rights
- for themselves and future generations of women. Now is the time
to push the parties to take a stand on womens' rights.
For more information
contact:
Sungee John
Anne
Kettenbeil
Source: National
Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
Download
the "Who Speaks for Us" postcard
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the "Who Speaks for Us" postcard 
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file - 1 page)
National
Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)'s
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