The Conservative Party of Canada and Status of Women Canada

Re: The Conservative Party of Canada and Status of Women Canada, the following message was sent Sep. 22, 2008,

To Leon Benoit
Member of Parliament
Conservative Party of Canada
Vegreville-Wainwright
Alberta

Dear Leon,

This is in reference to the discussion we had during your attendance at the supper at the Bruderheim Seniors Club, Friday, September 19th, 2008, after your address to those present.

I had asked you about what plans the Canadian Conservative Party has to establish a government department “Status of Men”, to provide a counterweight to that of “Status of Women”, so as to promote balance in addressing issues pertaining to both sexes.

The discussion I had hoped would develop out of that question never had a chance to emerge.  That is because you insisted that “you” (I took that to mean the Government of Canada under the leadership of the CPC) do not have a government department “Status of Women Canada”.

You are mistaken.  Your insistence on the assertion that Status of Women Canada does not exist is quite plainly wrong.  Proof of your assertion being wrong is provided by the fact that the budget allocation to Status of Women Canada was, even though not eliminated, slashed in 2006 by the government your party leads, slashed by,

$5-million: Administrative reductions to Status of Women Canada (see full story: Ottawa’s $2-billion hit list, Sep. 27, 2006)

Here are a few Government of Canada web pages that illustrate that Status of Women Canada is very much alive and kicking.

• http://www.cfc-swc.gc.ca/index_e.html (English)
• http://www.cfc-swc.gc.ca/index_f.html (French)
• http://www.cfc-swc.gc.ca/funding/wp/wpguide_e.html
  

The last of those web pages identifies, amongst many other things, that,

The following issues have been identified as Women’s Program priorities for 2008-2009:

• women’s economic security (with a focus on financial literacy)
• women’s economic prosperity
• women’s leadership development
• women’s safety
• elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls

That Government of Canada web page identifies also that,

To be eligible for Women’s Program funding, an organization’s mandate and objectives must reflect: Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which stipulates, “(1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability” and “(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups, including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability”;

Those laudable provisions and conditions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should equally apply to men, especially in view of the rampant, excessive and even fatal discrimination against men by the Canadian Government under your leadership, all the more so in view of the fact that the discrimination against men prevailed already for decades.

Are men’s issues such as those listed for women, above, any less important?  There should be no doubt in any objective individual’s mind about that funding allocations should also be made to promote:

• men’s economic security (with a focus on financial literacy);
• men’s economic prosperity;
• men’s leadership development;
• men’s safety, and the
• elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against men and boys. [According to StatCan, Canadian men comprise 75% of Canadian homicide victims and the majority of victims of violence.]

A search of the website of the Government of Canada for “Status of Women” shows information that pertains to as many as 14,338 items of federal government expenditures, covering millions of dollars spent on behalf of Status of Women Canada, further proving that Status of Women Canada is very much alive.  The expense claims for which compensation was provided could not very well have been made by individuals from a government department whose demise is being so vastly exaggerated by you.  After all, it appears that the most recent record of those expense claims was updated Sep. 4, 2008.

It is particularly disturbing that many of those expenditures, many of them to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, were quite clearly used to promote a Canadian feminist agenda on the international political scene.  What comparable expenditures for comparable reasons took place on behalf of men?  Is the feminist agenda thus promoted representative of the international policies of the government under the Conservative Party of Canada, or is Status of Women Canada a government department that is out of control?

Leon, women own roughly 70 percent of all personal property in Canada.  Women receive 70 percent of all payouts from social safety nets (while men make 70 percent of all contributions to those social safety nets).  Women comprise less than two out of every 20 job fatalities (see Death by Numbers).  Women receive the benefits of government research funding for women-specific diseases that are much larger than the research funding for diseases specific to men.  Women’s presence at universities and colleges vastly exceeds the number of male students.  Last but not least, Canadian women outlive Canadian men on average by seven years.

Those are just a few of the examples that show that Canadian women fare much better than the conditions for Canadian men permit for men.  They illustrate that the creation of a government department for the Status of Men is necessary and well justified.  If that is not so, please identify a time and place to permit some representatives of the Canadian Men’s Movement to meet with you and to be able to discuss those matters in greater detail.

Leon, to make a last point and to impress upon you the importance of issues such as those I identified in this message, consider that the importance of the growing voting block of the elderly that you identified and stressed in your address last Friday could be made to be far more important for the party that actually cares enough about the prevailing early demise of men, so as to attempt to make the proportions of women and men over 65 and still alive equal, instead of it being, as of now, one man for every two women.

The issues brought up in this message relate not merely to the respective well-being of the sexes but are quite literally matters of life and death, especially so for men and boys.  Without a doubt, to address those issues, in a manner that is favourable to Canadian men, boys and those who love and respect them, will have a beneficial impact on your party’s fortunes in the coming election.

Respectfully awaiting your response,

Walter Schneider

P.O. Box 62
Bruderheim, Alberta
T0B 0S0

Tel: 780.796.2306

http://fathersforlife.org
http://blog.fathersforlife.org

Cc: Men’s rights activists, various citizens and concerned individuals
__________
Epilogue — 2018 04 29: Leon Benoit never responded.  That is astounding, given that the issues touched upon in my letter concern the welfare and well-being of the largest visible minority of Canadians,  the slightly less than half of Canada’s population that is male.