OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Nov 12 (MARKET WIRE) --
The Canadian Labour Congress is asking Canadians to send 20 postcards in
20 days to the prime minister telling him to take action now to end
violence against women.
"On December 6th it will be 20 years since 14 young women were murdered
in Montreal simply because they were women," says Barbara Byers,
Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress. "Ironically, as
this anniversary approaches, our government is trying to eradicate the
firearms registry, the one concrete measure taken to reduce gun violence
against women."
Byers says the CLC and its affiliate unions have distributed thousands of
postcards and have asked people to return them to Prime Minister Stephen
Harper between November 16th and December 6th. The cards urge him to keep
the gun registry, and also contain messages asking that Canada improve
the lives of women by: improving the funding of shelters for women and
children; investing in new social housing; setting a national standard
for welfare rates; providing equal pay for work of equal value; and
improving services, including a nationally-funded child care program,
better public pensions and access to Employment Insurance.
Byers says, "Rather than promoting women's equality, the federal
government is severely limiting women's capacity to organize, advocate
and lobby. They won't support women's equality in the workplace and have
limited women's rights to challenge discrimination before the courts. We
will not accept an erosion of our hard-won equality rights and we will
not be silenced by a socially conservative government agenda."
The 20 Days 20 Ways postcards are available on the CLC website:
www.canadianlabour.ca. The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice
of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers.
Contacts:
Canadian Labour Congress
Dennis Gruending
Communications
613-526-7431
613-878-6040
Copyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.
-0-
