Fifty thousand demonstrators converged on Parliament Hill Oct. 15 to support demands to end violence against women and women's poverty in Canada for the World March of Women 2000 event in Ottawa. But Prime Minister Jean Chrétien sent them home with nothing but a directive to talk with his Ministers and the provinces.

He will have to catch up to women, event organizers say. "We're on the move and we're not stopping," said Terri Brown, president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and a member of the Canadian Women's March Committee (CWMC).

"Women demand that government take a clear leadership position on where we're going on women's poverty and violence against women," said Jennifer Anthony, national deputy chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students and CWMC member.

Representatives of CWMC met with the Prime Minister following the largest march of women in Canadian history to discuss women's demands but received no firm commitments.

According to Brown the Prime Minister wasted their time. "He showed a profound lack of leadership," she said. "We wanted him to make a commitment that our 13 demands would be reflected in his pre-election mini-budget on Oct. 18. All he came back with was a reminder that he had appointed a number of women to profile positions in his government."

"The PM just doesn't get it," said Nancy Riche, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress and CWMC member.

"While appointing women to high positions in government may be a noble gesture, he in no way addressed the realities of the lives of the majority of women in Canada today."

CWMC said there was nothing in Paul Martin's mini-budget to address women's key demands and the committee now questions the government's willingness to pro-actively address the concerns of women in Canada.

"Women don't want tax cuts," Anthony said. "Tax cuts and tax credits mean very little for those without money."

"The Prime Minster is going to have to catch up with us now because we are going to work and will continue to organize and push for what we want," Riche said. "Women will put this government on record, one way or another."

Organizers of the October march vow to work with women across Canada to continue to push for real change. A vigorous lobbying program of 68 proposals to end poverty and violence against women has been underway since the summer, and will continue into the election season.

The CWMC, a coalition of 24 national women's organizations, has worked in tandem with more than 5,300 organizations in 159 countries on the campaign against women's poverty and violence against women.

The CWMC program, It's Time for Change, made up of 68 proposals for legislative and policy reform ranging from the protection of women's social, economic and cultural rights, women's work, the human rights of immigrant women, Aboriginal women, and lesbians, the support of the human rights of women around the world and the encouragement of women's active citizenship, can be found at www.canada.marchofwomen.org.


A Feminist Dozen

The Canadian Women's March Committee has developed a set of 13 immediate demands. Women in Canada call on the federal government to:

1. Restore federal funding to health care.
   
2. Spend an additional 1% of the budget on social housing.
   
3. Set up the promised national child care fund.
   
4. Increase Old Age Security payments to provide older women with a decent standard of living.
   
5. Use the surples from the Employment Insurance fund to increase benefits, provide longer payment periods and improve access, as well as improve maternity and family benefits.
   
6. Support for women's organizing for equality and democracy.
   
7. Fund consultations with a wide range of women's equality-seeking organizations prior to all legislative reform of relevance to women's security and equality rights.
   
8. Implement a progressive reform.
   
9. Contribute to the elimination of poverty around the world.
   
10. Adopt national standards which guarantee the right to wlfare for everyone in need and ban workfare.
    
11. Recognize the ongoing exclusions of women with disabilities from economic, political and social life.
    
12. Establish a national system of grants based on need, not merit, to enable access to post-secondary education and reduce student debt.
    
13. Adopt proactive pay equity legislation.