Battered Women’s Support Services Hopeful As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Appoints His Cabinet
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
November 4, 2015
BATTERED WOMEN’S SUPPORT SERVICES HOPEFUL AS PRIME MINISTER
JUSTIN TRUDEAU APPOINTS HIS CABINET
We are hopeful on this historic day to see Gender Parity in the new federal cabinet appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We agree with the Prime Minister that it is 2015 and gender parity in Canadian parliament signifies an opportunity to redress systemic discrimination in Canada.
We commend Prime Minister Trudeau for appointing such a strong and diverse Cabinet and for recognizing the importance of having women’s voices at the Cabinet table. Today’s federal Cabinet appointments represent much potential and opportunities for the women of Canada.
We would like to congratulate all newly appointed Cabinet Ministers to the Federal Government, and in particular, former BC Regional Chief Puglaas, Jody Wilson-Raybould in the role as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Puglaas has been and continues to be a strong voice for women’s issues and violence against women.
We cannot talk about violence against women without speaking to the national shame of disappearances and murders of Indigenous women and girls. We have appreciated walking with Puglaas during the Women’s Memorial March held every February 14th in Downtown Eastside Vancouver, British Columbia to draw our collective voices around the need for a national inquiry.
We are recognized by the International community and through the observations and recommendations tabled through the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples providing a benchmark on the status of women in Canada.
As Canada moves toward holding a national inquiry to address Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls we are reminded that many recommendations from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples have not been enacted and are sitting collecting dust. We are painfully aware of Canada’s recent history of Residential Schools and the 94 Recommendations growing from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The significance of the Trudeau government swearing in ceremony beginning with an acknowledgement of traditional Algonquin territory was not lost on us. This is unprecedented action and we remain hopeful that this is yet another opportunity to move change forward for the benefit of all.
As much change as we have seen in the recent years, the grim reality remains, that every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. We are hopeful that this day is the beginning of the end of violence against women and girls in Canada, and that Prime Minister Trudeau’s government will take meaningful and proactive steps in ensuring a future free from violence and oppression for our daughters and granddaughters.
For more information or to schedule an interview:
Angela Marie MacDougall
Executive Director, Battered Women’s Support Services
Tel. (604) 808 0507
E-mail: director@bwss.org
About BWSS
BWSS is a feminist organization. We believe that battering does not take place between two people individually, in isolation, but in a social context, and is rooted in the oppression of women. Further, we believe that battering is the result of a world view which supports the right of some people to oppress others. That right is granted by the privilege of status associated with gender, race, religion, class, sexual orientation, age and physical ability.
Battered Women’s Support Services provides education, advocacy and support services to assist all battered women in its aim to work towards the elimination of violence and to work from a feminist perspective that promotes equality for all women. We contribute to the freedom and liberation of girls and women from violence and to empower our community through training and education programs. For over 35 years BWSS has been providing counselling and healing spaces for those who have experienced abuse. To help women build strength and resiliency, we work on systemic advocacy, law reform, in-class youth engagement programs and we operate a social enterprise called My Sister’s Closet in British Columbia. In addition, we support men by urging them to own their role in ending violence against girls and women.
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