sar ramen vitesse | “See rete meer sete By KERRY McCUAIG Following a 45-minute meeting with representatives from Canada’s largest femi- nist organization Feb. 27, the Ontario government announced it was joining Brit- ish Columbia in a court challenge to the federal government’s proposed cutbacks to the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP). The National Action Committee on the Status of Women had urged Premier David Peterson to take the action, after obtaining legal advice over the weekend. CAP legisla- tion demands one year’s notice from either party before cancelling or changing the terms of the contract. In addition, agree- ments between individual provinces and the federal government requires mutual con- sent of the two parties before any party may terminate the deal. “Ontario believes that the federal government cannot ignore its commitments or take unilateral measures to back out of its agreement with the provinces,” Ontario Attorney-General Ian Scott said in a state- ment announcing that Ontario would sup- port B.C. in its legal action. Federal Finance Minister Michael Wil- son announced a five per cent limit increase on CAP payments to British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario in his Feb. 20 federal budget. “We are launching a nation-wide cam- paign to oppose the cap on CAP,” said Martha Friendly of the NAC child care committee. “Capping the CAP for three provinces is just the thin edge of the wedge. If the government can impose cuts on just three provinces, based on recent history, we have to ask: who’s next?” Introduced by Health and Welfare Min- ister Judy LaMarsh in 1966, CAP is the country’s primary piece of national welfare legislation. Designed to encourage the pro- vinces to provide social assistance to the poor, it pays 50 per cent of the cost of subsidized child care, welfare, transitional houses, care for the disabled and child wel- fare programs. In a press release, NAC pointed out that traditionally it has been provincial, not fed- eral, governments which have limited spending for social welfare. No province in the country has estab- lished welfare payments schedules which would bring recipients even up to federal established poverty income levels. Accord- ing to Statistics Canada, most of the 3.7 million Canadians who fall below the pov- erty line are acutely poor, with incomes less than 60 per cent of the cutoff. The poorest of the poor are women and children. Almost 57 per cent of single moth- ers, more than half of all single women over 65, half of young people 16 to 24 and over one million children live in desperate pov- erty. Food banks, once considered a reces- sion necessity when the first one opened in 1981, are now becoming a permanent fix- ture. “Michael Wilson’s attempt to impose a federal cap signals an entirely new era in social spending in Canada and ultimately has serious implication for low income Canadians in all provinces, have and have- not,” the release stated. Besides pressuring the affected provinces to take action, NAC is investigating a con- stitutional challenge. “Selecting poor peo- ple in Ontario, B.C, and Alberta to receive different treatment than poor people in - Manitoba or Quebec appears to violate Sec- tion 15 of the Charter of Rights,” said NAC executive member Janet Maher. The organization is particularly critical that Wilson is carrying out his deficit cutting measures on the backs of the poor. It notes that government has not introduced one piece of social reform legislation since tak- ing office in 1984. There are “1.2 million children in Can- ada living in poverty, and the number of working poor families is increasing,” said Susan Colley, chair of NAC’s child care committee. Child care, one of the major services which would allow women to study or work, and thereby break out of the poverty cycle is seriously affected by the spending ceilings on CAP. The program is the main vehicle through which the federal govern- ment currently provides child care assist- ance to low-income families. In an open letter to Wilson, Susan Pot- vin, of the Canadian Day Care Advocacy Association, said the spending limits to the three provinces means a virtual halt in day care spaces. Ontario brought only 4,000 new spaces on line last year; the possibilities of new initiatives this year are indeed bleak. Only 11 per cent of children with both parents in the workforce are currently in organized child care programs. The Mulro- ney government had promised a national child care program would be a “high prior-' ity” in both his mandates. Instead, Ottawa has reneged on its promises and curtailed the minimal programs it had in place, the CCDA noted. Last week the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced a $1.2-million cut to its Child Care Initiative Fund, established to explore various child’ care models and to provide funding to do research and demon- stration projects. Other budget protests came from the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women. It accused the.federal govern- ment of by-passing women’s and other advocacy groups in setting its agenda. “Because the government did not hold pre-budget consultation with equality- seeking groups, as was done in previous years, it created a budget that is more con- cerned with costs than cost efficiencies,” said president Glenda Simms. The council also was critical of Wilson for his planned $7.6-billion cut in transfer payments over the next five years to the ° provinces for health and education. “Education has long been recognized as a road out of poverty for many women; any reduction in transfer payments to the pro- vince therefore affects women’s future prospects. Any short term saving in health and education costs lead to long-term pain as a result of increasing social costs,’ Simms said. “We are disappointed that military defence remains a priority for the govern- ment (while) child care, which the govern- ment announced as a major priority several years ago, remains on the shelf.” HALIFAX — Several peace, church and Native support groups in eastern Canada are planning a 1500-kilometre walk later this summer in support of the Innu struggle against the militarization of their homeland and for recognition of their right to self-determination. The “Freedom for Nitassinan Walk” will begin Aug. 6 in Halifax and proceed through New Brunswick and Quebec, arriving in Ottawa for a rally Nov. 10. Separate walks from Sept-Iles, Quebec and Windsor, Ont. will join the main march en route. The action, co-sponsored by the Innu Band Council in Sheshatshit, the Halifax Coalition in Solidarity with the Innu, the Alliance for Non-Violent Action and other groups, hopes to draw Canada-wide attention to the continuing struggle of the Innu people to end low-level military flights over Nitassinan (Labrador and eastern Quebec) which threaten the local environment and the Innu’s indigenous culture and way of life. Under various bilateral agreements, the Department of National Defence (DND) currently permits some 7,000 low-level Innu to launch ‘Walk to Freedonyr Miguel Figueroa FROM flights by West German, British, Dutch and American jets each year over tradi- tional Innu hunting and fishing grounds. The Canadian government bid to upgrade Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay into a full-fledged NATO training centre would increase training flights to some 40,000 per year, of which 27,000 would be low- level — 30-50 metres above the surface. Nine practice bombing ranges would be also be constructed. The NATO decision on the final loca- tion of the training centre is now expected in May. Konya, Turkey is the other base site currently being considered. According to Innu spokesperson Rose Gregoire, in Halifax last week to attend a “Freedom Walk” planning meeting, the establishment of a full NATO base at THE MARITIMES Goose Bay would accelerate the destruc- tion of the delicate environment in the area and destroy Innu livelihoods and tradi- tional culture. “We must stop NATO from coming into our homeland ... to undermine our sovereignty, human, social, cultural and: political rights,” she said. Gregoire warned, however, that even if the NATO base is not constructed at Goose Bay, the struggle must continue because the Canadian government intends to expand bilateral arrangements with other NATO countries to increase low- level flying in the area. For more information about the Free- dom for Nitassinan Walk, contact Nancy Hunter, Halifax Coalition in Solidarity with the Innu, 2575 Creighton St., Halifax. 6 e Pacific Tribune, March 12, 1990 Pitawankwat — still faces court fight } REGINA — Federal government pressure continues against a Regina, woman and her fight against racist and sexist discrimination. Last Dec. 19, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) decided to appoint a human rights tribunal to hear Mary Pitawank- wat’s complaint against her former employer, the Secretary of State. That decision followed a long struggle by the Ojibway woman, who worked as a social development officer for the fed- eral department from 1979 to 1986. Angered by the racist and sexist attitudes permeating her workplace, Pitawankwat filed her original complaint in July 1983. She says her superiors responded by giv- ing her increasingly heavier workloads, to justify dismissing her in March 1986. Although the CHRC at first refused to act on her complaint, a federal court forced the investigation which led up to the December ruling. The preliminary decision confirmed that Pitawankwat had indeed faced a work environment “poisoned” by ongoing racist insults and sexual harassment. A full tribunal hear- ing could uphold her demands for rein- statement and compensation for lost earnings. But the federal bureaucracy, armed with expensive lawyers, is trying to delay its rendezvous with justice. In January, the Secretary of State applied to the Fed- eral Court of Canada to quash the December CHRC decision, and to block further proceedings in the case. That application is expected be heard in Reg- ina on May 29. Perhaps more dramatic is the attempt by the ministry to stifle a videotape on the case, entitled ““Mary’s Story: A Dia- logue on Racism.” The half-hour tape was produced by University of Regina professor Harvey Stalwick, who heads the Faculty of Social Work’s social administration research unit. Stalwick | received a $16,000 grant to produce a videotape on Native issues. He maintains that his work clearly meets the funding criteria of the Secretary of State’s Cana- dian Studies Program, and charges that Ottawa is trying to deny his academic freedom and his rights guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Alain Pusson, a federal justice depart- ment lawyer, alleged in a December let- ter that Stalwick may have ‘misused public funds” to produce an “unautho- rized documentary.” Other aspects of the intimidation included a visit to the. pro- fessor by a senior federal bureaucrat, a call by another official to University of Regina president Lloyd Barber to com- plain about the video, and demands that the $16,000 grant be repaid. Approaching the fourth anniversary of her firing, Pitawankwat spoke to'the |. Tribune about the irony of her case!” © “Secretary of State is involved in anti- racism campaigns, but doesn’t deal with the blatant violations inside its own department,” she points out. Despite the government’s resistance to settling her case she remains confident that she can win in the long run. In the meantime the story exposes all the Mulroney govern- ment’s verbiage about equality as so much window dressing.