Secrétariat NATIONAL Office

PARALLEL REPORT TO THE SECOND REPORT OF CANADA

To the
U.N. Committee on the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination Against Women
January 1990

Report of
The National Action Committee on the Status of Women
(Canada)

Secretariat NATIONAL Office: 344 Bloor St. West Suite 505, 344, rue Bloor ouest, bureau 505. Toronto. Ontario M5S 3A7 (416) 922 3246 (TDD-ATME)
Secretariat à OTTAWA Office: 323 Chapel

street

rue ottawa K1N 7Z2 (613) 234 7062 ontario

PARALLEL REPORT TO THE SECOND REPORT OF CANADA
January 1990

Secrétariat national Office

1. Introduction
The National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NACSW) is the largest feminist
organization in Canada. It presently includes 573 member groups which in turn represents a
total membership of three million Canadians. The composition of the organization is broadly
based, including national women’s organizations, community based women’s action groups,
women’s centres, service delivery groups, provincial coalitions, women’s committees of church
groups, unions and all major political parties. Since its inception in 1972 NACSW has been at
the heart of the struggle for women’s equality in Canada. The membership of NACSW is
increasingly concerned about our future as women in Canada and in that ’spirit’, we are
presenting this Parallel Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women.
The Canadian government’s diminishing commitment to providing financial support to Canadian
women’s organizations - at both federal and provincial levels - is a serious failure to ensure that
discrimination in all its forms will be eliminated in Canada. This failure occurs in conjunction
with a lack of recognition by government, industry and media recognition that organized women
are expert contributors to social and economic policy and programs. Coincidentally,
organizations holding the extreme views of the "anti-feminist movement" have gained financial
support from the government and are actually influencing public policy. We are concerned the
combined effect of these factors will be expensive litigation and human rights disputes in order
to maintain the present position and status of Canadian women.
Canadian women are just beginning to feel the adverse effects of the government’s deficit
reduction strategies and an export-led economic adjustment plan which privileges the market and
proposes that social programs are irresponsible spending. The federal 1989-90 Budget clarified
the government’s intention to remove itself from its previous role as an intervener in the social,
regional and infrastructure gaps and imbalances created by "the market". This Budget has
precipitated changes in the economy which will make it easier for some people to become
wealthier and which will ensure that many others, including middle class women, women with
little education, job skills, women of colour, immigrant women and native women, will find
their lives much harder, more violent and poorer.

The government has increased military spending and the militarization of the economy while
decreasing social programs. The government has introduced legislation withdrawing its
contribution entirely from the Unemployment Insurance program. It has cut back on Official
Development Assistance. New measures which tax back pensions and family allowances
represent the first erosion of the long-standing Canadian principle of universality in social
security. The budget outlines a program of further privatization of both the industrial service
and social service sectors, a process which is already destabilizing or eliminating women’s jobs,
and placing a greater reliance on women’s volunteer labour and on unpaid labour in their
homes.

Secrétariat NATIONAL Office: 344 Bloor St. West. Suite 505, 344. rue Bloor ouest, bureau 505, Toronto. Ontario M5S 3A7 (416) 922 3246 (TDD-ATME)
Secretariat à OTTAWA Office: 323 Chapel Street. 323. rue Chapel. Ottawa. Ontario K1N7Z2 (613) 234 7062

NACSW Parallel Report

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In the following summary we intend to highlight those aspects of the Canadian government’s
actions which specifically relate to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination. We recognize that some of the material post-dates the period of Canada’s
Report1, but have included it to illustrate the direction of certain trends which have been
developing over the past 5-10 years which are not adequately indicated in the Report.

2. STATISTICAL OVERVIEW
The following statistics are to be considered in addition to those found in Canada’s Report.
Even taking into account the limitations caused by the difficulties in adequately categorizing
ethnic and racial differences in the population, and the fact that Statistics Canada’s annual
survey of incomes excludes households on reserves, it is evident that this section of the Report
is seriously inadequate because of its exclusion of the specific conditions of native women,
visible minority women and women with disabilities.

2.1. Social Characteristics
Paragraph 30. In 1989, 3 out of 4 Canadian women in prime child bearing/raising age groups
(20 - 45) were in the labour force.2 The change in how families support themselves has been
dramatic over the past 20 years. In 1961 65% of Canadian families had a male as sole earner
supporting a family with children, while in 1985 this figure was 16%.3

2.2 Education
Education and training continue to be the most important factors (after availability of jobs) in
determining whether women find ’good jobs’. However, at all levels of education women have
higher unemployment or underemployment rates than their male counterparts, and the wage gap
exists between men and women at all levels of educational background.4
Illiteracy. A high proportion of Canadian women continue to be illiterate (19% in 1985)5.
While the proportion of young women who have less than a Grade 9 education is relatively low
(decreased from 14% to 8% between 1976 and 1981 among women aged 25-34), the percentage
of older women who have less than Grade 9 remains high (in 1976 42% of women between
ages 55 and 64; in 1981 this figure was 37%).6

* Department of the Secretary of State of Canada, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women:
Second Report of Canada. January, 1988.

2 The Labour Force. Statistics Canada, March 1989.
1 Survey of Consumer Finances, Statistics Canada, 1985.

4 Wismer, Susan, CCLOW, 1988 pg 8 - 12, based on Statistics Canada, Women in Canada, 1985, Tables 4, 11, 12, 13.
5 Avebury Research, CCLOW 1985, pg. 20, source Statistics Canada, Women in Canada, 1985.

4 Avebury Research, CCLOW 1985 pg. 21, source Census of Canada, 1976 and 1981.

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Federally Sponsored Training. The number of women enrolled in federally sponsored job
training programs has actually declined. Between 1978 and 1984 the percentage of women
among General Industrial trainees dropped from 28% to 24%, and the percentage of women
among Institutional trainees dropped from 32% to 27%.7 Women hold 4% of the seats in
apprenticeship programs.8 These programs continue to be inaccessible to women for a variety
of reasons, including lack of child care, lack of funds, regulations which make it difficult to link
training programs with Unemployment Insurance benefits and insufficient information about
programs.

2.3 Economic Characteristics
Poverty. There were 1,121,000 children living in poverty in Canada in 1986. This figure has
increased 7%, or from 1,077,000 since 1979. Canada has the second highest rate of child
poverty among industrialized countries. 35.9% of these children live in families headed by
lone-parent mothers.9
In 1985, 67.6% of all working native people had an income of under $15,000.10 We can expect
from these figures that native women’s earnings will be particularly low and that lone-parent
native women will be able to provide the fewest resources for their children.
Paragraph 44.
In 1989 women’s participation in the labour force increased to 57% while
men’s dropped to 75.7%.u
Paragraph 58. The wage gap between male and female unionized workers is lower than
between male and female non-unionized workers. Unionized women’s wages are higher in both
private and public sectors.12

Paragraph 60. Native women, disabled women and visible minority women are doubly
disadvantaged in the workforce but the gap between men and women of all groups continues to
be the most significant.

7
Avebury Research, CCLOW, 1985, pg. 42, based on Employment and Immigration Annual Statistical Bulletin 1977/78 and
1983/84.
1 ibid, pg 43.

9 Ross and Shillington, TheCanadian Fact Book on Poverty 1989. Canadian Council on Social Development, 1989 pg. 50.

10 ibid. pg. 27, source Statistics Canada, Census of Canada, 1986.
11 The Labour Force statistics Canada 1989

“ NUPGE, Canadian Women at Work, pg. 23, Source Statistics Canada, 1989.

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NACSW Parallel Report

Salary Distribution of Designated Groups13

Of full-time employees covered by the Employment Equity Act:
- 77% of all the male employees earned over $27 500
- 30% of all the female employees earned over $27 500

- 68% of native men earned over $27,500
: - 23% of native women earned over $27 500
- 77% of disabled men earned over $27 500
• - 24% of disabled women earned over $27,500
- 78% of visible minority men earned over $27,500
- 24% of visible minority women earned over $27,500

3. MEASURES ADOPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
In this section our analysis highlights developments where the net effect of government action
has been either to increase barriers to all women’s full and equal participation, or where it
inadequately addresses their removal.

ARTICLE 2: Elimination of Discrimination
Paragraph 75. The Canadian Human Rights Act does not prohibit discrimination on the basis
of sexual orientation.
Paragraph 76. Since the introduction of the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord, some Quebec
women have been concerned that the Accord be adopted with no revisions, ensuring their
participation as a distinct society within Canadian confederation; others have worried that the
distinct society clause does not really protect their distinct culture. Some women have been
concerned that certain clauses in the Accord could over-ride the equality provisions in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and native women have stated that aboriginal rights
are explicitly excluded. Women have also been concerned that the Accord weakens the federal
government’s capacity to support its cost-shared social programs with the provinces.
Recognizing the divisiveness of the Accord, and the power of such constitutional documents,
women’s groups have called for a democratic process of amending Canada’s Constitution which
would involve consultation with all sectors of Canadian society.

u Analysis by NUPGE, Canadian Women At Work. 1989, source Annual Report to Parliament. 1988, Under the Employment
Equity Act, Department of Employment and Immigration, 1989.

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Paragraph 82. While blatant, legislative discrimination on the basis of sex has been removed
from the Indian Act, discrimination continues in the process of women’s reinstatement as Status
Indians. Most people applying for reinstatement are women and their children. By 1989 there
had been 107,259 applicants for reinstatement, 49,769 registrations and 15,655 denials.14
- The high rate of denials has been attributed in large part to the documentary
requirements for registration.15 The process presently requires documentary proof
of parentage, documents which do not exist for many native people. In many
cases the birth records of native people were kept by churches, Indian agents and
boarding schools, and many of these institutions and their records no longer exist.
For a number of reasons, including the unwillingness of native parents to accept
baptisms in the church, many births were not recorded. Other records are
inaccurate due to the inability or refusal of bureaucrats to recognize and record
Indian names.

- A reinsured person is less able to transmit status and
membership to her/his
children than is a person who never lost her/his status because status only applies
to the first generation of children (unless they in turn marry a status Indian).
- The legal effect of the 1983 Supreme Court ruling, Martin v Chapman is
continued discrimination against "illegitimate" female children. The court ruled
that an "illegitimate" male offspring of a status man and a non-status women was
eligible for registration under the old Act; therefore, he would be recognized as
a 6(1) Indian under the new Act. A female "illegitimate" child of the same
union, was not eligible under the old Act; therefore, she would be registered as a
6(2) Indian. Consequently, unlike her brother, she would have only conditional
band membership, and would not be able to pass status on her children unless
their father had status.16
In 1985 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) projected that
65,000 people would be eligible to apply for status, 52,000 would apply, and that 5,200 (10%)
would apply to return on the reserves. Assuming that the average status Indian family size was
4.5 people, the housing unit projection rate was 1200 units. The actual rates of application are
considerably higher, and suggest that at least 12,000 housing units will be needed.

Indian women are among the poorest women in this country. They suffer from chronic under­
education and unemployment. Very few have access to the capital that would allow them to be
subsidized for housing on a reserve. Without the provision of financial support for
reinstatement, DIAND maintains a situation which is discriminatory to Status women.
The removal of the discriminatory provisions in the Indian Act addressed only one aspect of
systemic discrimination against native women in Canada. A strong web of supportive legislation
and social, economic and education programs needs to be instituted to address their situation.
For instance, in 1986 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that provincial laws do not apply on

14 department of indian affairs and northern development 1989

u Government of Canada, Standing Committee on Registration Procedures, Committee Report. August 1988.
“ Native Women’s Association, Guide to Bill C-31. 1986.

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reserves. The Indian Act does not provide specific regulations for division of reserve property
upon separation, leaving most Indian women with no legal rights to occupy their family home,
keep household goods, or bar an abusive partner. In practice Band Councils may assist a
woman, however she has no legal rights on which to depend. Because reserve housing is so
often in critically short supply, a woman may have to take her children off the reserve in order
to find shelter for them.

ARTICLE 4.1: Temporary Special Measures
Paragraph 85: Provision for Federal Female Offenders. The majority of women are still
centrally incarcerated in the antiquated Prison for Women in Kingston. While some program
options have been improved, there still exist in total less than those available for men, and those
that are available are stereotyped. There have also been some improvements in the availability
of psychological services; however, as of December, 1989, there was a 7 month waiting list for
incest survivors to see a single feminist counsellor engaged to provide such services. Family
visits for offenders at the Prison are rare, since most are thousands of miles from their homes,
and no funds are available to support such visits. The Women in Conflict with the Law
initiative expired in 1987-88, and advocates have seen little federal will to implement any
similar new programming.
Paragraph 88. An Act Respecting Employment Equity, Bill C-62 provides for analysis and
reports on the progress of employers in increasing the representation of designated groups in the
labour force, but requires no plans to be submitted. Moreover, the only attempt at enforcement
comes from an equally weak provision of the Bill allowing persons who have been
discriminated against to request a Human Rights Commission review. The limited progress is
revealed in the 1989 Annual Report on the Act, which records as "positive changes" increases
in labour force representation-of women from 40.90 per cent to 42.12 per cent of aboriginal
peoples from.66 per cent to.73 per cent—increases so minimal that we argue that they would
have occurred without any Temporary Special Measures.17

ARTICLE 6: Exploitation of Prostitution of Women
Paragraph 103. The major finding of the current Review of Bill C-49 on Prostitution is that
prostitution has not been eliminated or reduced, but only displaced to areas which expose
prostitutes to more dangers. Moreover, a federal study by the Solicitor General of police
statistics in 10 Canadian cities (to be released in early 1990) reveals that in 8 of those cities, at
least 60-70 per cent of charges were against prostitutes, rather than against their customers. A
challenge under Section 15 of the Charter on the constitutionality of Bill C-49 is currently being
heard by the Supreme Court.

5

n Department of Employment and Immigration, Employment Equity, Annual Report. 1989, p. 5.

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ARTICLE 7: Women in Politics and Public Life
Paragraph 111. In its 1987 response to the Women’s Program Review, Fairness in Funding,
the federal Secretary of State reported the government’s belief that "the current funding level
should be maintained. There are emerging groups and priorities which the Women’s Program
should be addressing and the government agrees with the overall goal of expanding the
Program’s sphere of activity..."18 Contrary to its own recommendation, the government in its
1989 federal Budget cut the Women’s Program by 15 per cent, from $13 million to $11.2
million.19 This current level of support for non-governmental women’s organizations represents
0.0009% of the total budget. Canada has based some of its international reputation for the
progressiveness of its women’s ’mechanisms’ on this program. The cut in funding raises
concerns about the government’s commitment to these mechanisms.

ARTICLE 11.1(c): Free Choice of Profession
Limitations in education opportunities and the re-structuring of the Canadian economy and
therefore the job market, make a "free choice of profession" virtually impossible for many
Canadian women.

Education Policy
Paragraph 126. Two major shifts in federal government job training strategies have occurred
since the late 1970’s. The first was the National Training Act which shifted the rationale for
training away from the needs and aspirations of individual workers to the needs of employers.
This has been replaced by the Canadian Jobs Strategy. The focus of this program is to
""privatize" the responsibility for job-related training and to provide funding incentives to
employers for training employees in employer-relevant areas."20 One of the effects of this has
been that women continue to be selected to train for traditionally female occupations.21

Access to training and education for immigrant or aboriginal women who do not have a
working knowledge of English or French is very difficult. The present policy of Canada
Employment and Immigration is to provide subsidized language training seats for the primary
wage earner in a family. This consistently excludes and disadvantages women, and is currently
being challenged by women’s organizations in the courts under Section 15 of the Charter.

The rate of poverty among lone-parent mothers with dependent children was 56 per cent in
1986 (compared to an average rate of 23 per cent for lone-parent fathers), and it has not
changed since 1973. The big differences between poor and non-poor lone parent mothers are in

“ Department of the Secretary of State of Canada, Response to the Standing Committee on Secretary of State: Fairness in Funding.
Report on the Women’s Program, Supply and Services, Ottawa, page 3.

19 Tn the same year the government approved a budget of $15 million in advertising for its new Goods and Services Tax, and
disbursed loans of $17 million to owners of strip clubs.

30 Avebury Research, CCLOW 1985, pg. 131.
21 Boothby, D, Women Re-entering the Labour Force and Training Programs, 1986.

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age and educational attainment.22 If Canada cannot provide these young (in many cases
adolescent) mothers with both the means to pursue their own educational goals and a supportive
environment in which to raise their children, the future for these families is bleak.

Structural Changes in the Economy: Services
The Service sector currently provides 80% of Canadian women’s jobs. Changes in the trade
and regulation of services, particularly the Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement, have raised
concerns that the existing trend to privatize and to purchase services in the U.S. will increase,
causing job loss and economic uncertainty for Canadian women. In 1977, 12% of Canadian
data processing occurred in the U.S.; by 1981 it had increased to 21%, and was estimated at
25% in 1985.23 Between 1987 and 1989 the Canadian Labour Congress recorded over 57,000
job losses related to the Free Trade Agreement. The majority of these jobs are in the
manufacturing sector, however "We believe that a similar process is going on in the services
sector, where almost 70 per cent of Canadians are employed...Also the indirect job loss from
shutdown and downsizing in many cases is two or three times the direct job loss...In reality, the
figure is probably in the vicinity of two hundred thousand"24.

As indicated in the Report, paragraph 51, bookkeeper/accounting clerks and
secretary/stenographers may have experienced the highest rate of growth from 1971-1981, and in
fact continue to maintain a higher than average growth. However, dramatic changes took place
between 1981-1986.

Labour Canada reports that the sharp decline in the rate of growth of clerical jobs in the past
decade is related to two major factors. The first is reorganization of white collar work which is
mainly due to the introduction of office automation technologies. This has led employers to
expand their use of contractual workers while reducing their core clerical workforce.
Another major factor in the reduction of the clerical workforce is the politically motivated desire
of the government to reduce its personnel. Since many of the gains toward economic equality
were won in the public sector, including the best protection for part-time and casual clerical
employees, this decline in public employees will have important repercussions on the economic
status of women.
A

a Ross and Shillington, The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 1989. CCSD, pg. 93-94.
a Marjorie Cohen, Free Trade and the Future of Women’s Work. 1987.

* CLC, 1989. pg. 1.

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Only 46.5% of clerical workers work full-time full year. The average salary of a full-time full
year clerical worker is $18,173.00 per year while the average salary of a part-time part-year
clerical worker is $7,319.00. In 1986, 1,001,340 women clerical workers (over one half of the
women clerical workers) worked part-time or part-year and therefore earned salaries that were
below the national poverty line.23

The restructuring of office technologies, the public sector person year cutbacks and the Free
Trade Agreement have left women unemployed and underemployed and have forced many to
work in the lower paying jobs of the service sector such as sales and the fast food/tourist
industry. Unless reversed, this trend can only contribute to the pauperization of women.

Structural Changes in the Economy: Manufacturing
Many of the jobs lost due to trade adjustments have been in the industrial sectors which employ
the largest proportion of women: textiles, leather, food processing and electronics. Many of the
women employed in these industries are immigrant women or women in single industry towns.
Many of these displaced women workers have little access to re-training, are not easily re­
located and either have become long-term unemployed or are taking lower paid jobs in the
service sector.
Eighty percent of women in manufacturing are employed in the garment industry. One hundred
and fifty thousand of these jobs are concentrated in south-central Ontario. The average wage is
$8.50/hour which is higher than the minimum wage but lower than the average industrial wage.
A high proportion of the women in these jobs are immigrant and visible minority women.
Most of the plants are not unionized and the lack of enforcement of the Employment Standards
Act means that women have little protection. A recent inquiry into Garment Factory Closings
in Toronto examined plant closures which have deprived women of wages, severance pay,
vacation pay and where "closing" has simply meant moving equipment to a new location.

ARTICLE 11.1(d): Equal Pay
The Canadian government has been promising implementation of the equal pay for work of
equal value principle in the federal public service but has failed to do so. A recent case of a
federal bargaining unit of hospital service workers, predominantly women, went on strike to
obtain equal pay for work of equal value in their collective agreement with the government.
The government legislated this group back to work and refused to honour its commitment to
integrate equal rates of pay in the federal public service.

33 Statistics Canada, census data, 1986.

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ARTICLE 11.1(e): Social Benefits
ARTICLE 11.2(a) and 11.2(b) Protection from Loss of Employment or Benefits on the Basis
of Maternity
Paragraph 136: The government has proposed amendments to the Unemployment Insurance
(U.L) program which will increase parental benefits. However this measure is included in
legislation which will greatly weaken the U.L system and may eventually destroy it as a
national program guaranteeing both U.I. and parental benefits. The proposed changes would
provide 15 weeks of "maternity benefits", plus an additional 10 weeks of "parental benefits"
which could be claimed by either parent.26 The two week waiting period would remain, and
parental benefits will remain at 60%, the lowest rate among industrialized countries.
The U.I. program continues to exclude from coverage large numbers of part-time workers most
of whom are women, imposes harsh eligibility requirements for "new entrants" or "re-entrants"
most of whom are women, and includes stricter eligibility requirements for parental and illness
benefits than for regular benefits. The legislation also provides for total withdrawal of
government contributions to the U.I. fund and would use employer and employee contributions
for purposes not related to income replacement.

ARTICLE 11.2(c): Child Care
Paragraph 140. According to the National Day Care Information Centre of the National
Department of Health and Welfare, in 1987 only 12% of Canadian children under 13 had access
to licensed child care - the same proportion as in 1977.27 Advocates unanimously agreed that
the Federal Bill C-144, An Act Respecting Child Care, introduced in 1987 and shelved
following the 1988 election, if implemented, would not have resulted in any improvement in
access to quality child care.

ARTICLE 12: Health Care
Paragraph 146. In 1987 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Canada’s previous criminal code
legislation on abortion unconstitutional, stating that: "Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal
sanction to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own
priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus an
infringement of the security of the person."

This fall the government proposed a new Act Respecting Abortion, Bill C-43 which will
recriminalize abortion. The Act makes abortion a doctor’s decision under threat of criminal
sanction. It says that abortion is a criminal offence unless "a medical practitioner...is of the
opinion that, if the abortion were not induced, the health or life of the female person would be
likely to be threatened." The Bill explicitly excludes the broad definition of health used by the
World Health Organization. Women can be charged for self-induced abortions or for
misrepresenting their situation to a doctor. The liability of doctors to criminal charges and third

*
The government introduced this amendment only after the Supreme Court found that the previous law was found to
discriminatory.
” National Council of Welfare, Child Care, A Better Alternative, 1988, pg. 4.

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party interventions will not encourage medical practitioners to providing safe abortions. The
Bill does nothing to improve access to abortion and will in effect restrict access further in the
very areas where it is already difficult. This will continue to disadvantage northern, rural, poor,
immigrant and young women without information who already have trouble finding services in
Canada.

Women in Canada have fought to establish the principle that abortion is a woman’s right, a
personal and private decision. The Supreme Court and 74% of Canadians agree with this
position.

ARTICLE 14: Rural Women
With one of the lowest population densities in the world, an accessible communications system
and a national transportation policy are essential to the development of a Canadian national
identity. Over the past five years cumulative reductions in government support for and
privatization of public postal services, broadcast media and transportation systems have dealt
serious blows to women living outside of the main centres of population. The effect of
isolation is further compounded by the increased pressure on weak regional economies, loss of
women’s jobs in rural post offices, increased distances that the elderly and disabled must travel
to pick up their mail and the loss of passenger rail services to most communities.

ARTICLE 16: Women and Families
Paragraph 157.
Despite some efforts made by the federal government and some provinces to
respond to the problem of family violence in the past five years the majority of shelters in this
country turn away as many women as they welcome. Several regions in this country provide
no shelters for battered women and their children. In one year there were 120,000 reported
cases of child abuse in Canada. The recent massacre of 14 young women engineering students
in Montreal has made Canadians painfully aware of the need for serious, well-financed programs
to end the cultural acceptance of women as targets of male violence.

The lack of financial resources is the major drawback in providing services for battered women.
With cuts of $5 billion projected over the next five years, and specific cuts to provincial
transfer payments projected for the next budget, it is likely the amounts allotted by government
for shelter will result in a real decline of services. Without consultation with communities and
a firm commitment for sustained financial support at all levels of government, the services
offered to battered women and their children will become increasingly inadequate.

NACSW Parallel Report
Sources:

Assembly of First Nations
Positions on the 1985 Indian Act Amendments, or Bill C-31. Presented to the
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Task force on Bill C-31, Ottawa, 1988.
Avebury Research & Consulting Limited
Decade of Promise, An Assessment of Canadian Women’s Status in Education, Training
and Employment 1976-1985, Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women,
Toronto, 1986.

Boothby, D.
Women Re-entering the Labour Force and Training Programs: Evidence from Canada,
Report for Economic Council of Women, Ministry of Supply and Services, Ottawa,
1986.
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Free Trade Briefing Document, Ottawa, September 1989.
Cohen, Marcy and Whyte, Margie
The Impact of Computerization and Economic Restructuring on Women’s Employment
Opportunities, Microtechnology Research Group, Women’s Skill Development Society,
published by Labour Canada, Technology Impact Program, 1989.
Cohen, Marjorie
Free Trade and the Future of Women’s Work, Garamond Press and Centre for Policy
Alternatives, Toronto, 1987.

Government of Canada, Department of Employment and Immigration
Employment Equity, Annual Report 1989, Supply and Services, Ottawa, 1987.
Government of Canada, Department of the Secretary of State
Response to the Standing Committee on Secretary of State, Fairness in Funding, Report
on the Women’s Program, Supply and Services, Ottawa, 1987.
Government of Canada, Department of the Secretary of State
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women:
Second Report of Canada, Supply and Services, Ottawa, January, 1988.

National Council of Welfare
Child Care, A Better Alternative, Ottawa, Supply and Services, November, 1988.
National Union of Provincial Government Employees (NUPGE)
Canadian Women At Work; Their Situation, Their Union Status and The Influence of
the Public Sector. Ottawa, December 1989.

Native Women’s Association
Guide to Bill C-31: An Explanation of the 1985 Amendments to the Indian Act,
Ottawa, 1986.

Ross, David and Shillington, Richard
The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 1989, Canadian Council on Social Development,
Ottawa/Montreal, 1989.
Wismer, Susan
Women’s Education & Training in Canada. A Policy Analysis Prepared for CCLOW.
Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women, Toronto, 1988.

Pace 12