Demise of federally funded group means NACSOW now firmly in control of feminist agenda
The reign of the tax-payer-supported special interest group in Ottawa is over and feminist organizations are beginning to feel the repercussions.
That is how the majority of Canadians viewed the Federal Liberal government’s decision to shut the doors of the Trudeau-inspired Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
However, Gwen Landolt, vice-president of REALWomen, Canada’s largest pro-family women’s group, has reservations about the cuts. “It’s a positive move in that it does eliminate one radical women’s group. But it’s negative in that it places power firmly in the hands of the more radical National Action Committee on the Status of Women,” said Landolt.
She outlined the long power struggle between CACSOW and NACSOW and said the decision to cut the money now makes the latter the overseer of the whole women’s movement without any check.
“Their power is now absolute,” lamented Landolt, “And more importantly, they’ve become instutionalized in Canadian government – beyond public censure.”
CACSOW’s mandete was to scrutinize government policy and legislation and decide what impact it would have on the women of Canada. Landolt said thet NACSOW’s mandate is to push lesbian and abortion rights world-wide.
She pointed to the recent United Nations meetings in New York where the Canadian delegation, heavily influenced by NACSOW, pushed for inclusion of lesbian rights in the draft document for the Beijing Women’s Summit.
“They are bulldozing the early 70s feminist agenda of lesbian and reproductive rights and are completely out of touch with the reality of the 90s. And now that they’ve won the power struggle they will be able to shape the face of Canadian feminism.”
