Angry in the Great White North

The National Action Committee droned on about how women would be hurt by cuts to Status of Women Canada:

Last week the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) held its Annual General Meeting in Toronto. NAC membership, composed mainly of grassroots women's equality-seeking organizations from across the country, came out of that historic meeting more determined than ever to fight for equality rights in Canada.

The re-emergence of NAC came on the heels of the federal government's dismantling of the Court Challenges program, and the 38.5 percent funding cuts to Status of Women Canada with a fundamental change in its mandate. "Equality is not a part of the Women's Program agenda under this government", explained NAC's newly elected president, Dolly Williams. "Minister Bev Oda, is simply applying Conservative Party ideology to propagate the notion that women have reached equality. This is especially puzzling when only 7 of the 27 of Harper's cabinet are women. Is this what they mean by equality?"

The National Action Committee on the Status of Women has been one of Canada's longest running equality-seeking women's organizations. A coalition of member groups, NAC has been fighting for women's equality for over 30 years.

Thirty years is a long time. Plenty of time to perfect the ability to count the number of women in cabinet. You need a long-standing organization like that, with guaranteed funding from the taxpayer, to enact real change with real results, right?

The federal government is set to bring in a new law that will ban immigrants who come to Canada as exotic dancers.

The change to the Immigration and Refugee Act is expected to be announced Wednesday by Immigration Minister Diane Finley, who told the House of Commons that the move will protect "vulnerable foreign workers," such as strippers.

Under the current laws, the onus is on strip club owners to prove there is a shortage of Canadian dancers each time they apply to bring in a foreign exotic dancer.

The new law will take the restriction one step further, and is based on the government's concern that foreign dancers are in some cases forced into the illegal sex trade.

"This is actually going to make it illegal for them to be able to do that," said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife, who first reported the news. "In other words, there's not even going to be an opportunity to persuade the government that you need those foreign workers...that's out."

"The Liberals gave blanket exemptions to foreign strippers to work in Canada," a senior government source told The Canadian Press.

"We're putting an end to the Liberal Strippergate in order to prevent the exploitation of women."

Strippergate was a scandal involving former Liberal Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, in which she was accused of fast-tracking the immigration application of a Romanian stripper who provided help on Sgro's election campaign.

I would hope Conservative government actions would speak louder than NAC words, but for some women still going through withdrawal from losing all that free money, real progress for exploited women is probably not much comfort.

Indeed, the moderator of the Rabble.ca forum, Michelle, had this to say:

Well, thank goodness for that! I know just the other day I was saying to myself, "Michelle," I sez, "there's a bunch of foreign strippers here, and they're just wrecking my way of life, inside those nightclubs with no windows where I can't see what they're up to. But I can imagine it! The guvmint should do something about that!"

And now, they have. Praise Jesus!

Cute. Despite Michelle's sarcastic suggestion that this is about Christian attitudes towards sex, this is not about that. Nor is the government suggesting that Michelle's life is being ruined by strippers. Indeed, only Michelle thinks Michelle's "way of life" is a relevant to this discussion. That takes a special sort of narcissism. Strip clubs are not being closed down. Instead, this about how strip clubs are being used (even exploited) as a means of hurting vulnerable women via an immigration loophole. Let's consider what happens behind the closed doors that demarcate the edges of Michelle's concern for the well-being of her sisters. For that, I'll turn to the Canadian Medical Association Journal::

Canada is both a destination and a transit country for victims trafficked from Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Women come here as visitors, family-class immigrants, temporary work migrants (e.g., working as dancers or strippers) or refugees. After false promises of substantial earnings and bogus jobs as nannies, housekeepers, waitresses, exotic dancers or sex workers, the women may end up working in appallingly abusive conditions, exploited as prostitutes working up to 18 hours a day for 7 days a week, until they repay enormous so- called travel debts to regain passports confiscated by their captors or employers.

A 2003 US report on human trafficking found little Canadian data and described Canada as lacking a national strategy on trafficking, making little effort to prosecute traffickers, giving victims no assistance or protection, and frequently deporting or charging them as criminals. The report therefore downgraded Canada from the (top) rating of a tier 1 country to one of the 75 tier 2 countries,1 which include Albania, Angola and Bangladesh. Until 2004, Canada focused its efforts mostly on prevention, with strict migration rules and by contributing to anti-trafficking funds in source countries.

Other developed countries have invested substantially in combatting trafficking both domestically and worldwide. For example, the US enacted 2 laws specific to trafficking and established a government office to monitor and combat human trafficking and prepare annual reports on the global status of the problem. It endowed $10–$20 million in grants and victim- assistance programs, and organized a hotline for helping trafficked victims and for reporting potential trafficking cases. European countries imposed specific laws to prosecute traffickers, formed national anti-trafficking police units, invested in national and international trafficking-prevention programs and organized national victim-protection programs for shelter, social, medical and legal assistance.

The slow pace of Canadian anti-trafficking initiatives is illustrated by the protracted interval between signing the UN protocol in 2000 and ratifying it in May 2002. Some projects such as Project Almonzo in Toronto, a joint effort of immigration, police, social-work and licensing bodies established in 1999 to help trafficked women both in crisis situations and to prepare them for other lines of work, ran out of funds in 2000 and came to an end. Several studies identified frameworks of trafficking specific to Canada and proposed immigration and other policy changes. However, information about the impact or implementation of the proposed policies is sparse.

But since those appallingly abusive conditions exist behind close doors, Michelle and her fellow socialist are not concerned. They seem only to be concerned how they are personally affected. Thanks goodness they don't have control over the purse strings.