July 22, 2009 - No. 143
Toronto
Public Forum Declares "Daycare Is a
Right!"
Toronto
• Public Forum Declares "Daycare Is a Right!"
• Access to Childcare
• Highlights of the Community Discussion on
Childcare
• Speech of Sultana Jahangir at the Community
Childcare Forum
Honduras
• Tension Grows as Crisis Goes on
Toronto
Public Forum Declares "Daycare Is a Right!"
On July 18, a militant community forum entitled: "Fight
for Childcare Rights!" was organized in East Toronto by the Teesdale
Place/Crescent Town community organization South Asian Women's Rights
Organization (SAWRO). The banner over the meeting displaying SAWRO's
motto stated "If the Women Move
Forward the Whole Community Will Move Forward." More than 100 women and
their children, mostly Bengali immigrants, filled the hall to hear the
community's investigation and discussion on childcare
Also present were guest speakers on women's rights and
immigrant settlement from the community and local and federal
politicians who were asked to come to hear what the women had
discovered through their ongoing work in the Teesdale Place/Crescent
Town neighborhood
The Bengali youth took up ensuring the technical success
of the cultural events which included videos of past meetings and
actions organized by SAWRO, music, a drama depicting the plight of
immigrant women as they arrive in Canada dealing with unemployment and
lack of childcare, a singing
group performing revolutionary and patriotic songs and Bengali national
dances.
For the past six months SAWRO outreach workers knocked
on 1200 doors and talked to 400 women to discuss the problems of
childcare and childcare subsidies. This forum was a culmination of this
work. The highlights of this discussion follow.
TML hails the work of SAWRO as a contribution
to the struggle of women in Canada to demand their rights and the
rights of all. We call on the government to increase funding for social
programs with no strings attached in order to meet their
responsibilities to women. A national day care
program is needed to solve the problems facing all women and families.
SAWRO's demand for democratic renewal is entirely just.
The following articles are taken from the paper Teesdale
Place/Crescent Town Childcare Investigation distributed at the
child care forum by SAWRO.
Access to Childcare
SAWRO first began raising the issue of childcare for
immigrant women in the public arena during the community forums on
poverty reduction organized by CASSA (Council of Agencies Serving South
Asians) in 2008 and in February 2009 At these forums SAWRO gave the
view that childcare for immigrant
women is a key strategy for reducing poverty because lack of childcare
blocks pathways to successful immigrant settlement: ESL training;
international credential bridging; career training and acquiring
Canadian experience relevant to education.
Discovering a strong conviction among immigrant women
that the lack of affordable, accessible and culturally sensitive
childcare is the number one barrier they face when coming to Canada,
SAWRO began assisting community women in expressing this conviction and
in making political demands.
While carrying out the outreach discussion, focus groups began meeting
to sum up the discussion in the community and to plan action.
Community women began to see access to childcare as a
matter of fundamental human rights, not just personal problem for
individual women. If women cannot participate fully in modern society
without childcare, then the duty of government is to ensure childcare.
Child care is a right. Community
women also began to see that while the movement for access to childcare
has made progress, if immigrant women do not take a leading role in the
movement it will not be carried through to the end Immigrant women will
be marginalized and left behind.
As the outreach and focus group work was going on, cuts
to childcare subsidies were announced and implemented by the provincial
and City governments because of federal under funding. This
concentrated the attention of the women on resisting these cuts because
in this community, no subsidies
equals no childcare equals no opportunity for women.
Community Action
SAWRO outreach
workers.
|
During the past few months, SAWRO workers and volunteers
have been taking up the mobilization of the community on this issue
with great enthusiasm. Contact was made with other women working on
childcare and poverty issues -- the Ontario Coalition for Better Child
Care
(OCBCC), Campaign 2000; Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) and
the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA). Expertise was
gained from contact with these organizations and joint actions have
been carried out.
- On May 12, SAWRO assisted a group of women from
Teesdale/Crescent Town to participate in meeting against subsidy cuts
organized at the Ontario Legislature by the OCBCC. The community women
talked to members of provincial parliament to demand an end to subsidy
cuts and full funding for childcare
subsidies.
- On June1-2, the House of Commons Standing Committee on
Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of
Persons with Disabilities (HUMA Standing Committee) held hearings in
Toronto as part of a national tour. This parliamentary committee
oversees federal social spending. Meetings
were held in SAWRO offices to discuss what to present to the HUMA
committee. SAWRO made a presentation to the hearing demanding full
funding for childcare subsidies.
- HUMA Standing Committee members also attended a town
hall meeting organized by the anti-poverty coalition Campaign 2000 at
Metro Hall. SAWRO was asked by the coalition to speak on childcare.
Thirty immigrant women from the neighborhood made placards and banners
with community demands
and participated in the Town Hall. SAWRO's executive director, Sultana
Jahangir and the Childcare Campaign Coordinator, Shamima Islam, made
speeches at the Town Hall demanding full funding of childcare
entitlements.
- On June 13, the Toronto and York Region Labour Council
organized a large rally in Toronto to demand good jobs and increased EI
benefits. Teesdale/Crescent Town women, many of whom are unemployed,
participated in this rally to support these demands and to keep the
demands of working women for
childcare in the forefront of the labour movement.
- Leading up to a Teesdale Place/Crescent Town community
forum on childcare, SAWRO workers and volunteers have been stepping up
community mobilization around childcare demands. Outreach workers are
revisiting the 400 women involved in the daycare discussion. Groups of
women have been preparing
songs, dramas and speeches on childcare for the forum.
In the months ahead, SAWRO will be continuing to
support the mobilization of the community women and their families
around their demands for childcare and childcare subsidies. Immediate
plans include collaboration with the City of Toronto to organize onsite
childcare subsidy registration for community
women. Another Community Childcare Forum is planned for the fall.
Workers and volunteers will continue to raise
consciousness in the community that childcare is a matter of
fundamental human rights for women and children. This consciousness
will be a powerful force. SAWRO workers will also assist community
women resist any attempt by political parties to turn
this issue into a political football game or by different levels of
government to avoid their responsibilities through jurisdictional
wrangling.
No More Excuses For Denying Women's
Rights! Childcare Now!
Highlights of the Community Discussion on Childcare
From January until May, women working the Childcare
Campaign knocked on over 1,200 doors and talked to 400 immigrant women
about their lives. Contact with these 400 women has been maintained
with revisits and phone calls. During these home visits, outreach
workers and volunteers used prepared questions
to begin discussion about childcare needs and experiences. After making
calls, the outreach workers would got together to discuss and assess
the information and opinions gathered. Some of the highlights of the
investigation and discussion in the focus groups are presented below.
Education
- Women in this immigrant community are highly educated.
This is a consequence of the "points system" which encourages
immigration by highly educated couples.
- 80% have university or college degrees and more than
half the women have postgraduate degrees. Among the women we contacted
are women with doctorates in medicine and physics and other highly
qualified women.
- Many women expressed bitterness that while the
government requires high qualifications for women immigrants, no
childcare infrastructure is put in place by the government so the women
can put their qualifications into play.
Employment/Underemployment
- 40% of the women talked to said that they were
unemployed involuntarily. If women who say they are not in the labour
force because of responsibility for childcare are included the number
would jump to 80%.
- Almost all employed women said that they were
overqualified for the jobs they held, usually precarious low-wage
retail jobs. Without affordable childcare, these are the only jobs
available. Focus groups used the term "work at Tim Horton's or stay
home" to describe this situation.
- Along with the lack of labour market growth, the need
for international credential recognition/bridging and for English
language upgrading was given as the main causes of
unemployment/underemployment in the community. The lack of childcare
was given as the main barrier to resolving the language and credential
issues.
- Many women expressed frustration with their employment
status. "I made a big sacrifice to come here. I came to work, not to
sit around."
Number of Children
- The immigration process selects for families in the
child-bearing years -- points are given for being the "right age." The
federal government brings almost 50,000 immigrant women with children
to Toronto every year without taking any responsibility for ensuring
childcare infrastructure is in place for these women.
- The women we talked to have a similar number of
children as the national average for families with children.
Teesdale/Crescent Town families have 1.89 children per household. The
national average for families with children is 1.8.
- When looking at family size, workers and volunteers in
the focus groups uncovered a popular misconception that is created when
the size of immigrant families is compared to all families. The rate
for all families, including unmarried people and childless couples, is
1.1 children per family. Workers discovered
that despite immigrant families having about the same number of kids as
other families with children, a problem arises because of processes
which concentrate children in under serviced areas.
- The housing market concentrates immigrant families
with children in particular areas of the city where less expensive and
readily available family housing is located. The apartment complexes of
Teesdale/Crescent Town are typical of such areas. As a result, these
"immigrant neighborhoods" have lots of families
with children who require schools and young children who require
childcare. Childcare spaces and subsidies allocated to these areas are
inadequate and the schools are overcrowded.
- Some women also expressed feeling pressure to become
"baby machines" because of the endemic unemployment/underemployment
among immigrant women. With three children, child benefits (at least
until children enter school) come close the minimum wage and can be
"earned" without childcare costs. While
being deeply loving mothers, the women we talked with also deeply
resented being forced toward such a desperate survival strategy.
- Everywhere in the world, family size decreases as
female education increases. In Canada, irresponsible policies toward
the settlement of highly educated immigrant women and the lack of
childcare funding creates pressure against this world-wide trend.
Childcare and Childcare Subsidies
- More than 60% of the women we talked to said they need
childcare service and most of these had looked for childcare in the
area unsuccessfully.
- 75% of the women think that there are not enough
childcare spaces in the neighborhood.
- When the number of childcare spaces is inadequate for
programs such as ESL, they are rationed according to children's ages --
young children not accepted because of high level of care required.
- Women's three year eligibility for Citizenship and
Immigration funded programs can "time out" while waiting for childcare.
- While almost all families in the neighborhood are
eligible for full or partial childcare subsidies, only 20% are getting
subsidies they are entitled to.
- Many women are either unaware of their subsidy
entitlements or are discouraged from applying by the long waiting lists.
- Community women ranked lack of childcare as the number
one barrier preventing them from succeeding in Canadian society.
Other Services Required
Women we talked to almost all said that as well as
childcare being a barrier, other immigrant settlement services for
women are also inadequate for their needs.
The following table shows the ranking of services
required by community women, which has obvious implications for our
future work.
Service
Required |
Ranking |
computer
training |
1 |
ESL
training and tutoring |
2 |
assistance
with resumes |
3 |
job
search assistance |
4 |
career
search |
5 |
interview
workshop |
6 |
credential
bridging |
7 |
international
credential
recognition |
8 |
Speech of Sultana Jahangir at the Community Childcare
Forum, Crescent Town Club July 18, 2009
I said before that this event is really part of a
discussion that is taking place in the community and this is a very
important point. At the end of the 1800's the great Cuban freedom
fighter José Martí inspired colonial people everywhere
when he said, "One just principle from the depths of a cave can be
mightier
than an army."
So the just principle that the daycare discussion in
the community is raising is this:
"All women have a right to participate in economic and
civic life. It is the duty of government to affirm this right."
Our work is to continue this discussion in the
community until every woman understands that: Childcare Is a Right.
This is the principle that will be "mightier than an
army" if we do our work. We do not have to convince women that we need
childcare. Women have told us that they know lack of childcare is the
cause of poverty in this community. They have told us that NO SUBSIDIES
equals NO CHILDCARE
equals POVERTY.
What we have to continue clarifying is that this is an
issue of fundamental human rights that the government must resolve.
Government is not taking up its responsibilities and we
have to hold politicians accountable for this. Thousands of women in
our neighborhood are entitled to daycare subsidies but there is no
funding for these entitlements and there are long waiting lists. The
situation is the same right across the city
and is especially bad in all recent immigrant neighborhoods where most
of the City's poor people live.
We immigrant women made great sacrifices to come here.
But we did not come here to be idle and to beg.
We did not come here to be baby machines.
We came here to work and we want to be part of building
a nation here.
And we have THE RIGHT to participate fully in society
-- in education, in workplaces, in social and political life. Without
affordable, accessible and culturally sensitive childcare, our rights
are denied. This is unacceptable.
The media tell Canadians -- native born and newcomers
-- to be proud of Canada's democracy and of its role defending rights
of women all over the world.
Together with its NATO partners, Canada is spending
billions of dollars on a war of terror against peoples of the former
colonial countries -- in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- under the banner
of democracy and women's rights.
But what about democracy and women's rights in Canada?
Canada wants to be judged by the success of wealthy
women -- how many CEO's are women? How many MP's are women?
Canada should be judged by whether it affirms the
rights of the most vulnerable women -- the immigrants, other poor
working people, first nations women, young women (especially single
mothers), the handicapped.
The rights of vulnerable women are denied. Canada does
not affirm the rights of all. In its real practice, Canada's democracy
is only for the rich and powerful. Women in these vulnerable groups are
excluded from full participation in society. We are marginalized in
civic life and economically impoverished.
We are given the choice "Work at Tim Horton's or stay home." This is
unacceptable.
We immigrant women will not accept being pushed to the
margins of society! We will not accept being left behind!
We demand that the government stop marginalizing
immigrant women and do its duty to affirm our rights!
We demand full participation in society according to
our abilities!
We demand full funding of daycare subsidy entitlements!
We demand a national childcare program! Now!
I would just like to make a couple more points about
the politics of childcare before I finish up.
Childcare is a political football game that all the
parties in the House of Commons play. With all due respect to our
honourable guests, I would like the community to consider the following
facts:
- For 13 years under Chretien and Martin the Liberals
talked about a national childcare policy at election time, followed by
excuses about "deficit fighting" and did nothing.
- Finally in 2005 Martin's minority government proposed
a national childcare policy in a desperate bid to stay alive. The NDP
helped Harper defeat the national childcare policy for its own partisan
political ends -- grabbing a few more seats from the Liberals during an
election was more important than childcare
- Harper has re-introduced the Baby Bonus (which
benefits affluent Canadians the most) and called it a national
childcare policy
- These facts are not from very long ago, but in Ontario
right now before our eyes a new game is being played. Dr. Pascal's
report earlier this summer called for all-day childcare for 4 year olds
in schools. Premier Dalton McGuinty said -- this is a fine, fine report
but you know there is a recession right now and
there may not be any money for doing very much
Shame! Shame on the parliaments of Canada! Shame on
Canadian democracy!
We immigrant women and families are kept in poverty
while these political games are played year after year, election after
election.
When elections roll around, politicians come into our
immigrant communities, peddling influence, peddling promises about
childcare and other issues, attempting to divide our communities along
political party lines.
This politicking with our lives is not acceptable.
In Teesdale/Crescent Town we are rejecting party
politics and taking matters into our own hands.
Working women, especially trade union women, have made
important gains by taking matters into their own hands. But immigrants
and many other vulnerable women have been left behind. For us, this is
a matter of survival that must be carried to the end.
We asked the politicians to pledge their support and I
would like to make the following pledge on behalf of the South Asian
Women's Rights Organization:
- we will organize our community around the fight for
our rights
- we will unite with other immigrant communities and
other vulnerable women
- we will join all women demanding their rights
- we will help lead this fight through to the end.
- childcare is our right! Now it is our fight!
Honduras
Tension Grows as Crisis Goes on
The political tension continues in Honduras as the
peaceful resistance to the coup d'etat completed its 24th consecutive
day yesterday, with the de facto
government refusing to solve the crisis.
On Monday, the resistance forces held a demonstration in
front of the Congress building, where a speech by a humble woman drew
attention, not only for the grace of her simple words, but also the
exhortation to radicalize the anti-coup struggle, Prensa Latina reports.
The leadership of the Frente de Resistencia
Pacífica, the resistance movement, constantly calls
on the people to maintain the peaceful nature of protests and even
created a commission to avoid incidents with soldiers or vandalistic
actions, the news agency reports. Meanwhile, the de facto
regime rejected Costa Rican
President Oscar Arias' proposals to solve the conflict and reinstate
Zelaya and the de facto
President, businessman Roberto Micheletti,
said Monday he will stay in his post until January 27, 2010, when the
current term for the overthrown President Manuel Zelaya expires.
Also on Monday, Honduras' constitutional President
Manuel Zelaya announced that he will head a "march of hope" in his
country to overthrow those who seized power in a military coup. Zelaya
said he kicked off his march on Monday and that
he will enter Honduras through any point of its border, according to an
interview published by the Jesuit Radio Progreso radio station
cited by Prensa Latina. He
called on the people to reach the frontiers of his country and wait
for indications by the leadership of the
Frente de Resistencia Pacífica, the resistance movement, though
he
did not give a specific date when he would reach the border. He said he
would wait for the 72-hour time limit given last Sunday by Costa Rica's
Oscar Arias, mediator in the conflict, in an effort to reanimate the
dialogue unsuccessfully held in San José
after the de facto government representatives rejected the
proposals put forth by the mediator.
In his statements to the radio station the Honduran
President warned that he has received information from within the armed
forces that oligarchic groups want to kill him and he even thanked the
military that ousted him for their opposition to his murder.
He said that he is not afraid of dying, since he would
die in the name of the principles supporting the just cause which
demands a change of the oppressive regime imposed by the voracious
oligarchy, whose only interest is that of preserving its interests.
The Honduran President pointed out that during the rest
of his mandate, which concludes January 27, 2010, he will keep boosting
changes in favor of the poor and participatory democracy, but that he
will not stay in power one more minute after his mandate concludes.
Manuel Zelaya also called on the Honduran military that
he considered as not compromised with the coup to not repress the
people's demonstrations against the coup and
the de facto government.
It is also reported that the three Honduran trade unions
convened a national
strike for Thursday and Friday against the coup d'etat to demand the
return of Zelaya. The Workers' Unitary Federation President Juan
Barahona told Prensa Latina that the six national teachers' unions will
be on strike again those days.
This struggle won't stop until the coupists' defeat, and
re-establish the constitutional order in the country, Barahona stressed.
In related news, civil and social organizations
representing Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Puerto Rico, Austria and Ecuador
requested on Tuesday in Mexico City that the United Nations consider
coups d'etat to be Crimes against Humanity. The initiative came from
Argentinean writer Marcelo Fabian Monges,
who gave the document to the representative in Mexico of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Alberto Brunori. The text includes the
request to submit it to the Human Rights Council in Geneva for
consideration.
The proposal describes the coup d'etat in Honduras as a
breaking of the sovereign will of the people of that Central American
nation, Prensa Latina reports.
In public statements, Monges underlined that all acts of
this kind entail the perpetration of crimes included in the definition
of Crimes against Humanity, like torture, disappearances and mass
deportation, among other arbitrary acts.
He specifies that the establishment of a de facto
regime in Honduras opened the door for a return to the past, with the
re-establishment of a practice that signifies the abolition of
citizens' rights and the legal system.
Prensa Latina adds that Monges, who lives in Mexico, has
been a member of various organizations in defense of human rights and
has collaborated with the newspapers Página 12, from
Buenos Aires, and La Jornada, Reforma and El
Universal, from
Mexico.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|