–Please forward widely–
Dear colleagues:
I received an urgent message from Lisa Montgomery
(associated to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal)
and have basically pasted info from it in the paragraphs
and sentences that follow.
The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal is in need of our help.
They need a physical presence at a women’s policy meeting
with Michael Ignatieff scheduled this coming Sunday to support
the shelter as they present a brief and look for political support
from members of parliament.
As you may know, in celebration of International Women’s week
Mr. Harper et al. have just cut funding to the Aboriginal Healing
Program. This program is to deal with residential school fall out
(intergenerational effects of psychological, addiction, physical
abuse). The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal will see a
catastrophic reduction in funding due to this cut. This will result
in the removal of aboriginal cultural programming on health and
healing, not to mention that the positions being cut are occupied
by aboriginal women themselves. This move contradicts the thrown
speech not to mention all of the Conservatives boasting vis-a-vis
aboriginals, employment and womens’ issues.
In collaboration with the shelter and 145 other aboriginal
organizations that will be effected, Lisa is presently working
on a brief and communication plan dealing with the effects
of the cuts.
The Native Women’s Shelter (NWSM) provides a safe environment
where women can begin to rebuild their lives. They offer support
and frontline services to Aboriginal women and children to promote
their empowerment and independence. The NWSM is the only
women’s shelter in Montreal that provides services exclusively to
Aboriginal and Inuit women and their children. The NMSM can
accommodate up to 16 women and children per night.
Lisa mentions that it is crucial that we rally in order to take
advantage of the leader of the opposition being in Montreal.
We need this being spoken about in parliament as the cuts
take hold as of March 31, 2010. It may merely be two hours
of your time but the visual of great numbers of women coming
out in support of this will hopefully ensure that this issue gets
spoken about.
Please confirm your attendance by sending a quick note to Lisa <lisamontgomery@sympatico.ca>
Thanks in advance for your support!
Date: Sunday, March 14, 2010
Time: 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Location: Centre Lajeunesse (7378 Lajeunesse street next to
metro Jean-Talon)
****************************************
Geneviève Rail, Ph.D.
Directrice, Institut Simone de Beauvoir /
Principal, Simone de Beauvoir Institute
Université Concordia / Concordia University
1455 De Maisonneuve Ouest / West
Montréal, Québec
CANADA, H3G 1M8
T: 514.848.2424 x 2372
F: 514.848.4553
E: Gen.Rail@Concordia.ca
W: http://wsdb.concordia.ca