Canada Inspires the World. To Walk Like "Sluts".

A Toronto police officer who remarked that if women stopped dressing like sluts they wouldn't be raped, has sparked a new movement called "Slut Walks".

An international series of protests known as SlutWalks, sparked by a Toronto police officer's flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" to avoid being raped or victimized, is taking root in the United States.

SlutWalk protests take off in the US

The police officer made his comments in January to a group of York University students at a safety forum. He later apologised, but his comments were publicised widely on Facebook and Twitter. They inspired a march in Toronto last month that drew more than 3,000 people, as well as SlutWalks since then in Dallas, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario.

In addition to Boston, marches are planned in cities including Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Reno, Nevada, and Austin, Texas. 'The event is in protest of a culture that we think is too permissive when it comes to rape and sexual assault,' said Siobhan Connors, 20, of Lynn, Massachusetts, another Boston organiser. 'It's to bring awareness to the shame and degradation women still face for expressing their sexuality ... essentially for behaving in a healthy and sexual way.'

We should be so proud.

And let's not forget the Harper appointed judge who let a rapist go free because he said that the victim dressed too sexy.

And another judge has opened the door to "being too drunk" as a defense agaisnt charges of sexual assault.

Women's loss of rights in Canada is being noticed. Just sadly, not in Canada.

Why Most Women Won't Vote for Stephen Harper

His female supports now includes, enormously rich women, religious fanatics and his mother.

Another Assignment Army of Us's. Women's Rights

There is no denying that women have suffered under the Harper government, though many of the effects have yet to be felt.

Spread the word.

Canada Now Being Governed by Ideology and Propaganda

When Stephen Harper was first running for the top job, as head of the Alliance Party in 2004, two words were prevalent from the opposition: "ideology" and "agenda".

In 2006, the same two words were common, but were then dismissed as hyperbole.

Now we have a prime minister running our country based on pure ideology and with a frightening agenda.

But first he silenced his caucus, then he silenced the media, the public service, scientists, experts, and advocacy groups.

Now he is silencing us. First by having us beaten up, and now by having us beaten down.

And he is doing that by eliminating a detailed census.

If he has no statistics, then he has no facts getting in his way.

Munir Sheikh, former chief statistician of Canada, rightfully claims that the Lack of census data will imperil policy-making.

But of course, we know the problem was that the census itself imperiled Stephen Harper's policy-making. Those damn facts. If it wasn't for them and those pesky Canadians he could get things done.

And Antonia Zerbisias in the Star, also raises women's issues that will be eliminated with the lack of accurate data.

The dangers imposed by this government are so tangible and yet illusive to the majority of Canadians. Why is that?

Economist Marilyn Waring, a former New Zealand cabinet minister, is quoted in the piece by Zerbisias:

“I see this mirrored in so many conservative governments in the post-recession period. They want to rule according to ideology not according to evidence. So one of the most important things they can do is to obliterate evidence so they can operate on the basis of propaganda.’’

It's absolutely frightening. But I'm not as afraid of Stephen Harper as I am of the current Canadian psyche.

"The force possessed by totalitarian propaganda - before the movements have the power to drop iron curtains to prevent any one's disturbing, by the slightest reality, the gruesome quiet of an entirely imaginary world - lies in its ability to shut the masses off from the real world." - Hannah Arendt

Harper's Women's Rights Agenda Knocks Canada to 25th Place

Stephen Harper's views on women's rights are based on neoconservative ideology, and as Dr. Donna L. Lillian says: Sexism, the ideology and practice of relegating women to a lower rung on the social hierarchy than men simply by virtue of their femaleness, is an integral component of neoconservative thinking ..."

And we've recently learned that Canada has fallen from 7th place in the World Economic Forum gender gap index in 2004, to 25th place in 2009.

These numbers are real and alarming. We can make broad statements about the Conservative attitudes, but this validates what everyone has been saying.

We are dropping back instead of moving forward. And what will this mean to our daughters and granddaughters?

Women's status in Canada has eroded over the past five years, despite Ottawa's "unduly rosy picture of achievements in this country," say labour and women's groups. "Women in Canada have lost ground in many areas," Barbara Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said in a statement as the report was released in Ottawa on Monday.

"So we decided to write our own report, and it provides a reality check on what the government is saying." The CLC, along with the Canadian Teachers' Federation, the Feminist Alliance for International Action and others, will present the report to the United Nations' World Conference on Women in New York next month. It takes issue with the federal government's report to the UN on women's equality.

The March meeting is expected to outline progress made since the last large-scale UN-sponsored conference on women 15 years ago. "Canada no longer compares favourably against other nations in assessments of gender equality and the gender gap," the report says.

This is unacceptable.

When it Comes to Women's Rights in Afghanistan, Lawrence Cannon Says What Rights?

Last spring, when news that the Afghan Parliament had passed a law depriving women of their children in cases of separation, banning them from appearing in public without the permission of their husbands, and making it illegal for them to refuse to have sex with them; Canadians were outraged.

We immediately demanded answers from our government.

Our young men and women are fighting in that country and one of the things they are fighting for is the rights of women; or so we're told.

Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon got on it right away.

Canadian officials contacted Karzai's office, and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon spoke to two Afghan cabinet ministers Tuesday seeking clarification. Karzai's office has so far refused to comment on the legislation, which has been criticized by some Afghan parliamentarians and a UN women's agency but has not yet been published.

Critics say Karzai's government approved it in a hurry to win support in the upcoming election from ethnic Hazaras — a Shia Muslim minority that constitutes a crucial block of swing voters.

"If these reports are true, this will create serious problems for Canada," said International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, who fielded questions in the House of Commons. "The onus is on the government of Afghanistan to live up to its responsibilities for human rights, absolutely including rights of women.

Fast forward to 2010, and the hostile take over of the Rights and Democracy agency by the Conservative government. Lawrence Cannon has already been brought into the mix when it was discovered that he lied about knowing that there were problems, instigated by his party.

So should we be surprised to learn that Cannon knew of the new Afghan law months before it was passed, so his huffing and puffing was nothing more than that?

Lawrence Cannon swore he knew nothing about the law and that it came as a complete surprise to him… he was contradicted by two employees - the president, Rémy Beauregard, and Razmik Panossian, its policy director, who told Embassy Magazine that Canada had known it was coming for months…

Rémy Beauregard was the gentleman who suffered a heart attack and died because of the horrendous actions of our tyrannical government. As I've said many times, if you question them they will set out to ruin you.

But apparently, Cannon was not the only one who knew.

Ottawa’s man, Aurel Braun, did not appreciate the fact that employees contradicted two Conservative ministers about what was known about Kabul’s misogynistic law….

So there were two high ranking Conservatives who knew of the law and supported it with their silence. We can only assume that the other one was Stockwell Day, since it was he who stood up in the House of Commons and said "The onus is on the government of Afghanistan to live up to its responsibilities for human rights, absolutely including rights of women."

He probably took notes to see if he could get away with enacting a law like that here.

Give him time.

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?