On August 4, 2010, OAITH wrote a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper regarding Bill C-3, Equality for Aboriginal Women (Bill C-3: An Act to Promote Gender Equity in Indian Registration). OAITH requested that the Prime Minister support the work of Sharon McIvor in her on-going quest to undo the harm done by the Indian Act with the loss of status of generations of First Nations children. Ms. McIvor has spoken before the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs to propose amendments to Bill C-3 that would have remedied all the sex discrimination in the status registration provisions of the Act. Unfortunately, all but one amendment was ruled out of order by the Speaker. In advance of the bill returning for a 3rd returning, OAITH writes to ensure this opportunity is used to address the sex discrimination in the Act. reduction
A report Katerina Scott presented to the Ministry of the Attorney General on an evaluation of the Partner Assault Response (PAR) Programs. A study conducted showed that PAR participation had positive results in supporting attitudes changes and knowledge about abusive behaviours among abusers, but further study is needed to determine the extent to which this translates into changed behaviours. The study also identified a number of challenges with another goal of PAR programs, that of contacting women who had been abused to offer referall and support. These challenges were largely system-related. A third area explored was the range of needs of women in contact with the PAR agencies. Some evidence suggests that intervention may be more successful for men referred through the Early Intervention Court process.
On April 25, 2011, OAITH wrote a letter to Justine Akman, Director, Social Policy and Programs at Citizenship and Immigration Canada regarding the proposed amendment to regulations of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The letter was in reponse to a request for comments on a proposal to introduce a conditional permanent residence period of two years or more for sponsored spouses and partners in a relationship of two years or less with their sponsors. OAITH raised concerns about the proposed measure increasing the precarious nature of women's immigration status as well as the potential of jeopardizing women's personal safety and security rights under the Canadian Charter.
On April 21, 2009, OAITH submitted a brief to the Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 152, the Poverty Reduction Act 2009. The issues raised related to the challenge that women were often faced with unfair choices of poverty or violence, food or rent, and their health and well-being of their children. Women who use shelter services often report experiences of poverty as a major challenge in re-building their lives. OAITH applauded the principles of the poverty reduction initiative, and offered the following recommendations for strengthening its positive impact for women who experience violence. Recommentations included:
- Including recognition of the gendered nature of poverty in the preamble and specific clauses of the Act.
- Setting targets to include a minimum poverty reduction target and timeline.
- Identifying effective strategies that include affordable, publicly funded child care, pay and employment equity, match social assistance to the cost of basic needs, education and training, housing supports, among others.
- Incorporating a transparent, independent review into the strategy.
- That a minimum percentage of the provincial budget be allocated to poverty reduction on an ongoing basis.
- That 'poverty reduction' be re-worded to say 'poverty elimination'.
On April 2, 2012, OAITH responded to the Ontario budget which was tabled on March 27, 2012. OAITH raised its concerns with the fiscal plans of the Government of Ontario as outlined in the budget. The letter covered the following topics:
- Social Assistance and the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB)
- Structural changes to social assistance and employment supports
- Affordable and low-income housing supports and child care
- Women's services
- Efficiencies and consolidation harming services for women who have experienced violence where often underfunded and overburdened services, women's shelters, second-stage housing, rape crisis centres and women's centres often face disproportionate administrative reporting per public dollar than many much larger public services.
On April 19, 2006, OAITH made a submission to the Federal Government in its Pre-Budget Consultation process. The submission highlights OAITH's position and recommendations for ensuring the government budget considered its role in supporting services for women who have experienced violence and for taking steps to end violence against women. The areas of concern covered are:
- Social Assistance Program
- Employment and Economic Security for Women
- Affordable Housing
- Childcare
- Legal Aid
- Aboriginal Women's Services and Supports
- Newcomer Services and Supports
- Non-governmental Women's Services and Advocacy Networks
This toolkit provides a practical tool that allows organizations to apply an integrated anti-oppression framework to their practice. It will be useful for Executive Directors, Program Managers, Boards or Directors, and others who review and create policy in service organizations. This toolkit is designed to help community service organizations become better able to reflect the values, belief, and experiences of everyone in their community, and to ensure there are no barriers or inqualities within the organization's working practices and in how services are provided and to whom.
In this toolkit, the term "inclusion lens" refers to ways of looking at social and economic exclusion and inclusion. It is a tool for analyzing legislation, policy, programs, and practices to determine whether they promote the social and economic inclusion of individuals, families, and communities. It is designed to encourage transformations in how services, policies, and legislation are modified, developed, and re-conceptualized to ensure inclusivity for all people. The Inclusion Lens provides a way to being dialogue with excluded groups, raise awareness about how exclusion works, and identify steps to move toward policies, programs, and practices that will be inclusive.
This study explored some vital issues faced by on-reserve women's shelter directors and staff. Specifically, this study deals with the problems that many of these shelters face in their communications and transactions with Band Chiefs and Councils because of the way INAC (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) funding flows. This study uncovers advantages and disadvantages of incorporating on-reserve shelters as non-profit entities with a governing Board of Directors, determines the advantages of an incorporated non-profit shelter entering into a Comprehensive Funding Arrangement (CFA) directly with INAC to receive funding, and explored the advantages and disadvantages of the NACAFV (National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence) becoming the administration vehicle for flow-through funding for First Nations on-reserve shelters.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) scheme may be impressive on paper, but in practice, the Board fails to deliver needed support to victims of crimes. Unable to deliver on its mandate due in a timely way, or at all. Low budget and a consequent loss of independence from Ministry direction and government interference. Delivery of compensation is up by overly-bureaucratic processes, unnecessary delays such as waiting for a criminal justice process to be finished before processing applications, and inflexibility. Using a number of specific cases to illustrate the different ways in which the system is broken, the report concludes with a number of recommendations for remedying the system so that it may deliver on its promises.