“It is a matter of justice! Legal Aid for women is not only a matter of equality as it is one of rights.” – Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, recently retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Many years ago, West Coast Legal Education ...

Despite over twenty-five years legislation, women living in Canada still earn less than men regardless of their occupation, age or education. On average, a woman earns 72.5 cents for every dollar that a man earns. This wage gap is even greater for ...

Equal marriage for same sex couples developed as the wedge social issue in the June 2004 federal election. We witnessed Liberal politicians proudly waving the rainbow flag, a sharp contrast to a year earlier when most of them had trouble saying “lesbian ...

West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (West Coast LEAF) and the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) are hosting a national conference in Vancouver from April 28 to May 1, 2005 at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown Hotel. The Conference ...

Volume 23, No. 2, Fall 2004 Volume 23, No. 2, Automne 2004 Nothing ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. The Coalition for Women’s Equality sent this letter to the Right Honourable Paul Martin in response to his government’s initial Throne Speech on February 2, 2004 and after he responded to that speech in the ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. The Women’s Future Fund is pleased and proud to announce the launch of Campaign 2004. Building on the success of last year’s campaign, this year we hope to raise $50,000 in cash and pledges to ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. Through a series of provincial meetings and focus groups conducted by the Nova Scotia Coalition of Women for Justice between 2000 and 2002, women in Nova Scotia identified access to adequate legal representation and legal ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. The process of responding to the proposed amendments to the once “live” Bill C-22 sparked a series of continued conversations across Canada among Aboriginal women, women of colour, and immigrant and refugee women as to ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. My life as a single parent began shortly after a motor vehicle accident that left me a quadriplegic. My husband was not able or willing to make the commitment to having a wife with a ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. Some Canadian Muslims are proposing the implementation of sections of Shariah (Muslim law) to settle family disputes outside the court system through arbitration committees or tribunals. Due to provisions of the Arbitration Act, the arbitrated ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. Introduction Every family law lawyer is aware of the pervasive, but mistaken, belief that long term common law heterosexual partnerships are now treated in law in the same way as marital partnerships. They can all ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. When Bill C-22, An Act to Amend the Divorce Act, died in November 2003, a long chapter in NAWL’s work on reforms to custody and access legislation came to a close. We now find ourselves ...

Volume 23, No. 1, Winter 2004 Volume 23, No. 1, Hiver 2004 Nothing ...

Women remain the primary caregivers of children. Women are more likely to abandon professional and economic benefits in order to facilitate that relationship. When they separate or divorce, women are far more likely to end up in poverty than their former male ...

Not allowing lesbians to marry sends the message that lesbian relationships are not valuable or worthy of support. Lesbians want the ability to marry to obtain the benefits of marriage and also to change that historical message of exclusion. They also want ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. On May 27, 2003, Human Resources Development Canada released its new approach to measuring low income, the so-called Market Basket Measure (MBM). This method calculates the cost of food, clothing, shelter and other essentials deemed ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. At the invitation of the Canadian government, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Doudou Diene, visited Canada from 15-26 September 2003. During his stay, the former Senegalese diplomat and UNESCO ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. Before becoming known by a section 15 Charter case bearing her name, Kelly Lesiuk was a registered nurse, and worked part-time in Brandon, Manitoba. She and her husband had a small child, and she was ...

Cet article est disponible uniquement en anglais. NAWL’s ongoing work in the area of custody and access has been focused on Bill C-22, An Act to Amend the Divorce Act, since Justice Minister Martin Cauchon introduced it into the House of Commons ...