Education | Action | Advocacy |
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Women Helping Women for a Better Future |
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CFUW Ontario Council News |
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In this Issue
- Ontario Council President’s Message
- Upcoming Speakers Series on Feb 26th
- OC Nominations for 2022-24 open on Feb 14th
- Take Action! from Ontario Council
- Advocacy News
- Notes from Queen's Park
- Committee for the Status of Women/Human Rights
- ARROW the New OC eClub
- Climate Action Corner
- Contest - Win $300 for your Club!
- Club News & Events
If you are having problems viewing this e-mail, click on the View as a Webpage link in the top right corner.
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Ontario Council President's Message |
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President's Message
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.” Edith Wharton
I found this quote so relevant now as Ontario Council (OC) is coming to the end of its biennium this May. Since 2020, we have embarked on a journey to the theme of women helping women for a better future. Our advocacy pursuits and speaker series programs supported this theme and we have seen the reflection in the clubs’ varied and thought-provoking activities.
Our February Speakers Series program on the 26th will bring to light the adverse effects this pandemic has had on our children and young adults. Their mental health has been severely impacted – with the end results not yet fully realized. Please register now!
With the provincial and municipal elections looming , our Advocacy Election Tool Kit (Parts One and Two) is shedding light on processes, procedures, and issues for your clubs to grapple with and tackle in your communities.
We are proud of the work Ontario Council has generated, and the next few months will produce additional efforts in serving our purpose. We are currently planning the Annual General Meeting (AGM) with the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) from CFUW Kitchener- Waterloo, with the theme: Reconnect, Renew, and Reinvigorate. The diverse, multifaceted program will be another reflection of the issues that have women most concerned, but also offer the chance to renew and be reinvigorated…finding new perspectives. More news on the AGM to follow shortly.
We are holding our elections for the Ontario Council Board at the May AGM. New ideas and perspectives are key elements for continued success and future growth. At different times in our lives, we all need a new perspective and this is another golden opportunity to glow – like the candle- or reflect good ideas -like the mirror. (Consider the idea that we are all candles or mirrors depending on the situation or circumstance or role we play.) So please consider being an integral member of a dynamic group of women who pursue the purposes of Ontario Council when the nominations process opens up shortly. Please contact me if you have any questions!
Who needs $300 for their club? We are excited about our upcoming Ontario Council Membership Committee Contest! Stay tuned for more details!!
Lastly, our various OC committees are working tirelessly to ensure Ontario Council is “in the know and in the now.” We are reviewing our Articles and Bylaws so as to comply with the Ontario Not for Profit Act (ONCA); we are reviewing our various governance policies and compiling an administration policy book; our membership committee is sponsoring a contest; our finance committee will meet shortly to produce a prudent budget and review our policies; and the other advocacy committees will be watching the issues affecting women as we come closer to the provincial and municipal elections.
Our work is never done….and it is the pursuit of our essential purpose that satisfies….
Sandra Thomson, President, CFUW Ontario Council President
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Speakers Series on February 26th
Children, COVID & Beyond:
Social Determinants to Education
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Registration is now open for OC's third Speakers Series of the 2021-22 year. This session’s topic is Children, COVID and Beyond: The Social Determinants to Education, and the event will take place on Saturday February 26 from 10 a.m. to 12:30p.m. The speakers are Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt, a full Professor at the University of Ottawa, and Mohamed Ahmed and Shanaz Ali, who are from Success Beyond Limits.
Please click here to register
In our society, children spend most of their early years in school. This stage of formative years sets the tone for adolescence, and adulthood. Schools and a child’s peer group play a role in shaping knowledge, behaviour, and mental well being. Covid-19 has impacted the mental health and well being of youth through isolation from peers, teachers, and mentors. Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt, a leading Canadian researcher, will discuss the physical and mental health impacts to children and young people during this unprecedented time.
External social and economic pressures also have a detrimental effect on a student’s success in life. Success Beyond Limits, has addressed the need to enrich students in Jane-Finch to excel in school and beyond, through mentorship. Mohamed Ahmed, the Co-Executive Director of SBL, and Shanaz Ali, the Program Manager of SBL, will discuss this unique, collaborative, youth-led community-based program, assisting students to successfully complete their education and experience future success.
The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session when the speakers will address questions from the audience. We encourage you to submit your questions in advance to Wendy Taylor, Chair of the Education Standing Committee.
The Speakers Series is free but advance registration is required. Please note that the start time indicated on your registration confirmation will be 9:45 a.m. which is when the meeting waiting room will be open. Other than speakers and moderators, attendees will not be admitted to the meeting until a few minutes before 10 a.m. The plenary will be begin at 10 a.m. sharp. The extra 10 to 15 minutes are needed to resolve any technical issues before 10 a.m. Please plan to connect to the meeting a few minutes before 10. All attendees will be admitted to the meeting at about 9:55 a.m.
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Ontario Council Nominations for the 2022-2024 Board of Directors Are Open!e |
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As the 2020-2022 biennium comes to a close this May, the Ontario Council Nominations Committee is pleased to open nominations for all 14 Director positions on the Ontario Council Board for 2022-2024 biennium!
The nominations forms, which are self-explanatory, can be found on our website:
As you may be aware, elections will take place at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held May 13 and 14, 2022 in Kitchener-Waterloo. All Board Director positions are open for election:
President * Advocacy Chair Status of Women/Human Rights Chair
Secretary Education Chair Communications Chair
Treasurer Legislation Chair (6) Regional Directors
The eligibility requirements for Director positions are outlined in our Bylaws, clause 2.05.
*The nominee for President must have served at least one (1) term on the Ontario Council Board or in a leadership position with CFUW Ontario Council.
The nominations period runs from February 14, 2022 to March 25, 2022. No nominations forms will be accepted after March 25.
Consider becoming a member of a dynamic team of women who commit themselves to serving the 47 clubs here in Ontario and to the women and girls who need us!
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Take Action! from Ontario Council |
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Two requests from our partners, the Ontario Coalition of Better Child Care.
At time of writing, Ontario still does not have an agreement, if you haven’t already, please “Tell Ford and Lecce to sign the child care agreement”.
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Sign on to an open letter from both the Ontario Coalition of Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario asking for:
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Publicly-funded PCR tests for children, families, ECEs and staff, and COVID-19 case reporting in the childcare sector;
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Financial support to licensed childcare programs for recruitment and retention of qualified staff with 10 permanent paid sick days for mandatory isolation periods
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Ontario’s election is scheduled for June 2nd. Check out Ontario Council’s Election Toolkit – Part 1 which contains information to help prepare you for the election. Part 2 containing information about issues of concern will be published in late February.
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Municipal Elections will be Oct. 24, 2022.
Of interest is a Municipal Campaign School sponsored by Guelph Advocates with Wellington and Oxford County. Its aim is to encourage women and equity-seeking groups to run for municipal office.
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Ontario Pre-Budget Submission
On February 6th, CFUW Ontario Council submitted comments to the Ministry of Finance concerning the 2022 Budget focusing in the 500 word submission again on the Caring Economy: Education (an education recovery program), Child care (compensation, rural and flexible strategy), Home Care & Long Term Care (funding). You can read the submission here.
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United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
CFUW has consultative status with the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Through this, CFUW is able to send a small delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York. This is traditionally held in March. Along with the United Nations itself, there is the NGO CSW New York which acts as home to all of the NGOs like ourselves who come to the UNCSW. Both the UN and the NGO/CSW run forums, events and lectures during the time of the Commission.
These forums are now held online, and the ones sponsored by the NGO/CSW are now available to all members. CFUW will have a session during this time. It is an exciting, fascinating event – two weeks of lectures, discussions, webinars with people from around the world and next door.
If you want to join us, and check it out, go to the NGO/CSW site at https://ngocsw.org/ , click on NGO CSW FORUM at the top, leading you to their opening page. To join the event, it’s necessary to register even if you attended last year.
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February
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
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February 22, 2022
CANADIAN NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY
Human and sex trafficking are an Ontario situation, with the 401 being one of the busiest trafficking corridors in Canada. As most of the victims are Canadian and many of them come from Ontario, do support your local Rape Crisis and sexual assault centres to continue their work with these populations.
March 8, 2022
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Calling all Clubs - International Women's Day March 8, 2022!
Ontario Council is interested in hearing of your club's events in recognizing International Women's Day March 8, 2022! We hope to spearhead a concerted publicity campaign on our social media outlets.
Make this a special year in honoring all women!
April 12, 2022
EQUAL PAY DAY
Equal Pay Day draws attention to the gender pay gap – how much women’s work is undervalued and underpaid relative to men’s. But it’s more than that. It is a day to come together and demand real economic security that leaves no one behind. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how crucial women’s paid and unpaid work is to keeping our communities functioning. But the pandemic has also shown that we can do things differently. We need an intersectional feminist economic recovery plan that leaves no one behind.
April 22,2022
EARTH DAY
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A bit of CFUW Ontario Council history
The Time Before – so very prescient
Twenty years ago, 2002-2003, Ontario suffered through another health crisis, including a declaration of a provincial emergency. In 2003 a commission studying the SARS crisis was established under Justice Archie Campbell with public consultations. CFUW Ontario Council attended November 18th. Our 8 recommendations are still so very relevant today.
The presentation to the Commission by Edeltraud Neal, President Ontario Council:
"CFUW Ontario Council members watched with great concern the unfolding of the SARS health crisis and its social and economic consequences. While we applaud the selfless service of all the health professionals we deplore the deaths in the line of duty.
As long as infected cases emerged, Ontarians all over the Province were in a heightened state of anxiety and worried about their families, about parents and their children getting sick.
As advocates for the rights of the individual and particularly for women we should like to address the responsibility of all levels of governments to cooperate to protect the public and the front-line workers from communicable deadly diseases and their spreading.
Aspects of this protection will necessitate the establishment and funding of:
- an agency (similar to the Centre for Disease Control in the United States) dealing with the immunological research and advice.
- centres of trustworthy information and education for the public as to the symptoms of the disease and practical prevention and protection from infection with the disease
- technologically up-to-date communication systems that are able to link the provincial Ministry of Health with all the health care institutions at once.
- vigilance in the nationwide immunization of children and preparedness for new and emerging infectious diseases
- the establishment and funding for training of health personnel about infection control in hospitals
- funding enough full time health care personnel so that itinerant health workers will not spread the infection from hospital to hospital in the large cities.
- a well-funded strong health care system that can also look after all the other health care needs during an infectious disease crisis
- Public Health Units with consistent programs and mandates with regard to infectious diseases"
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STILL WAITING!!! At time of writing, we are still waiting for Ontario to sign onto the federal early learning and childcare agreement. (Copied from the December newsletter!!)
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Committee for the Status of Women & Human Rights |
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Issues of Note for SWHR in Ontario January/February 2022
- 2021 Human Rights Watch published and Canada fares poorly--again
- Social contracts regarding risk
- Gender Based Violence
- Human Trafficking
- Ontario Human Rights Commission statement regarding disproportionately affected groups and COVID (January 2022)
- Indigenous Peoples' right to clean water
Read the report in its entirety here. |
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Assembly of Rural and Remote Ontario Women (ARROW) is the name of the recently formed Ontario Council e-Club. To start, the Club will meet bimonthly. Meetings will be of one hour (plus) duration and will be online through ZOOM. The purpose of ARROW aligns with CFUW Ontario Council to improve the status of women and to promote human rights, public education, social justice and peace. Members of ARROW can also be members of any other club, including a CFUW club in Ontario. ARROW will work collaboratively with CFUW OC and will enjoy all the benefits of membership in Ontario Council, e.g. access to its Speakers Series, workshops, gatherings and newsletters. To learn more, click here to view the ARROW presentation. To join, please e-mail Sandra Shaw. |
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"100 year storms” are now becoming more frequent and infrastructure is a hot topic in resilience discussions. For most Ontarians flooding is a familiar result of these storms and it has worsened as the climate crisis progresses. Municipalities usually deal with flooding (e.g. basement flooding programs, managing stormwater systems, overseeing Conservation Authorities) and many are raising infrastructure standards to anticipate climate change effects. For example, see the description of Stratford’s experience below. There is also an important role that natural infrastructure can play, under the leadership of the Ontario government.
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Recognizing Membership Successes!
Win $300 for your Club!
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To all OC Club Members:
Normally we are encouraging clubs to participate in the annual Ontario Council Recognition Awards by filing an application. For this year, the OC Membership Committee would like to hear from clubs about their successful recruitment and retention strategies – in recognizing how important members are to the CFUW OC!
To make it an engaging and challenging exercise, the committee is sponsoring a contest! Your club could win $300 for the best recruitment method or $300 for the best engagement activity!
Stay tuned for the brochure with all the details !!!
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March 1 @ 7:30 p.m. CFUW Georgetown - The Orange Shirt Story
CFUW Georgetown in partnership with the Halton Hills Public Library invite you to join them for an evening with Phyllis Webstad and her orange shirt story. Every year on September 30th, we wear orange shirts to honour residential school survivors. Orange Shirt Day grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at residential school, told for the first time in May, 2013. Phyllis is the Ambassador and Founder of the Orange Shirt Society and tours the country telling her story and raising awareness about the impacts of the residential school system. For this lecture, Phyllis Webstad joins us to discuss the origins of the Orange Shirt Story. Please contact enquiries@cfuw-georgetown.ca to obtain the link.
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March 5 @ 10 a.m. CFUW Sudbury - 26th Annual Celebrate Woman Event with Debbie Travis
CFUW Sudbury, in partnership with YWCA Sudbury and LEAF Sudbury, presents best-selling Canadian author Debbie Travis (JOY Life Lessons from a Tuscan Villa) at their 26th annual Celebrate Women event. This is an online event. Tickets are $20. Click here to register. This is CFUW Sudbury’s major fundraiser and Debbie will be connecting from Tuscany!
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March 8 @ 10 a.m. CFUW Aurora/Newmarket 11th Annual IWD Event
Canadian women helping women from Afghanistan speak on International Women's Day
This year's 11th annual event will include a panel presentation about the plight and courage of Afghan women and how Canadian women can help. The panel includes Fran Harding, CFUW Ottawa and member of University Women Helping Afghan Women, Roya Gharji, who immigrated to Canada to study at the University of Ottawa, and her sister Najiba Sanjar, who left Afghanistan in September and now lives in Sweden. All three speakers will share their insights so our members and the community may learn more about how we can be advocates for change. All are welcome to attend this virtual presentation. To register, contact CFUW Aurora/Newmarket at cfuw.info@gmail.com. |
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March 8 CFUW Cambridge 10th Annual IWD Breakfast
Guest Speaker: Dr. Winnie Lee
Dr. Lee is currently the Interim Chief of Staff at Cambridge Memorial Hospital and a practicing Radiologist. She is a Clinical Professor, a wife, mother, daughter and proud resident of Cambridge. Dr. Lee is a physician and community leader. She holds undergraduate and master’s degrees as well as an M.D. with a specialization in Radiology. She has shared her expertise throughout the pandemic in her role at CMH and in the community. Dr. Lee’s journey as a young woman entering university, medicine, clinical practice and now hospital administration will inspire us all.
The link to view the IWD Breakfast will be posted on the CFUW Cambridge website on March 8th. The event will be available to view for a number of days.
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March 8 @ 1 p.m. UWC Toronto - IWD ZOOM Event
UWC Toronto is delighted that Katherine Govier will be speaking at their IWD ZOOM event on March 8th at 1 p.m. Katherine is a novelist and an activist. She has published 10 novels, three collections of short stories, and two collections of travel writing. She has served on the boards of the Toronto Arts Council and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Katherine is also the founder of The Shoe Project. The project mission is to provide programs, courses, workshops and seminars to immigrant women and refugees to develop their English writing and speaking skills.
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March 11 to 13 CFUW Aurora/Newmarket - LUNAFEST
JOIN US AT THE MOVIES – March 11 to 13! CFUW Aurora/Newmarket and the Soroptimists of York Region present LUNAFEST, films by and about women. The 2022 Season features eight short films with a total running time of 80 minutes. The stories reflect the diverse perspectives of the filmmakers and their subjects. NOTE: Some may contain content that is not suitable for children.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students, plus a service charge of $2.05 per ticket. You may also purchase a ticket as a gift for a friend.
Click here to purchase a ticket for your front row seat. Proceeds will support CFUW outreach projects.
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Women Helping Women
Our vision for Ontario Council can be summed up in the following key words:
Education. Action. Advocacy.
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Ontario Council News is a newsletter for and about our Ontario Clubs.
- Because Ontario Council includes close to 50 clubs, we are not able to publish club meetings, AGMs, scholarship winners and other charitable giving.
- Club newsletters are published on the OC website under Club Actions & Events
- To help you help us, click the link below for all the information you need about our publication schedule, submission deadlines, and preferred format.
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SAVE THE DATE!
Speakers Series on February 26th
Children, COVID & Beyond:
Social Determinants to Education
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