Former Supreme Court justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé

Owing to Thanksgiving I was away from my manuscript for three whole days. Lovely as it is to see extended family I am very happy to be back in my office, contemplating clouds and tree tops from time to time.

Before jumping back into editing I reread part of a speech given by former Supreme Court justice, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, at a conference in Ottawa a few years ago. She spoke to the status of women in Canada:

“Since being declared persons under the law by the Privy Council, women in Canada have undertaken important struggles. We have successfully fought, and continue to agitate for, equal pay for work of equal value. We continue to fight for inclusion in the workplace. Although men continue to sexually harass, we have avenues of legal recourse when we face sexual harassment at work. However, one aspect of women’s inequality where little progress has been made in Canada is violence against women. Violence against women, including sexual violence, remains commonplace and condoned here and around the world. […] In Canada we do not commonly burn brides or generally practice genital mutilation (although there have been recent instances of both). However, cases of trafficking in women, juvenile prostitution, sexual assault and even murder of women in prostitution, spouses, ex-spouses, and girlfriends, as well as domestic violence, are the everyday menu of our criminal courts.”[1]

[1] University of Ottawa, Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism, 2012, Elizabeth A. Sheehy, editor, University of Ottawa Press, p. 2-3