Margins Magazine - Volume 4 Issue 4

VOL. IV | ISSUE IV
MARGINS
So we’re seeing on multiple fronts, economically,
they were devastated. We were also
seeing already before the crisis, housing and
homelessness are big issues. So that has
increased precarity, but also gender-based
violence. We’re seeing on multiple fronts,
women experiencing incredible challenges
and yet, our policy responses are not as [adequate
as the] economic recovery plan came
into play. Canada has never experienced
something like this before, or the world with
the specific gender impacts I mentioned so
we can’t use a traditional approach, we need
a new way of doing things. That’s what the
feminist recovery plan offers – it’s a new playbook
on how to deal with these types of crises.
And I’ll say, for example, in previous recessions,
predominantly male majority sectors
are most impacted. So what is the solution?
Let’s invest in more bridges, more roads, more
physical infrastructure. Because who has been
impacted in this crisis is different, we need to
do things differently to address their unique
needs and that’s what this plan offers.
FA: That’s awesome. So it’s been a couple
of months since the plan has been released.
How do you think that the government
has responded? And how have other organizations
also taken in what you’ve put
forward?
AS: Our job is to essentially identify when
government policies are not working for the
people. That’s what we did with the Feminist
Economic Recovery Plan, we put forward the
perspectives of the people we serve through
our analysis, through gendered and intersection
lenses. From what we’ve seen, it has been
promising, so we put up the plan at the end of
July. By September, we saw the federal government
commit publicly to a feminist recovery,
so that was in the speech from the throne.
Then we saw in the fall economic statement,
money put towards an action plan on women
in the economy and National Secretariat on
early learning and childcare, and money for
re-skilling and training programs for women
who have lost their jobs because of this crisis.
Those were all recommendations that were
echoed in our feminist recovery plan and was
really promising to see.
Now, the piece of the puzzle is, we saw some
investments in childcare that are promising,
but we need investments in the order
of billions. A couple million here and there to
develop a Secretariat is important, but what
we need is an actual system. We need the
provinces and territories at the table because
they play the central implementing role along
with the municipalities. So that’s what we’re
looking at for March 2021, to see significant
investments to build a system that works.
But we’ve seen some promising pieces –
across the country we’ve also seen other levels
of government and other civil societies
organizations put out their plans, which was
exactly what our goal was. So ours is the first
nationally focused plan in the world. Since
the plan was launched, we saw people in Australia
look at developing their own plan, the
UK and Austria have put out a plan. We’ve
seen a plan come out by African feminists,
we’ve seen a plan come out in South Africa.
So we’re seeing this globally, this momentum
for a feminist recovery.
In Canada, we’ve seen feminists deliver and
the province of British Columbia put out a
province-wide plan and similarly in the City
of Ottawa, we’ve seen a localized plan. So
we’re seeing this momentum build. The goal
now is to actually see that [momentum] create
policy change and we’re just starting to
see that.
FA: I think that feeds into my next question
really well, we talked about childcare and
how the 2021 budget didn’t include child
care work. You talked a little bit about
having provinces at the table when discussing
child care because they’re essential
in implementing this type of policy. Do
you sort of have an idea of what you see
in the future regarding child care, maybe
in the March 2021 federal budget?
AS: Yeah, in the federal budget, we’re hoping
to see billions of dollars in investments in child
care. Not only does it address the realities of
parents who need to work and a place for our
children to go to also learn, but it’s also a job
creator. Jim Stanford, at the end of December,
actually put out a study looking at the fact
that investments in child care, if we did it in the
same model that Norway has, we would actually
see potentially $29 billion in revenue per
year. So in a way, investments in childcare could
pay for itself. Not only that, it actually increases
job creation, not only do you have to have early
childhood educators, if we’re actually building
more childcare centers, that’s actually jobs in
construction as well.
Investment in childcare creates 1.5 times more
jobs compared to an equivalent investment in
construction. So, you just actually get more
bang for your buck, because like I was mentioning
before, in previous recessions, the tool has
been more infrastructure development, [which
leads to] more jobs in construction. But, if you
put the same money in childcare, you actually
get more jobs, and you get a public service that
is actually needed.
FA: Going into, I guess, the last point of the
recovery plan, specifically, one of the principles
talked about a shadow pandemic. Could
you talk a little bit about what a shadow
pandemic is?
AS: Yeah, so the shadow pandemic is the pandemic
around gender-based violence. So I’ll
be clear, gender-based violence was a significant
issue well before this crisis. But unfortunately,
because of the crisis, because of the
nature of COVID, not only has it increased,
it’s transformed gender-based violence. So
what do I mean by this? So one example is
more online hate. So more of us are spending
time online because we have to physically
be distanced. What we’re seeing is in the public
realm, as especially young women, young
women of colour are participating, we’re seeing
gender-based violence increase in those
spaces. We’re seeing gender-based violence
increase in people’s homes because of that
increased control that an abuser may have.
We are hearing of women who are not able
to access their cell phones and the internet
and they’re being trapped. Also, some women
have experienced threats of eviction or
eviction itself, because their abusive partners
are essentially saying if you retaliate,
you’re going to be put on the street. So we’re
seeing just devastating domestic violence.
We’re also seeing people who were perhaps
precariously employed or face challenges in
accessing their full workplace rights are also
experiencing potential challenges and gender-based
violence. So I’m thinking about
people who are living caregivers, who are
domestic workers, who have to sometimes
work in homes, during this crisis. That’s been
something we’ve been keeping an eye on, the
potential and the actual, increased abuse of
domestic workers and living caregivers.
We’re also seeing our shelters being very
taxed and so in some ways, in some parts
of the country, shelter use has increased
because people are experiencing more violence,
so they are reaching out. But we’re also
worried in some communities where we’re
not seeing as much engagement because
people [forced into] making the decision
between do I expose myself to COVID or do
I expose myself to gender-based violence.
[This] really speaks to that housing insecurity
and affordability issue. So that is something
we’re also working with public health authorities
to ensure that the messaging around
public health doesn’t make people feel that
they can’t reach out for help. That’s also
been one of the pieces of the puzzle. We’re
hoping to ensure that people who need shelters
[know they] are still open, shelters are
still here, we are an essential service [and]
we have not closed. And that’s been a huge
part of the challenge around gender-based
violence.
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