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Tehanu
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Joined: 12 Apr 2006
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 Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:13 am Post subject: Stephen Harper and "maternal health" |
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Stephen Harper is doing what? Trying to revive his frayed credentials with anyone who is at all interested in women's equity?
Last week, he wrote in the Toronto Star that the focus in Davos and in June's G20 summit should be on security concerns and human welfare. Specifically, he talked about the need to focus on maternal and children's health, citing the appalling death rate of women in pregnancy and childbirth, as well as infant mortality.
What he does not talk about. Access to contraception and birth control. Access to education for girls and women, which besides being intrinsically essential to improving women's equity, has been cited as the single biggest contributor to improved family planning.
I suppose we should be grateful that Harper has finally realized that there is a world beyond the borders of Canada.
| Quote: | ... Indeed, all too frequently, tragedy strikes those who can least afford it. The lack of the most basic services can lead to dire consequences, especially for the world's most vulnerable populations. Each year, it is estimated that 500,000 women lose their lives during pregnancy or childbirth. Further, an astonishing 9 million children die before their fifth birthday.
... As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's poorest regions. Members of the G8 can make a tangible difference in maternal and child health and Canada will be making this the top priority in June. Far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple health-care solutions.
The solutions are not intrinsically expensive. The cost of clean water, inoculations and better nutrition, as well as the training of health workers to care for women and deliver babies, is within the reach of any country in the G8. Much the same could be said of child mortality. The solutions are similar in nature – better nutrition, immunization – and equally inexpensive in themselves. |
He didn't impress.
A number of people pointed out that it may be a good idea to address Canada's own problems around maternal health. As in, take a quick look at the terrible situation in aboriginal communities.
Here and here.
Antonia Zerbisias calls him on hypocrisy and on focussing on women as baby-makers.
| Quote: | ... Hmm. These are numbers I have repeated noted in this column and on my blog – often to the derision of Harper supporters.
Anyway, there's another statistic, one he conveniently left out. According to the same sources, some 70,000 women a year die from botched illegal abortions.
... Now, I am the last person on Earth not to applaud any concerted effort to help women. Feminists have long said that women's rights are human rights – an idea that is finally sinking in among Western leaders.
Improve the lot of women, improve the lives of all.
... But Harper didn't mention anything about women getting educations or achieving economic parity.
... And so he plans to help women only as baby-makers while ignoring all the other Millennium Goals to end Poverty by 2015 on the international agenda, including "environmental sustainability."
... Indeed, this week, a massive new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that Inuit infants die at more than three times the rate of other Canadian babies. |
And woot! Calloo! Callay! Who knew Ignatieff had it in him.
| Quote: | Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to back aid for abortions abroad if he’s serious about making maternal health a “top priority” for Canada, says Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
“We don’t want to have women dying because of botched procedures. We don’t want to have women dying in misery,” Ignatieff told reporters today after meetings on Parliament Hill on issues of international development. “We’ve had a pro-choice consensus in this area for a couple of generations and we want to hold it.”
... Harper has not specifically said what this aid would include, but support for abortion would be a tough sell for him within his own Conservative caucus, where there are pockets of considerable sentiment against abortion. |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:44 am Post subject: |
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I'm not sure how much outrage I have left in me. Bev Oda has just announced that Stephen Harper's G8 maternal health foreign aid proposal will NOT include abortion or even contraception.
To add insult to injury, she has the nerve to frame this as not reopening the debate on abortion. WHAT?!?
And since when does improving the position of women and children not include reproductive control? Hell, it's essential that it include reproductive control, unless you think of maternal health as baby machine maintenance.
Bev? Stephen?
| Quote: | ... International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said Thursday that Ottawa isn’t changing its policy on what measures will be part of a major initiative with G8 countries to improve the lot of women and children in the world’s poorest countries.
“Canada is not currently going to be changing its approach to improving maternal and infant health,” Ms. Oda said in Halifax, where she announced the port city will host a G8 development ministers meeting in April.
“The Prime Minister has been clear since we became government that there’s no intention on regenerating any debate on abortion.”
... Some family planning advocates also say they’re concerned that Mr. Harper’s plan for maternal health may not include funding of groups that support a woman’s right to abortion services and contraceptives.
... A spokesman in Ms. Oda’s office said the Prime Minister has set out several specific areas that will be the focus of funding, but that family planning measures were never part of that group. |
Globe and Mail. |
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Raos
volatilis vir
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 5472
Location: Petropolis
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:01 am Post subject: |
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| That's not really accurate, baby maintenance machines would be improved by adequate reproductive control; now if the interest is only baby production machines then ignoring contraception is "effective". |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:10 am Post subject: |
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| Good point, we'll go with baby production machines. Maybe Harper & Co. would be more comfortable just acknowledging this? |
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sparqui
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Posts: 5155
Location: Winnipeg
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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Harper makes it sound like Canada has done squat for women in the global south. He is such a manipulative prick.
Instead of improving existing programs and policies as funded by CIDA, he is tightening the focus on program delivery to exclude family planning from reproductive health. This is exactly the same thing Bush did when he first entered office.
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Cartman
Beyond cuddly
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
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Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| The good news is that I doubt anyone believes much of what Harper says. |
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sparqui
Dog tired
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Posts: 5155
Location: Winnipeg
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| Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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Unfortunately, I do think it might mean that CIDA funded services that did provide reproductive health/ family planning might be denied funding. That's how Harper operates.
Seems that there was another infamous late Friday announcement that Canada was no longer pursuing opening a joint AIDS Research Centre (with the Gates Foundation). Three universities and Winnipeg's AIDS Research facility put in proposals (Winnipeg's being the strongest) and all were rejected.
And Vic Toews ponied up millions of federal monies to top up a municipal commitment to fund Youth for Christ's bid to build a multi-million dollar evangelical recreation centre for inner city youth.
Now who still believes that Harper's evangelical roots are not guiding his government's choice.
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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Harper's being blasted for this. Good. Go Jack, and the tagline "no condoms for Africa strategy" is a highly appropriate description. I'm glad to see that this isn't slipping under the radar.
Laurence Cannon has confirmed that contraception is not going to be part of the proposal for the "maternal health" G8 package. Bev Oda's taking the questions -- Cannon and Harper appear to be wimping out, and I guess Helen Guergis is busy?
| Quote: | Jack Layton accused Stephen Harper today of adopting a “no-condoms-for-Africa strategy” for the government’s signature initiative at this summer’s G8 summit.
The NDP Leader said it was “incredible” that “the Foreign Minister is going around saying that contraception does not save lives.”
He added: “How can a program aimed at reducing maternal mortality not allow for any contraception as part of the program?”
Mr. Layton was raising concerns about comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon yesterday that birth control will not be part of the “signature” G8 initiative on maternal health.
Mr. Cannon told a Commons committee the government’s plan is aimed at saving lives of mothers in poor countries and contraception doesn’t fit with that. But neither Mr. Cannon nor the Prime Minister, who were both in Question Period, responded.
Rather, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda fielded the questions, sticking closely to her script.
... Liberal health critic Carolyn Bennett, who is also a doctor, said Mr. Cannon had confirmed what Liberals were fearing – that the government’s commitment to maternal health ends when it comes to reproductive health.
“Unbelievably, the minister suggested that birth control has nothing to do with saving lives,” Dr. Bennett said, noting that United Nations says a “lack of adequate contraceptive services is responsible for 1.5 million deaths in developing countries every year.” |
Top story at the Globe and Mail. |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:58 am Post subject: |
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Poor Stephen Harper, this story isn't going to go away, no matter how much you insist it's a ploy to trap you into talking about something you don't want to talk about openly. Although we all know how you and your caucus feel about it.
The opposition has moved to include contraception (no, not abortion, although I suppose you could say it was implied) into the G8 proposal.
Hey, Stephen! Contraception! Abortion! Sex! Sex! Sex! Run awaaaaaaay!!!
The unfortunate thing is that the Libs handed them an Indignant Tool by saying that Canada shouldn't go down the road of Bush's America.
Keep hammering at this, though, Rae & co. Keep hammering that reproductive rights DO improve maternal health, and yes, dare I say it, women's equality.
| Quote: | Conservatives say they'll vote against a Liberal motion to include a broader range of family planning programs, including contraception, in a maternal health initiative for developing countries, calling the wording anti-American and an attempt to reopen the abortion debate.
The motion tabled by MP Bob Rae says Canada's maternal health proposal to G8 nations must be based on "scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths" and refrain from the "failed right-wing ideologies" of former U.S. president George W. Bush.
The initiative must include "the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception," the motion says, describing such a policy as consistent with previous Canadian governments and other G8 nations in last year's summit in Italy.
... Two days after Cannon misspoke at a parliamentary committee last Tuesday, Harper declared that the government "was not closing doors against any options, including contraception" and did not want to instigate a debate on abortion in the House or anywhere else.
While not specifically mentioning abortion, Rae's motion refers to a so-called "global gag rule" — the ban implemented by the Bush administration that prohibited funding for international groups that perform abortions or provide information about the procedures to women abroad. Within days of taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama reversed the ban.
... Earlier in the day, Rae said the government has refused to acknowledge scientific evidence that shows reducing deaths of women during childbirth in developing countries is inextricably linked to the availability of family planning.
... Oda described the Liberal motion as a "transparent attempt to reopen the abortion debate that we have clearly said we have no intention to getting into."
She insisted the government understands the urgency of ensuring that women can have a safe, healthy pregnancy, and she cited statistics suggesting that as many as 80 per cent of deaths during childbirth are easily preventable by providing basic needs such as clean water and access to trained health-care workers.
... The Conservative caucus held an emergency meeting Tuesday morning while debate was getting started to co-ordinate strategy on the potentially divisive issue of contraception and head off any potential dissent in the Tory ranks, according to unnamed officials in the party. |
CBC. |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:58 am Post subject: |
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ARRRGGGHHH!!! That motion failed. Because Ignatieff didn't successfully whip the anti-choice assholes in his own bloody caucus, or ensure that people who would have voted for it were actually in attendance.
What pathetic display. And what's up with MPs defying a whipped vote? Isn't that a HUGE indictment of Ignatieff's leadership?
Great. Liberal incompetence spells a win for the Conservatives' appalling anti-woman agenda and strikes yet another blow for Canada's international reputation.
Oh, and Dmitri Soudas should learn about what is a confidence motion and what isn't. Unless I'm missing something, this wasn't.
| Quote: | A Liberal motion to include a broader range of family planning programs, including contraception, in a maternal health initiative for developing countries, was defeated 144-138 in the House of Commons Tuesday.
The motion was supported by all three opposition parties, but fell when a number of pro-life Liberal MPs failed to show up and three voted against it, including John McKay, Paul Szabo, and Dan McTeague. Albina Guarnieri and Gurbax Malhi abstained.
Other Liberal MPs who would almost certainly have supported the motion had they been in Ottawa include: Anita Neville, Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Kania, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Alan Tonks, Marlene Jennings, Joe Volpe, Lawrence MacAuley, Stephane Dion, Mario Silva and Jim Karygiannis.
It was a whipped vote, which means all caucus members had to vote with the party's position or face consequences.
... The vote signalled things are going "from bad to worse" for Ignatieff and the Liberal Party, said PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
... "In any case, we thank those Liberal MPs for their support of our Conservative government on an important confidence motion tonight." |
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thwap
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| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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In a minority parliament, you need to have all your MPs. I guess the anti-abortion Liberals aren't worried about fall-out from their genius leader.
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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Mea culpa, says Ignatieff.
| Quote: | Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has apologized to his caucus and taken the blame for an embarrassing defeat of a Liberal motion on maternal health that drew opposition from anti-abortion MPs within his own party, Liberal sources told CBC News.
Ignatieff and Liberal whip Roger Cuzner faced heavy criticism over an embarrassing showing Tuesday in the House, where a motion tabled by Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae was defeated in a 144-138 vote.
... In a meeting with his caucus, Ignatieff acknowledged further consultation should have taken place with MPs, sources within the party, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CBC News. Cuzner also apologized during the meeting for his handling of the vote, the sources said.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning following the caucus meeting, Ignatieff would only say he would not discuss "internal matters" publicly and insisted Cuzner would handle the matter.
"Those are matters of internal discipline, and we'll be dealing with them," Ignatieff said of the rogue MPs after what he said was a "good and frank" discussion with his caucus. He also denied the defeat marked the beginning of a full-scale caucus revolt.
"I don't think my troops are shooting at me," he said.
... NDP Leader Jack Layton, whose party supported the motion, called its defeat at the hands of a few Liberals a "discouraging moment in the Commons" and insisted his party will continue to press for family planning in the government's G8 initiative. |
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thwap
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| Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:58 am Post subject: |
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Ignatieff to himself: "This is NO FUN. NO FUN. NO FUN!!!!!!"
What a drip. Didn't he already know there were anti-abortion MPs in his caucus? Even if he can't control them he could fucking make sure his pro-choice MPs were there to vote against them[size=36]![/size]
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:51 am Post subject: |
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Good for Hillary Clinton. She's not waffling at all on this. In the slightest. "You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion."
Bravo. Succinct. To the point. From someone who comes from a country where abortion is a helluva a lot more controversial than it is here.
A big undiplomatic finger to Asshole Harper and his toadies Oda and Cannon.
| Quote: | ... G8 foreign ministers wrapped up their meeting Tuesday with a wide-ranging declaration on the precarious state of global security, from terrorism to nuclear threats. But it was Ms. Clinton who stole the spotlight.
At the closing news conference, Ms. Clinton was asked about Canada's signature G8 initiative on child and maternal health care in the Third Word. The Conservatives have come under heavy criticism for refusing to say if the plan would fund family planning programs that might include abortion.
Ms. Clinton didn't mince words.
... Her answer was more direct than even the opposition Liberals, who have insisted on family planning but have shied away from using the word “abortion.”
As Ms. Clinton spoke, she was seated next to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, who has steadfastly refused to say whether family planning will be part of the G8 initiative.
... Tories were less than amused.
“Was it useful for her to do that from her domestic perspective or from her international leadership perspective? Perhaps. Was it useful for her in Canadian-U.S. relations? I'm not sure,” said a senior Canadian government official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity. |
Of course, I'm pissed at her for asking for Canada to stay in Afghanistan past 2011. Win some, lose some.
Globe and Mail. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:10 am Post subject: |
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... and that mealy-mouthed Cannon refused to respond to reporters' questions about Clinton's statement. Craven slug.
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| Probably had to be Mr. Frozen Face until he'd received instructions on how to react [think] from the Mothership. |
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Willow
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| Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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This makes my blood boil!
Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a meeting of international women's equality rights groups Monday morning that it would be best for them to "shut the f--k up" about their concerns over the government's maternal health initiative.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/05/03/abortion-maternal.html#ix...
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fork
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| Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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Also via rabble:
Six aid organizations backing Harper:
CARE Canada
Plan Canada
RESULTS Canada
Save the Children Canada
UNICEF Canada
World Vision Canada
At the rabble link, remind writes that Antonia Zerbisias' Facebook page lists the following groups which have been defunded in the last two weeks:
1. Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)
2. CERA (Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation);
3. Conseil d'intervention pour l'accès des femmes au travail (around for 25 years)... Voir la suite
4. New Brunswick Pay Equity Coalition,
5. le Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec,
6. Alberta Network of Immigrant Women,
7. Centre de documentation sur l'éducation des adultes et la condition feminine,
8. Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale (AFEAS),
9. Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) (a 75-member coalition primarily of first stage emergency shelters for abused women.) |
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Raos
volatilis vir
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 5472
Location: Petropolis
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| Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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Here's a new one that can be added to that list: Women's aid group loses federal funding
| Quote: | An Ottawa-based aid organization that supports women's rights in the developing world has had all its federal funding cut.
Match International has relied on government funding for 34 years to support programs that help women gain leadership skills and start their own businesses in countries such as Ghana, Mali and Tanzania. The group also works to prevent violence against women and female genital mutilation.
The non-profit organization has been getting about $400,000 a year — about 75 per cent of its budget — from the federal Canadian International Development Agency. The rest comes largely from charitable donations.
[. . .]
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said the group lost its funding because of performance issues. However, that came as a surprise to Bulger.
"I think it's disingenuous," she said. "It was a political decision."
CIDA previously told the organization its proposal, which incorporated the agency's recommendations, was good, she added. The agency never requested additional performance information. |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 11:49 am Post subject: |
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Women's groups must be finding it really hard to decide whether or not to fight this, since they then run the very real and frightening risk jeopardizing their funding. What's left of it. Disgraceful.
The Toronto Star continues to beat the drum on this, at least. Chantal Hébert:
| Quote: | It is not often that a Parliament Hill rally turns into a bit of love-in for the government of the day or that the latter is reluctant to allow itself to be showered with unrequited public affection.
Such was the case last week as thousands of anti-abortion activists used their annual Parliament Hill rally to celebrate Stephen Harper’s maternal health initiative.
... The question is no longer whether the Conservative approach to abortion rights will be in the picture of the next federal campaign but rather what Harper will do about it.
... In a timely book on the religious right in Canada, titled The Armageddon Factor, journalist Marci McDonald documents the unprecedented access various militant religious lobbies have come to enjoy in Harper’s Ottawa.
... Last week, former Harper adviser Tom Flanagan used the word “atrocious” to describe the government’s current political management. Other contrarians offer an alternative explanation for the prominence of the social conservatives in the government, arguing that they may have risen by default rather than by design.
Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney — the top social-conservative figures in the cabinet — also happen to be two of Harper’s few solid ministers.
... And [the government] has set out to put its aggressive social-conservatism stamp on other high-profile decisions — including moves to cut funding to a host of women advocacy groups and the Toronto Gay Pride Parade.
Having let the social conservatism genie out of the bottle, Harper now does seem inclined to embrace it. |
How scary is it that Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney are described as "two of Harper's few solid ministers"?
Linda Diebel:
| Quote: | Here’s where the abortion issue stands: Conservative religious right MPs appear flush with recent successes, pro-choice groups are frightened and there is a growing consensus Ottawa is moving inexorably towards a vote on abortion law.
... “Is (a vote) inevitable? I would say yes,” says Mississauga South’s Paul Szabo, among a handful of anti-abortion Liberal MPs in a sea of Conservatives. A veteran member of the secretive Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, Szabo joined a crowd estimated at up to 15,000 campaigners at Thursday’s “March of Life” on Parliament Hill.
“We will be back to reconsidering the question in the House . . . We’re taking incremental steps, small steps. It’s just a question of knowing when it’s the right time.”
Pro-choice advocate Joyce Arthur sees the Harper government’s decision to focus on maternal and child health - excluding abortion – at next month’s G8 summit as the “first serious thing they’ve done.” Repercussions include the International Planned Parenthood Federation remaining without its annual funding six months into the year, and appearing to be cut off from government money.
“The next step is to do it to us here in Canada,” Arthur warns.
Women’s groups perceive the parliamentary religious right as stronger, more comfortable and cockier than when Prime Minister Stephen Harper formed his first minority more than four years ago. Analysis by Arthur’s group, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, estimates roughly 40 per cent of the country’s 308 MPs oppose abortion, but that number rises to almost 70 per cent within the Conservative caucus. Their table can be found at www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/list-antichoice-mps-nov08.html. |
Clearly this issue has given a huge shot in the arm to the anti-choicers.
(Note my favourite, albeit impractical, comment on Diebel's article: "I am for freedom of choice. But being a guy as far as i am concerned its none of my business. Let the woman decide. If theres a national vote only woman should vote.") |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | (Note my favourite, albeit impractical, comment on Diebel's article: "I am for freedom of choice. But being a guy as far as i am concerned its none of my business. Let the woman decide. If theres a national vote only woman should vote.") |
I will listen to a group of (mostly) men prattle on about whether or not a woman should be allowed to control her own body, and reproductive choices -- all under the guise of saving "unborn children" -- on the same day that they devote equal time to criminalizing jacking off. I mean, that's a whole lotta "baby seed" going to waste, there!
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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Outcry over Quebec archbishop's abortion comments
| Quote: | Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec, has provoked a firestorm of criticism from politicians and feminists by strongly condemning abortion, even when pregnancy is the result of rape.
Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Quebecois, said she was "completely outraged" by Ouellet's remarks, and accused him of trying to reverse the results of battles waged for 40 years, Radio-Canada reported.
Ouellet has faced harsh criticism since remarks he made Saturday before an anti-abortion conference in Quebec.
"A woman who has been raped has lived through a trauma and she needs to be helped," he said. "But she must do that with respect for the being that is inside her... There is already one victim. Must we have another one?"
Marguerite Blaise, minister for senior citizens, told Radio-Canada, that she was "very uncomfortable" with the cardinal's remarks and "does not accept" them.
"Women are capable of deciding for themselves," she said. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Tehanu
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| Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Harper's dodged a bullet at the G8/G20, looks like. A leaked brief says that they're not going to discuss abortion funding in the maternal health initiative.
Oh, and they're not talking about the environment, either. Just talking about how they want to keep talking about it.
Remind me why they're holding this stupid summit again?
| Quote: | G8 leaders will agree to an initiative on maternal health that stresses that women in poor countries need access to better sexual and reproductive health-care services, including family planning, but make no specific mention of abortion, according to a draft of the final communiqué for their summit later this month.
That leaves G8 countries free to decide whether their reproductive health-care programs will fund abortions – as Prime Minister Stephen Harper, host of the Muskoka summit, has insisted that Canadian maternal-health programs will leave out abortion funding.
... The fact that there is no specific mention of abortion is no surprise – other G8 nations signalled they would not underline the differences.
... An annex to the draft outlining the maternal health initiative says it includes other elements: medical attendants for childbirth; preventing infectious diseases and transmission of HIV from mother to child; vaccines, nutrition and clean water.
... The draft communiqué also shows that G8 leaders are to express support for continued talks on climate change, but have not yet agreed on how strongly they will commit to a post-2012 climate-change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. |
Globe and Mail. |
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Tehanu
More or less, more or less
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17648
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation
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| Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:31 am Post subject: |
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Oh, puke puke puke. Now they're calling it the "Muskoka Initiative."
Don't dignify it. Muskoka is good for many things, lakes, cottages, mosquitoes, beer-soaked weekends. Let's not tarnish it, m'kay?
| Quote: | The Muskoka Initiative, formally announced Friday, has largely failed to inspire both at home and abroad. Despite the $2.85-billion, five-year commitment of Canadian taxpayer money, the initiative is high on rhetoric but short on detail.
Buzzwords -- like voluntary family planning, country ownership, health workers, information systems, continuum of care, accountability and effectiveness -- are abundant. But the details are missing. How will the initiative be co-ordinated with existing global health activities, particularly the Global Fund? Will the initiative promote universal access to health care for women and children, and if so, how will this be financed? While named in the communiqué, it is not clear how the initiative fits in with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the UN Joint Action Plan for Women's and Children's Health.
The G8 communiqué claims the initiative will prevent the deaths of 1.3 million children five years and under and 64,000 maternal deaths while enabling 12 million couples to access family planning. Yet no information is provided on how these goals will be achieved. Perhaps this lack of specificity is the reason that matching contributions from other G8 countries were disappointingly low. A request for billions of dollars is normally accompanied by a strategic plan.
The lack of enthusiasm abroad is met with skepticism at home. This government recently cut funds to organizations working for the rights of women in Canada and abroad. It also decimated Status of Women Canada, and shut down gender equality units at the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
If Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants Canada to contribute to reducing maternal mortality, he must recognize that maternal health is not a one-off, stand-alone issue. |
Ottawa Citizen. |
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thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton
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| Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:09 am Post subject: |
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I gotta comment, ... 2.85 billion over five years? WOW!
How much they spent over two DAYS? (for the G20 summit?) 1.1 billion!
Shows you where any of their priorities are.
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Man! I hate them fancy-lads! |
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TS.
Delicious schadenfreude
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON
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| Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:59 am Post subject: |
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Seriously. They should have all stayed at home, done the stupid meeting by teleconference, and given the $1.1 billion to a worthy cause, perhaps defeating AIDS, or helping to combat the spread of malaria.
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson |
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