These are the questions our group has put together for you to ask your municipal candidates before voting in the 2022 elections. We will be sending them out to all candidates in Vancouver. Please use and distribute as you like.

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If you are a candidate and would like to answer these questions and /or meet and discuss with us, please email womenspacevyr@gmail.com.

 

Preamble:

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The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international bill of rights for women. Article 1 of CEDAW, explains discrimination is understood as "any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex.”

 

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms sets out equality rights. “Section 15 of the Charter makes it clear that every individual in Canada – regardless of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, colour, sex, age or physical or mental disability – is to be treated with the same respect, dignity and consideration. This means that governments must not discriminate on any of these grounds in its laws or programs.”

 

Questions for Municipal Election Candidates – Council

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1.  Do you support women’s sex-based rights as outlined in CEDAW and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

 

2.  In order to accurately include and represent all citizens in decision-making, it is critical to gather data that reflects material reality such as biological sex and sexual orientation.

 

3.  Women’s (adult human female’s) sex-based representations in the civic processes must be preserved.

 

4.  Political organizations should strive to have equal representation of women (adult human females) in leadership positions and as candidates.

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Questions for Municipal Election Candidates – Parks

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1.  In order to protect the dignity and safety of women and girls, washrooms and changerooms in all public venues must offer sex-segregated facilities.

 

2.  Public venues should offer women-only programs such as women-only time in the gyms, girls-only sports, or teen girls-only activities.

 

3. Further, women have the right to request that some activities remain sex-segregated, when renting Park Board facilities for cultural, social, or sporting events.

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Questions for Municipal Election Candidates – School Board

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1.  Girls (female children and youth) have sex-based rights to safety and privacy, guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom must be supported.

 

2.  What would you do to protect students from being lured into online sexual extortion and online luring for the purposes of prostitution, sex trafficking and pornography?

 

3.  Some parents are concerned about whether materials and beliefs presented in the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum (SOGI) for students are age and developmentally appropriate. What would you do to protect the rights of parents and educators to bring concerns to the School Board, regarding curriculum, policy and/or practice?

 

4.  Female students are reporting rape culture in BC’s elementary and secondary schools and a lack of  protections or safety mechanisms in place at the municipal and school board levels. This is an urgent issue to address. The 2020 Convention of BCCPAC overwhelmingly passed the following resolutions to address peer to peer sexual harassment and sexual assaults in schools. See pages 45 to 49.

 

• 2022.09  Action Against Peer-to-Peer Sexual Misconduct

• 2022.10  Action to Address Peer-to-Peer Sexual Harassment

• 2022.11  Action to Address Peer-to-Peer Sexual Assault/Exploitation  -  Data Collection & Analysis

• 2022.12  Action to Address Peer-to-Peer Sexual Assault  -  Response Protocol

 

What will you do to support and implement these recommendations?

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Printable PDFs

Council

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School Board

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Park Board

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