The Cowichan Valley International Women’s Day Rally held Saturday, March 3 at Charles Hoey Park in Duncan featured a wide variety of speakers addressing different aspects of the need for more equal treatment for women in Canadian Society.
There have been some signal successes, but on other fronts little has changed from the 1940s, the audience learned.
Gayle Hurmuses and Debra Toporowski marshalled the speakers which included MP Alistair MacGregor, Trudy Thorgeirson from the Council of Canadians, Ellen Oxman, president of the Nanaimo, Duncan, and District Labour Council, Patricia Dawn of Red Willow Women’s Family Society, and Collette Norris.
They spoke on everything from the need for safe, affordable childcare for all, to the trauma of having babies seized by the government only hours after birth, to the debilitating pinpricks of prejudice that wear down those who sincerely wish to work for more equality for women.