VANCOUVER – Today, West Coast LEAF released its seventh annual report card on women’s rights in BC. While the situation for women in BC has seen minor improvements this year, unfortunately for many women, BC continues to fail to deliver on its responsibilities. In particular, BC has not taken action to address the ongoing violence against … Read more RELEASE: Report card finds that BC fails to make the grade in women’s equality
We wrote to the BC Minister of Health to urge the province to immediately eliminate the three-month waiting period for newly arrived migrants to access provincial healthcare coverage. This policy disproportionately affects women, especially those women who require pre-and postnatal care, and contravenes the rights to equality and security of the person guaranteed by the Charter … Read more Letter on eliminating the waiting period for migrant healthcare coverage
West Coast LEAF provided a written submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee to inform the Committee’s preparation of a General Comment on Article 6 (Right to Life) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). We made this submission in order to ensure that the right to life under the ICCPR reflects … Read more Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on Article 6 (Right to Life)
We wrote to TransLink enquiring about their priority seating policy for transit vehicles. In particular, we urged TransLink to consider ensuring that public transit is accessible to all by creating priority seating designation for pregnant passengers. Read the letter. (PDF, 427 KB) Read TransLink’s response. (PDF, 2 MB) Submissions
Read our 2014 Annual Report to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2013/2014 fiscal year. Publications
Case summary This case is about the ongoing struggle to have women’s reproductive work fully recognized, and to ensure that all benefit schemes for parents and pregnant women are consistent with the requirements of substantive equality. The central legal issue in this case is whether a government employer who provides benefits to women who give … Read more BC Public School Employers’ Association v BC Teachers Federation [2014]
As part of our Able Mothers project, we made submissions to the BC government’s Disability White Paper consultations on improving accessibility for people with disabilities. We highlighted the importance of taking strong action to address poverty, access to justice, and violence against women with disabilities, among other critical reforms. Read the submission. (PDF, 304 KB) Submissions
Read our 2013 Annual Report to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2012/2013 fiscal year. Publications
In our annual submission to BC’s Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, we called on the BC government to prioritize women’s equality in the upcoming budget by, among other things, investing in legal aid, implementing the recommendations of the Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, and increasing funding to prevent and respond to male violence … Read more Submission to the 2014 Budget Consultations
Your Words Are Worth Something is a report based on findings from the Older Women’s Dialogue Project, a collaboration between West Coast LEAF and the Canadian Centre for Elder Law from 2012 to 2015. (The Canadian Centre for Elder Law carried out an additional phase of the project until 2017.) The Older Women’s Dialogue Project … Read more Your Words Are Worth Something
