Obligations and Omissions: Canada’s Ambiguous Actions on Gender Equality

Description

On issues pertaining to women and girls, Stephen Harper’s federal government positioned Canada as a “beacon of light” in the world. Programs were developed in relation to women’s maternal health and the protection of the girl child, but other actions point to an ambiguous and even contradictory approach that failed to address gender inequality. In Obligations and Omissions, contributors examine Canada’s equivocal – and diminished – role in working toward gender equality in the period between 2006 and 2015. Using a critical feminist lens to document, analyze, and challenge Canada’s relations with the Global South, chapters explore the extent to which matters of gender equality have been erased or exploited under the Harper government and the factors that explain these policy shifts. While the contributors document successes in Canada’s approach to some issues facing women and girls around the world, they also show many problems with the ways that agenda was framed and implemented under the Conservative government.. Drawing on rich theoretical investigation, empirical research, and discourse analysis, Obligations and Omissions reveals a complex picture of diverse practices, underscoring the implications of these actions for communities in the Global South, for Canada’s image in the international community, and for future governments in the pursuit of a renewed gender equality strategy. Contents Tables and Figures Introduction: Canada’s Ambiguous Actions on Gender Equality • Rebecca Tiessen and Stephen Baranyi Part One: Themes 1 Did Changes in Official Language Lead to Spending Shifts? • Liam Swiss and Jessica Barry 2 Missed Opportunity: A Discursive Analysis of Canada’s Commitments to Maternal Health under the Muskoka Initiative • Julia Keast 3 Queer Canada? The Harper Government and International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Rights • Marc Epprecht and Stephen Brown 4 Criminals or Victims? An Analysis of the Harper Conservatives’ Efforts on the Sex Trade and Human Trafficking • Kate Grantham 5 Lost without Way-Finders? Disability, Gender, and Canadian Foreign and Development Policy • Deborah Stienstra Part Two: Case Studies 6 Gold ’n’ Girls: Why Canada Weds Gender Equality with Mining Capitalism in Burkina Faso • Paula Butler 7 Canada, Women, and Artisanal Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo • Julia Hartviksen and Rebecca Tiessen 8 Discourse and Whole-of-Government: The Instrumentalization of Gender in the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team • Sarah Tuckey 9 The Gendered Politics of Deceit in Egypt: The Instrumentalization of Women’s Rights for an International Geostrategic Agenda • Nadia Abu-Zahra, Ruby Dagher, Nicole Brandt, and Khalid Suliman 10 The Erasure of Gender in Canada–Haiti Cooperation? • Stephen Baranyi and Shantelle Binette 11 Not High on Our Radar? The Harper Government and Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada • Heather Smith Conclusions: Looking Back and Moving Forward • Stephen Baranyi and Rebecca Tiessen Contributors Index