PCWO 96th Annual General Meeting - April 2019
Report on the Provincial Council of Women of Ontario 96th Annual Meeting
Sandman Hotel in Oakville, Ontario held April 27-28, 2019
Theme: Barriers to the Equality of Women in the Workplace
On Saturday, April 27, I was the Toronto delegate of TACW to the above PCWO AGM. After a pleasant drive along with the Queen Elizabeth Highway I arrived at the newly built Sandman Hotel in Oakville. There were 16 registrants for the AGM: local councils Niagara, London, Toronto and two individual delegates; as well as representatives from provincially organized societies, the Business and Professional Women (BPW), the Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario and the Ontario Home Economics Association.
PCWO President Edeltraud Neal (Ottawa Council) welcomed everyone and called to order the session. After some formalities the reports were presented by the president, vice president, board members and local councils. The president gave an excellent report on the 2018 AGM where PCWO enlarged the policy foundation for Briefs to the government of Ontario such as: fragrance-free policy for schools, child care facilities and administrative segregation/solitary confinement in Ontario prisons. She also spoke of the PCWO semi-annual meeting at Queens Park on November 27, 2018 and the Resolutions presented to the Ontario government Economics, education and the environment, healthcare, Senior’s Affairs and more.
The VP for Economics, Linda Davis, spoke about the wage gap and gender quality in the workplace. It is a problem that will not fix itself but we must work to end biases in education and the workplace to help employees make better employment decisions. VP-Health and Safety Tanya Kyryliuk (Independent) spoke of sexual-harassment in police services in Canada. VP- Seniors Issues, Naheed Qureshi (Niagara) spoke of the need for strong health care, LTC and retirement care homes to improve services in Ontario. In particular PCWO is “advocating for a comprehensive dental coverage plan for all seniors.” All the reports are in the annual report 2018 2019 which I have for the members of TACW to read.
The panel discussion was “Pushing through the barriers: addressing the challenges women in Ontario face reaching full economical & professional equality at work.” The title explains the context of three panelists’ discussion points, first of which were by the Hon. Karina Gould, MP and Minister of Democratic Institutions. It was fascinating to hear as she is only 31 and now as a member of the federal government, having started in politics at the age of 26. It didn’t meet without difficulties as some thought she was too young to run for office. But she did, and as a new mother in parliament the first year Karina even took her baby to work as she was still nursing. The prime minister and members of the house had supported her, Hon. Gould said.
The next panelist was Linda Davis, and the president of the business, PCWO VP-Economics and also the new BPW President. She is now a member of the staff at Fanshawe College in London, Ont. but she said as a young mother of two daughters and divorced, she once had a precarious time in the job market. Now Linda also advocates for women’s students who study in male-dominated disciplines and face hostility in their classes. Third panelist was Tanya Kyryliuk, PCWO’s health and safety representative and a police officer. She spoke about discrimination in the police force and how it affects half of the female officers and male officers, too.
After lunch the Resolutions were just were introduced by VP-Resolutions Maide Yazar. There had already been feedback sent between councils, and now the suggested amendments were thoroughly discussed and adjusted. All three resolutions had been submitted by the Niagara District council:
1. Precarious employment mainly pertains to part time, perhaps long-term contracts which is sometimes poorly paid and never turns to full time employment;
2. Policy update to seasonal agricultural workers SAW: Mainly concerns the temporary agricultural workers program, that they are paid Ontario roles and their housing is healthy and safe, and;
3. Supervised opioid consumption sites which concerns the safety of people who inject and inhale drugs. They need help to rehabilitate and receive other health services. 1250 Ontarians from opioid related causes in 2017.
Of interest the PCWO website – www.PCWOCanada.org – is hosted by Future access in St. Catharine’s and has staff every day to answer phone/email, the website editor Ann Porter Bonilla said. The domain name is hosted by Go Daddy, an online web hosting service. I would encourage the TACW members to read the council reports.
Later in the afternoon the delegates participated in the fun auction as a fundraiser, very enthusiastically concluded by Gracia Janes (Niagara District). The donated items brought in about $500.00. The council was very content that it supports itself by membership fees, fundraisers and donations and does not except any government money. As we left the meeting room we passed a wholesale jewellery show. Graciously, the sales people donated a bracelet to be auctioned later at the evening dinner.
The delegates dressed for a splendid dinner, and to follow the guest speaker was Jay Perry, an author on care-giving. To introduce his topic, Jay, a young man said, “my dad got sick.” Well, what did that mean? Jay Perry grew up in Stony Creek, Ont. and though in his early 20s had been a broke travelling musician, he later did well as a professional photographer so he “had money in the bank account.” He was shooting the Maple Leafs and Raptors, doing commercial campaigns, until in 2012 his dad fell ill. He had meant exactly that – his dad got cancer and someone would have to look after him.
Jay learned that there were about 8 million caregivers in Canada in and 2 million between the ages of 15 to 30 years old, and that would include himself. He also did not tell friends his dad was sick though he needed the friends support as well as family support. His story is less on the illness response and more the received not only in person but online in posts shared with others.
Yes, his dad died at the age of 64 after 2 1/2 year struggle. Jay tried to work but found he needed to heal first – that as the caregiver he took his dad to many doctors appointments but to they did not really ask how he and his family was doing and if they need some emotional help. Although he hasn’t found all the answers, he wrote a book on the topic to help others understand that communication and professionals and friends is important. There were many personal stories after the talk and questions on a sympathetic human experience. Thank you Jay Perry and PCWO.
The next morning after a full breakfast the delegates had a discussion and feedback on the Saturday panel. Everyone was pleased with the format of three speakers and a moderator the questions from the floor. They also praised the new hotel and decided to book the next AGM there again. The AGM adjourned at noon the delegates bid their farewells and left the board to have a post AGM meeting.
Regards,
Connie Zboch, President of TACW