Excerpts from the report:
Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and is in an enviable financial situation. The Government of Canada recently recorded its eighth consecutive annual surplus. Canada is the only G7 country expected to post a surplus in 2006.1 Canada also has the lowest debt burden of all G-7 countries.2 Canada has the resources, institutions and infrastructure necessary to eradicate poverty among women, men and children and to provide women and men in Canada with strong social foundations in the form of social programs and services to support their enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights.
However, in this decade Canadian governments have cut away programs and services that women rely on, introduced punitive and narrowed eligibility rules to control access to benefits, and made women's lives harsher. The poorest women, who are most likely to be single mothers, Aboriginal, African-Canadian and other racialized women, women with disabilities, and women who are elderly, are the most harmed.3
Canada's wealth and prosperity and international stance on human rights belie the reality of human rights neglect at home. Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, recently made the following observation about Canada:
Despite our international standing, 'poverty and gross inequalities persist' in our own backyard. And so, the 'Human Poverty Index' tells a story, last year Canada could manage only a 12th place ranking out of the 17 OECD countries listed, a distressingly consistent pattern since the UNDP's rankings began. Other reports,studies and indicators, from home and abroad, reveal that First Peoples, single parent families headed by women, persons with disabilities and many other groups continue to face conditions in this country that threaten their fundamental economic, social, civil, political and cultural human rights, the birthrights of all human beings under international law. 4
We submit that Canada has not only failed to fulfill its obligations under Articles 1 and 6 through 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during the period under review, it has also taken retrogressive measures, contrary to its obligations under Article 2.