Mary Potter, President

Thelma McGillivray, PCWO VP Status of Women, and I made a presentation to an Ontario Government committee called the Select Committee on Sexual Violence and Harassment, in May this year. Thelma spoke of her experience with violence personally at home and in her work with social service agencies, and I talked about PCWO policies on the topic. I included information that this past year we sent letters to the government on “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” and “Psychological Harassment in the Workplace” and we also endorsed the “Up For Debate” campaign of a “Blueprint for a National Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls.” We commended the government for addressing this issue and for the introduction of the new sex education curriculum which will help youths to learn healthy relationships with the opposite sex.
In June I wrote a letter to the Premier concerned that on the 10th anniversary of the passing into law of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, so little has been done.

“New accessibility standards need to be created right away and current standards need to be enforced in order to reach the goal of full accessibility by 2025.”

Gracia Janes wrote a letter to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on behalf of PCWO on the deep geologic repository of nuclear waste at the Bruce nuclear site on the shore of Lake Huron. We are dismayed that the Joint Review Panel recommended the approval of the repository ignoring expert testimony about the hazards including that of its own advisory staff scientists, and the wishes of the natives, border states and environmental groups.
We were saddened to learn in July that Leonida Hudson, our VP Mass Media and Culture, had passed away from stomach cancer. We will miss her upbeat personality and her questioning of MPPs at Queen’s Park.
In November the PCWO Board will be having a day of strategic planning to try and increase our membership, get more interaction with our affiliates and entice more MPPs to our meetings at Queen’s Park.