Letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
[print_link] and PDFMarch 7, 2016
The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
The Catholic Women’s League of Canada, founded in 1920, is the largest national organization of women in Canada, with in excess of 83,000 members represented in every province and the military. The League has often received the commendation and keen appreciation of federal, provincial and municipal authorities for the voluntary services ably performed by its nationwide membership and is organized and pledged to serve all citizens of goodwill.
Each year at convention resolutions are debated and adopted on a variety of issues that members feel are of vital importance not only to Catholics, but all Canadians. One of the resolutions adopted at the 2015 convention was titled Reinstatement of the Mandatory Long-Form Census. It was with great pleasure that League members heard the announcement of the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form census immediately following the federal election in November 2015.
Having a mandatory long form census rather than a voluntary household survey benefits all Canadians as statistics had exposed a lower completion rate for the voluntary household survey that didn’t allow for an accurate representation of Canadian society.
In March 2015 the League’s delegation to government met with officials in Citizenship and Immigration Canada to ask questions about the issue of health care benefits for refugees as a result of the adoption of Resolution 2014.01 Restoration of Health Care for Refugee Claimants. During this meeting we were told unequivocally that one of the main reasons for denying health care to refugees was to prevent bogus claims of refugees due to the generosity of the federal
government in regards to health care. The League would like to commend you for the recent announcement that refugee health care costs would be not only reinstated but extended so that refugees would be entitled to the same health care as those on social assistance.
It had been the delegation’s hope to share these commendations in person at the 2016 meetings but, as obtaining meetings in February with the various departments and yourself were not possible, we felt it important to communicate the League’s appreciation with respect to these two issues. We do hope that the meetings may be rescheduled soon so we may inform our constituency of the federal government’s position on issues important to League members.
With prayerful best wishes,
Barbara Dowding
National President
JN/bd