COVID-19’s Impact on Women
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Summary
In this episode, we speak with Jag Sahota, who is the Shadow Minister for Women and Gender Equality in the Alberta government. She talks about the impact of the current pandemic, and the need for a gender-based analysis of the government's response to it.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament from Halliburton-Caworthalakes. Brock, thank
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you so much for joining us. Again, another great show lined up for you. As always, new
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content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. We do appreciate the fact that you're
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joining us. And because you are, we need your help to reach people within your network that
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might be open to hearing the Conservative message. So as you're watching this, please
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think about hitting the like, subscribe, comment, share button. Help us push back against the
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ever-moving Liberal agenda. And of course, if you can't watch the entire episode today on
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Facebook, you can download it, listen to it later on, on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,
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Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there. And as mentioned, a great show today.
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We have Jag Sahota. She's the Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview and the beautiful
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province of Alberta. She's also the Shadow Minister for Women and Gender Equality. Thank
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you so much for joining us. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you for having
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me. We do appreciate the time, especially because things are so chaotic right now with
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COVID, with everything going on in the country, and the challenges that are going on. I think
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no matter where you're from, you're dealing with a challenge or two. And what I have had
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you on to comment on, because I think it is extremely, extremely relevant, is the fact
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that as the pandemic goes on, we're seeing a disproportionate amount of women who are affected
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the most because of this pandemic. And so I'm, as the Shadow Minister and the fact that you
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and committee have been studying this, you wanted to talk about this, maybe you can explain a
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bit of what you're seeing and what you're hearing as you communicate.
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Yeah, so we started our study in the middle of pandemic in July of 2020. We wanted to look
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at how COVID has impacted women, not just women, but women of colour as well. And what we have
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found is that women are disproportionately impacted by COVID. There's a lot of women of colour, for
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example, who have lost their jobs, who had to take time off to stay at home to take care of their
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kids, or their elderly parents, or somebody who was sick. So the impact has been felt quite
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extensively by by women. And that's what the focus of the study was we in fact, it was extensive study,
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we did that over the summer months, which were where we normally don't sit during summer months,
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but it was important to start the study. We heard from a lot of women, women from different
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organisations who had expertise to, to help women, but weren't able to really help them with this
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pandemic, I guess, nobody was really prepared for the pandemic. But there were a lot of programmes
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where women couldn't apply for those financial support, for example, because they didn't qualify,
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they didn't meet the criteria. So the impact didn't stop just there, it's been, it's still it's still
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going on. And women are feeling that every day. I know during the conversations with constituents,
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there were a number of people, especially at the beginning, who were pregnant at the time were about
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to give birth, and anywhere in between that kind of range. A lot of them were caught between the
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the programme's rules and regulations, because they weren't able to get the full stream of benefits,
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or they were cut off in some way. Maybe you could talk to us about some of the challenges that those,
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the women who were trying to figure out the next steps after they give birth, what they were going
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through. So this government and the minister is required to put a gender based analysis
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on all the programmes that are rolled out by the government. So that meant that every programme,
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financial support programme that was rolled out, should have had the gender based analysis applied
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on that to determine if women or people of different gender was going to be impacted by
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this programme differently, or if they were going to be left out, and how to address that
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before the programmes were rolled out. That wasn't necessarily done. As a result, a lot of women
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were left out, they couldn't meet the criteria, they couldn't apply for, for example, pregnant women who
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were just short of like maybe a few hours just before the pandemic hit and everything was shut down,
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they couldn't apply for the financial support. We as Conservative Party raised those concerns,
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what we heard from our constituents, we took it to the government and raised those concerns,
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and they were eventually fixed. But it was after the fact, after we raised the issues. When in fact,
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what had what should have happened was that those programmes should have had the gender based analysis
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applied to them before they were rolled out. So no women should have been left behind. Then talk about a
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lot of women who own small businesses, for example, they don't have necessarily checking accounts,
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they use their personal accounts to do business, they were left out, they couldn't apply for the
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financial support programmes that were rolled out. Once again, the Conservatives stood up over and over
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again, and raised those concerns. Once again, the programmes were fixed. When the government was listening to
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us as the opposition party, the programmes were fixed. But the concern is that why did this happen in the
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first place? That happened because the gender based analysis wasn't applied. Nobody really,
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they were rolled out in such a rush that nobody really applied this lens. And as a result, a lot of women
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were impacted by that. You should also add that, yes, it did eventually get fixed, but they were
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months, there were months, where women were concerned about what was happening. Were they able to access
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certain programmes in order to carry them through not only the pandemic, but the birth of their child and
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the caring that goes along with it. And the fact that Parliament wasn't sitting, the fact that a lot of these
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conversations could not take place, I think is a big part of that, whether you're talking about
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the wage subsidy, the rent programme, you name it, a lot of these problems could have been fixed
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if Parliament was able to sit and we were able to have these conversations in a constructive manner,
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because I think we all needed to come together. And I think for the most part, we did to get through
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it. But it was hard to do that and come together when the avenues for conversation were not available.
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Exactly. And I see my role as a two part role, I go to my constituents come to me with the concerns,
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and I take those voices to the Parliament. So I was hearing the concerns in my constituency office,
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I would get the phone calls, emails, people were frustrated, women were frustrated with a lot of the
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programmes that were rolled out, there were no details given, they couldn't apply for it, the criteria
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was just too onerous in many ways. And then I couldn't take those concerns to the Parliament.
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But once again, it was the Conservative Party who called on the government to have, you know,
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Parliament sitting so we can address the concerns of our constituents and Canadians who were not getting
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the support that they needed. So yeah, we've been doing not only our role as the opposition party,
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we did focus quite a bit on supporting the Liberal Party to get these programmes rolled out. But at the
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same time, we were focused on doing our role and, and pointing out the deficiencies in these programmes.
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Would you agree that I think in many communities, mine included, I'm sure yours, that small businesses
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are feeling a lot of the brunt of the COVID pandemic? And I think that the stress level is super high,
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because a lot of people are just wondering if they're going to be able to survive, not only the
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next week, the next month, but into the future, if they have the ability to do that. What are you
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hearing from your small business community, especially those that are women owned and women led? What,
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what extra challenges are you hearing from them?
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A lot of them are closing down their shops, because it's, it's coming down to a point where they
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cannot keep running these, these stores, little stores that they have. And there's a lot of small
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businesses and in my riding. And with the restrictions and the lockdowns and the help that was intended to
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help. But for for months, it wasn't available. That just took a, you know, strong hit on these,
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these businesses, basically. So they're feeling it. And it's hard to see small little businesses that
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you've seen all your life just go out of business. It's heartbreaking. And there's no way out at this
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point for them. And it's, it's coming down to it's very stressful, something you've put your whole life
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towards. And sometimes your life savings basically are all gone. It's heartbreaking to see that.
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The impact of this COVID-19 is, is very wide. Like sometimes I think about it, some of the,
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some of the areas that I didn't even think would be impacted by COVID, you know, it comes to light
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and you're like, you take a moment, you're like, wow, I never thought about that. But it's happening.
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What about the mental health issue? It is very sad. I agree. What about the mental health issue?
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And I know we, we talk a lot about, you know, kind of a small business side, but what about
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on the individual side, the, the mental health that people are, are trying to deal with, but you're
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right, the stress of, you know, whether or not you're going to pay your bills, the stress of how
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the economy is going to open, the stress of your future, all of it comes together. And, and we're,
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what kind of measures could the federal government take to kind of
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help those that are struggling with, with, with kind of mental health issues of all kinds.
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There's the sad part is, it's just not, you know, people who are going through financial hardship
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that are feeling the, the mental stress, it's the young people as well. And these people are holding
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the torch to the future. And I have a lot of young girls who work in my, in my constituency office,
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and they tell me how almost day to day basis, how hard it's becoming to, to deal with the mental
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stress. So I, I think what the government needs to do is have effective programs and they need to
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roll out these programs immediately, not two, six, or, you know, 10 months later. The need is now,
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it's already been 10 months. So we should have had mental health access, not just an internet website
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where you can do a self-assessment to see if you're mentally stressed or not, something more effective
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where you can call in, perhaps talk to somebody who can help you, who can support you. It sometimes
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it's a, it's a matter of moments where you're so stressed, you even are pushed to a point where
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you're willing to take your life. When every moment counts, it's, it's having somebody on the other
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side, take your call and maybe just calm you down. You know, not just an internet site where you can
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do an assessment and then go out with the, the, the report saying, yeah, you're stressed. Now what?
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I think the light of the tunnel for many people is the fact that vaccines are, you know,
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there's a vaccine that is available, actually many vaccines that are available. The fact that
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the rollout continues, we can talk about whether or not the federal government has done an adequate
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job in securing enough supply for the provinces and territories to administer, but that's, that's a
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topic for another program. I think you touched on to the, the kind of the, the kind of back to normal
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path, the, the economy, uh, getting the economy open up in a safe, responsible manner, ensuring that
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small businesses are able to thrive, ensuring that people are able to find work that then turns into a
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paycheck that they're able to purchase things that they have discretionary spending to spend on,
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uh, you know, whether it neat stuff of going to, to a movie or, you know, just, uh, the, the
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necessities on, on basic shelter and whatnot. I think all of it comes into kind of the, the,
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the sense of kind of getting back to normal. I think that's where everyone wants to be. And I think that's
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where it's a, it's a very important conversation. I think our party as a whole is, is not only talking
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about rapid testing, they're talking about the vaccines and getting it out to provinces and
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territories so they can administer, but also the economic recovery and how important that is not
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increasing taxes endlessly with a carbon tax that goes up in a pandemic, the alcohol and beer escalator
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that went out with up without a vote in parliament, all those things contribute to the cost of living
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going up. Not only that, sorry, Jag, I'm getting to the question here. Not only that, but we're continuing
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to, to, to tax, borrow, print money, which could have, you know, catastrophic consequences if we
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don't stop that later on, because you will debauch the economy, the currency, probably a combination
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of both. So that piece is also very crucial to how people, whether it be men or women, uh, with
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mental health, with everything and how we get through it as a country.
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I think the focus, um, I'll tell you something, Jamie, I'm a brand new MP. So, uh, when this
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pandemic happened, um, this was in March, um, the lockdown started. I remember we were talking about
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recovery in June or July, looking to the future. That's what the Conservative Party, I was so proud.
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We were looking to the future and to me as a new MP, um, you know, you learn little things at times,
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right? So it wasn't, it didn't make sense to me at that time. I'm like, we need to deal with this now,
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because that's what I was dealing with that in my constituency office. But I've come to a
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realization, looking to the future and planning that that's very important. And I'm so proud that
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Conservatives were doing that back in June, right? The middle of the year, we didn't know which way it
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was heading, but we were focused on that. And, and like you said, it's going back to being normal,
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whatever normal may look like. Now, we don't know what that looks like, but something more normal,
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because it's going to be, it's been now 10 months, lockdowns, not, you know, then you come out,
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then you go back in. It's, it's tough to deal with that, not on, on just a financial level, but on,
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on a personal level, your relationships are suffering. There's so many people who haven't
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seen their loved ones for months. I, for example, I, I, I lived with my grandma and grandpa.
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They are in their late eighties. My grandpa just passed away last year, but my grandma,
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who's 85 years old, I couldn't see her for the first three months. We stayed in the same house,
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but I just stayed in my 10 by 10 room. And that was my life. And it gets to you mentally,
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it gets to you. My only savior was coming to the office. For example, we all like the staff decided,
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we are going to stay away from our families and not to take something home, but at the same time,
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stay open and try to help our constituents. But it's going back to the normal and normal requires
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for us to be aware of the situations, whether that's like, you know, outbreaks in the, in the
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schools or workplace, having rapid tests, like Michelle Rempel has been saying is so important
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to take us back to that and having vaccinations, of course, going to help. But then right now,
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there's a delay. There's not, we have, we're going to have issues with that because a lot of people
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were expecting the vaccines to be rolled out and they are, they were already kind of lining up and
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in their minds, at least they're like, okay, I fall in this phase, then I'm going to be this group.
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So I'll be the first one to get vaccinated. That's not happening. My grandma, in fact,
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talked about how she needs to get the vaccination. She's 85 years old. And she said, after that,
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I can go out and just, you know, be myself and enjoy, enjoy my life. But that's, it's very
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sensitive right now. Everybody's had long, long months of indoors. I'm glad, like, you know,
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the weather's been nice here in Alberta, for example, we've been going for walks, but it's tough.
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I would totally agree with that. I'm very sorry for the loss of your grandfather. Maybe we should
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also touch on the work of the charitable sector as well. They're actually being called upon to do
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even more work through the pandemic. And in a number of cases where the organizations rely
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on major sponsors, a number of those sponsors are hurting, whether it be small businesses,
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large business medium, the donations aren't coming in at the pace they normally would. And so they're
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being asked again to do more with less, which is very stressful on those organizations. And in many
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cases, the charitable sector has a large number of women working in that sector, which is a significant
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factor that we have to take into consideration.
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Oh, yeah. I've had in my writing, for example, we've had so many religious organizations that stepped
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up and were providing food during during COVID to truck drivers to frontline workers. It's
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it makes you proud to see that like in the middle of all of this, people forget their own personal
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problems and want to help each other out. That's another thing I think what COVID has taught us is
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that we're all human. We're all vulnerable. We're all made of the same thing. So it's it's about helping
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each other and being there for each other. I couldn't agree more. I always give people the
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chance to the guests to have a closing remark, if you'd like to say that it's tough to top what you
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just said. But any closing remarks you'd like to leave with the with the audience?
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Well, I wanted to talk about the gender based violence. So I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap up the
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conversation with that gender based violence. Once again, we've been calling on the government to
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to come up with the plan and execute it in 2019. And they're in their platform, liberal government
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said they will be executing a gender based violence plan against that, and executing it soon. It didn't
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happen. It hasn't happened. And we're basically calling on the government to do that because it's
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very important for for people to feel secure, and feel respected and be able to live with dignity and
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respect. And there should be no place in our society for for violence, and which is especially
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based on gender or perceived gender, or religious or racial basis. None of that should exist in our
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our society. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that how government has failed that I've stood up in
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in the House a few times and asked the Minister to focus on getting the plan rolled out and start
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working on this because women need help. Now, not like 2310 years from now, it's it the need is now
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and we've seen that with the pandemic, you talked about the organizations not having enough funding,
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like the charitable organizations, there's a lot of women shelters who didn't have enough funding, and they
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had to turn away women and and and children who were facing violence. And that's heartbreaking. And
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that's where, you know, what the government should have focused once again, this is a feminist government
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who wanted to help women. And yet we have 300 women and and children who are turned away from shelters
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every night, basically across the country. And this is pre pandemic. And with the pandemic heading,
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women were and children were stuck with their abusers. So we want to focus on getting plans
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rolled out and getting having program that focuses on eliminating gender based violence. So what I want
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to say is that we as a society need to educate our, our young boys and girls to
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to so that they can respect other people's rights, and freely grant them, and, and, and look forward to
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something that's more of a positive outcome in the long run, a generation where we can look back and say
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we did something for them, we paved the path for women and girls where they can live in a secure and free society.
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I couldn't agree with you more. I think that's where it all ties in, whether it be the mental health
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aspect of it, the charitable sector and how they're dealing with it, and how they're able to respond to
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the needs that are heightened because of the pandemic. And as you said, in terms of the education
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component as well, and in ensuring that this this doesn't happen at all. And I don't think there's
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too many people who would disagree with that. I hope not. Anyway, that sounds like common sense to me.
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I agree. And I've been hearing that from, from young women, that this is, they're very aware,
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young generation is very aware of what's happening and what needs to change. And like I said, they're
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holding the torch. So when we pass on the torch that we're holding on to right now, we should be,
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we should be giving them the path that is clear of a lot of hurdles that we as a society and humanity
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faced in our lifetimes. So that's what my focus is. And that's what I hope to do in my lifetime.
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Jack Zahoda, Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview, also the Shadow Minister for Women and
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Gender Equality. You're doing a great job. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We do appreciate
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your time. We, we went a bit long, but I think that's okay. It was a very important topic.
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We will have you on again, because it's an important file that is, is continuing to move
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forward that we want to get some input on you and, and hear your thoughts on. So we will have
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you again. So thank you very much again to you, the, the listener, the viewer. We appreciate the
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time you have given us here on this show. We will be giving you new content every single Tuesday,
00:22:38.480
1.30pm Eastern time. Please like, comment, subscribe, share this program, help us push
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you may name it. It is out there. We can do this together. As always remember, it's low taxes,
00:23:00.400
less government, more freedom. That's the blueprints. Thanks for joining us.