WE*ACT’s Summer Work:
Privacy and Pensions (Oct-Nov 2004)
Women’s
Elders in Action spent their time meeting to clarify privacy issues and to
develop a position paper on pension policy reform this summer, proving yet
again that there’s no rest for the truly determined!
Work on the Right to Privacy Campaign, by representatives Mita Dixon and Marilyn Young, continued unabated as
the province appointed a Privacy Commissioner to hear citizens’ concerns about
its drive to contract out administration of our Medical Services Plan and Pharmacare to an American based firm. Real fears exist that this choice of
contractor could leave a substantial amount of information about seniors open
to covert examination by the FBI and other American institutions, if the USA Patriot
Act was ever invoked to track down information on terrorists.
To register WE*ACT’s concern about this
potential danger, we submitted a four page paper to the Privacy Commissioner,
then sought other avenues to promote our views.
A brief article written by the WE*ACT Coordinator was published in the Maple
Ridge and Pitt Meadows Times in July, while Committee Co-chair Alice West
took to the pages of Burnaby Now to alert her community to the problems
inherent in the government’s plan. Both initiatives received prompt feedback
from grateful seniors and other citizens who hadn’t previously understood the
magnitude of the threat.
Buried under a barrage of citizen outrage, the Privacy Commissioner has
postponed his report indefinitely; a development that, according to government
sources, will delay awarding of the proposed contract.
While many seniors found it uncomfortably warm this summer, WE*ACTmade plans to begin turning up the heat on the
legislators responsible for this country’s public pension system. Standing on
research generously contributed by Charmaine Spencer
and Lillian Zimmermann of the Gerontology Department at
Keeping this working group’s findings clearly in mind, Gerry Kilgannon joined WE*ACT mainstays Elsie Dean and Alice West
(who were representing other seniors’ groups at the time) and Phil Lyons of
Seniors Network BC to meet with the Minister of State for Families and
Caregivers, the Honourable Tony Ianno,
in Victoria to discuss the pressing needs of seniors.
As highly articulate and knowledgeable seniors, they were able to give
the new Minister and his aides a much-needed perspective on the pension
challenges seniors live with every day.
However, we weren’t immersed in policy and politics ALL summer
long. At the end of July, WE*ACT members
Marjorie Buchanan, Elsie Dean, Mita Dixon and Ann
Withers decided to refine their public speaking skills in front of a camera
hoisted by Susan Mussell, Program and Development
Officer, Status of Women Canada. The goal of the mini-workshop was deadly
serious - become more comfortable presenting your views on camera. Reports
afterwards described the exercise as surprisingly enjoyable.
Another workshop scheduled this fall to enhance our members’ skills is
a guerilla media workshop lead by Jennifer Gray Grant, of local CBC Radio fame.
She’ll show our members what they need to know to manage the media when
approached in their roles as community activists.
We’ve recently welcomed new members Patricia Appleby; Martha Lamoureux, Margaret Shelton and Lucy Ren
to the table. Our numbers are growing around the province, as well. Slowly but
surely, elder women are looking to WE*ACT for information-sharing and
networking.
Work is currently underway to plan a special ELDER WOMEN’S DAY
on November 5, prior to Senior Summit II. This will be a great opportunity for
elder women from all over BC to meet face-to-face to share experiences and
concerns, while goal setting for change over the next crucial several months in
BC.
Senior women who would like to learn more about, or participate in, any of these activities are encouraged to give me a call
at 604-684-8171 (local 228).
~Jan Westlund