For many women, for aboriginal peoples, for African Canadians, and for poor people, equality of opportunity and equal rights remain elusive. We are on a journey, but we have not yet arrived. Equality, as Judge Rosalie Abella pointed out in her ground-breaking report Equality in Employment, should be viewed as an evolving concept, and as a process, a vision or a goal. We cannot conclude that we have already attained equality for everyone. Today, none of these exclusionary assumptions is acceptable.
Progress is often slow and difficult.
Any way you want to measure it, women today still earn less, have lower incomes and are more vulnerable to poverty than men. As women in this country are well aware, moving towards equality needs the ongoing commitment of all levels of government. In the spirit of these remarks, I would propose that statements 1 and 3 in the Framework for Discussion be reworded as principles that governments are committed to rather than statements of current reality. All governments will work cooperatively to ensure respect for diversity, tolerance, compassion, equality and equity for all Canadians. It could be so again if certain conditions are met as we move towards a new vision for Canada's economic and social union on the cusp of the twenty-first century.