The march came as the conclusion to the 10th CEP Women’s Conference whose theme was A Feminist’s Recipe for Democracy. One of the discussed documents was Cookbook for Women’s Equality, out of the kitchen, cooking up equality.
The conference went from 20 to 22 June 2013. It was organized mainly in the form of world café sessions where the women learned skills to enable them to take back what they have lost through the conservative government. It was a question of learning tools of activism and acquiring hands-on skills to enable women to mobilize members and fight for equality and democracy. Keynote speakers introduced discussions on aboriginal rights, reproductive rights and childcare.
The conference was marked by the presence of many young women who were participating for the first time. Alas it is also the last time they will participate in a CEP women’s conference because CEP and the Canadian Auto Workers CAW are creating a new union which will be inaugurated in September and be called Unifor. The new union, Unifor, will represent more than 80,000 women in several key sectors of the Canadian economy.