Fifteen thousand women in Québec City
By Brigitte Verdière
Fifteen
thousand women (and men) gathered in Québec City on Saturday, May 7, to receive
the Women's Global Charter for Humanity. Safiétou Diop, of Senegal and Marthe
Kingué and Alice Lobe, of Cameroon, stood beside Diane Matte, coordinator of
the International Secretariat, on the ferry that brought the Charter to Québec
City from the south side of the river. Tonika Morgan, who accompanied the
Charter during the relay through English Canada, and Mary Clarke,
vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, were with them, as were a large
women's delegation from the Chaudière Appalaches region.
The women then formed a human chain, passing the
Charter hand to hand up the hill to the parliament buildings. There, Michèle
Asselin, president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec, presented the five
demands of Québec women, each of them linked to one of the Charter's values.