Taping a notice onto the locked doors of the Sudbury Women’s Centre, the former executive director of the organization called for the resignation of the centre’s executive board during a rally Oct. 6.
Should the board choose not to resign, Rose Menard demanded that an annual general membership meeting be held in two weeks’ time, and a new board be elected.
She said the centre’s executive board has not yet held elections this year, which is against the centre’s policies.
Menard told about 50 people gathered at the rally that on Sept. 7, she and program co-ordinator Barb Garon returned from a vacation shut-down period, and were handed layoff notices by the board due to “financial exigencies.”
The locks had been changed, and the doors to the centre were locked. The Sudbury Women’s Centre has been closed most of the time ever since. Menard estimates that 1,000 women have been denied service in the past month.
She said she and Garon have not yet received their records of employment after being laid off, which is against Ontario labour law.
“The centre has been closed for reasons unbeknownst to me,” Menard said. “I feel it is my role, and my responsibility, to be a voice for so many women in this community, and to stand up and say ‘This isn’t right.’”
Jen Depatie was one of the participants in a rally against the closure of the Sudbury Women's Centre Oct. 6. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
The Sudbury Women’s Centre is a non-profit feminist agency which has served women and children in the community since 1981.
It offers information, referrals, short-term crisis intervention, legal-aid clinics, a resource library, a children’s play room, computer and internet access and a clothing boutique.
The president of the organization’s board, Shirley Clement, was not available for comment at Northern Life press time.
Menard said the Sudbury Women’s Centre is not facing financial difficulties.
On top of the funding it receives from the Ontario Women’s Directorate, it recently received $120,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and will be the recipient of funds from the Sudbury Kinsmen Home Sweepstakes.
Menard said the organization’s long-time bookkeeper was let go this summer, shortly after a financial review was held.
“There were no discrepancies found in any of that information (in the financial review),” she said.
The Ontario Federation of Labour released a statement Oct. 6, calling on the organization’s board to rescind the layoffs of Menard and Garon. “We are appalled to hear of the treatment of these two women, whose services to other women in their roles as centre workers has been vital to the success of the centre,” Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan, said in the release.
Pamela Russell was the only member of the organization’s executive board to attend the rally.
The centre has been closed for reasons unbeknownst to me.
Rose Menard,
former executive director, Sudbury Women’s Centre
Russell said she is speaking out about the situation because Menard and Garon had given her a voice, and she felt compelled to use it.
“All of this hasn’t been a total loss though, because I have learned something very valuable,” she said.
“I learned there’s something worse than not having a voice, and that is having a voice, but being told how to use it. That kind of changes the feminist philosophy into a kind of dictatorship, don’t you think? Thank God we are in Canada.”
Dale McDonough, who served on the Sudbury Women’s Centre board from December 2009 until July 2010, said she resigned from her position partly because she felt she had “no voice” on the board.
She said she is a friend of Menard and Garon’s, and as such, she was treated with “suspicion” by other board members.
“I was told that I shouldn’t speak with the staff, as a board member, and by implication, I shouldn’t be their friend,” McDonough said.
“I may be new at board business, but how can any problem ever be solved when there’s no discussions with all of the people concerned?”
A client of the Sudbury Women’s Centre, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Sue, said Menard and Garon helped her escape her abusive husband a number of years ago.
She said she still desperately needs the services of the organization. “They never gave up on me, and I’m not giving up on you guys,” she said. “We all need you. I called (the centre) because I needed to go back to court, and asked for Barb or Rose to please help.
“I’ve been told they’re in another room, they’re busy. I need help. Today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. So Barb and Rose, please get back in there. It’s not only me. There’s others out there who do need you.”
