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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, March 4, 2016 | 6 Tuesday, March 8 is International Women's Day. It's a time to celebrate women's contributions to our communities and the world and an opportunity to reect on the progress made toward equality for women as well as the signi cant challenges that remain. We have come a long way since Agnes McPhail was elected the rst female MP in Canada in 1921 and today, we celebrate having Canada's rst gender-balanced cabinet. I am proud to be one of 88 women elected to the House of Commons in 2015. However, there is more work to be done. Canada's theme for International Women's Day 2016, Women's Empowerment Leads to Equality, recognizes the need to empower women and girls because without empowerment there can be no equality. Despite the signi cant gains we have made, Canada has been losing ground in international rankings of gender equality, dropping 10 positions to 30th out of 145 MP Pam Damoff countries in the World Oakville North-Burlington Economic Forum 2015 Global Gender Gap report. My colleagues and I agree this is unacceptable in 2016. We recognize society is stronger when women and girls are empowered and we are committed to ensuring gender equality remains a key focus of our government. I was honoured to have recently been named vicechair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I am committed to creating opportunities for women and girls to achieve and succeed by fostering systemic change, working in partnerships with women, who can create momentum and providing various forums for powerful female voices to be heard. I will host a special screening of the movie He Named Me Malala, the story of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for speaking out on girls' education. The movie will be shown at the River Oaks Community Centre's screening room at 7 p.m. on March 30. The centre is located at 2400 Sixth Line in Oakville. After the movie, we will host a discussion on how we can best work together to empower women of all ages to call for change. Please RSVP to pam.damoff@parl.gc.ca if you wish to attend. I look forward to continuing to advance women's economic security and prosperity, creating a federal genderbased violence strategy and action plan, ensuring workplaces and communities are free from harassment and sexual violence and empowering women and girls to ful ll their potential as equals in our society. On International Women's Day 2016, I hope you will join me in calling for equality for women in our community, across Canada and around the world. -- Pam Damoff is the federal Liberal representative of Oakville North-Burlington in Ottawa. Celebrating women Editorial T E A M B U I L D I N G "Connected to your Community" 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 54 | Number 19 The Oakville Beaver is a division of Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice ­President and Group Publisher of Metroland West Regional General Manager Advertising Director NEIL OLIVER KELLY MONTAGUE DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor Oakville Mayor Rob Burton (centre back) recently visited the Oakville Community FIRST Robotics FRC Team 1360 -- Orbit Robotics -- headquarters at Sheridan College's Skills Training Centre on Iroquois Shore Road. In the fth week of a six-week build, students showed off their progress. The team is designing, programming and building a robot for its rst regional competition in Waterloo, Ont. this month, and the Windsor/Essex Regional (April 6-9) in hopes of qualifying for the World Championships in St. Louis, Mo., at the end of April. Orbit Robotics was formed in June 2015 as a not-for-pro t organization aiming to develop young people into "tomorrow's science and technology leaders and innovators," according to the team. It's open to all high school-aged students. It currently has 35 students from 15 schools in Halton and Peel. For information, visit www.1360.ca. | submitted photo ANGELA BLACKBURN RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager LORI ANN GZOVDANOVIC Director of Production MARK DILLS MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager Director of Distribution CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Letter to the Editor Honouring Constitutional protection paramount Re: Oath of Allegiance a medieval practice, Oakville Beaver, Friday, Feb. 19, 2015. Regarding this letter, it is probably better not to mandate the utterance of the oath toward Canada, for not only does it invite court challenge, but an oath, uttered only on pains of a mandate, has no meaning. Thus, it is likely better to just ask students to take the oath. My real concern is with the comment that the citizens of Ontario, religious or otherwise, "tolerate" the Constitutional protections afforded to Catholic schools despite their "failure" to recognize, support and treat with dignity LGBT Catholic teachers and students. Toleration implies dislike or a disagreement, and though I am sure there are some people who dislike or disagree with this protection, their sentiment is not universally prevalent in Ontario. For those who dislike it or "tolerate" it, a reminder this is a Constitutional protection. Preferably, we should honour the formative agreements that make this country possible. The letter didn't specify which "failure" the system has with LGBT Catholic teachers and students, and so I cannot fully comment. I will say people with homosexual or bisexual inclination or orientation can make great Catholic teachers, even the best teachers. Yet, every Catholic teacher is expected to adhere to Catholic teaching, inside and outside the school. Their job description involves being an exemplar of Catholic life; and so, they chose to make their lives a part of the Catholic curriculum. Hence, if a Catholic teacher also chose to act contrary to Catholic teaching, then that teacher distorts the curriculum to which he or she obliged themselves to offer. Sanction is thus a consequence of that teacher's free choice to breach a contract with the Catholic board. I see no indignity or disrespect, but only an insistence to preserve Catholic education and hold that teacher responsible for free choices. The sexual inclination or orientation of Catholic teachers is irrelevant to these considerations. What matters is whether they offer the Catholic curriculum through their lives. Michael Jordan, Oakville Proud Official Media Sponsor For: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Proud Official Media Sponsor For: The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 or via email to ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.