Petition to see women on bank notes tops 50,000 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/petition-to-see-women-on-bank-notes-tops-50000/article21647317/ It’s great to that the Globe and Mail published a story about our campaign this morning, noting that we are “putting pressure on The Bank of Canada to feature Canadian women on bank notes.” Please keep sharing the petition with others so that pressure continues to grow. About a thousand people signed yesterday! I hope you will help me encourage our MPs to play an active role in the campaign. It’s helpful that a few have signed the petition, but is a signature really enough? A number of years ago, many MPs worked together to get statues of the Famous 5 on Parliament Hill. Surely the members can agree that Canadian women as well as men need to honoured on our bank notes, and unite in calling on the Bank of Canada to commit to doing that? Given that the Minister of Finance must approve our bank notes, would it not be possible for members to question him about our sexist money? In the successful UK campaign, MP Stella Creasy played a significant role & involved others members of parliament in challenging the Bank of England. Will any of our MPs champion the Canadian women on bank notes campaign? Do we really need to wait for public consultations organized by the Bank of Canada to decide whether or not to celebrate the contributions of the female half of the population? We already have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which under Section 15 guarantees equal rights and protects us from government actions which discriminate on the basis of sex, etc. Bank notes which don’t celebrate women from Canadian history clearly discriminate against women. The UK campaign (which resulted in the unveiling of Jane Austen note) threatened legal action, but surely that is not necessary in Canada? Thanks to each and every one of you for fighting to ensure that bank notes which belong to Canada actually celebrate the diversity of our country. And thanks for posting your Reasons for Signing the petition – those comments should inspire all of us to continue to pressure the Bank of Canada and also the Minister of Finance. Canada boasts of being a modern nation, and a world leader in the promotion and protection of women's rights and gender equality. If we really want to be a world leader in promoting gender equality, the federal government and its various agencies and organizations - such as the Bank of Canada - should act accordingly. We need to at least catch up to countries that already honour at least one female historical figure from their respective countries on bank notes: like Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Japan, Serbia, Turkey, Mexico, and South Korea to name a few. Even better, we should catch up to Australia!