Hon. Grant Mitchell:

Honourable senators, last week I asked a question of Senator LeBreton in which I contrasted President Obama's legislation on what I called pay equity with Mr. Harper's intention to prohibit women from taking pay equity cases before the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Senator Tkachuk stood, as is tradition in this chamber, and tried to make the point that I was wrong. He said that President Obama's legislation did not address pay equity. It was fair debate, but it was difficult to track his argument because in one breath he said pay equity has nothing to do with equal pay for equal work whereas in the next breath he said pay equity is equal pay for equal work. I am not making that up.

To be kind, I think he was trying to draw the distinction between equal pay for equal work and equal pay for work of equal value. If that was the case, then I accept his point and I stand corrected. However, in making this very nuanced distinction he misses one critical point, which is that both of these concepts are integral to gender equality. They both address a single core issue, which is that all too frequently women are paid less, not because their jobs are less significant or less important, not because their jobs are at a different level that is less significant or less important, but because they are women and they face structural disadvantages.

It is very interesting to note in this context that the Senate was intimately involved in one of the most successful and important victories for women's rights and equality in this country's history. The Persons Case established that women could be members of this Senate. It is even more interesting to note that the granddaughter of the lawyer who won that case sits in this Senate amongst us, and I am referring of course to Senator Nancy Ruth.

The bar on this issue, whatever one wishes to call it — pay equity, equal pay for equal work, equal pay for work of equal value — is very high for senators and for this chamber. I thank Senator Tkachuk for engaging in this debate, for grappling with these issues, for furthering the debate and giving us the chance to clarify.

I will close by saying that I encourage him to engage in this debate much more frequently. In doing so, I encourage him to be very careful not to fight it but to further it.

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