Canada

House of CommonsSenate

House of Commons

Specialized body - Women's caucus

The All-Party Parliamentary Women’s Caucus (APWC)
(December 2015 - October 2019)

About

Formal or informal
Informal
The caucus is open to male MPs
Yes
The caucus is cross-party
Yes
Notes
The APWC has existed on and off since the late 1980s and it was most recently re-constituted during the 42nd Parliament, which sat between 3 December 2015 and 11 September 2019. There is no public record for the APWC having met since the Oct 2019 federal elections.

Membership is open to Senators or Members of Parliament of all political parties.

The APWC has no written rules and works strictly on a consensus basis. Each member of the caucus executive takes responsibility for communicating events to their respective party caucus colleagues on the Hill.
There are rules governing the functioning of the caucus
No

Activities

Issues dealt with by the caucus
The APWC regularly hosted events during the 42nd Parliament, such as:
- an Indigenous blanket ceremony on the Hill, with Indigenous elder Barbara Dumont-Hill and Kairos Canada;
- an event with former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard;
- a reception put on with Equal Voice for the event “Daughters of the Vote”;
- a meeting with a South Sudanese women’s group;
- a reception with the Ovarian Cancer Society; and
- a meeting with female MPs from the ParlAmericas network.
The caucus has a strategic plan or plan of action
No
The caucus has a communication plan
No