Canadian Association for Equality

En Francais: Les questions fréquemment posées à l’Association Canadienne pour l’Egalite (ACE)

What is CAFE?

CAFE is group of men and women who have self-organized to look at gender equality issues in Canada. We have no ideological, religious or political leanings or affiliations as an organization and are open to all races, ethnic groups, political viewpoints and sexual identity & orientation. We do not promote a new rights-based political agenda because we believe the current political and legal mechanisms to ensure equal rights in Canada would generally be sufficient if they were applied without bias or prejudice.

Is CAFE a Men’s Rights Group?

CAFE is a human rights group that advocates equality for all members of society. Our focus is currently on men and boys because that issue receives much less attention than equal rights for women. We do not consider ourselves a Men’s Rights Group because discrimination against men also adversely affects many women including the daughters, mothers, sisters, partners and friends of male victims. Inequality can affect anybody and should be everyone’s concern.

Who are your members?

CAFE members are men and women from all walks of life who share a desire to look clearly and without prejudice at the status of boys and men in Canada. While our advisors are drawn from a wide range of professions, most come from the academic community and represent a diverse assortment of fields of study.

What are your goals?

Our goal is to facilitate an inclusive, rational and civilized public conversation about the status of boys and men in Canada. Topics we think should be discussed include mental & physical health, suicide, family law, education, public policy, workplace safety, media & cultural stereotypes, and misandry. We believe this conversation must be based on facts and evidence-based research and not on ideology, e.g. gender profiling that assumes that only women can be victims and only men can be the perpetrators of abuse and discrimination.

What are CAFE’s activities?

Our main focus is on identifying and providing balanced information on equality in Canada. CAFE also provides opportunities to participate in evidence-based research, discussions, events and family-friendly activities.

Is CAFE associated with other organizations?

CAFE is an independent organization and has no formal affiliation or association with any other organization. If other groups claim to undertake activities to support our efforts that does not mean that CAFE has approved, endorsed, sponsored or coordinated those activities.

Are you anti-feminist?

CAFE supports equal rights for people of all sexes and genders, and actively opposes both misandry and misogyny in all their forms. We are not anti-feminist. Besides the fact that feminists themselves often disagree on the definition and scope of feminism, we find that generic labels such as feminist and men’s rights groups are too limiting for conducting a productive social conversation about equality and justice.

We do not believe that equal rights is a zero-sum game, and we reject the notion that identifying and eliminating discrimination against men and boys will somehow increase discrimination against women and girls. By definition, equal rights means equal rights for everyone.

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