Who’s lying – UN Women Canada or Rona Ambrose?

UPDATE: This is unfortunate. Kady O’Malley just received letter from UN Women Canada confirming award to Ambrose. The letter was dated June 18, 2012. ?? This is not going to end well.

UPDATE II: Just heard back from UN Women Canada. Here is the non-committal response text:

“I am new volunteer on board. This is a volunteer run committee. We are one of 18th national committee – a non profit advocating for UN Women.  I can confirm that we haven’t presented any 2012 awards nor have we officially announced the names of the recipients as yet.”

My feeling is that because of the June date on the correspondence Kady received, this has been in the works for some time and Ambrose has been alerted somewhere along the line. Sad as it is to say, this will most likely prove Ambrose’s claim to be true. If it is indeed accurate, this will be a major embarrassment for UN Women Canada and its army of volunteers, perhaps even on a Komen level.  Giving Ambrose an award for service to women is like giving Harper an award for statesmanship.

UPDATE III: Via Kady, here’s the letter Ambrose received. *sigh* Why the confusion at UN Women Canada? Does it regret its decision in light of Ambrose’s anti-woman position on the recent M312 shenanigans and is now too embarrassed to confirm? Or, is it merely that it is a volunteer organization and a little bit disorganized?

UPDATE IV: DeBeauxOs over at Dammit Janet points out the underscoring disgrace in this whole award fiasco, noting that Ambrose is “appropriating Malala Yousafzai’s name for her own glory.”

As to the post title, I’d wager the latter but this is so weird, there has to be a story.

Many were angered and confused by UN Women Canada’s decision.
Annick Desjardins was one of them. She emailed the organization asking for some answers. How could a minister who has bluntly opposed the right to safe and accessible abortion, be awarded with a prize celebrating her dedication to women’s rights?

Well, turns out UN Women Canada never issued her any award.This was their response:
“Many thanks for your email,

Please be advised that we have not presented any awards nor have we made any annoucements of such. Our President, Ms Jiwani is presently in Paris advocating for girls and women. She was not aware of the Ms Ambrose’s annoucement until late yesterday. I will forward your email to our PR member.”

This could be tricky. Someone at UN Women Canada must have said something to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services. Was something promised but not delivered? Did someone speak out of turn? We may never know the truth but the explanations from Ambrose’s office will be fun to watch.

Kudos to Annick Desjardins and Elizabeth Plank @ Feminist and Fabulous for investigating.

H/T: @deBeauxOs1

X-posted at Let Freedom Rain