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On February 14, 1981, during the debate over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, about 1,300 women from across the country held their own Ad Hoc Women and the Constitution Conference in Ottawa. This event was organized by feminist groups following the federal government’s cancellation of a constitutional conference planned by the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. The ad hoc conference called for a stronger equality-rights clause and a specific guarantee of equal rights between men and women. Both reforms were included in the final Charter.