Article content continued

The federal government would not be the first jurisdiction in Canada to propose something like this — British Columbia public schools now require menstrual products to be available in washrooms, as of earlier this month, and a city councillor is proposing something similar for municipal offices in Halifax. “But it’s not widespread,” Hajdu said, “and I think that’s another opportunity for the federal government is to sort of blow open the door on this conversation and be a leader in this space.”

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press file photo

Every woman can remember a time when they were caught without a menstrual product, Hajdu said, something men necessarily haven’t experienced. “Even when the women in their lives are having it we’ve been socialized to not, in many cases, even talk to our partners about what’s happening to our bodies,” she said.

Hajdu sat her parliamentary secretary Rodger Cuzner down to let him know about the notice, she said, and he was “extremely uncomfortable,” what she called a normal reaction for most men.

“The way we have socialized our entire population around this, it’s taboo to talk about. Isn’t that crazy? We potty train our children, we talk about bowel movements, everybody’s comfortable saying they have to go for a pee, we provide toilet paper,” she said. “It would be unthinkable that you would have to bring your own toilet paper to a washroom.”

Even when the women in their lives are having it we've been socialized to not, in many cases, even talk to our partners about what's happening to our bodies

Hajdu said she’s hoping that the federal change will help to change the narrative that periods are “somehow shameful or dirty or something to hide and be secretive about.” Although she anticipates there could be some pushback — accusations that the government is “virtue signalling” or that the change will be too costly for employers — there will be consultation on how exactly the regulations will be worded. There will be costs to government as it provide the products to a huge federal workforce, but it is too early to estimate how large those will be.