Opposition MPs, labour and feminist groups urged the restoration of millions of dollars in funding cut from women's programs as hundreds rallied in Ottawa to protest those cuts.

"It's not good enough for this government to say we'll give you more money for shelters but we won't let you question why women are there in the first place," Barb Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said at a news conference held Sunday.

The Conservatives are closing 12 of 16 regional Status of Women offices, trimming $5 million -- 40 per cent -- from its budget and scaling back funding for advocacy or lobbying.

The government said cutting back on administration and bureaucracy will free up more money for such things as women's shelters.

A coalition of women and labour activists has accused the government of trying to pit local organizations against national ones.

Capping a weekend of protests by groups across the country, the coalition organized a protest Sunday that drew about 400 women to the "Famous Five" monument on Parliament Hill, which is dedicated to the women who fought to have women declared persons 90 years ago.

The Conservatives contend this is a political squabble and an attack by people who don't agree with most Conservative policies.

"But these activists don't agree with that," CTV's Graham Richardson reported from Parliament Hill. "They say they represent a wide swath of Canadian society -- women who don't agree with the direction the (Stephen) Harper government is going."

The coalition is demanding not just that funding be restored, but is asking for more money for day care and legislation that will guarantee equal pay for men and women.

The coalition says that new money will be available only to organizations that agree to drop advocacy work on behalf of women.

Shelagh Day, Co-Chair of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, said: "The price of getting those dollars is our silence." 

Accepting these cuts is tantamount to agreeing not to advocate or lobby for systemic change on behalf of women, said Day: "We say no to this, too -- we will not be silent."

One victim of the cuts is a program that funded challenges of laws in court.

"This government is trying to shut us out of access to justice, trying to silence women's advocacy, but we will not accept to be silenced," said Andree Cote of the National Association of Women and the Law.

"The Bloc is here, the NDP is here -- where are the Conservative women?" asked Liberal MP Belinda Stronach at the press conference. "That's why we're calling for the resignation of (Minister of Canadian Heritage) Bev Oda, because she has failed Canadian women."                                                                                  

Stronach, the head of the Liberal women's caucus, accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government of trying to cripple or eliminate the federal Status of Women department.

Maria Mourani of the Bloc Quebecois and Irene Mathyssen of the NDP were also at the press conference, offering support to the coalition campaign against the cuts announced this fall.

With a report by CTV's Graham Richardson and files from The Canadian Press