If there was ever any doubt that the federal Liberals wanted to use their feminism as a political weapon, it will be put to rest this week.About 9,000 activists and community organizers from around the world attending the Women Deliver summit in Vancouver this week will be the backdrop for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and five or six of his ministers to showcase their feminist credentials and launch two new initiatives designed to stand the test of electoral cycles and also bring in private-sector money.It’s probably the last high-profile spending announcement Trudeau will make in Canada before the election campaign begins, and the goal is twofold: to make a legacy statement about feminism and to make sure no future governments can revoke it — even if they happen to have qualms about the pro-choice or feminist-activist bent of the recipients.“We need to anchor the progress we’ve made, and prevent it from being eroded,” said Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef in an interview.Monsef, who is also international development minister, will kick off the four-day conference on Sunday with the rollout of $300 million first booked in 2018 and now being awarded to a consortium of organizations and financiers to bolster feminist activism and women’s groups in Canada and globally. They will call it the Equality Fund.Trudeau will follow up later in the week with an announcement on sexual and reproductive rights.Read more: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Tarana Burke, Melinda Gates in Vancouver for world’s largest conference on gender and women’s rights Critical data is still missing on transgender and non-binary Canadians: StatsCanHere’s why these women say B.C. has a lot of work to do on pay equityMake no mistake, this is not money only meant to help mothers in developing countries feed their children, as most of the aid destined for women usually is.Rather, details of the Equality Fund shared with the Star show that t ...
|
