Feminism

Tuesday July 10, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 10, 2018

‘I am confident that I did not act inappropriately,’ Trudeau says of groping allegation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited his history of working on “issues around sexual assault” today in his clearest denial to date of groping allegations made against him linked to an event that happened nearly two decades ago. 

November 8, 2014

“Obviously this is a situation that has been very much on my mind over the past few weeks. It’s a issue that I have been deeply engaged with, not just as a leader, but all my life, since my early 20s in university … active on issues around sexual assault and behaviours,” Trudeau told reporters in Toronto.  

“I’ve been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago and again, I am … I feel I am confident that I did not act inappropriately.”

The incident is alleged to have taken place in 2000, when Trudeau was 28, at the Kokanee Summit in Creston, B.C. The event was raising money for the Avalanche Foundation, a charity Trudeau became involved with after his brother, Michel, died in an avalanche in 1998.

“I am not going to speak for the woman in question. I would never presume to speak for her. But I know that there is an awful lot of reflection to be had as we move forward as a society on how people perceive different interactions.”

Earlier this year, CBC News communicated by phone and email with the woman who was the subject of the editorial. She said she was not interested in being associated with any further coverage of the story. She also asked that her name not be used and that she not be contacted about the story again.

October 8, 2003

A former co-worker remembers the reporter’s account of the encounter. Valerie Bourne was the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance at the time and said the reporter was “distressed” by her contact with Trudeau.

“My recollections of the conversation were that she came to me because she was unsettled by it. She didn’t like what had happened,” said Bourne. “She wasn’t sure how she should proceed with it because, of course, we’re talking somebody who was known to the Canadian community.”

Trudeau sidestepped a question about whether he would order an independent investigation of the matter, as he did when MPs in his caucus and party staffers were accused of inappropriate behaviour. (Continued: CBC) 

 

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Tuesday February 14, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 14, 2017

Donald Trump tells Justin Trudeau he wants to make America better for women entrepreneurs

Donald Trump has promised to make the US a better working environment for women entrepreneurs, arguing that women play a “tremendous role” in the US. (Photo Gallery.)

Speaking at a roundtable of women executives, organised by his daughter Ivanka Trump, and sitting opposite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mr Trump praised the “phenomenal” role that women executives played in his business.

“Women, as you know, and I can say that from my past life, I had so many women executives, they were phenomenal, phenomenal, and really helped me, and it was really fantastic,” Mr Trump said.

“They play a tremendously important role, women in our economy.”

“We must ensure our economy is a place where women can work and thrive and I think that’s a place where that is happening much more so. In Europe and Canada it’s happening big league,” he added.

Mr Trudeau said the group needed to think about how to create more “paths to success” for women.

“Whenever I sit down with a woman executive, I know that she has had to overcome significant barriers that exist, and therefore is likely to have greater insight into helping up others, but also the formidable contributor to the success of the business and her economy,” he continued.

“So, I think for me, it’s not just about doing the right thing, it’s about understanding that women in leadership positions is a very powerful leverage for success for business, for communities and for our entire economy.” (Source: The Independent) 

 

Thursday June 26, 2014

Thursday June 26, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 26, 2014

Mother’s and Father’s Day emails from justice minister praise mothers as caregivers, fathers as role models

Justice Minister Peter MacKay has raised eyebrows once again over what some consider old-fashioned and patronizing attitudes toward women.

CBC News has obtained two emails MacKay sent to his staff, one marking Mother’s Day and the other Father’s Day.

The Mother’s Day email congratulates “colleagues” who have “two full-time jobs: as hardworking department of justice employees during business hours, and as dedicated moms and caregivers around the clock.”

Especially as he is now the father of an active toddler, MacKay wrote, he could understand, “By the time many of you have arrived at the office in the morning, you’ve already changed diapers, packed lunches, run after school buses, dropped kids off at daycare, taken care of an aging loved one and maybe even thought about dinner.”

The Father’s Day email had a different tone. In the message, MacKay praises male staff who are “dedicated fathers” and lauds them for “shaping the minds and futures of the next generation of leaders.” The words “mould,” “teach” and “guide” were employed to illustrate fathers’ influence on their children.

The emails were sent to CBC News by two employees of the Justice Department.

Erin Rizok, a lawyer with the Ontario provincial government who is currently on maternity leave with her second child, called the emails “fairly ridiculous” when she read copies of them.

To Rizok, the emails suggest that “only men are responsible for shaping the lives of our children and only women are responsible for the home.”

“I just think that Peter MacKay is completely out of touch with what women want to do generally,” she said.

In an interview in Toronto’s Monarch Park, she said, “In my house, me and my husband have not two jobs, we have dozens of jobs. We share everything in our house fairly equally.”

The emails surfaced in the wake of a Toronto Star story last week that quoted women who’d been at a meeting of the council of the Ontario Bar Association with MacKay. The article said that MacKay, when asked why there was a dearth of women and minority judges on federally appointed courts, said women just aren’t applying to be judges.

MacKay is said to have suggested that women might be reluctant to go for the jobs, because they had young children at home and worried about the extensive travel new judges often have to undertake visiting different regional courts.

He was reported as saying that women have a special bond with their children. (Source: CBC News)