The Trudeau government plans to use Canada’s presidency of the 2018 G7 Summit to promote women’s empowerment, gender equality and access to abortion.
As CBC News reports, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is discussing her government’s foreign aid agenda with G7 members at a meeting in Whistler, B.C. on Thursday and Friday, in advance of the summit.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly declared that funding access to abortions in developing countries is a key part of his foreign aid policy.
In discussing the Liberal government’s agenda for the conference, Bibeau talks about “global architecture of humanitarian assistance” and how it can be tweaked to better promote gender equality and, by extension, abortion in the third world.
“How can we transform what we call the global architecture of humanitarian assistance and development? How can we bring our major partners such as the UN, NGOs and the local countries to undertake projects in a way that is gender transformative?” Bibeau asked CBC News. “How can we make our system more efficient, more impactful?”
Bibeau said it was necessary to view women in the developing world as “agents of change” that play an active role in the Liberal government’s foreign aid program to fight poverty. Bibeau has said that she considers abortion “a tool to end poverty” that gives women “control over their lives.”
The Liberal government is spending $650 million over three years to promote its abortion policy and oppose pro-life policies in the third world. It considers “reproductive rights” to be integral to gender equality.