JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: JUSTIN TRUDEAU ADDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITY FROM A COMFORTABLE PULPIT - WHAT'S HIS REAL PERFORMANCE IN DEFENSE OF WOMEN? THE TENS OF THOUSANDS SLAUGHTERED AND MADE REFUGEES IN AMERICA'S WARS? NOT A WORD FROM OUR FASHIONABLY-ATTIRED DO-GOODER

John Chuckman


COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS



'Gender equality is under attack': Justin Trudeau opens Women Deliver conference in Vancouver

Conference is expected to draw 7,000 delegates from 160 countries



'Gender equality is under attack'



He may well be right, but other extremely important general governing principles have been badly undermined by Trudeau's own government.

Principles like opposing tyranny, always supporting democracy, standing for fairness and justice, and just providing a consistent voice of Canadian decency, reassuring to a troubled world.

But even in just the matter of women, I seriously question this government' performance when examined in a wider scope than a moment's speech intended to generate votes at a conference.

The literally tens of thousands of women and children killed in Yemen, in Syria, in Libya, and inside Saudi Arabia might, if they could speak, disagree with Trudeau's championship of women's rights.

So might millions under threat in Venezuela as their country suffers wave after wave of serious assault and privation - from loss of refrigeration in their modest homes to deliberately induced food and other important shortages - from an outside force trying to tell them what's best for them.

How about the women struggling for survival from Central America joining hopeless caravan after caravan to get away from what terrors have been unleashed by outsiders in their countries?

In none of these deadly matters do we hear from Canada today. None of them. But a brief appearance in the lights on a platform at a conference? Sure, that’s easy.