Bono-led group’s video lampoons Trudeau over feminist failings

voix G7 leaders’ summit on the horizon on June 8.

“You’ve made gender equality and women’s empowerment a theme but, so far, those are just words,” it says. “Now it’s time to act. Show the G7 leaders the way.”

Stuart Hickox, One’s Canada director, said the decision to “poke” Trudeau wasn’t taken lightly. But One and other organizations are worried that included leveraging the private sector for support, and that had a firm price tag, said Hickox.

“This is a fully costed, specific policy approach … that leverages private capital, that engages civil society, and that can be a legacy.”

Jamie Drummond, the entrepreneur who co-founded One with Bono, met with Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and the teenage Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai meeting of the ‘W7’ summit of dozens of female activists to hash out a plan for the G7.

“We all want the prime minister to succeed — that’s the thing. This kind of poking, gently, at him and his government is not done lightly,” said Hickox.

“We worked really hard, as well as other sector organizations, to put some legs under this aspirational language to make it real with specific ideas.”

Bono has heaped praise on Trudeau in the past, most recently for his modest increase in foreign aid. He also agreed to make a guest appearance at Canada 150 celebrations on Parliament Hill last July 1.

“I don’t speak for Bono, but he has said before we applaud the government for your leadership. We pat you on the back when you do the right thing. But we’re also ready to push,” said Hickox.

Hickox said One is an activist organization that tries to end extreme poverty by providing options for government, and that’s what it is trying to do with Trudeau so he can “own the space that he has claimed for himself.”

“So this is a moment of pushing.”