The Good and the Noble on the G7 weekend in Quebec City
Money pledged at summit for quality, gender-sensitive education of girls
Turning away from that noxious president, who continues daily to charge through the world like a raging bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc and disdain, seemingly impossible to stop by cowardly politicians in the Republican Party and by his misled, poorly-educated constituents, I’d like to point to some fine achievements from the meeting made by the democratic countries of the west (and Japan) in early June.
Gender equality made it firmly and likely permanently on to future agendas of the coalition. France will be next to host, and M. and Mme. Macron will be reliable leaders.
Their Advisory Council, should they establish another one for their G6 (7), I look forward to seeing. Europe brims with women of distinction: the Nordic countries, the older European countries and the new NATO ones.
For example, a woman from Croatia came close to being elected Secretary General of the United Nations this year. Spain has just appointed more women to its cabinet than men (16-13).
Secondly, new money, a lot of money, was pledged by the G6 and the World Bank for “quality, gendersensitive education of girls” in the global south. This is Malala’s one and only cause: education of girls everywhere to grade 12. The difference one young woman can and did make!
It’s really astonishing to sit beside someone who has just said: “We’re in for $140 million”.
Other moments I’ll remember:
The bus ride from Quebec City in the early morning of June 9, as we Council members went for breakfast to Charlevoix. I sat beside Winne Byanyima of Uganda, eminent head of Oxfam International. I had my pink blazer on, but it dimmed next to her African traditional dress.
As women do, we talked about our families. Winnie’s mother was orphaned at age 5 and raised by a group of French Canadian nuns from Chicoutimi! Winnie intends to make a pilgrimage to Chicoutimi to pay her respects. At age 20, her mother told the Sisters she’d like to enter the convent. They told her to go see the world first. She did, and married and had six children.
After a silence, Winnie said to me: “You had a Catholic childhood, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, let’s pray.”
So we did. “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful; enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth”.
Whatever power there was, Winnie embodied it in her passionate plea to the leaders at breakfast to absorb the suffering of women and girls, especially in the parts of the world where OXFAM works.
As we were ushered out of the Chateau Richelieu by the ever-smiling and efficient Ian of Global Affairs
Gender equality made it firmly and likely permanently on to future agendas of the coalition ROSEMARY GANLEY
Canada, we ran into Mme Gregoire-Trudeau with her group of G7 spouses. There was Mr May, a huge cheerleader for his wife, Mrs Shinzu Abe who speaks no English, but enthusiastically admires every flower and plant, Mme Macron, and the spouse of EU representative Donald Tusk, Mme Malgorzata Sochacka, who is Polish. We stopped to be introduced and someone said “Oh Mme Trudeau, you are making history!” Sophie’s eyes widened. “Oh, I am not trying to make history”, she said, “just to allow the good to flourish, if I can.” Now that’s a fridge magnet.
The sunshine, the wide river, the image of the Minister of Status of Women enjoying an apple, the glorious sky and the sense of promise drove out foreboding. Apart from too many American flags and grim-faced security talking into their headsets, all was well.
If even briefly I doubt the importance of this work, I am reminded every day. In the bank lineup, I speak to a woman whose daughter, badly abused by her boyfriend, has fled back home. A Toronto van careens down Yonge Street sidewalks killing 8 women and 2 men, its driver a man linked to online groups spreading hatred of women.
How long will it take for humanity to really banish misogyny?