Over two hours of debate Wednesday evening, a meager five minutes was granted to women’s rights. And on the radio-Canadian set: that men, who have not really answered the only question on the subject posed by another man. Feminist organizations denounce the invisibility of women in the electoral campaign.
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“We were playing the Bingo of the debate yesterday and we had to wait until 7:53 pm to hear the word” woman “for the first time”, deplores the general coordinator of the Federation of Quebec for the Planning of Births (FQPN), Jess Legault.
For two hours, Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre, Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet debated in French of a host of issues, including that of women’s rights.
The discussion on this last theme was brief, five minutes, during which no woman intervened. For the first time since 2011, there was indeed no chef on the set.
The marked decrease in the rights of women and gender minorities in the United States, however, trembles part of the Canadian population.
The cancellation in 2022 of the ROE c. Wade, which guaranteed the Americans the right to abortion, the rise in the conservative right, the government of Donald Trump which puts the ax in the equity and inclusion programs: the situation is not reassuring, argue the feminist organizations.
A question, no (really) answers
“Do you agree that there is no perspective on the rights of women and to push free contraception?”, Asked Patrice Roy to the chiefs of the four main parties, inspired by a citizen interviewed within the framework of the debate.
“Let’s say that the mastery of the subject was not there,” said Jess Legault of the FQPN.
“The least of things would have been to say clearly and unequivocally that their party is pro-you and that it would defend the right to abortion whatever happens. It would have been very simple to formulate as an answer, ”she adds.
The four men also did not address free contraception.
He only has the neodémocrat Jagmeet Singh who recalled that his party had “forced” the Trudeau government to include contraceptives on the list of future federal medication insurance.
The Canadian Press
For the French debate in the 2025 federal electoral campaign, the federal chiefs Mark Carney (PLC), Pierre Poilievre (CCC), Jagmeet Singh (NPD) and Yves-François Blanchet (BQ) crossed the iron on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at the Maison de Radio-Canada, in Montreal. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
The general coordinator of the Federation of Women of Quebec (FFQ), Janic Galibois, judges that most of the answers “were completely out of topic”. For example, when Pierre Poilievre alluded to the killer of the Great Mosque of Quebec.
The conservative offended that a man who killed six people in a premeditated manner was only sentenced to 25 years of penitentiary and could be released at the age of 52.
“I’m never going to apologize for wanting to put murderers in prison to protect women,” he shouted to his Liberal rival Mark Carney.
To avoid the decline in women’s rights, therefore, men must be imprisoned.
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Invisible women
During the debate, Jagmeet Singh also recalled that the NDP was the only party to count more candidates (51%) than candidates in its ranks.
The Bloc Québécois accumulates 41% of female candidates and the Liberals, 36%. On the conservative side, there are only 23% of candidates.
“The debate turned around the fact that it was difficult to recruit women in the parties. But the decline in parity is more worrying than that, ”said Janic Galibois.
According to her, the situation is likely to leave “dead angles” in the analysis of economic and social issues in Ottawa, then in the search for political solutions.
The Canadian Press
For the French debate in the 2025 federal electoral campaign, the federal chiefs Mark Carney (PLC), Pierre Poilievre (CCC), Jagmeet Singh (NPD) and Yves-François Blanchet (BQ) crossed the iron on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at the Maison de Radio-Canada, in Montreal. The Canadian Press/Christopher Katsarov
The first victims
It is not only in the debates where women are absent. In the countryside too.
“It is not for nothing that we are starting to talk about the boys’ club In Ottawa: Women are absolutely not included in the campaign that revolves around the trade war with the United States, “said Janic Galibois.
“If we are obsessed with the economy, can we at least include women in the equation?”, In turn denounces Jess Legault.
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Customs prices, inflation, recession: it is the women who will be the most affected, insists the researcher at the Institute for Research and Socioeconomic Information (IRIS), Eve-Lyne Couturier.
“During economic crises, governments will create support programs in the industries that mainly employ men,” she explains.
“However, we will cut in public services without taking into account that women, majority in the sector, will lose their jobs in turn and that the burden of health care and children will fall on their shoulders,” said the expert.
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