Justin Trudeau has won a reputation as a feminist and defender of the equal rights.
Here are some of his most famous steps towards equality.
Made the national anthem gender neutral
February 2018: Canada’s senators finally pass legislation to make the country’s National Anthem gender neutral, with Trudeau’s backing.
After a 30-year campaign by protestors, and to the consternation of many Canadians, the second line will now be changed from ‘in all thy sons command’ to ‘in all of us command’.
Vows to legalize cannabis
April 2017: Canada is set to legalize and regulate marijuana from as early as July 2018 after Trudeau vowed to make the drug legal throughout the country.
His law has passed the country’s elected House of Commons but must also pass the Senate where delays are possible.
However, Trudeau insists that the new legislation will be ready by the summer, with the date expected in July 2018.
Apology for Canada’s treatment of gay people
November 2017: The prime minister issued a ‘historic apology’ to all Canadians who were persecuted for being gay. From the 1950s until 1992, many people suspected of homosexuality, were forced to sit through humiliating tests, criminally prosecuted or dismissed from the military or public service for being gay.
‘It is my hope in talking about these injustices, in vowing to never repeat them, acting to right these wrongs, we can begin to heal,’ Trudeau said on November 28.
Marched at Gay Pride
June 2017: Trudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, two of their children, and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, joined Toronto’s annual Pride parade. The Canadian PM, who wore a temporary tattoo of a rainbow-colored maple leaf on his left cheek, told reporters: ‘It’s all about how we celebrate the multiple layers of identities that make Canada extraordinary and strong.’
Repeatedly referred to himself as a feminist
October 2017: In an essay, Trudeau described how he was raising his children, including his boys, as feminists because ‘our sons have the power and the responsibility to change our culture of sexism’.
‘All of us benefit when women and girls have the same opportunities as men and boys – and it’s on all of us to make that a reality,’ he wrote in an essay for Marie Claire magazine. ‘Our sons have the power and the responsibility to change our culture of sexism.’
January 2016: During a speech at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in a discussion about gender equality, Trudeau said that his wife encouraged him to ‘take as much effort to talk to his [two] sons… about how he treats women and how he is going to grow up to be a feminist just like Dad.’
He also urged both men and women not to be ‘afraid’ of labeling themselves as feminist.
September 2015: In the run up to the election, in a tweet shared and liked thousands of times, Trudeau wrote simply: ‘I am a feminist. I’m proud to be a feminist. #upfordebate.’
Welcomed refugees to Canada
January 2017: Amid the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric of Donald Trump, Trudeau tweeted to welcome refugees to his country.
‘To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada,’ Trudeau tweeted.
Calls Fox out for wrongly identifying a mass shooter as Moroccan
February 2017: Trudeau welcomed refugees to Canada while his office delivered an angry rebuke to Fox News after it mis-identified the shooter at a mosque in Quebec City as Moroccan in a story and a tweet. He was in fact a white French-Canadian man.
The open letter, also criticized Donald Trump and his administration’s Islamophobic rhetoric, saying they were ‘trying to build walls and scapegoat communities.’