Trudeau in New York: PM visits U.S. think tank as he builds on Biden trip – National | 24CA News
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take his Canadian gross sales pitch to an influential U.S. viewers Friday morning.
Trudeau is on the Council on Foreign Relations, a revered New York assume tank, to advertise Canada as a sensible funding and trusted buying and selling companion.
The thought is to capitalize on the momentum that was generated by final month’s go to to Ottawa by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The centrepiece of that go to was a brand new Canada-U.S. technique for the extraction, growth and processing of vital minerals.
Experts say would-be buyers and builders now wish to hear how Canada plans to streamline the regulatory course of with a purpose to capitalize on the nation’s underground riches.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s envoy to the U.S., acknowledges the urge for food for readability and says it’s a excessive precedence – though the main points possible gained’t come right now.
Contrary to standard knowledge, Canada’s allowing processes are literally extra environment friendly than these within the U.S., though she agrees they want enchancment.
“I’m not saying it’s good enough. And I’m not saying we don’t want to continue to streamline and improve,” Hillman mentioned Thursday.
“But we already have a natural advantage there, and we’ll continue to improve it.”
Trudeau spent the majority of the day Thursday targeted on selling efforts to advance sustainable growth exterior North America, specifically the Global South.
And he obtained a tough experience at a worldwide summit of progressive thinkers when former CTV National News anchor Lisa LaFlamme pressed him on current cuts to humanitarian support spending.
Prior to 2019, the Liberal authorities in Ottawa dedicated to creating regular annual will increase in support, “and we absolutely have,” Trudeau responded.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final yr and different crises all over the world, together with in Afghanistan, resulted in outsized one-time spikes in spending, he mentioned.
And whereas there’s more likely to be extra humanitarian disasters earlier than the top of the fiscal yr that can demand Canada make extra commitments, “the baseline continues to go (up),” Trudeau mentioned.
“We spiked it massively because of the pandemic, because of various crises that we had to respond to.”
The look was meant to showcase a brand new five-year, $195-million funding _ plus $43 million each subsequent yr _ in ladies’s rights advocacy all over the world.
Trudeau mentioned this system, Women’s Voice and Leadership, has helped greater than 1,500 organizations because it was launched in 2017, far exceeding the unique goal of 400 teams, who obtain the help with out strings.
“We know that these kinds of initiatives _ defending women’s rights from that grassroots community level, led by women, impacting other women _ is one of the most powerful ways of effecting change.”
Abortion rights have been underneath authorized siege in current months within the U.S., Trudeau acknowledged as he seized on the chance to depict his authorities as pro-choice _ and Conservative rivals as the alternative.
The U.S. courts have performed host to seismic shifts in entry to abortion over the past yr, most notably the Supreme Court’s resolution final June to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 resolution that established federal abortion rights.
Advocates had feared {that a} authorized stalemate over entry to the so-called abortion tablet, mifepristone, would finish a lot the identical manner, earlier than the excessive court docket opted late final week to keep up the established order _ in the meanwhile.
The U.S. Department of Justice is preventing a Texas court docket resolution that, if allowed to face, would successfully rescind the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the drug.
“Oh my God, when do we get to stop having to re-litigate this every, every time,” Trudeau mentioned as he characterised his response to the newest ruling.
“Women are still having to stand up for basic rights that should have been and have been recognized long ago.”
He famous how throughout Biden’s speech to Parliament final month, the president “had to admonish” Conservative MPs who failed to face up and applaud the significance of girls’s rights.
“There’s no place where we’re not seeing attacks on rights that one would have hoped we could be taking for granted now.”
The perils dealing with abortion rights within the U.S. exhibit that even essentially the most primary rights have to be defended with “constant vigilance,” mentioned Hillman, the primary girl to occupy her diplomatic submit.
“Human rights, women’s rights, security of individuals and all kinds of minority rights around the world _ these are things that we can’t take for granted,” Hillman mentioned earlier Thursday exterior the United Nations.
“We see in the United States that once rights are attained, you can’t take them for granted. You have to continue to make sure that you’re building on them and reinforcing them.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
