Who Needs a Gender Equality Minister? Apparently, Not Carney
His decision to cut the ministry could become permanent if he wins the election—a significant setback for women
Justin Tang / Canadian Press
This story was originally published on thewalrus.ca
By Wendy Kaur
When Prime Minister Mark Carney cut the position of cabinet minister of women and gender equality and youth, or WAGE, on March 14, Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah was in New York—ironically to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The symbolism wasn’t lost on her, and neither was the sting.
Owusu-Akyeeah, who is co-director of policy and advocacy at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, shared the information in a group chat with colleagues. “I wrote: ‘Listen folks, as of today we don’t have a minister for WAGE.’ That’s when the rage started.”
Owusu-Akyeeah felt blindsided. She expected that, at the bare minimum, there should have been a heads-up from the Prime Minister’s Office—either from outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau or Carney.
Anuradha Dugal, executive director of Women’s Shelters Canada, was just as taken aback. “When changes are made, we have been consulted many times by the Liberal government,” she says from New York, where she, too, attended the UN event. “They seem to have a policy of sharing what’s going on. So to not even get a heads-up is really worrying. To me, it speaks to a lack of information or unsound decision making.”
According to Canadian senator Marilou McPhedran, some insiders were caught equally unawares, including former WAGE minister Marci Ien herself. “I know from a personal conversation with Minister Ien that nobody told her in advance of what they were going to do. She herself found out when she watched the swearing-in. She wasn’t at all consulted.” Ien did not respond to The Walrus’s request for an interview. In a personal conversation with McPhedran, Bob Rae, who attended the event as president of the UN Economic Social Council and ambassador to the UN, apparently echoed Ien’s words. “Nobody consulted me,” McPhedran quoted Rae as having told her.
McPhedran regards Carney’s decision as a calculated one. “I’m an independent senator, so I don’t have any party affiliation,” she says from Vancouver. “But I think they did it because they cynically assessed that they could get away with it. They knew that there wouldn’t be a mobilization against the decision, because even a Liberal government under a corporatist prime minister such as Mark Carney is potentially less damaging to equality-seeking communities in Canada than a Trump-inspired Conservative government.”
As Carney announced an election date amidst a tariff war with the United States, there seems to have been a clear decision to focus on what is going to resonate and serve the Liberals well: bolstering the idea of a smaller government. Dugal believes this strategy is downgrading the importance of issues that are essential to the country’s well-being. “The economy depends on women just as much as anyone. In terms of economic downturn, we know that gender-based violence goes up and femicide goes up, so there are consequences of eliminating a voice at the cabinet table that can speak to those immediate impacts that are very serious for women and genderless people in Canada.”
Though Carney’s government is an interim one, the changes he’s made to WAGE could well become permanent if he wins the election.
“We have reverted and regressed by more than fifty years,” McPhedran asserts. “We have less now than when I was a young lawyer fifty years ago, because we’ve always had, in my lifetime of advocacy, a dedicated Status of Women office—as it was called for decades. It was Maryam Monsef who succeeded, obviously needing the support of cabinet, in particular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to significantly increase both the resources and political heat but having a complete department. It was expanded when Marci Ien became the minister.” Monsef declined an interview request.
When it became clear that Carney had abolished WAGE, McPhedran posted the following on X: “Prime Minister @MarkJCarney: this is NOT the time to dismantle Canada’s renowned national machinery for women, girls, 2SLGBTQI people and youth! Shame on you!”
The post was in response to Carney’s own—one of the first he put up as prime minister—which began: “It’s time to unite Canadians by focusing on common values and shared goals.”
The former department has fallen under the file of the newly appointed minister of Canadian culture and identity, Parks Canada, and Quebec lieutenant, Steven Guilbeault, who was previously minister of environment and climate change in the Trudeau government.
Owusu-Akyeeah is worried that sweeping WAGE into a file under the culture and identity umbrella means that women and gender-equality issues will fall through the cracks. “Merging the portfolio of WAGE into a larger ministry that is also overseeing a variety of files, including official languages and things related to Canadian history, there’s major concern that it will get lost in the larger ministerial portfolio or set of files—which is why we wrote that statement,” she says. The joint statement has over 400 signatories.
There’s an even bigger danger. “It leaves it entirely to ministerial and official discretion,” McPhedran warns. “There’s no accountability if they choose to let those contracts lapse. But when you have a department, when you have a minister, and when you name that department Women and Gender Equality and Youth, and when you put the resources there, there is an obligation and responsibility. There is also accountability and transparency. None of that exists in this situation that is being created by this unelected prime minister on his very first day.”
It would also mean wiping out half a century’s worth of progress that got WAGE to where it is now.
“There has been a member of cabinet working on issues on the status of women for a long time—more than six decades—in Canada,” explains Dugal. “During the time of Stephen Harper, women’s issues were a cabinet position, but there was no department devoted to them. Then Trudeau called it Women and Gender Equality Canada and made it a full ministry.”
During the decade that Trudeau was in office, the department made momentous changes. “The Trudeau government responded very well to the #MeToo movement,” says Dugal. “As a result, federal legislation on workplace sexual harassment and violence included funding for legal education and awareness.”
The Trudeau administration also updated the Divorce Act, making a difference to how domestic violence in a relationship is treated through the divorce process. “There’s also legislation on improving the experience of gender-diverse, trans, and LGBTQ people in violent domestic situations.” Many municipalities have declared intimate-partner and gender-based violence an epidemic. “Then there was the report on missing and murdered Indigenous women,” Dugal adds.
Owusu-Akyeeah points to the national pharmacare strategy—and the passage of Bill C-64 in 2024—as the sector’s most significant achievement. As of last month, three provinces and one territory had signed agreements to implement coverage for contraception. “That has been a major win for us and has taken years of dedicated advocacy.”
For the first time, Health Canada has funded national and local sexual and reproductive health organizations. Action Canada used the support to expand its confidential daily phone and text line, which helped more than 6,500 people between July 2023 and July 2024—many from rural and northern communities. “Our abortion fund doesn’t just cover procedures and medication,” says Owusu-Akyeeah. “It also covers the costs around it.” If someone in northern Alberta, for example, lacks access to a primary health provider or needs help with travel, accommodation, or child care, Action Canada steps in.
WAGE gained a lot of traction and made positive change in the past decade, but it feels like the respect for continuing the work in partnership with the government isn’t there anymore, says Owusu-Akyeeah.
Guilbeault has tried to assuage indignation online: “Let me be clear—gender equality and the rights of women and 2SLGBTQ1+ will always be a priority for this government,” he posted on X on March 19. “As the minister responsible for this file, I will continue to defend and advance this important work with my department, @WAGE_FEGC and our partners.”
Owusu-Akyeeah and her sector have been offered a sit-down with Guilbeault. “He said he would be in touch about a meeting, but my sector colleagues who have spoken with him haven’t received a follow-up.”
But the person they really want to hear from is the prime minister. “We want to understand why he made the decision that he did, and if it is possible to get that role reinstated,” she emphasizes. The sector has reached out to the PM’s office but has not heard back.
The election being scheduled for April 28 means time is of the essence. “We want to see a commitment on if the Liberal Party were to form government after the election, there will be a minister for women and gender equality and youth,” says Owusu-Akyeeah.
Despite his decision to sideline WAGE, Carney winning the election presents the best hope of getting the department back on track, as opposed to under a Pierre Poilievre government. “I think it has a great deal to do with what happens in the back channels and what happens frontally with the campaign,” says McPhedran. “If Carney is able to remain prime minister and form government, I believe there will be very active lobbying. There isn’t a giving up.”
The unnerving thing is that if Poilievre does win, that means Carney has already done the heavy lifting for the Conservatives by wiping out WAGE now, McPhedran adds. “That way, the Conservatives don’t have to own any of it.”
Wendy Kaur is a Toronto-based journalist whose work has been published by the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Elle US, Elle Canada, and others.
This is a pared down temporary cabinet. Calm down
I expect this will be brought when a new cabinet is named.