 I think one of the questions that we need to start with, hearing the extraordinary bios and the extraordinary strength and paths of these panelists, these incredible women who all of them get drawn on and requested to be part of so many different things. Why was it that you felt that being part of this G7 advisory council was a useful use of your time and what do you see as indicators of success and how do you feel this council is going? What are the challenges that you see around this and how do you think that we're going to be able to make an impact with this? I'll start with Pumzili down at the end. Thank you very much Prime Minister and to everybody who's here for making this day possible. This is a dream come true, I think for me, to have an opportunity to influence the discourse within the G7, the most powerful man and a woman in the world who impacts the lives of so many people in the world. If we are able to shape the outcome of their discourse in such a way that what comes out of there would make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today and forever, that would be a turning point in the history not of G7 citizens but the history of the people and especially the women of the world. So this is a unique opportunity and I'll be damned to grab it. Thank you Pumzili. Lima what's your perspective on this council? I'll be very honest in my native language we say I'm bringing a lot here you don't hide your nakedness from the bath pocket meaning that people you have to interact with for a long time you have to be honest. I met with you a few months ago we sat in that room you didn't have to take me seriously we talk about frontline grassroots activists and the need for you to diversify funds that will go directly to them. I told you let's name it the Justin Fund and you said no Lima. We'll name it the Canada maybe we should think about the Canada 150. I walked out of that meeting and told Liz Bernstein from the Nobels Women's Initiative and my colleague Sarah that we came from the real lean because most times you go to meetings with politicians you leave the room I have gotten to the place where I now know bullshit lean sorry for the expression and bullshit lean is when they just look at you and you're not getting a thing from them they speak all the right language but at the end of the day to hell with you so I think there's some folks that have seen that look I recognize that from various meetings. So a few weeks later you made the announcement of a hundred and fifty million dollars for grassroots women we're getting there when you asked me to join this as it is someone who's not afraid of all of the trouble that I would bring but like Fumzele said I'm not even from a G7 country you didn't have to invite me but it means that you respect the voice the work not just of me but a lot of the frontline activists because I see myself as a representative of those women if I have to say anything it has to be from the perspective of their work so trust in you that was the first thing in the second thing is what I could bring to the council that no one else would bring like bullshit lean. Chris you come from an engineering and obviously a military background no no no bullshit in the military that's obvious why don't you tell me about what your hopes are for this this council and what you think how you think it'll work. Nobody ever wants to go after Lima. Just two things Mr. Prime Minister and the first is I had the opportunity on a couple of occasions to deploy as a military member to countries Bosnia Herzegovina and Afghanistan where I saw the effect of many effects but the effect of women and girls on resources and very talented people that didn't have the wherewithal or the abilities or the networks to do things that needed to be done and then I had the the other opportunity and some would say slightly negative opportunity to lead the sexual misconduct response team with Canadian Armed Forces which some would say intuitively why you and I would say why not me I'm very passionate and I think the team that we had was very dedicated and really wanted to make a change which leads me to the answer to the question which is I think we have an opportunity for change and I think the people of the council which I am absolutely humbled to be amongst these extraordinary men and women but also I think we have something to offer and quite honestly I want to do it for my children who are young and motivated talented and very tolerant people I think and it's an ability for us to make a change thank you Melinda I don't think I've met many women who are busier than you every time we went into each other we're you know in different places around the world and you've got a thousand things on the go why did you see not just being on this council but co-chairing this council as an important thing to do and what do you hope to bring to to impacting the G7 through it when I look at the history of the G7 and what it has done and what it stood for it's really been three things economic security and environment those are the three things the G7 stands for when I think about our economy it's built on the backs of women when I think about women in the labor force today and are we there yet my answer is still no we're getting there but we're not where we need to be on pay or leave the proper leave policies etc or equal representation when I think about security and the peace and security of the world who brings peace and security so often it's women if we give them their agency look at what Lima did in her country look at what she did look at what women do when I think about the environment and our climate and I think about climate change and who's going to have the greatest impact it's often female farmers most women are farmers around the world and so when you provided this opportunity to be part of the G7 I thought what better way for us to get all the women's issues up at the G7 level not just a few but all and I was very encouraged by the substantive discussion we had today at the gender council and the lunch hearing what the W7 has brought forward you know it's only been a few years we've even had a W7 it was under Prime Minister Merkel under Chancellor Merkel that that first body first came into being so the chance to have gender issues cut across and really be named not just in this G7 but in your commitment to getting it in G7s going forward and the reason I do it is because I am lucky enough to travel I travel to Africa many times a year I'm in Southeast Asia I'm in villages with women I sit in the on the you know their little map that they put out or in their mud hut and we talk about the real issues they face and if we can break down the barriers for women no matter where you live low-income middle-income high-income country we can break down those barriers we will give women their agency in their voice and believe me when they get those two things and they get decision-making authority they change the world and that's what I want to do now when we when we talk about the G7 there really is a sense that these are the you know the world's you know leading industrial nations and there's a often a big division between north and south and how we think well what we need to do for our economies and what we need to do to have a positive impact in leading around the world but I think it's really important to recognize that even within our own economies we are facing huge challenges and huge inequalities that we don't always do a very good job of paying attention to and I've been incredibly proud that Canadians over the past years have brought forward reconciliation with indigenous peoples as one of those great elements that Canada needs to do needs to tackle if we're going to be the country that we all know we want to be and reflecting on how that fits into the G7 agenda how we look at our own examples as well is something why one of the reasons why I'm so so proud that to Roberta you agreed to be as part of this part of this this this advisory council to make sure that people know that you know different identities intersectionalities but also the extra challenges faced by indigenous women around the world but also in Canada is is brought forward so thank you for being part of this and and what are your hopes for this thank you and you've just summed up a lot of it Prime Minister when when you just a moderating when you when you called me I mean I think you know what you get when you invite a strong Mohawk woman to sit on a council so I figured when you picked up the phone Prime Minister you knew who you were calling and again today you've encouraged us to be bold and I have to say and and I was thrilled to hear that because I would find it difficult not to be you're willing to use why did I say yes because you're willing to use the G7 presidency to advance issues that are important to the world you are not afraid to look inside as well as outside your country and yes we're on a journey of reconciliation in Canada and it took us 150 years to get into this situation and as my friend senator Murray Sinclair says it won't be changed overnight it's going to take a lot of work serious and sustained investment much of which you've already committed to and I am I'm probably more optimistic today and I ever have been in my life because because you are not afraid to look inside and acknowledge that in a first-world country like Canada we have women and girls living in third-world conditions if you can't drink the water you can't live in your house you can't go to school you have no food tea I mean these are real challenges which I don't think the world knows about Canada but you're not afraid to expose expose that and so that's one of the reasons why I said yes also as you spoke today you understand the importance of education and you know how passionate I am about that not only education of Canadians and others about indigenous peoples and what we have given the world and still can give the world in our ways of knowing environmental stewardship conflict resolution traditional healing we have solutions as well as being the marginalized the downtrodden the victims we have answers and we'd love to provide them so I so education of that and education of our own people when you only have four out of ten of our kids living in in reserves who get out of high school whereas you've got close to nine out of ten non-indigenous Canadian students who do that we have a problem and we know how we're going to change it investment yes also though education that validates who we are as indigenous people this country's tried to turn us into something else that's been a colossal failure as we know and now we're proud to step up and with your support we are making strides forward so I said yes for that and of course when we get to the G7 I don't think there are any issues at the G7 or at the UN that aren't women's issues I think that so for me success would be to mainline from here on forward following your lead intersectional lens cross-cutting across all agenda items that gender approach that understands the intersectional nature that is critical and this so this is just a beginning of a very exciting historic journey I thank you for your courage and your leadership and look forward to presenting you with a dynamite report along with my other colleagues thank you obviously we have a very small amount of time right now and there's so many different things to talk about what one of the things that have come because come back regularly is the importance of education as a lever to create success both here at home and around the world education and empowerment of women and girls particularly when we look when we bring in the different identities and intersectionalities we can always look at the the successes or the the increases of women on you know fortune 500 C suites but when you dig into it a little more they're almost all older white women that you know there are an awful lot of women who are being excluded because of multiple identities that they hold and it's harder and harder to make sure we're folding them in so or it's it's more and more important to be able to fold them in and we're seeing increasing increasing challenges as the world does move on so I'd love to dig into education whether it's education within within the developed world or the developing world the priorities that each of you are focusing on because one of the tangible things that we know is coming through this g7 is going to be a concerted effort on development that is focused on education whether it's the the folks who are getting humanitarian aid while they're in refugee camps but not getting the education because there's still this thinking that oh you know they might only be in that camp for a year or two no we know realistically we're talking about decades of displaced persons in their lives you can't miss out on education or whether it's areas where culturally or traditionally women are excluded from educational pathways or just places where the economic barriers are so great that you know women you know fall off the priority list in terms of who gets educated so maybe we can maybe we can dig into education a little bit we'd like to start Lima go ahead you're wearing a mic too so try no there we go yeah yeah of anyone on this panel I'd suspect we might be able to silence your little last one thank you I mean we all know that education is very important I'm from a family of five daughters and it became very clear from the get-go for my parents that we had to go to school yes into my formation we became refugees in Ghana at 17 the opportunity presented itself because I had graduated from high school the day before the civil war started so we got to Ghana and I was one of the first students that was giving a scholarship to go to nursing school my mother was excited I wasn't I refused the offer to go to school two reasons why was my mother sold vegetables in the camps my sister had given birth and her husband was nowhere around the vegetables my mother sold was to provide for the ten of us that came in that camp my sister had a baby I started selling donuts and the donors that I sold was to help buy milk and diapers for that baby when he got sick it was proceeds from the donors that sent him to the doctor when I was presented with that opportunity the only image I had in my mind who's going to take care of Josephine and the baby and so I said no when we decide to discuss education for girls let it be holistic because there are many issues confronting girls in refugee camps in communities that we cannot know none of these things that we're trying to resolve can happen in silo it has to be interconnected my own experience in Liberia providing education a young lady came to me and said thank you but I don't want your scholarship anymore I used to sell before you gave me the scholarship my mother is mentally ill the donor that I sold she sold bread every week provided opportunity for my siblings for me to save for them to go to school I receive your scholarship I'm supposed to bring a 3-point GPA as a science student I studied all of the time I can sell so I come home to a hungry mother kids siblings that can no longer go to school so as we think education as we think any form of even as we present these to the G7 let it be in a holistic form we can never ever look at development from a one-size-fit or perspective and I think my own personal experience is something that drives me all of the time to say yes it's important but you can never separate lemur from her eight children and you can never separate the mothers in this room from their daughter's well-being from Zili and then Melinda thank you for this a very important subject because education is probably one of the closest thing to a silver bullet but by itself it is a bullet that might not give you the benefits of a silver bullet so as lemur say it has to be within a broader context if I think of a displaced persons refugees and and so on the one thing they have when they are displaced is rights thanks to international law that still give people rights even though those rights may be denied and compromised but they can never be taken away from them the second thing that people could have in difficult situation which no one can take away from them is their education all of us education is the one thing that when people look down upon you when people despise you when people racially discriminate against you etc they can never take the fact that you have education it might not work for you but it can never be taken away from you so this is an important tool to provide to people who are displaced so that if at some point they get to a place where they can rebuild their lives this is something that they will have with them in order to use if you think about the fact that when people are displaced the girls at higher risk to be married off as children if they are in school this is the one thing that stops them from being married so it's a cure to some extent or a reducer of early marriage so these benefits are actually quite important so when we talk to G7 it is important for us to talk about ending violence against women ending child marriage in the same context as education because it solves so many of the big problems of the 21st century that are winnable this one is one of the winnable problems that we have thank you thank you Melinda your foundation has been incredibly active in the area of education all around the world tell us about what you've been doing what you see as the the key for the coming years yeah so education I think the most important statistic that I think of in terms of education there's so many reasons education is important I think we all know them but if a mom is educated or a girl is educated her baby is twice as likely to live to his or her fifth birthday twice as likely and it's because the education gives that woman her voice gives her that decision-making authority gives her the ability to take a higher paying job if she chooses or has the opportunity and so when we when Bill and I look out at the world we look at you have to start with good health if you don't have health you don't even get a chance to go on to get an education so you have to have good health but if the child is sick if then there's not a chance to go on and get a good education so if the mom is educated she can give all the right things to her child so her child has a chance to grow up healthy and go to school and I sit many many times with people I will often sit for hours with men and women around the world talking about health talking about their basic needs etc and I'm just a woman from the West and a pair of khakis in a t-shirt whenever I say to them what are your hopes and your dreams for you for your future or for your family's future I have never had anyone say anything other than educating my child educating my time when I think about my own children's education what I've said to them since they were could ever remember what my parents said to me about my education what my education allowed me to go on and do or all the women or men on this panel right so education is just a fundamental thing and I guess the last thing I'll say in the US we have a saying that says a mind is a terrible thing to waste and when I think about the 50% of the minds that are out there wow I think of the potential of what they can do in the world now we're gonna turn to questions from the audience in a moment and not many because I know we all have reception reception where we can actually chat with these extraordinary women and men on the panel on the on the council I made a rule to myself never to sit on any panel that didn't have a decent gender balance but I think you can understand that this is one I'm very delighted to be on but that actually brings me to the the question I want to ask we were talking earlier about what I wanted from this panel and I think it was Roberta who mentioned that you know they want to be able to push the right things but you know they they know that the political context is sometimes difficult and G7 being a consensus based organization you know there may not be maybe people not as far along on their on their gender equality journey as others and can we you know the question was you know how far do I want this council to push and I basically said look this is an opportunity to create a a report a set of recommendations that is bigger than the G7 these are extraordinary minds and experiences come together to talk about what the world really needs to do as we move forward so don't don't worry about how tough it is on me to create consensus around the G7 table that's our challenge as G7 leaders make sure that you're looking for the bold concrete ideas that are actually going to move us forward and that's exactly what we've been hearing through the course of these past two days and I know it's going to be part of the full report but it does bring a question I think is worth discussing whether it was when we brought forward a gender balanced cabinet or when we brought forward a budget with gender analysis and GBA plus at the center of it because equality is also an economic argument there is a lot of pushback there's a lot of people defending the status quo there's a lot of folks who aren't there yet and understanding the the hard cold economic facts and value of education of proper development these kinds of things bring in how do we deal with the pushback but also how do we create space for more men to be comfortable saying that they are allies and feminists and being part of the solution how how do you see the moving of the conversation forward in a way that is both inclusive enough to bring everyone along but challenging enough to make up for decades or centuries of lost time and maybe I'm going to start with Chris because she's coming out of an organization that is fairly hierarchical and patriarchal in I've talked about engineering of course but also also the military thanks mr. Prime Minister she's a general it so in complete honesty and complete transparency what I have learned I think in the last maybe five or eight years is that not everybody gets it okay I know that was a trite statement but but to the extent where people will say the right thing I think somebody on the on the panel here said that people will say the right things and they'll nod their heads at the right time but they really don't either understand get it or or quite frankly care and I think that puts us at such a disadvantage because when you see whether it's bias biasness in policies or just in the way we treat we treat people and the way we think such good can be gained from a slight change of character I'll put it that way and and I look at the NATO Defense College where I am right now and we've just for the first time assigned a gender advisor who happens to be American and a male my choice and and I did it for a couple of reasons because because most of the people didn't think it was necessary and because I believe that there was an opportunity for us to look at education at a very strategic level and and put the gender discussion or conversation on the table and and but but how do you do that without without creating the dialogue and I think the dialogue was such an important part and we're only starting so we have a lot of work to do but just in the sense of as we as we talk to people and as we give them pragmatic solutions to old problems I think people are starting to learn and and and to be a lot more engaged on it but but it is very very difficult and and it has a lot of baggage in many many cases that you've already alluded to a couple of times today so that that's what I can Roberta three things start with boys we need to change how boys are asked to see themselves and their role in society and to understand how impoverished they are for lack of having more women in in different roles throughout their life number one number two the people who are open to it and will listen to you talk to them not only about justice I think those people are hearing not only about rights those people are hearing talk to them about the cold hard facts of how the economy will benefit I talk a lot to people about if we close the gap with indigenous people in education and employment in Canada alone you're going to add three hundred and thirty five billion dollars to our GDP by 2031 pretty convincing argument people do things that are in their self-interest so I'm very practical as you know Prime Minister I'd appeal to the self-interest third thing the people who will not get it do not get it don't waste your time confront them but more people need to confront them than you Prime Minister and others in your close circle those of us out and about the average person need to shout those people down call them out call them to account and then we need to just move on from Zilly you're at the UN which is an organization that certainly has a certain level of challenges to it while you also have a certain level of enlightenment in there how do you see our capacity to bring people along and wake them up you know I think because of the digital age our outreach to people including those that are in the last mile has increased dramatically our capacity for instance to achieve universal education has increased dramatically but I don't think that the capacity of leaders to comprehend this opportunity has increased dramatically I used to be I mean I mean this in a loving way to politicians I used to be in government in my country in South Africa I remember distinctly when officials used to present to us on issues to do with ICT we were either so impressed by the razzmatas that we sometimes agreed to spend money on things we didn't fully understand or we were so scared that we pushed back and the importance of getting to know what opportunities we have as a result of technology in the 21st century to solve developmental issues is a critical requirement for decision-makers to have otherwise decision-makers become part of the problems that slow down development of society there is a disconnect between those who understand technology and science and those who are social scientists and are in the arts and the overlap isn't happening enough so that we can leverage the strengths that come from both because you want X this is one engineer with a heart but there's a lot of engineers who are not whose emotional intelligence isn't strength as much as you have a lot of people who are in the arts who don't like technology as a teacher I know as teachers as a teacher in the social sciences we actually never thought that technology was for us so the bringing of these issues together I think is a big missing piece so that we can leverage everyone else's strengths but especially for taking education to the furthest children young people women so that we can have quality education everywhere in the world you think blockchain technology and the delivery of cash cash transfer to refugee camps that's phenomenally life changing but I worry that it is not being discussed in the cabinet where poverty alleviation is being discussed so this learning that is very binary where if you are going to be in the ICT you have to have a grade 12 set marks of particular level then you go into a particular a faculty and so on and that's the only channel to increase the digital skills I think it's wrong we need to find a way in which learning is multidisciplinary you can go into the art school and then end up heading a tech company because people in arts use technology why can they not lead in the tech industry and just have one stream in which people close the gap in this area where there's a shortage of skill so out of the box throw away the box don't shift the paradigm take away the paradigm and let's start all over again Lima Lima how do we teach our sons to be feminists how do we teach our leaders to be feminists how do we how do we bring people along it to this awakening that that so many people are either resistant to or just afraid of because they don't understand well I'm a practical person and I believe in practicality practical examples on the ground thing thinking a few years ago I saw my father work his village about girls education I had won the Nobel Peace Prize and as part of our tradition we had to go there for 24 hours of dancing and that wasn't a part of the original Scandinavian tradition for Nobel Prizes but it was beautiful we got there and the men came and sat around him of course he was the big guy that day even though he didn't have any chief tensor title for many reasons he refused to allow us to go through the process of FGM so he became a disgrace to his community but when we when we when I won the prize and we went back they all came to honor him and someone asked and then he said to one of my uncles you see the point I always made to you all for sending your children to school especially your daughters now I travel whenever I change cars every now and then my hospital bill is not a problem these five girls have been taking care of me that is the reason why your daughters needed to go to school it's stuck with those people because they could see him see his life that was the first thing the second thing that I saw I was at a conference in the UK many years ago and we're talking about sexual and gender-based violence against women and the role that military is supposed to play especially around peacekeeping one of general stood up and said if anyone in this room things that I went to military college to be a part of anything called firewood brigade to protect women from rape they should ting twice I wanted to throw my shoes at him but there was this Nigerian general Festus sitting next to me and he grabbed me and said don't move so I said general he said lemon I'll handle that it was this moment to present and general when and put a picture of very graphic image of death and destruction this woman case was a huge case during the Taylor era she was raped killed but they use an object inserted it excuse me for saying but this is the reality in her private it came out of her mouth he put that picture up in turn to every general in the room he said to them how many of you on your wash can see this happening and still conclude that you shouldn't do firewood brigade no general in that room could speak because he had nailed it he said we are failures every time on our watch these things happen how can you look at your daughters and wives when you go home and knowing that on your watch women and girls are not safe it's time for us when when people come to me and say I'm going to present at the UN and they're so excited I said don't write anything they know it already is volumes and volumes and is collected dust and dirt take the community into that space and let them see the reality of what is happening on the ground some of these things will transform we can never continue or continuously be diplomatic upon women's issue diplomatic upon global problems that we're having it's time to throw out diplomacy because I always tell people there are two options personally that I have speak the truth never get invited say a lie don't get invited I choose to speak the truth it's up to you to call me back any other time I don't know how anyone follows that but Melinda you're going to try Melinda you you have been active in extraordinarily influential political development private sector circles over the past years with you and your husband as you've you've really taken on these global issues in this this particular cause you must have encountered on a whole bunch of folks from from a different mindset who aren't necessarily ready to learn a whole way new way of approaching things how is it that you find bringing them along to be most effective yeah I think I started learning that lesson I was fortunate enough to go to all girls school for high school run by some Catholic nuns and we got computers and luckily I had a father and a mother who believed in all four of us kids getting educated two girls two boys my dad totally told me all the time about these amazing mathematicians that he would attract to his teams he was part of launching the first Apollo mission in the United States and he said his team was always better when there was a female mathematician on it and I learned very early on that women could be good at math and science and I knew I could be good at math and science because of my father but I started running into this bias where people didn't think that in computer science as you can imagine in college after I came out of this all-girl environment so I run into it all over the world but what I find is I find all the men who are champions of women and I work with them any man I can find in any woman but it's often the men let's be frank who hold the power who hold the keys to the power and so I try to elevate other women every chance I get mentor sponsor elevate women I try to hold men to task who to hold up barriers for women I call them out on it even inside our own organization even if I do it I inadvertently have bias at times my husband has bias when we're leading I call him out on it I call myself out on it so but I find the men who want to champion things for women the generals the people in the military the people who are legutieres who are willing to speak and I make sure that they share that power and they use it on behalf of women and then secondarily the other piece I'll say that was already brought up as well by Roberta is boys we have to educate our boys we have to stop telling our boys to man up that is the worst thing you can tell a boy so I have three children a daughter a son and a daughter college and two in high school the son is about to graduate college and graduate about to graduate high school and I was so proud of him on his 18th birthday we had had so many discussions around our dinner table as a family about feminism about lgbtq rights about issues all over the world our kids have traveled to incredibly impoverished settings with us and lived in impoverished settings and I asked my son whether he'd let me publish a piece on him being a feminist I knew he was and he we guard his our kids privacy up to a certain aid very closely and he said absolutely mom I have no problem with that and I thought I must have gotten something right as a mom and so I will tell you it's working with the men who are for women and it's teaching our boys to be feminists I've promised an element of questions from the audience so we'll take three questions from the audience one from each section and then we'll take them one after the other and then the folks on the panel can both answer and wrap up I don't want to do a huge conclusion here because this work is ongoing it doesn't end here on this panel so does anyone have any questions please okay we got one hand over there right there good afternoon good afternoon to the distinguished panel and Prime Minister my name is Emily Mills and I represent a network called how she hustles one of the conversations that's happening right now with many of the diverse women in my network is how they can be at the table when these conversations are happening and many of the women actually just today are having an online discussion on Facebook about how some of these critical conversations about the future of our world in our country are limiting they're not having access because sometimes they're in places and spaces and rooms where they're not on the right list so I guess my question to you is how do women who do not have a certain amount of privilege and access or are not on the right list how do they become part of this conversation great question thank you very much it's take another question there in the center yes stand up please thank you for for doing this and inviting all of us here my name is Huda I'm a startup founder from Toronto I run a company called health I've noticed in some of the grassroots organizations and work that has done where people have this negative reaction to things like quotas or things like affirmative action and I wonder from a G7 angle and in all the respective organizations that all of you are a part of how can we hold organizations people government global policy accountable for outcomes not just stuff that we'd say thank you thank you the question this section yes my name is Helen Kennedy I'm with an organization called a gal which is Canada's lgbti q2s human rights organization and I loved your analogy around the thinking out of the box and I just want to know are you thinking out of the box when you're thinking of gender and non-binary and intersectionality around lbti and 2s as well thank you all right so questions around grassroots and how to get more women at the table and the non-empowered women at the table and questions on quotas and affirmative action and then a great question from Helen on on non-binary identities and how we affect intersectionality there who was to give it a give it a shot first Chris you got the mic can I I'd like to actually talk about the targets and affirmative action and the like so in the Canadian Armed Forces we do have a target of 25% women in the Canadian Armed Forces and we have never met that target we're at about 17% now and we've had the target for probably 20 odd years and and there's some really good rationale for it and and a lot of people would say well obviously women don't want to join so why would you have targets and that's not the answer the answer is we're not a there's a whole bunch answers but but my point is if you're if you're serious about targets which I am then you need to be draconian about it and sometimes I mean needs you that you need to make decisions that are not popular but that are outcomes base and and sometimes you just have to really dig deep and get a little bit of moral courage courage to do the right thing so the CDS and and I worked very hard to do 1% for year for the next 10 years what that meant is completely changing the way we in the way we recruit the way we retain the the engaging the different cultural groups than the non-binary groups engaging everyone on the platform that they're comfortable at and ensuring that how their careers in the Canadian Armed Forces can be as as productive and as engaging and as enjoyable and challenging as as they want it to be and not to create an environment where every square goes in a square box and every circle goes in a circle box because that is not the answer in today's day and age and in many ways it really it comes down to leadership and leadership doesn't mean you're the Prime Minister or you're the CDS leadership means in every single facet of humanity people have opportunities to make change and you really have to take those opportunities and harness as much as you can about them and to do what you know to be the effect in a very positive light and sometimes that takes a lot of a lot of angst and a lot of soul searching but you know ultimately it's the right thing to do and people will will really appreciate that I think in the final analysis thank you I don't know if I can answer my sister's question about how to bring many women around the table but one thing that I know is that in this day and age of technology women are setting a gender in spaces and places that are not necessarily around the table I know that those who have started different hashtag moments even though I don't like to glorify some of those moments because I'm one of those Africans who believe that before times or before mean to women in grassroots community were dealing with those issues and it's not now when you have light camera action that people should be hyped up about them you know but I think we can even from our communities begin to set agendas that people that we can put out there and people can get you know some of these spaces and places is minister months said and I always butcher her name that we're knocking on open doors but I think in most cases it is not that way you know the door can be similarly open but getting results is something else so I I think we just need to keep pushing and having confidence in the ability of those around the table that they're there to represent the interest of those of us who are not around the table because most times the assumption is that they're one group of people or few individuals that they're bringing around the table and they're not representing our interests mean ambassador who done and Melinda can attest that this morning we really really really really give them a tough time and because we knew and I like the way Katia put it that we brought our integrity and the voices of our constituency into this working group and we were not going to leave anything out that wasn't going to be a representative of the voices and the individuals that put confidence in our ability to be sitting there so I think is is understanding having trust because just as we're talking trust for women who are at the table we're also asking for trust when it comes to funding issue issues of money to women because now as a grassroots activist I see funding and trust just like going to the Canadian Consulate we can't give you a visa because you've never traveled before but how would I travel if you don't give me a visa you know we can't we can't give this women's organization this fund because they've never done this kind of work before and I know I'm supposed to give my closing remarks come back to me to hashtag and all of the different things I know everyone have said a lot about it including you mr. Prime Minister in your statement but when we look at the successes of those campaigns people want to come out and speak out about their experiences and I sat with her sister on the table who said since mean to and times out she runs a service provision place for women who are survivors of violence here in Canada the number of people who come to their center has increased 100% increase 0% funding for the work that they do so let's think about all of those things confidence trust in one another at the table but also as we're asking for trust from one another we're also asking for trust from the donors and the funders and we have to also come to the place where we understand that when these movement come up they come with successes but it also are accompanied by challenges that we need to deal with just just to to also further aid on the issue of reaching out and bringing all women to the table on one hand not all tables are worth sitting at for women so so there are some so women also need to create their own tables and will be surprised at the influence we can be we have chosen to be at the G7 table because we think that table is going somewhere but there's many others that we refuse to go to because we are not confident that it is a good use of our time so there is that element but in this day also of informal and yet far-reaching power that comes with what technology offers us that is also a table if I listen to now to the number of powerful people who talk about the Me Too that is a table that created itself that did not wait to be invited so it's also about looking at different ways in which we can appropriate power to ourselves and use it in an effective way but having said that I think your point is still valid and that is why supporting grassroots movement that can engage with women everywhere because of proximity still remains important and that is why the funding of grassroots women that Leama was talking about which Prime Minister announced is still an important intervention because through that mechanism you're bringing more women into the table and I also want to address the issue of a binary and non-binary approach to the work that we do and by starting to say sexual and reproductive rights and health is foundational if women are unable to make a choice about the men and women about their sexuality if they're unable to make a choice about their reproductive activities if they are unable to choose when and how to space their children that is a tragedy if you can imagine anyone of us sitting in this room if we did not have the capacity to decide when to have children how many to have it is just unimaginable to be in that situation there's millions and millions of women in the world today who are in that situation I sometimes feel that the most liberating thing that has ever happened in the last century to women was the birth control pill there is nothing more empowering than that and we still now we're now looking for the next big thing but at the same time not all women are enjoying the liberation that has come with that particular scientific invention because men deny them the one good thing that every woman need is something that governments and men don't control so that and partners rather don't control so that they can make their choices about when to have it how to have it and the the the pill to some extent provided that because even when the partner didn't want you to have it you could still you know have it if you could afford to buy it you didn't need permission to have it so we need these mechanisms for women to be in full and total control and Prime Minister sometimes I am so exhausted and frustrated at the UN when we have to argue with member states about women controlling their bodies we have a bunch of men sitting at the highest body that is supposed to be looking after all of us ganging together to deny women control of their bodies this is something that is really worrying when it comes into women choosing their sexuality we have the same challenges sometimes and that is why the language is still a bit vague at the it's as you and women the language of ensuring that we are not just thinking binary and that's a we are actually able to be open and to create the space and the vocabulary for member states to embrace non binary choices that are living and out there and are a right is still a struggle I don't want to lie we have it we use it but it we are not yet we are not yet finding it in the formal and official documents of the institution so it's a battle that I think we must wage together the more we say it we always come to countries like Canada where the Prime Minister speaks like that ministers you're like wow it's not like this all over the world and we need to help each other to in order to make it the acceptable language in that way we will be completely out of the box so we're still inside the box a little bit I won't repeat what has been said except that I totally agree with the last few comments that have been made I will speak to the issue of quotas only I'm for quotas I don't care what we call it but I am tired of hoping waiting volunteering explain like it doesn't work you know if you take if you take a loan like I'll take I'll take a mainstream example corporate boards let's take a private sector mainstream corporate boards in the last couple of years the changes in gender alone on corporate boards glacial glacial I think it's a little over 1% increase in the last year now that's not to talk about the other areas of diversity I'll talk only about indigenous we're going backwards folks we're less than 1% we eeked up to I think 1.3% at one point now we're back to 0.8 so regressive or glacial I am for G7 setting a way to for countries to be transparent and to be accountable for the many many many marvelous statements and declarations and communicates that have been made over time we all feel wonderful when we read those and then we wait till the next meeting and then they get reinvented and then we all go up again and then we go back so I think quotas measure report publish hold yourself accountable all those things I think it's long past due that's my thoughts Prime Minister I won't I won't try to answer all the questions because I think the panel's done such a good job of that already let me just lift up and saying a little bit in closing is I think we're all committed to making this real with the G7 to helping you make something real for women and by that I mean people of all types we did have a conversation about intersectionality and binary in our in our council and I know the W7 did as well I do think we need more data around these issues because what gets measured is what gets done and when there is then transparency around data like we're seeing in the UK where there's a policy that was passed that you have to have show your pay results for men versus women and then there's now transparency and there's a lot of uh-oh we know that anytime you want to move society forward there has to be commitment and political will and there has to be transparency and then you get change so I think data data data matters and the second thing I'll just say is we have to invest in women we have to put resourcing behind women because women they invest in everybody else well I I want to once again thank the extraordinary leaders on this stage who have given of their time and their energy I want to also thank the entire gender advisory council to the G7 and I know there's lots more conversations but I'm also very excited that there's going to be an opportunity for all of us to continue these conversations in a more informal setting across the way I want to once again thank you all for being here I wish there were more men in the room but that's a constant challenge that we have but hopefully the through the magic of of the media this message will get out to broad and far thank you all and how about another round of applause for these extraordinary leaders