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Why some people are criticizing Justin Trudeau for correcting a woman who said ‘mankind’

ANALYSIS | The Canadian prime minister prefers ‘peoplekind’

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February 7, 2018 at 12:02 p.m. EST

Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Kristine Phillips.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being criticized and praised for interrupting a woman to correct her word choice.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau corrected a woman at a Feb. 1 town hall saying, "We like to say 'peoplekind,' not necessarily 'mankind.'" (Video: Reuters)

Last Thursday, Trudeau was fielding questions from an audience in Edmonton, Alberta. A woman thanked him for filling his Cabinet seats with women and recognizing the “ability and power that women actually possess.”

The woman was with the World Mission Society Church of God, she said. She went on to talk about concepts such as “maternal love” and the “God the Mother” and said the world needs more female leaders to possess such love.

She then proceeded to ask Trudeau to look into policies on volunteering for religious charitable organizations and pivoted back to “maternal love,” describing it as “the love that’s going to change the future of mankind.”

Trudeau waved his hand to interrupt.

“We’d like to say ‘peoplekind,’ not necessarily ‘mankind,’ ” Trudeau said.

Many in the audience cheered, including the woman, whose name is not known.

“There you go, exactly. Yes, thank you,” she said.

Then the criticisms came.

An editorial by the conservative tabloid Toronto Sun described Trudeau’s response as a form of mansplaining. In a column published on the Daily Mail, Piers Morgan called Trudeau “the single most PC-friendly” prime minister, intent on winning the hearts of liberals. “Fox & Friends” even aired an entire segment on the exchange, with a guest slamming Trudeau as a “radical leftist propagandist.”

Others complained that “peoplekind” wasn’t even in the dictionary.

Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, said on Twitter that the “U.S.-right-wing pile-on” regarding Trudeau’s comment was misleading. Trudeau’s critics, Dale said, failed to mention the woman and the audience’s positive reaction.

Trudeau’s efforts to champion women

In a speech in Davos, Switzerland, last month, Trudeau defended gender and social equality and invoked the movements that have taken shape in the United States.

“MeToo, TimesUp, the Women’s March — these movements tell us that we need to have a critical discussion on women’s rights, equality and power dynamics of gender,” he said.

Trudeau is a self-proclaimed feminist. As the unnamed woman mentioned in her dialogue with the prime minister, he has made it his mission to put women in prominent political and judicial posts.

Half of the 74 judges his government has appointed over the past year are women. His Cabinet also has an equal number of men and women. In 2016, he announced that a Canadian woman will be the face of the country’s newest bank notes, which are expected in 2018.

Last week, Canada’s Senate passed a bill that would make the country’s national anthem gender-neutral by changing the phrase “in all they sons command” to “in all of us command.”