Canada should forget UN seat bid
By Letter to the Editor on May 14, 2020.
Canada should withdraw its candidacy for one of the two seats in the June 2020 election of the UN Security Council for 2021-22.
Ordinarily candidates are nominated well in advance so that no election is needed. For the 2020 vacancies Ireland announced in 2005, Norway in 2007. Belatedly, in 2016 Canada launched a hurried, expensive campaign forcing an election. Its case is weak.
Recently a CBC News anchor was stunned by the comments of his guest, a well-known global filmmaker, journalist, author and commentator. Alexandre Trudeau reported that Canada’s international reputation has been in freefall for more than two decades. Once a strong, positive influence for international security and human rights, Canada is now seen as a “confused follower.”
Step by step over the last three decades Canada has purposely been realigning itself from an independent sovereign nation into a compliant economic, political and military U.S. satellite. Its economic policy is subordinate to the U.S. continental juggernaut. Its foreign policy is directed by the White House; its military policy by the Pentagon; its once-renowned UN peacekeeping missions replaced by military support for illegal U.S. colonization wars in the Middle East and North Africa.
Canada used to be an even-handed broker in the toxic Israel-Palestinian conflict. Now it routinely votes with the U.S. against UN resolutions supporting Palestinian self-determination and sovereignty over land and resources, and condemning Israel’s chronic illegal military occupation, human rights violation and seizure of land of the Palestinian people. One vote was 160 for, three against – U.S., Costa Rica and Canada.
Canada has not adopted the full UN Convention for the Crime of Genocide. It remains the site of suppression and genocide against its own Indigenous peoples. It imprisons them for defending their inherent rights to their cultures and lands as prescribed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
When asked about Canada’s sudden Security Council lurch, respected veteran Canadian diplomat Jeremy Kinsman suggested that Canada support Ireland and Norway, reliable independent nations with untarnished recent records in pursuit of the UN’s mission of international security and human rights.
We should attend to our own wicket.
Owen Holmes
Lethbridge
12-11
you have said a lot, o.h, and i quite agree. however, i would like to digress only with my opinion that canada has been a usa satellite for much longer than 3 decades. whereas we began as nursers from the teat of britain, there was a transition period where we began our weaning from them, but only to find ourselves feeding from american droppings.
never has our country had true leadership – save for the great tommy douglas, but he was never pm. in the early 1900s, for example, canada had an automobile undustry, but gave that up to produce american autos (are we the only first world nation to not produce its own cars)…and so began our history of becoming dependent on american manufacturing. aerospace, prepared foods, processing of our raw materials – the sell out of most of our oil/gas, timber, metals… all followed like ducklings – cementing our utter dependency on the usa for our exports, and any subsequent ingenuity that trickled into our country. thereafter, canadian talent became giveaway commodity export to the usa, and it was not just comedians and, gag, justin beiber.
consequently, as o.h states, canada is hardly independent. in fact, we are stupidly tied to american foreign policy, much like a dummy is tied to its ventriloquist. i am reminded of an old joke, but still generally prescient: what is 18 inches long and hangs between george bush’s legs…brian mulroney’s chin. usa: we stand on guard for thee.