Skip to content

Opposition growing to Harper’s bid for UN seat

Toronto Star columnist James Travers writes today that, “Canada is campaigning for the fall election (for a seat on the UN Security Council) on its reputation. But for the first time it’s facing charges that it’s no longer the best neighbor on the international block.”

“At home and away, awkward questions are being asked about Canada’s qualifications for Security Council membership.”

HARPER’S FOREIGN POLICY
Travers contends that, “(Harper’s)  foreign policy has been downgraded to points of interest, primarily Washington, Tel Aviv and Kabul, connected to domestic politics by cross border trade, locking down the domestic Jewish vote and a far-away mission intended to prove Ottawa is as serious as the U.S about continental security. Add greater interest in the Caribbean, showcased here at this week’s Haiti donor conference, and what passes for a foreign policy emerges.”

BOB FOWLER
“Bob Fowler, highly regarded as both a former Ottawa mandarin and Canada’s longest-serving UN ambassador, warned in Montreal Sunday that Canada may no longer deserve a council place.”

Fowler says, “The world doesn’t need more of the Canada they have been getting.”

BILL GRAHAM
“Bill Graham, who served Jean Chretien as foreign minister, worries that the Conservative policy of Israel right-or-wrong and equivocal concern for Africa undermine once solid support in two vexed regions.”

PAUL HEINBECKER
“Paul Heinbecker, another Canadian UN ambassador who earned great respect here, says this government is breaking with the past in not advancing bold ideas or a specific agenda and could well live to regret winning (the UN seat).”

THE COUNCIL OF CANADIANS
In March 2009, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow wrote in a letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail: “I believe the Harper government should be denied a seat on the UN Security Council until it formally recognizes water as an international human right, a right it has rejected at the UN Human Rights Council. Unsafe water and sanitation are the source of 85 per cent of all disease, and one in every six people on Earth has no access to clean drinking water. A UN covenant would clarify that it is a state’s responsibility to provide sufficient, safe, accessible and affordable water to all of its citizens. If the government fails to act on the global water crisis, it simply does not deserve the leadership role it covets at the United Nations.” That’s at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=231.

Our position has also been reported by the CBC at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=215.

And Maude recently highlighted our stand on TVO. To see that video, please go to http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3199.

We also believe that Canada is not presently deserving of the Security Council seat because it still has not signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2007, we denounced “the Harper government for voting against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 13, 2007 along with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. 143 countries voted in favour of the Declaration.” You can read this media release at http://canadians.org/media/other/2007/25-Sept-07.html.

Since then Australia has signed the declaration, but Harper has only recently said that his government would, “take steps to endorse this aspirational document in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws.”

This is unacceptable.

AFRICA’S SUPPORT?
Steven Edwards wrote in the National Post in June 2009 that, “Half a dozen African countries have handed Ottawa secret written commitments to support Canada in its bid to win election next year (in the fall of 2010) to the United Nations Security Council. The pledges have buoyed some in government to believe Canada has a shot at landing a seat on the UN’s most powerful body for the two-year 2011-2012 term.”

But we observed at the March 2009 World Water Forum in Turkey, the 53-nation African Union signalling their support for water to be recognized as a human right by signing an important counter-declaration. More on that at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=641.

STILL, HARPER IS LIKELY TO WIN THE SEAT
Despite all of this, Travers writes, “two assumptions are relatively safe. One is that Canada will maintain its record by winning council membership. The other is that Ottawa, like the dog that catches the bus, will be hard pressed to know what to do with it.”

To read about the various strategies the Harper government has been pursuing to win the UN Security Council seat – including “trading away votes on UN General Assembly resolutions, seats on other important world institutions, clauses in trade agreements and public support in worldwide conflicts in exchange for votes on this one crucial campaign” – please see Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders’ column at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=45.

Today’s column by James Travers can be read in full at http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/789551–travers-will-canada-win-security-council-seat?bn=1.