Twenty-one reasons why Canada does not deserve a seat on the UN Security Council

Still time to add your name to a petition that will be delivered to UN member states in June 2020.

No 2625 Posted by fw, May 19, 2020 —

Uncle Justin

“Published today in the Toronto Star, this article is supported by more than a hundred artists, activists and academics including David Suzuki, Roger Waters, Noam Chomsky, Ellen Gabriel, Pam Palmater, Monia Mazigh and Roméo Saganash. To view the full list of signatories or to add your name, visit: https://www.foreignpolicy.ca/petition”  —Yves Engler

Yves Engler is a Montreal-based writer and political activist. In addition to ten published books, Engler’s writings have appeared in the alternative press and in mainstream publications such as The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Ottawa Citizen.

At Yves Engler’s request to share his invitation to sign his petition, reposted below is my slightly edited version of his action initiative. Alternatively, click on the following linked title to read his complete original piece.

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CANADA DOES NOT DESERVE A SEAT ON THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL  by Yves Engler, yvesengler.com, May 19, 2020

Published today in the Toronto Star, this article is supported by more than a hundred artists, activists and academics including David Suzuki, Roger Waters, Noam Chomsky, Ellen Gabriel, Pam Palmater, Monia Mazigh and Roméo Saganash. To view the full list of signatories or to add your name, visit: https://www.foreignpolicy.ca/petition

Despite its peaceful reputation, Canada is not acting as a benevolent player on the international stage.

1. Rather, Canada ranks among the twelve largest arms exporters and its weapons have fueled conflicts across the globe, including the devastating war in Yemen.
2. In a disappointing move, Canada refused to join 122 countries represented at the 2017 UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination.
3. Ottawa has also been an aggressive proponent of the nuclear-armed NATO alliance, and currently leads coalition missions in Latvia and Iraq.
4. Echoing Trump’s foreign policy, Canada has backed reactionary forces in the Americas.
5. The Trudeau government has led efforts to unseat Venezuela’s UN-recognized government, while propping up repressive, corrupt and illegitimate governments in Haiti and Honduras.
6. Canada also lent its support to the economic elites and Christian extremists who recently overthrew the democratically elected indigenous president of Bolivia.
7. In the Middle East, Canada has sided with Israel on almost every issue of importance. Since coming to power the Trudeau government has voted against more than fifty UN resolutions upholding Palestinian rights backed by the overwhelming majority of member states.
8. The Canadian government has refused to abide by 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, calling on member states to “distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied in 1967.”
9. On the contrary, Ottawa extends economic and trade assistance to Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
10. Should it win a seat on the UNSC, Ottawa has stated that it will act as an “asset for Israel” on the Council.
11. Canadian mining companies are responsible for countless ecological and human rights abuses around the globe. Still, Ottawa defends the most controversial mining firms and refuses to restrict public support for companies responsible for abuses.
12. The chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights criticized the Trudeau government for refusing to rein in mining abuses while the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes has decried the “double standard” applied to Canadian mining practices domestically versus internationally.
13. Falling short of its responsibilities as a global citizen, Canada continues to oppose the Basel Ban Amendment on the export of waste from rich to poor countries, which became binding in late 2019 after ratification by 97 countries.
14. Ottawa also failed to ratify the United Nations’ Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
15. Ottawa has refused to ratify more than 50 International Labour Organization conventions.
16. In November 2019, Canada once again refused to back a widely supported UN resolution on “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”
17. Violating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Trudeau government sent militarized police into unceded Wet’suwet’en Nation territory to push through a pipeline.
18. The UN Human Rights Committee recently documented various ways Canada is failing to live up to its obligations towards indigenous people under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
19. Ignoring front-line victims, Ottawa refuses to keep Canada’s dirty oil in the ground.
20. Canada is on pace to emit significantly more greenhouse gases than it agreed to in the 2015 Paris Agreement and previous climate accords.
21. Already among the world’s highest per capita emitters, the Canadian government is subsidizing further growth of heavy emitting tar sands, at the expense of impoverished nations who’ve contributed little to the climate crisis but bear the brunt of its impacts.

The international community should not reward bad behaviour. Please vote against Canada’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.

SIGNATURES

1. David Suzuki, Award winning geneticist/broadcaster
2. Roger Waters, co-founder Pink Floyd
3. Noam Chomsky, linguist, author & social critic
4. Ellen Gabriel, artist and activist
5. Roméo Saganash, former MP Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou
6. Sid Ryan, former president of Ontario Federation of Labour and CUPE Ontario
7. Rawi Hage, novelist
8. Amir Khadir, former Quebec National Assembly member
9. Pam Palmater, Chair in Indigenous Governance, Ryerson
10. Judy Rebick, activist and author
11. Jord Samolesky, Propagandhi
12. Steve Ashton, long-serving member of the Manitoba legislature and cabinet minister
13. George Elliott Clarke, poet and professor
14. Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize co-winner (1976)
15. Trevor Herriot, author and activist
16. John Clark, activist
17. Charles Demers, comedian & author
18. Alain Deneault, essayist and philosophy professor
19. Martin Duckworth, laureate of the 2015 Albert-Tessier Prix du Quebec for cinema
20. Cy Gonick, former Manitoba NDP MLA and founding editor of Canadian Dimension
21. John Greyson, film-maker & professor
22. Syed Hussan, Migrant Workers Alliance
23. El Jones, activist, educator, journalist and poet
24. Gordon Laxer, author/founding Director Parkland Institute
25. Monia Mazigh, PhD, author and activist
26. Jim Manly, Member of Parliament 1980-88
27. Kanahus Manuel, activist
28. Tim McCaskell, educator & activist
29. Sheelah Mclean, co-founder Idle No More organizer
30. Serge Mongeau, author & editor
31. Mike Palecek, former National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers
32. Dimitri Roussopoulos, author, and long-time peace movement activist
33. Clayton Thomas-Müller – Director, Author, Senior Campaign Specialist – org
34. Rinaldo Walcott, professor
35. Ingrid Waldron, author & professor
36. Harsha Walia, author & activist
37. Antonia Zerbisias, journalist & activist
38. Greg Albo, Professor of Politics, York University
39. August Arnold, journalist and author
40. Antonio Artuso, Front uni contre le fascisme et la guerre
41. Corey Balsam, National Coordinator, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
42. Nik Barry-Shaw, author
43. Corey Balsam, National Coordinator, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
44. Susan Bazilli, PhD – Director, International Women’s Rights Project
45. Ron Benner, artist
46. Karl Beveridge, artist
47. Raul Burbano, activist
48. Nancy Brown, teacher/librarian, peace/human rights activist
49. David Camfield, activist and academic
50. Stefan Christoff, artist & activist
51. Carole Condé, artist
52. Gerry Condon, Veterans for Peace (US), former president
53. Deborah Cowen, Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto
54. Raju J Das, York University
55. Judith Deutsch, academic
56. Gord Doctorow, educator
57. Martine Eloy, antiwar and human rights activist
58. Darren Ell, Photographer
59. Gary Engler, author
60. Yves Engler, author & activist
61. Joe Emersberger, author
62. Richard Falk, Professor of International Law emeritus, Princeton University
63. Kiran Fatima, co-chair Toronto Association for Peace & Solidarity
64. Richard Fidler, Author and Activist
65. Miguel Figueroa, President, Canadian Peace Congress
66. Don Foreman, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
67. Alan Freeman, author & economist
68. Gavin Fridell, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor in International Development Studies Saint Mary’s University
69. Todd Gordon, Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
70. Peter Gose, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Carleton University
71. Harry Glasbeek, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Osgoode Hall Law School
72. Tracy Glynn, activist and writer
73. Cory Greenlees, activist
74. Malcolm Guy, documentary film director/producer
75. Michael Harris, author
76. Jamelie Hassan, artist
77. David Heap, teacher-researcher; peace & human rights advocate
78. Evert Hoogers, CUPW (retired)
79. Pierre Jasmin, artiste pour la paix
80. Dru Jay, author & activist
81. David Kattenburg, University instructor & journalist
82. Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence (USA)
83. Gary Kinsman, activist and author
84. Harry Kopyto, legal activist
85. Jonathan Kuttab, International human rights lawyer
86. Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer/journalist/activist
87. Ed Lehman, Regina Peace Council
88. Raymond Legault, activist, Collectif Échec à la guerre
89. Tamara Lorincz, PhD candidate and member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
90. Martin Lukacs, journalist
91. Eva Manly, retired filmmaker
92. Robin Mathews, author
93. Amy Miller, filmmaker
94. David Mivasair, retired rabbi
95. Bianca Mugyenyi, activist, former Co-ED The Leap
96. Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
97. Susan O’Donnell, researcher, writer and activist
98. Nino Pagliccia, activist and freelance writer
99. Idrisa Pandit, academic
100. Brent Patterson, activist
101. Justin Podur, author and professor
102. Judi Rever, journalist and author
103. Karen Rodman, human rights activist
104. Richard Roman, retired professor, writer
105. Reuben Roth, Professor
106. Herman Rosenfeld, Socialist Project
107. Grahame Russell, Co-Director – Rights Action
108. Joan Russow, activist
109. Cory Greenlees
110. Sakura Saunders, activist
111. Harold Shuster, Independent Jewish Voices-Winnipeg
112. Ken Stone, President – Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
113. Donald Swartz, Carleton University
114. Koozma J. Tarasoff, peace activist
115. Marianne Vardalos, PhD Department of Sociology
116. Jay Watts, co-chair Toronto Association for Peace & Solidarity
117. Paul Weinberg, author
118. Barry Weisleder, federal secretary, Socialist Action
119. Elizabeth Whitmore, activist
120. Ellen Woodsworth, writer, organizer and former Vancouver City councillor
121. Dwyer Sullivan, board member – Conscience Canada
122. Thom Workman, professor, University of New Brunswick
123. Ann Wright, retired US Army Colonel and former US diplomat.

ORGANIZATIONS

• Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) – Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain
• Mining Watch
• Independent Jewish Voices/ Voix juives indépendantes
• Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix
• Solidarité Québec-Haïti
• Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
• Council of Canadians – London Chapter
• Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle
• Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une Paix Juste
• Socialist Project
• Canadian BDS Coalition
• Socialist Action
• Canadian Boat to Gaza,
• Leap Montreal
• CAIA Victoria
• Freedom Flotilla Coalition
• Gaza Freedom Flotilla Australia
• Regina Peace Council
• Al-Haadi Musalla

The petition will be delivered to UN member states prior to the vote for the security council seat in June.

FAIR USE NOTICE – For details click here