Preamble: The Conservative
Government of Canada, under the autocratic leadership of Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, has shamed the nation in the eyes of many of its citizens and the world
at large, by withdrawing from a United Nations treaty to combat
drought and encroaching deserts mostly located in developing countries.
For the essence of this post, we have drawn extensively from the blog of Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
THE MAIN STORY
Canada was among small group of countries in the
lead to negotiate the treaty, signed in 1994, developed in response to a
problem related to climate change.
As Green Party leader Elizabeth May states (referenced below):
“There had been no inkling or rumour that Stephen
Harper wanted to exit another global environmental law. Given that the only
treaty from which Canada has ever withdrawn, since 1867, was Kyoto, the
cavalier way in which this news leaked out—posted on a Foreign Affairs website
and noticed by Canadian Press— added to the shock. That we gave no notice to
the secretariat for the Convention was further evidence of our contempt for
both the United Nations and the threat posed by climate induced drought and
desertification.”
Citing Ralph Goodale (former Liberal finance minister):
‘... Now Canada is the only country
in the world sneaking out the back door on the UN Convention Against Drought.’
According to May, the Prime Minister’s response was spun to create the
impression that the convention on drought and desertification was akin to a
poorly run charity, in which aid dollars were poorly spent: ‘This organization
spends less than 20% of the funds that we send are actually spent on
programming. (sic) The rest goes to various bureaucratic measures. That is not
an effective way to spend taxpayer money.’
She continues: “ ‘This
organization?’ The Prime Minister is speaking of a treaty, within which every
other country on earth is making some level of contribution, financial and
otherwise. How much were we spending? An astonishingly low pittance…
$290,000/year. Admittedly that is a nice amount of money if you are collecting
for a new school gymnasium, but it is chump change in the federal budget. We
approve more than that routinely by unanimous consent for Parliamentary
committee travel…. the drought treaty was a bargain.”
Furthermore:
“Canada’s diplomatic corps is shocked. Former Ambassador to the United
Nations, former Deputy Minister of National Defence and victim of a terrorist
kidnapping in Mali, Robert Fowler, sent an email to the media. Calling our
withdrawal from the treaty ‘a departure from global citizenship,’ here’s what
he said:
‘It (the Harper administration) has taken climate-change denial, the
abandonment of collective efforts to manage global crises and disregard the
pain and suffering of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa (among many others) to
quite a different level.’
Responding to Foreign Minister John Baird’s defence that Canada won’t
‘go along to get along,’ Fowler continued:
‘…Such vainglorious nose-thumbing at the international community’s
efforts to tame a very present threat to hundreds of millions of the world’s
poorest and most desperate is nothing short of incomprehensible.’
Another former Ambassador to the United Nations, Paul Heinbecker, agreed
that the move was both inexplicable and bound to confirm to the international
community that Canada cared nothing for climate action, nor for the fate of
Africa.
The UN itself was shocked. Noting that Canada will now be the only
nation on earth not part of the convention, it, in typically understated
diplomat-speak, called Canada’s decision ‘regrettable.’
Source: Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
Canada Goes Rogue
On Thursday, April 11th,
2013 in Island Tides
