Anand affirms that Canadas diplomatic approach is compatible with its values

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, refutes allegations that her government prioritizes trade over humanitarian aid and human rights.

The federal government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, has reduced foreign aid, signed economic agreements with autocratic regimes, and avoided openly criticizing American actions against multilateral institutions.

Anand stated at the Ottawa Civic Space Summit on Thursday that Canada’s values are deeply integrated into its economic and military interests.

“I want to gently challenge the idea that civic space is somehow separate from our goals in terms of economic growth, defense, and security,” said Anand.

“For a country to be strong, for institutions to thrive, citizens themselves must feel safe and protected, and they must have the necessary economic means to survive.”

Anand explained Canada’s willingness to restore maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz in the context of the US and Israel’s war against Iran, aiming to reduce costs for Canadians and ensure that the poorest countries can access the fertilizers they need to feed their populations.

“The global supply chains for essential survival mechanisms are completely severed,” she emphasized. “It’s not just about fertilizers not being able to flow. It’s that the food supply chain, the nutritional supply chain, is threatened.”

The conference focuses on the work of human rights defenders globally and how Canadian organizations can support them, as well as indigenous peoples in Canada, in the face of rising autocracy worldwide. It is hosted by Resilient Societies and Cooperation Canada, representing dozens of Canadian nonprofit organizations active in international aid.

The conference took place as human rights activists and former Liberal ministers, such as Lloyd Axworthy, criticized the Carney government for signing economic agreements with Beijing and Gulf countries while avoiding direct criticism of their human rights records.

They pointed out that allied countries like France have been more vocal about US measures against multilateralism and international law, such as sanctioning International Criminal Court judges, imposing an oil blockade on Cuba, and ousting the Venezuelan president.

The conference also heard from a Global Affairs Canada official overseeing the ministry’s new Economic Growth Division. Sacha Levasseur explained that this reorientation was the result of changes made by the former Canadian International Development Agency before merging with Global Affairs Canada.

After the 2008 economic crisis, the organization shifted its priorities from environmental sustainability to promoting increased private investment and employment in developing countries.

Then, the Trudeau government realigned its priorities towards inclusive economic growth and feminist foreign policy.

“We were recently asked to rethink our approach to economic growth in the context of our international aid,” said Levasseur. “Given how things are looking, we somewhat returned to 2010, where we approached this more from a private sector angle, and in the way we talk about financial jargon and risk reduction.”

Risk reduction refers to the support provided by Global Affairs Canada to projects that businesses and philanthropists are more inclined to invest in, reducing the need for federal spending.

Opponents of this approach argue that while the private sector can contribute to projects that improve quality of life in developing countries, it cannot provide essential services like water and education to the world’s poorest.

Paulina Ibarra, head of the Multitudes Foundation in Chile, which advocates for transparency and accountability, argued that Canadian funding of civil society stimulates economic growth by reducing corruption and ending policies that hinder women and minorities from economic success.

“The feminist international aid policy of Canada and the democratic resilience program and human rights are not, in our view, simple aid programs. They are, I would say, Canada’s greatest asset in terms of economic security,” she stated at the conference.

“They allow us to develop technical capacity to respond. By protecting women, environmental defenders, and human rights advocates who play a monitoring role, Canada protects the integrity of an entire sector.”

In a later part of her speech, Anand emphasized that Canadian diplomacy does not take place on social media.

“To be effective diplomats, we should not use social media as the main tool of diplomacy. Diplomacy is nuanced. Diplomacy is complex,” she said. “We must adopt a strategic approach to convey necessary messages.”

Anand did not reference a tweet posted in 2018 by Global Affairs Canada calling for the release of women’s rights activists, which sparked a years-long diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia.