The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, rejects allegations that her government is prioritizing 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.
Ms. Anand stated at the Ottawa Civil 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 civil space is somehow separate from our goals in terms of economic growth, defense, and security,” said Ms. Anand.
“For a country to be strong, for institutions to thrive, citizens themselves must feel secure and protected, and they must have the economic means necessary to survive.”
Ms. Anand explained that Canada’s aim to restore maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the threat of war by the United States and Israel against Iran, is to both 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 also completely severed,” she pointed out. “It’s not just that fertilizers can’t circulate. 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 sponsored by Resilient Societies and Cooperation Canada, representing dozens of Canadian non-profit organizations active in international aid.
This conference comes as human rights activists and former Liberal ministers, such as Lloyd Axworthy, criticize the Carney government for signing economic agreements with Beijing and Gulf countries, while avoiding directly criticizing their human rights records.
They have noted that allied countries, such as France, have been more vocal in their opposition to Washington’s actions that undermine multilateralism and international law – such as sanctioning judges of the International Criminal Court, imposing an oil blockade on Cuba, and overthrowing the Venezuelan president.
The conference also heard from a Global Affairs Canada official on Thursday responsible for 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 its merger 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 a feminist foreign policy.
“We were recently asked to rethink our approach to economic growth within the framework of our international aid,” Levasseur stated.
“Given the way things are, we have somewhat reverted to 2010, where we approached this more from a private sector perspective, and the way we talk… in financial jargon and risk reduction.”
Risk reduction refers to the support provided by Global Affairs Canada to projects in which businesses and philanthropists are more inclined to invest, reducing the need for federal spending.
Critics of this approach argue that the private sector can contribute to projects that improve living standards in developing countries but 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 prevent women and minorities from succeeding economically.
“The Canadian feminist international assistance policy and the democratic resilience and human rights program are not, in our view, mere aid programs. They constitute, I would say, Canada’s greatest asset in terms of economic security,” she declared at the conference.
“They allow us to develop technical capacity for retaliation. By protecting women, environmental defenders, and human rights advocates who play a monitoring role, Canada protects the integrity of an entire sector.”
Later in her remarks, Ms. Anand asserted that Canadian diplomacy is not conducted through social media.
“To be effective diplomats, we should not use social media as the primary tool of diplomacy. Diplomacy is nuanced. Diplomacy is complex,” she emphasized. “We must adopt a strategic approach to convey necessary messages.”
Ms. Anand did not reference a tweet published in 2018 by Global Affairs Canada calling for the release of women’s rights activists, which sparked a multi-year diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia.
