With the United Nations poised to announce whether the vote on non-permanent Security Council seats will go ahead as scheduled in June, Canada is doubling down on its bid for a seat — and adjusting its pitch to take the COVID-19 crisis into account.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s week-long trip in February to woo African countries for their votes is now a distant memory, as is his cancelled plan to attend the CARICOM summit in Barbados that same month. But the pandemic and the subsequent global economic shutdown have not slowed down Canada’s efforts to secure a seat at the UN table.
The bid instead has been redirected toward organizing or chairing virtual global conferences the Trudeau government sees as demonstrating Canada’s global leadership in a way that could win more votes.
“The best campaign is when we don’t need to campaign, when we just show our leadership, that this is the type of voice that you would want at the Security Council,” Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CBC News.
A close contest
Canada is in a tight fight with Norway and Ireland for the two non-permanent seats out of 10 on the 15-member council that are reserved for Western countries.
Most experts think Norway has a lock on one of those seats, leaving Ireland and Canada to duke it out for the other one (even though Canada entered the race late).
But the Liberal government now sees an opportunity. Champagne said he believes Canada’s international standing has grown in 2020, and not only because of its response to the pandemic. The minister also is banking on a boosted profile because of Canada’s role in coordinating efforts to investigate the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which was shot down over Iran in January, killing all 176 passengers and crew.
Champagne points to the fact Canada is a member of both the G7 and G20, unlike its competitors, and argues that status allows the government to bring other leaders together and “amplify the voice of other nations” that are more vulnerable in the current health crisis.
And the pandemic itself also could cut the cost of Canada’s campaign for a Security Council seat, which already has set the government back $2 million.
“We do a lot of things virtually these days, so it allows us to reach more people without having to go very far,” Champagne said.
Critics were questioning the Trudeau government’s Security Council campaign even before the global pandemic upended government agendas around the world. Now, the government is saying Canada needs to be at the big table to have a say in how the world recovers from the pandemic — even though the Security Council has been relatively silent on the crisis to date.
It’s still a long shot
“It’s also in our very selfish national interests that the recovery in other parts of the world is as strong as possible,” said Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard, who has been working behind the scenes on the campaign.
“This is a table where the entire world wants to be, because when you’re around that table you’re more influential and you’re more relevant.”
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard looks on as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (not pictured) takes part in a Q&A session at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal Feb. 13, 2020. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Still, the factors that made Canada’s bid look like a long shot before the pandemic arrived are still in play: a faltering peacekeeping commitment and relatively low foreign aid commitments.
“Ireland has been peacekeeping since 1958. It’s never stopped,” said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador to the UN who is closely following the race.
“Our failure on that front is our most serious Achilles heel in seeking the seat.”
The pandemic has allowed Canada to boost its presence on the international stage. Trudeau participated Monday in an online pledging conference to raise funds for vaccine development, spearheaded by the European Union. While Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg pledged more than $1 billion US for vaccine development and eventual distribution, Trudeau pointed to $850 million Cdn Canada already had committed to accelerated vaccine development.
That $850 million includes $74 million that’s part of the $159.5 million foreign aid package Canada’s international development minister announced in April. Ottawa says it’s only a beginning.
“This takes a global effort,” Trudeau said Monday at his daily briefing. “There will be more to come as the world grapples with this pandemic.”
Rhetoric vs. reality
Still, Lewis said Canada’s international funding commitment maintains the same level of aid Canada has always offered, and the Liberal government needs to work harder to match its “rhetoric with performance,” particularly when it comes to the pandemic.
Canada gives about 0.26 per cent of its GDP in foreign aid. Norway, the world’s most generous donor, gives 1 per cent of its GDP.
The old way of winning a Security Council seat — having the prime minister or other high-profile ministers show up in foreign capitals to schmooze — is “a bit of a sham,” said Lewis. The vote is a secret ballot and the ambassadors who cast the votes don’t always follow orders from the top.
Lewis said the popularity of Canada’s ambassador could tip the scales, however.
“Marc-André Blanchard is the real key to this [campaign],” he said. “He’s really first-rate and that does not happen often.”
Global Affairs Canada is campaigning as though the vote will go ahead on June 17, but there is pressure from some nations to postpone it until the fall, given the logistics involved in having 193 representatives of member states vote online.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
