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Canada and the Commonwealth: Hissy Fits, Shouting and Bullying

Canada and the Commonwealth: Hissy Fits, Shouting and Bullying

McLeod Group Blog, April 21, 2014

The Harper government’s announcement that it will cut $20 million over the next two years from its funding to the Commonwealth Secretariat because of human rights abuse in Sri Lanka is surely one of the most illogical things it has done in a fast-growing list.

The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka currently serves as the Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth because Sri Lanka hosted the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2013. The Chair-in-Office is ...

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Slip Sliding Away: Democracy and the Silencing of Civil Society Organizations

McLeod Group Blog, April 9, 2014

It may come as a surprise to many Canadians who follow global civil society issues to learn that Canada chairs the Community of Democracies’ Working Group on Enabling and Protecting Civil Society, a group that believes,

“An active, pluralistic civil society is an essential ingredient of a vibrant democratic political system. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are the primary vehicles through which people organize themselves to promote shared objectives and values and to convey their interests. ...

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Land-Grabs Expropriate Poor Farmers’ Livelihoods

Guest Blog by Roy Culpeper

Chair, Coalition for Equitable Land Acquisitions and Development in Africa

March 27, 2014

Over the past decade and a half, huge swaths of land in the developing world have been wrested from the rightful owners, peasant farmers and pastoralists who typically have no formal property rights even though they and their forebears have worked the land for centuries. Often the dispossessed are moved onto marginal lands with poor access to water, undermining ...

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Canada and Haiti: What is there to show from the last four years?

March 17, 2014

It is now more than four years since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 200,000 and leaving over 3 million homeless. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere, at that point still recovering from hurricanes in 2008, saw the poorest segment of its population affected by an even more severe natural disaster.

The outpouring of sympathy and support from countries in the hemisphere, and beyond, was swift and massive. Governments pledged large amounts and sent relief teams, the ...

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Gay Rights in Africa: Regroup, Recommit, Act, Learn

Gay Rights in Africa: Regroup, Recommit, Act, Learn

March 10, 2014

Well, that didn’t work.

With the recent signing of harsh anti-gay laws by the otherwise pro-Western presidents of Uganda and Nigeria, it’s time for the West to reassess how it can help advance LGBT rights in Africa.

And then take bold action.

Why Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni or Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan calculated they had to support the further criminalization of homosexuals is a good question.

Perhaps they needed to lock in the votes and money of conservative political and ...

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Guile, Ambiguity and the Cult of Mediocrity

Guile, Ambiguity and the Cult of Mediocrity

January 21, 2014

On December 5, 2013, Canada’s International Development Minister (yes, there still is one) Christian Paradis spoke to the Montreal Board of Trade about the Harper Government’s approach to foreign aid. The speech was chock-full of myth, urban legend, half-truths and what can only be described as a bunch of whoppers.

Mr. Paradis began by saying, “I want us to be recognized as a world leader in poverty reduction and humanitarian assistance.” That may be what he wants, but ...

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WTO: Bali ‘Breakthrough’

WTO: Bali ‘Breakthrough’

December 17, 2013

Criticisms of foreign aid usually come around eventually to trade and investment as the ‘real’ answer for growth, development and poverty reduction. This either/or debate, unhelpful at the best of times, was momentarily drowned out early in December by a tsunami of positive news about a breakthrough agreement reached at the World Trade Organization summit in Bali.

‘We have saved the WTO,’ gushed European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. The agreement represents a ‘rejuvenation of the multilateral ...

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Global Traders Need Partnerships, Not DFATD Hand-holding

December 12, 2013

The government’s new trade plan is not serious policy. It’s just repackaged old ideas, a crude political attempt to be seen to be doing something.

Let’s clarify the obvious. Canada needs to be a global trader and investor to remain a viable, competitive economy for the future. Critically, global market growth will not be in Europe or the US, but rather in developing countries with which we once had healthy trusting relationships as a development partner – something the ...

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The Philippines Typhoon: Not So Generous Canadians?

The Philippines Typhoon: Not So Generous Canadians?

November 29, 2013

When disasters strike, Canadians respond generously. At no time has this been more evident than during large calamities such as the Asian Tsunami in 2004 and the Haiti Earthquake of 2010.

But it may come as a surprise to learn that Canadians, on average, are considerably less generous than the citizens of some other countries. The current response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines provides an interesting example. In the 10 days that followed the typhoon, individual Canadians donated ...

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Idealism and Hubris

November 20, 2013

Nina Munk’s new book, The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty, has received a lot of attention in recent weeks, not least because it is well written, deals with an important subject, and because it goes after a very high-profile champion of development assistance.

It will be recalled that the economist, Jeff Sachs, Columbia University wunderkind, spent time in Poland and Russia at the end of the Cold War advising on the transition from communism to ...

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