McLeod Group blog by Stéphanie Bacher and Stephen Brown, June 24, 2020

It is shameful enough for a Canadian museum to deliberately hide its LGBTQ2+ content from certain visitors. However, when the museum in question is dedicated to human rights, such a decision is ten times more offensive and actually betrays the museum’s raison d’être. The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity ...

McLeod Group blog by Hunter McGill and Lauchlan T. Munro, June 22, 2020

To no one’s great surprise, Canada did not win a seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2021-2022 term, losing out to Norway and Ireland. A flurry of prime ministerial phone calls, visits from cabinet ministers, and even the announcement one week ahead of the vote of $16.5 million in new aid money for women affected by COVID-19 and ...

McLeod Group blog, Hunter McGill and Lauchlan T. Munro, June 15, 2020

Amid the masses of reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian media have shown little interest in the consequences of the pandemic in developing countries, especially those already experiencing humanitarian crises. The United Nations humanitarian office (UNOCHA) reported at the beginning of the year – before the global COVID-19 outbreak – that 160 million people would be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2020 and that US$28.8 billion ...

McLeod Group guest blog by John Cameron, June 8, 2020

There are powerful tensions between effective marketing and the ethical representation of global poverty and development. The recent controversy over an online campaign by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) and the Canadian Network for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) to generate support for Canada’s global COVID-19 efforts highlights the urgent need to scale up the debate in Canada about the balance between effective and ethical communications ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Adrian Murray, June 3, 2020

Will the COVID-19 pandemic pit countries against each other or will it promote global solidarity? Despite frequent public statements to the contrary, Canada’s actions would suggest that unfortunately we are not all in this together.

In early April, Minister of International Development Karina Gould insisted that: “The COVID-19 virus knows no borders. This has been a wake-up call for the world to stand in solidarity and work together. ...

McLeod Group blog by Kirsten Van Houten and Em Mijares, June 1, 2020

Around the world, many governments and other actors are using the cover of COVID-19 to perpetrate human rights abuses. In response, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne stated that “while the need to protect public health is vital, it is imperative to ensure that these measures are not used to undermine the fundamental civil liberties and human rights of all people.”

Since then, the Canadian ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, May 21, 2020

[Postscript: The website discussed in this blog, AidHelpsCanada.ca, was taken offline at the end of May 2020.]

Two prominent umbrella groups of Canadian development organizations – CCIC and CanWaCH – recently launched a COVID-themed campaign to drum up support for Canadian foreign aid. In doing so, they have embraced a nationalistic, threat-based case for aid that verges on xenophobia, reinforces outdated stereotypes and risks undermining ...

McLeod Group blog by Stéphanie Bacher and Kirsten Van Houten, April 20, 2020

The COVID-19 virus has now reached Africa, a few weeks after it hit Europe and North America. Many analysts fear that the virus’s impact on the continent is nothing less than a “time bomb”, due to a lack of adequate health infrastructure and personal protective equipment. There is an urgent need for international assistance. Canada can play a leading role in supporting community-led initiatives, including ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, April 16, 2020

Despite talking a good game when it comes to foreign aid, Canada is still not stepping up to the plate. Baseball metaphors are not my forte, but it is clear that Canada is refusing to contribute its fair share of development assistance. In fact, the figures for 2019, released earlier today, reveal that Canada under the current government is less generous than the previous year, less generous than ...

McLeod Group blog by Hunter McGill and Lauchlan T. Munro, April 16, 2020

Aid-funded efforts to promote human rights, gender equality and good governance overseas have encountered many problems over the years. Impediments include low levels of funding, changing donor priorities and a projectized approach that supports individual, time-bound initiatives without building organizations, systems or movements.

A recent Canadian initiative, the Equality Fund, seeks to change all that. With financial support from public, private and philanthropic sources, the ...