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Transparency and Accountability in Foreign Policy: Not

December 1, 2011

Three events in recent weeks underline the lack of transparency in the way the government is implementing foreign policy. Everyone agrees that the government has a right to frame foreign policy. “But it should make these changes in full public view with a full public explanation. The paper-shuffling, obfuscating and insinuating have to stop”. (The Citizen, Dec. 20, 2010)

Kairos: Bev Oda tied up in “nots”

Just before Christmas some things in the Kairos saga became clearer. CIDA President ...

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Asbestos and Harper: When Facts Don’t Matter…

September 7, 2011

Friedrich Nietzsche once said “there are no facts, only interpretations.” With that in mind, let’s try to discern what Prime Minister Harper is thinking with his latest embrace of Quebec’s asbestos industry and its ridiculous assertion that the “safe use” of asbestos – outside of Canada, of course – is not some deadly joke on the world’s poor. Some “facts.” It is impossible to find a reputable, independent, peer-reviewed international medical research or workplace health and safety ...

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On Libya, Environmental Protection and Canadian Prisons Twelve O’Clock High

August 2, 2011

So, another Canadian foreign minister has visited China, presumably to sell more Canadian raw materials – as if that were a problem. The media seems satisfied that John Baird mentioned human rights – though what he said is left to conjecture. And who might care is another matter entirely. There was also the ritual nod to Canadian values, whatever those might be these days.

In a hawkish July 5 Maclean’s interview, Stephen Harper did talk a bit about Canadian ...

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Two Cups of Tea: Miracle Cures and Other Development Snake Oil

June 12, 2011

A recent 60 Minutes investigation found that best-selling author and philanthropist, Greg Mortenson, may not be all he has cracked himself up to be. The ex-mountain climber has told the story many times of being rescued by Pakistani villagers and discovering how terrible their educational facilities were. One thing led to another and he eventually built them a school, and that school led to hundreds more around the country. His books, Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools have sold millions, and his ...

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Canadian Development Cooperation- Back in the 1860s with a Conservative Majority?

May 11, 2011

On April 6th, the Canadian International Council hosted a “conversation” on the “three D’s” among two senior Conservatives, Derek Burney, former Ambassador to the US and Chief of Staff to the PM, Senator Hugh Segal, former Chief of Staff to the PM, and Paul Heinbecker, former Foreign Policy Advisor to the PM and Ambassador to the UN on the subject of Diplomacy, Defence and Development.

What was disturbing about the session was that the two senior Conservatives equated international ...

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At Least He Made the Trains Run on Time: Canada’s Maternal and Child Health Initiative

May 2, 2011

The Globe’s John Ibbitson is not alone in cutting the Harper government some slack in the realm of foreign affairs when it comes to the maternal and child health “initiative”. He says that Mr. Harper “convinced the major developed nations to sign on.” (“Harper Abroad…” Oct 22.) This has now passed into the realm of urban myth, where announcements often take the place of action.

In fact the entire MCH “initiative” was little more than smoke and mirrors. The ...

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Aid Accountability that Matters

April 27, 2011

For many years CIDA was a proud beacon of Canadian vision and values in international development. In the early 1990’s the Official Development Assistance budget became one of the few federal pots for discretionary funding. Canada’s use of those funds as a tool for creating a better, more secure world unraveled into a tool for the domestic policy agenda. It became a constituency builder for the party in power. With the Harper government, it got worse. He tested ...

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Not Speaking Truth to Power: Another Side of the Oda Affair

March 22, 2011

The Oda affair has dominated the attention of Parliament and the media in recent weeks. The mysterious insertion of the word “not” in a document and the contempt charge against CIDA Minister Bev Oda have been the focus of considerable media interest. The McLeod Group weighed in on this matter in a letter to Speaker Milliken. (That letter can be found on this website.)  Experts, such as David Dacherty of Sir Wilfrid Laurier University and Ned Franks of ...

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Harper, Multilateralism and the UN: How will he Manage Demands from his Base?

December 12, 2010

Moving to the centre in order to get elected is a time-honoured tradition in Canadian politics. That’s basically what Stephen Harper did recently when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in October in an attempt to shore up Canada’s bid for a seat on the Security Council.

His speech was, well, almost Pearsonian, replete with references to “the sovereign equality of countries,” justice and human rights, and its affirmation of Canada’s role in UN peacekeeping and aid efforts. ...

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Foreign Aid: Telling Parliament

November 22, 2010

The Second Report to Parliament on Canada’s Official Development Assistance 2009-2010

Lost amidst the welter of recent government announcements about the wonderful things Canada is planning to do with its aid budget was the tabling in the House of Commons of the second Report to Parliament on the Government of Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), 2009-2010. You would think that a government which places great store in action and principles – if we are to believe the Prime Minister’s explanation ...

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