Canada's Unfounded Claim to Uphold International Rule of Law

A Historical Turning Point Which the Trudeau Government Cannot Will Away

The Trudeau government's campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council has now gone into in high gear. It is competing for the two-year appointment with Ireland and Norway, which is why Trudeau and his foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne have been seen schmoozing with various African, Caribbean, Latin American and other countries of late in hopes of getting their votes. Nonetheless, Canada's yeoman's service to the U.S. imperialist economic bloc and war machine belies its self-image as a peacekeeper and honest broker, while its adherence to colonial state arrangements which violate UN treaties and conventions makes its claim to be a paragon of democracy blatantly untrue. In fact, its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council has come up against ever stronger headwinds as its much-repeated claim that Canada is a rule of law country -- presumably making it well suited for a seat on the Security Council -- is exposed for all the world to see.

This week Canada's lack of regard for the UN Charter and tenets of international law and diplomacy in the conduct of its foreign affairs was on full display as it hosted the illegitimate Lima Group in Gatineau to conspire against the Venezuelan people and continue interfering in their affairs in an effort to bring about regime change. It cynically refers to this as "restoring democracy." However this was denounced with the contempt it deserved outside the meeting venue in Gatineau, in Montreal outside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s riding office, in Toronto at Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office and at offices of MPs and Ministers in other cities as well.

If there was any doubt about what Canada is playing a part in today by appeasing the U.S. striving to assert its hegemony over all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and elsewhere, that doubt should have been dispelled on hearing President Trump's State of the Union address delivered February 4 to the U.S. Congress. In his speech, Trump left little doubt about who makes the rules in the "rules-based international order," which Canada defends and has lent itself to enforcing. Trump used the occasion, one day before the U.S. Senate found him not guilty in his impeachment trial, to flaunt his government of police powers and his own ability to wield unrestrained executive power, emperor-like, both at home and abroad, backed up with U.S. military might unconstrained by the U.S. constitution or international law. This was the implication of his bluster that President Maduro's "grip of tyranny will be smashed and broken" and his mafia-style assurance that "we're going to take care of Venezuela."

Also very significantly, in recent weeks the Canadian state and its agencies have been seen violating every principle that informs and guides nation-to-nation relations, principles which are at the heart of rule of law. Its dismissal of Wet'suwet'en law, which it is duty-bound to respect and uphold, is indicative of its attitude toward international rule of law as well. It refuses to get rid of the racist colonial arrangements and spirit enshrined in the Canadian Constitution so as to uphold Indigenous rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples not only in words but also in deeds. The refusal to respect the No! of the hereditary chiefs to the building of a pipeline on their territory without their free, prior and informed consent, and the widespread and determined resistance it has given rise to is indicative of what Canada does internationally as well when it tramples underfoot the rights of peoples and nations fighting for their right to be.

The present historical turning point leaves the government the option to change, which private interests will not tolerate, or revert to imposing the imperialist dictate that Might Makes Right, which the peoples will not tolerate. No amount of dithering, let alone empty rhetoric which presumes the fighting people of Canada and the fighting peoples of the world will just roll over, will make this historical turning point go away.

The question of what and whose law Canada upholds, which many find themselves asking, is a question posed by history. Self-serving claims about its defence of the rule of law, or the rules-based international order are not new for Canada and are part of the toolbox it uses for meddling in other countries' affairs and committing aggression against them, in violation of the principles the UN was established to uphold, enshrined in its Charter. That is not a minor transgression for a country campaigning for a seat on the Security Council, which has as its function to "maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations."

This article was published in

Volume 50 Number 5 - February 22, 2020

Article Link:
Canada's Unfounded Claim to Uphold International Rule of Law: A Historical Turning Point Which the Trudeau Government Cannot Will Away

    

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