Category: Canada

The Open Canada Report

Finally getting around to reading this document. From the Development: In Aid of New Approaches section (Chapter 9):

Remittances add up to half of aid budgets even within less-developed countries. One can’t help but wonder whether our best development program can be found in Open Canada’s liberal immigration policies; not only do immigrants get better lives here, they also send home money—and ideas and values, too.

canadian culture and its foreign policy

Excellent article in The Walrus on Canada’s rather lackluster international performance. Quite a large section is dedicated to questions around Canada’s aid budget and its rather particular disbursement with competing interests between reducing poverty and investing in long-term regional trade.

The second defining feature of Canada, its multiculturalism, may be contributing to one of the most frequently criticized aspects of our foreign policy: our fragmented approach to development assistance. Influenced in part by the need to placate various diaspora and interest groups, Canada has developed one of the world’s most dispersed aid budgets. To illustrate, compare Canada and the Netherlands, each of which gave about 2 percent of the world’s direct aid in 2008. While the Netherlands donated to sixty-five countries, Canada spread its contribution among more than a hundred recipients. Such a spread makes it difficult to develop local knowledge and contacts, and so to use aid dollars effectively. Small-scale programming also places a heavy coordination and cost burden on the very countries we are trying to help, and increases the costs and management requirements for Canada. And the contribution we make is often so tiny that it cannot make a difference in even the poorest countries. Take Angola, which received 0.1 percent of its aid from Canada in 2008, essentially little more than a rounding error from both countries’ perspectives. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that during that year, sixty-seven of Canada’s 109 aid relationships were similarly futile — a greater number and higher ratio of “non-significant” relationships than for any other member.

banning the niqab.

This article contesting the bill to ban women from wearing the niqab in Quebec on legal grounds is worth a read. Surprised Ignatieff is supporting this considering his international experience and assumed understanding of the need to protect religious rights and diversity.

writing opportunities with the first drop

I will be doing a bit of editorial advising over the coming months with The First Drop. However, in order for any advising to be done, we’re looking for a set of founding contributors!

We want to provoke passionate, informed and accountable discussion among Canada’s next generation of leadership. We plan to do this by supporting a slate of contributors with widely varying views, and pushing them to generate the most enlightening discussion possible. We are now accepting applications for the first round of contributors.

Contributors! We Want You!

We’re looking for about 20 people who will become the core of the community at The First Drop: our founding contributors, ready to roll as we launch in the next month or so.

Contributors will write 1-3 short articles a month on a topic that matters for Canada’s future. That’s the subject: Canada’s future. In any way you choose. Politics, business, civil society, it’s all good. From what perspective? Legal, artistic, entrepreneurial, military, academic or the snowboard shop. East, West or North (we don’t really have a South, do we?), you’re all welcome. Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green. C’mon in. We don’t care, so long as you can write a good, reasoned, reality-based piece and trigger a great conversation.

Actually, that’s what we really care about – the conversations that emerge from your writing. Have a voice, but no way to get it out there? TFD can be that way. Have a blog or book already? TFD can help you reach a bigger audience and draw in new perspectives. Just want to help us create a community of future Canadian leaders? Great.

Interested? Have a look at our Guidelines to get an idea of what we’re looking for, fire Brendan an email with any thoughts or questions, or just apply and let us know you’re interested.

proroguing parliament.

Whether you think this is useful or not, take a few minutes to write to the Governor General:

By Email: info@gg.ca
By Phone: 613-993-8200
Toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-800-465-6890
By Fax: 613-998-8760
By Mail: Rideau Hall, 1 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A1

taking out the trash.

Another story on Canada’s failed democracy in the Globe and Mail.

The Harper government’s decision to have Parliament prorogued in the dead of Christmas week sets a record for taking out the trash.

That’s the political term for a government dumping unwelcome or unpopular announcements at times when the news is likely to be ignored. Embarrassed by a damning report? Release it on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

Determined to short-circuit an investigation into how the government mishandled the treatment of Afghan detainees? Wait until the eve of New Year’s Eve – when MPs are in their ridings or down south, readers and viewers are few, and that day’s news is dominated by the picks for the men’s Olympic hockey team – and suspend Parliament.

Well, as Canadians, we must ensure that the Afghan detainee matter stays on the map. Otherwise, we will become subject to the same foul treatment abroad (and domestically) as the United States. We’ll also deserve it. I would hate to see Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal face similar treatment as New York or the American embassies abroad.

They are almost certainly right. But the fact remains that proroguing Parliament shuts down the committee that was the source of the most embarrassing revelations about government bungling in Afghanistan. The Military Police Complaints Commission, which was also looking into the affair, is effectively suspended until the government gets around to appointing a new commissioner.

democracy off, again.

The Conservative Harper government in Canada continues to shun democracy. For a second time this year, Stephen Harper shut down Parliament.

The shutdown killed all legislation making its way through the parliamentary process, including bills championed by Mr. Harper’s Conservative government.

It also shut down all parliamentary committees, including a special one that was raising embarrassing questions about the government’s policies on Afghans detained by Canadian troops before being turned over to the Afghan government. Human rights groups and a Canadian diplomat say the detainees were abused after being handed to the Afghans. Mr. Harper’s government denies the allegations.

The Richard Colvin affair and the failure of the Canadian government to act on allegations of torture of Afghan detainees makes this highly probable. Canada, signatory to the International Criminal Court, could find itself up there with Uganda and the DRC.

Realistically, this probably will not happen. However, it would be an effective way to clean up Canada’s tarnished image. Taking accountability for its actions, Canada might be able to temporarily clear its slate of support for human rights abuses showing that not only poor African countries are ICC targets.

time in prison.

This year, I spent several evenings visiting a prison in Quebec. Check out this slideshow from le Monde for an idea of what incarceration is like.

of vancouver’s coast.

A little too extreme:

Six members of London’s metropolitan police force are the focus of a criminal investigation after a corruption probe revealed allegations by a serving officer that detectives waterboarded suspects allegedly caught with a “large amount” of marijuana…

“[British] papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of drowning,” reported the Associated Press. “The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’ heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.”

Via the wonders of Boing Boing.

On the more pleasant side, I went on a fabulous motorboat ride yesterday. I’m currently stationed in Vancouver/Salt Spring Island before my departure to Nairobi. My brother and I, heading back from Bowen Island (a great day trip), decided to take the “Water Taxi” instead of the traditional ferry. 30 minutes of bliss. Our wonderful British Colombia that produces an insane amount of the above mentioned substance under the wire, also boasts the most beautiful mountains and skyline I have ever seen.

I’m repeatedly told that this is true. However, it was only until yesterday – as we went through the strait carved by a formidable glacier (not so long ago) and witnessed the beautiful peeks of the towering forested ranges, the Vancouver skyline with the white crested mountain hanging behind it, and the greys, blues and greens of the ocean and sky – that it really hit me. If you’re in town, sign-up here: Bowen Island Express.

As a side note, you also get to quite close to the fabulous homes of West Vancouver-ites. An architect’s dream: I have never seen so many ingenious, cliff-hanging dwellings before.

changing priorities.

While I am critical of development in general, this is a radically unfair move by the Canadian government. After years in Africa, Canada is now slowly pulling CIDA out and throwing its overseas development assistance cash into countries with far less poverty – and a political and economic potential that favors Canada. In any case, regardless of where Canada wanted to spend its money, building up a certain dependency on CIDA-linked projects and suddenly pulling out has innumerable affects on the local population. This type of politically-driven aid does unfair harm:

The real reason for the shift, of course, is a new calculation of Canada’s business and geopolitical interests. Instead of Malawi and the seven other African countries, where most people are so desperately poor that they earn less than $2 a day, a bigger share of Canada’s foreign-aid money will flow to middle-income places such as Peru, Colombia, Ukraine and the Caribbean, where Canada’s commercial interests are more attractive. Canada’s foreign aid seems to have become an instrument of its trade policy.

Ottawa insists that the “established need” of recipient countries was one of three main factors in the new priority list. But when eight of Africa’s neediest nations are dropped – in favour of places where incomes are much greater – most observers find it hard to believe that “need” mattered much.

I think we owe York a big thank-you for bringing this up. It was not until I landed in this fellowship that I got a general idea of just how politically-driven our aid department is.

emergency aid

During our final lecture we spoke about emergency assistance. A definitely flawed process. I thought the biggest concern was probably the fact that emergency aid is usually a band-aid solution and often used over long periods of time resulting in food and aid dependency (think some of the IDP camps in Northern Uganda). However, aside from the necessary need to help those in a dire condition over a short period of time, there exists a whole bunch of structural problems within the field itself.

I think one of the more interesting aspects is the “forgotten emergency” difficulty. We sat down with the Executive Director of CARE Canada who admitted that, yes, while propotionality (treating all emergencies the same) is a part of the ethics of humanitarian assistance, it usually isn’t possible. Donors and governments often ear mark funds for those that are more prominent (media) or follow their political agendas (military). Apparently this is called the instrumentalization of aid: governments want to send humanitarian workers where the troops are. Humanitarian workers don’t want to go because they lose their only source of protection, impartiality. Colin Powell, the fantastic man that he is (ha), called NGOs “force multpliers.”

One way to overcome this difficulty is to rely on size. While CARE clearly puts more emphasis on some conflicts than others, they also operate in volume. Kevin McCort pointed out that CARE often has 20-30 project proposals in front of CIDA and other donor organizations. This ensures that some of their work gets picked up and that they can cover a wider variety since different donors have different agendas.

While there was a lot of technical mish-mash in the interview, on a personal level, it was great to realize that the head of an important aid agency isn’t a brainwashed idealist. His approach is pragmatic, cost-effective and efficient: have local staff, give money for local agencies to implement, remain nameless as much as possible to avoid conflict, hope for failures so that they can be avoided etc. It infused a bit of hope in a week where development has generally been bashed.

of CIDA.

Interesting discussion today about the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). First of all, I remember being asked “what do you think of CIDA?” many times. I generally failed at answering the question.

I have seen some of their projects succeed. I am a beneficiary of CIDA through the Journalism and Development scholarship. At the same time, I am increasingly concerned about their conduct, mandate and structure within Canada. Clearly, it’s not the people who work in CIDA who cause trouble, it’s the placement of the organization vis a vis the government and the way it is integrated into Canadian society and politics.

What transpired from the discussion today – led by one of Canada’s leading development experts (I’d rather not print his name here – though he is generally openly critical of CIDA) – is that the main problem is structural. Not internally, but in regards to CIDA’s position next to the Canadian government.

CIDA is semi-independent. So, while the CIDA President might have a certain degree of control over the agenda, basically the government stears the ship. The current Minister for International Cooperation (who deals with Canada’s development agenda and CIDA) is Bev Oda.

One key problem with this set-up, so I hear, is that CIDA is neither in government, nor out. The government sets CIDA goals – for example, the recent withdrawal by CIDA from Africa – and charts a politically-oriented course. The Conservative government, undoing a lot of hard work, turns to its Southern partners. Why? Because they are economically most important. At the same time, the Minister for International Cooperation is a) not very powerful within government overall, and b) rotates out of the position around every two-five years, depending on the political situation. This means that CIDA is both disempowered through their direct relationship with the government and the nature of the relationship.

So, while CIDA’s mandate is the alleviation of poverty, this goal is not followed by government. While CIDA may want to achieve this goal, they can’t because of their structural links with government (money, the minister, project approval and so on).

Moreover, since the government decides CIDA’s goals and agenda, it also means that CIDA has to maintain short term projects (generally less than 5 years). So, while CIDA can do wonderful work in Kenya, for example, for five years, they must have a new project budget approved after the term is up. If CIDA’s focus has changed to South America – through politics – chances are that the continuation of this project will not be allowed.

At Smilie’s book launch yesterday, “Freedom From Want,” he spoke about BRAC. This organization is independent in the sense that money is not – or less – of a concern. This ensures that BRAC can implement long-term projects. I am not sure what is considered “long-term” exactly, but I understand that upwards of 10 years is pretty good. This leaves time for failures. Yes, failures.

The dreaded word in development. Failures are necessary for development. As pointed out today, development essentially means change (not necessarily growth). Change is achieved by success through understanding what does and doesn’t work. When donors run on a results-based approach (as CIDA does in general), they do not allow organizations to try different development models. They promise donors x model and x result. The organization has to hope for the best – or be already really familiar with the region and the work – to ensure “successful results.” Unsuccessful results are shrouded in complex, upbeat reports.

Looking at Aga Khan, I see that their donor base is extremely strong. Moreover, they have a for-profit arm that invests in African – and other – stock (Serena Hotel, for example). This approach gives nearly unlimited funding. This means that they can implement long-term projects with allowance for failure, modification and change. Since they are politically independent, it also means that they can stay in regions despite political whims of “let’s help Rwanda!” On that note, politicians thrive off success. So do aid projects. That’s why you’ll see a glut of NGOs in regions like Rwanda where some type of positive result seems to be guaranteed – or at least fudgeable.

Anyways, I think – I hope – the era of critical development is being ushered in. I can’t wait for the day where CIDA can run long-term programs with no need to follow geo-strategic motivations. The day where failures are as important as successes. A day where donors understand the need for this development model-type.

Smilie mentioned that there seems to be two-tracks that might bring CIDA there: either ensure that the government – no matter who is in power – understands that CIDA’s mandate is this and must be maintained. Set-up a “slush-fund” for other government projects that involve the army, RCMP, and so on. Or, dissolve CIDA. Put it under DFAIT.

Either way, he was sure to emphasize that the Auditor General (who ensures that all CIDA projects and purchases are results-based) and the government must be included, as well as a whole lot more dialogue is necessary, before any action can and should be taken.

Lastly, take this all with a grain of salt. These thoughts are based on what I understood from a very interesting lecture. Once again (should it not be obvious), I am no expert.

(None of this reflects the opinions or views of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada.)

in downtown eastside.

Not for the fainthearted: a short photo documentary on Vancouver’s drug-laden East Side.

–

And more,

The face of the Downtown Eastside is, disproportionately, the face of aboriginal Canada. One-seventh of the area’s population is aboriginal, seven times higher than for Vancouver as a whole. The discrepancy widens into a gulf if just registered Indians are counted. For Vancouver, status Indians account for just 1 per cent of the population; for B.C., 3 per cent; and for Canada, 2 per cent. But in the DTES, status Indians are 9 per cent of the population. “In some people’s minds, it’s the largest reserve in Canada,” says John, O’Neil, dean of faculty health sciences at Simon Fraser University and a specialist in aboriginal health care.

–

This development expert seems convinced that we can turn the Downtown East Side (DTES) into a viable tourist-attraction with rich-condominium dwellers. While there is a quota for cheap housing, I highly doubt it will ever meet the needs of these residents, many who are too strung out to be of assistance in this re-modeling plan. However, I appreciate the new insight.

An inner-city redevelopment program should be formulated for DTES. Such a program should include: ( a) A mix of housing that includes high-end condos, medium-priced units and at least 30 per cent of social housing; (b) A heritage conservation program that will renovate and preserve properties that will maintain the cultural features of the community; (c) Employment opportunities in the area focused on the service, entertainment and tourism industries; (d) Upgrading of the physical infrastructure, amenities and urban services in the area; and (e) Repopulating the DTES area with a more balanced mix of residents . . .

on canada’s colonialism.

While an apology is not enough, it is significant. Next step, an honest education: during my formative years – primary and high school – Canadian schools failed to acknowledge these injustices by failing to teach us about our own, vile colonial past (and present) and what we could about it.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict says he is sorry for the abuse and “deplorable” conduct at church-run residential schools.

The Vatican says the pontiff expressed his sorrow at a meeting today with victims and representatives of native Canadians. During the meeting, Pope Benedict emphasized that “acts of abuse cannot be tolerated.”

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 natives in Canada were made to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate them into society. The aim was to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture, which the government at the time considered inferior.

Nearly 75 per cent of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.

collective amnesia.

She’s dead on:

In Elizabeth May’s just-published book, Losing Confidence, she talks about how we suffer from collective amnesia. Quoting Jane Jacobs, the Green Party Leader says we seem to readjust rapidly without noticing all that has been lost.

Such is the case, says Ms. May, in respect to the pillars of our parliamentary democracy. They continue to rot, but we’re sort of used to it by now. The media report the latest degradation and move on. A new year comes. Last season’s abuses are behind us, allowed to stand.

Ms. May isn’t about to let us forget. In her well-written book, she witheringly takes stock. She charts the total stranglehold the prime minister has on power – worse, she says, than ever before. She charts how freedom of the press has become the right of a few all-powerful owners – worse than ever before. She charts how our state police have become politicized and untrustworthy – worse than ever before.

“If Canadians,” she writes, “heard about a country where a handful of people controlled all the news media, where the state police could deliberately interfere in an election … where the prime minister enjoyed excessive power, we would justly picture a Third World nation that languishes behind modern democracies.”

in montreal.

I have to write a few lines about Montreal this evening. I just returned from a brief trip to Vancouver. In Vancouver, everyone is friendly. The mountains are snow-capped and majestic; the ocean is deep blue and scintillating; the Vancouverites wear jogging pants, running shoes and Gore-tex. Kitsilano is spotless and the East Side rotting. The older men dressed in smart suits working in real estate talk to you and your brother about their love for hip-hop dancing on the airport bus. The bus driver speaks in a running commentary and lets you ride for free over and over again. You spend twelve minutes talking about hockey.

And in Montreal. I went to get passports photos this morning for a Kenyan Visa. My usual place, a small Hassidic shop up the road, was closed. I go a few blocks down and walk up some stone steps, having stumbled on another store with the same services. I open the door and a deep jangle screams/rings at the back of the shop. There is a long hall-way and it is dark. I emerge into a small sitting room. All four walls are covered in ancient portraits. Young and old, married and children. A younger man comes out and tells me to wait. In the back, I can see the flash of a bulb and the glare of spot lights. A woman is sitting in the shadows with her hands clutching the seat.

Soon after, the woman and an older, short and crotchety man emerge. He sits down at his desk and starts speaking in German to the woman. She has also just had her passports photos taken. Also speaking in German, she tells him that she studies at McGill and has three children. They include me into the conversation. He is German and she used to live in Germany. He tells me that as a photographer he can simply tell these things. He came to Montreal 20 years ago. She is married to a Russian-German man. She met him on the airplane out of Uganda, where she is from. She went to school in Germany for several years and then moved to Montreal with her journalist-husband. He writes for Vanity Fair. She tells me she comes from Southern Uganda, Museveni’s tribe to be exact.

When she leaves, I sit in the dark back room under the shine of the spots. The old man’s assistant has fixed my hair, which pokes out at all sides, and pulls my blouse over the front of my tank-top. Through an ancient Polaroid camera, he takes a series of pictures. The sound of the camera is comforting: an old rattle from the back of the machine to the front. The bulb flashes and my eyes start watering. When we are done, I sit in the living room and watch him cut the photos into regulated passport sizes. He tells me that he knows two sisters who went to Kenya and came back in body bags. They were nurses. He warns me that “black people” go crazy for the white girls. He is living many decades ago, in the 40s and 50s when this type of rhetoric was common-place. I sit and shrug, telling him I have only had wonderful experiences in Eastern Africa and in Nairobi specifically. He concedes, saying he imagines I will come home alive.

high immigration, “clearly an abuse of Canada’s generosity”?

A spike in refugee claims to Canada is angering some. However, I think it is about time we notice that conflicts like Darfur and the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan are only going to increase these numbers (most coming from South America right now). And, some of these messes are ours. We must keep our doors wide open while developing pro-active solutions to ending these conflicts so that these refugees can return home.

UNITED NATIONS — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney spoke Tuesday of “wide-scale and almost systematic abuse” of Canada’s refugee system after a United Nations report showed a 30% increase in the number of people seeking refugee or asylum status in Canada.

Much of the increase comes from a major rise in the numbers of Mexicans, Haitians and Colombians claiming they’ll face persecution if Canada sends them back to their respective countries, the UN says.

But the world body also says the United States saw a three per cent drop in the number of people asking for asylum in that country last year.

Overall, the percentage increase for Canada is almost three times the average for 51 countries studied in Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries 2008 by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“This is clearly an abuse of Canada’s generosity,” Mr. Kenney said during an interview. “It is a violation of the integrity of our immigration system.”

While there are definite social and economic concerns behind welcoming immigrants and refugees, it’s our duty, as a democratic country with the potential and power to rehabilitate these individuals in a new home, to do so. Moreover, while the recession might be swooping in, we are also a country distinctly short of skilled laborers. Offering educational opportunities to these newcomers is just another way to re-enforce the Canadian multicultural ideal while helping those who suffer far worse living conditions than all Canadians adapt.