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.

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.

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.

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!

Writing opportunities with The First Drop

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.

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

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.

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.

Our Canadian “third-world,” not so “third-world” anymore. Read about the new Saskatchewan.