In bid to grow overseas and rebuild relations with India and China, the Canadian government should be working just as hard to fulfill promises to protect people at home from transnational repression
In bid to grow overseas and rebuild relations with India and China, the Canadian government should be working just as hard to fulfill promises to protect people at home from transnational repression
In bid to grow overseas, feds can’t forget to protect the people at home
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his first Asian swing right now, attending multilateral meetings such the APEC Leaders’ Summit in South Korea.
This trip, in which he also hit Malaysia and Singapore, comes after 16 other foreign trips that were mostly concentrated in Europe. From the get-go, Carney has pushed for diversification for the Canadian economy away from our truculent, traditional United States partner, and has been fairly focused on showcasing to our European allies that Canada is one of them.
...
These discussions are all crucial for Canada, which needs to take advantage of the markets that want our goods and services. But let’s not forget that the Indo-Pacific Strategy was initially launched in the wake of increased tension with the major players of China and India as Canada sought to find non-traditional avenues in the region of which it hadn’t yet fully taken advantage.
But now, India and China are back on the table. Canada Foreign Minister Anita Anand broke the seal earlier this month, stopping in both countries for high-level meetings. Carney will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC.
“Relationships rebuild over time … when they have changed, when they've changed for the worse. And so we have a lot of areas on which we can build,” Carney told reporters in Malaysia earlier this week.
...
But back at home, Canadians who have suffered at the hands of foreign interference and transnational repression are still left waiting and wondering how their interests will be protected amid all of this relationship rebuilding.
[The liberal government has] yet to name a candidate to oversee the promised foreign interference registry, which is something Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree had previously said would happen in September.
As NDP MP Jenny Kwan highlighted, transnational repression can be “a matter of life and death” for those being targeted.
People need to feel safe at home. What good is economic growth and trade diversification if it allows diaspora communities to feel as though foreign governments have licence to harass—and even kill—them on Canadian soil?
Carney said he was going to be “laser focused” on the economy. But the people part of the equation is too commonly left behind. As Kwan said: “The Carney government needs to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time; they need to address both with the level of seriousness and attention they require.”