Matthews: Does Canada need an independent organization to promote rights and democracy abroad?

By:

, /

11 April, 2012

By: Kyle Matthews

Executive director, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies

I believe the answer is yes, especially considering how thinly spread out our diplomats are abroad and that few people in government are specialists in democratic development and human rights. As a country with a unique track record of employing federalism to overcome linguistic differences peacefully and in a democratic manner, I believe Canada can bring its domestic experiences to help other countries in need.

In addition, an independent organization can play an important role to speak out and raise awareness on certain developments at important junctures of history when our government becomes risk averse or sees issues through too much of a partisan lens. I can think of no better example of when Ed Broadbent, as President of Rights and Democracy, traveled to Rwanda in 1992 to investigate human rights violations. Upon his return home he warned the Canadian Government about the direction Rwanda was spiraling towards. Did anybody in the diplomatic corps or within CIDA raise the alarm bells a full year and a half before the genocide was unleashed? No.

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour …

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

Our mission is to build a conversation that involves everyone — not just politicians, academics and policy makers. We need your help to do so. Your support helps us find stories and pay writers to tell them. It helps us grow that conversation. It helps us encourage more Canadians to play an active role in shaping our country’s place in the world.

Become a Supporter