Pratte: How should Canada respond to the rising violence in Syria?

By: /
1 March, 2012
By: André Pratte
Editorial Pages Editor (Éditorialiste en chef) at La Presse

Help the Syrian people

External Affairs minister John Baird is right to put the emphasis on preventing a humanitarian crisis in Syria and to reject the possibility of a military intervention. We have learned – or should have – that even in cases where a regime seems on the verge of collapsing, armed intervention is a costly and risky adventure. President Bashar al-Assad’s government seems much stronger than Gaddafi’s. The Syrian opposition is even less coherent than the movement that toppled the colonel’s dictatorship. The human costs of an armed intervention, even if only an air campaign, would probably be huge. And the impacts on the region’s geopolitics are both unpredictable and worrisome.

Therefore, all Canada can do is denounce the regime’s attacks against civilians, impose economic and political sanctions along with the international community and support the UN and the Arab League’s diplomatic efforts. These efforts should, as a priority, aim to open humanitarian corridors so that the suffering people in bombarded cities can be fed and receive medical attention.

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