Search this site powered by FreeFind

Quick Link

for your convenience!

 

Human Rights, Youth Voices etc.

click here


 

For Information Concerning the Crisis in Darfur

click here


 

Northern Uganda Crisis

click here


 

 Whistleblowers Need Protection

 

Welcome address for U.S. Consul Lisa Bobbie Schreiber Hughes

Notes for an address by the Honourable David Kilgour, Secretary of State
(Latin America & Africa)
at a welcome luncheon for Lisa Bobbie Schreiber Hughes, U.S. Consul General in Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, November 28, 1997

It is a pleasure to speak at this luncheon to welcome the newly appointed Consul General of the United States of America, Lisa Bobbie Schreiber Hughes.

Ms. Schreiber Hughes has served in several posts in Latin America and the Caribbean during her most impressive career. It is a region that is very much on my mind at present, and I hope to compare a number of notes with our guest of honour. I have just returned from a brief visit to Peru and Colombia, and I am busy taking Spanish lessons. My teacher assures me, after 12 or 13 lessons, that with just one more lesson, I'll be fluent. For now, though, I'll have to speak in English.

The United States has a much longer history of ties with Latin America. Canada has long had close ties with the Caribbean, but our involvement in Latin America has been more recent. In recent years, even the United States has had to become much more engaged with its neighbours to the south -- the setback in Congress on fast-track notwithstanding.

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has said: "Every North American, before this century is over, will find that he or she has a personal frontier with Latin America. This is a living frontier, which can be nourished by information but, above all, by knowledge, by understanding, by the pursuit of enlightened self interest on both parts."

Fuentes meant "North American" in the sense that some Latin Americans still use the term -- to refer to citizens of the United States. But today it is equally true that no Canadian is unaffected by our relationship with Latin America.

Latin America and Canada

I am excited that my area of responsibility deals with some of the most dynamic areas in Canada's foreign relations. In 1995, the government identified Latin America as a region in which our geographic location gives us an important advantage.

For many years, when Canadians looked southward, we tended not to see beyond the United States. Our entry into the Organization of American States [OAS] in 1990 was a clear political signal of our desire to play a more active role in hemispheric issues. We hoped that our involvement in the OAS would lead to a revitalization of regional intergovernmental institutions.

In the early 1990s, Canada negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] with the United States and Mexico. It was the first regional trade agreement in the world involving so-called developing and developed countries. During the same period, we extended our resident diplomatic representation to most countries of the region.

The Miami Summit

In 1994, Prime Minister Chrétien participated in the Miami Summit of the Americas, where leaders of 34 democratically elected countries agreed on a partnership for development and prosperity. This partnership would be based on a commitment to democratic practices, economic integration and social justice.

In April next year, the process will continue with the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile. These talks aim to lay the groundwork for a Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA] by 2005. They will also address other important social development issues, including all-important education.

Meanwhile, Canada has been pursuing closer trading relations throughout the region. This year, Canada and Chile concluded a bilateral free trade agreement. This was an expression of Canada's desire to continue with a trading agenda at a time when some in the U.S. Congress are reluctant to give fast-track approval for negotiations to include Chile in the NAFTA.

Canada is also talking trade with other regional groupings, such as MERCOSUR, the Andean Pact, CARICOM, and the Central American Common Market. We look forward to trade partnerships with members of these groups as we move toward hemispheric free trade.

MERCOSUR

Let me draw your attention to Canada's efforts to develop enhanced trading relations with MERCOSUR, which in a trade pact includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Canadians exported nearly $1.7 billion to these four countries in 1996, and absorbed imports of $1.4 billion. The Canadian government is trying to lay a groundwork that will allow more and smoother trading between MERCOSUR and Canada.

In January, a Team Canada trade mission will visit Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. It will be patterned on previous successful Team Canada missions to Asia, which have brought together our Prime Minister and Premiers in promoting economic growth for all of us.

Commonwealth Caribbean

I might note that although my formal title is Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa), I am also responsible for the Caribbean, including the Commonwealth Caribbean.

Although the Caribbean is geographically close to Latin America, our trading relationships with the two regions have been quite different. Canada has enjoyed a long historic relationship with the Commonwealth Caribbean. We share a common language, and common political and legal traditions, based on our ties with Britain. The Bank of Nova Scotia had a branch in the Caribbean before it was in Toronto. We don't need to talk about the rum trade between Canada and the Caribbean. We have sometimes been inclined to take the Caribbean peoples for granted. This is a serious mistake. The countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean are among our closest friends on the international stage. In our recent bid for Calgary 2005, 11 of the 25 votes we got were from CARICOM states.

African Renaissance

Africa's emergence as a stable, prosperous continent is important to every other continent. The Canadian bond with Africa has continued to build since the days of John Diefenbaker and Mike Pearson. Both leaders saw what Africa means to the world and what it is capable of contributing. I am an Africa optimist.

The end of apartheid in South Africa and the spread of democracy in other African countries gives the world increasing hope that Africa's potential will finally be realized. We Canadians must continue to lend assistance.

In September, I visited Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, and saw how central Africa is changing and our stereotypes are obsolete. In Kampala, I learned that fully 2000 companies have located operations in Uganda in recent years. Similarly, in Rwanda, close observers say that there has been real economic progress for some — although certainly not all — since the catastrophes of 1994, and the government in office there is genuinely seeking reconciliation among its constituent communities.

In Kenya, despite large problems, there appears to be a national stepping back from the abyss. Our delegation arrived shortly after a multiparty committee of Members of Parliament had agreed on a comprehensive package of reforms, which now appears to have been enacted fully before the December elections. In short, there is cause for optimism in all three nations.

Canadian Foreign Policy

I would argue that Canada's foreign policy in the 1990s has not only been for the most part intelligent; it has often been exciting, particularly in recent years.

Look at Canada's campaign to ban anti-personnel landmines. It is perhaps the most obvious example of this country taking a lead on an issue that could have been ignored because:

(a) it wasn't popular in military circles; and
(b) it doesn't personally concern many important people around the world.

Important people don't spend a lot of time walking through fields and down paths that are likely to explode under them at any given moment. Millions of poor civilians do.

It is an important issue. It tells ordinary people that they matter. There are an estimated 100 million landmines lurking around the world, waiting to blow children to bits — for no other reason than that these kids took one false step on land that should sustain them.

As you know, Canada has played a significant role in the grass-roots activism that should lead us -- must lead us -- to a meaningful international accord on the banning of anti-personnel mines. I was pleased to see that Americans too were recognized in this campaign, with the recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines.

Next week, approximately 100 countries are expected to sign a treaty toward this end in Ottawa, as one more step in what has become known as the "Ottawa Process." Canadians should be proud.

The fight to obliterate anti-personnel landmines is just one component of Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy's commitment to the concept of sustainable human security, which he has twice advanced in formal presentations to the United Nations General Assembly. A next important project will be efforts to limit the global trade in small arms.

Human Rights

Canada has also found a niche for itself in the area of human rights. Our approach is evolutionary, not coercive. Even if we wanted to force change, we have to face the fact that Canada simply does not have the economic leverage or the international clout to do so. We can, however, work from within to support non-governmental organizations [NGOs] and to develop a space in which civil society can grow.

Support for improvements in human rights can take different avenues. In countries that are prepared to engage with us on even a limited scale, such as Cuba, we will work for evolutionary change. For regimes that are unwilling to enter into any sort of dialogue or exchange whatsoever, such as Burma or Nigeria, we work for broader international action to press those regimes to change their ways.

Next year we'll all celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Canada will do its utmost during the year to convince governments everywhere that the suppression of human rights can only lead to the kind of bitterness that creates political uprisings.

To be certain, we have work to do in our own backyard on issues of the environment and human rights -- issues that are so important internationally. But while we are working on our own problems, we have to be working on the world's problems too. Because when the circle is closed, they are our problems too.

Let me give the final word to Octavio Paz, the Mexican diplomat and poet. In his reflections on contemporary history, One Earth, Four or Five Worlds, Paz notes that all great nations have prudence, which he defines as wisdom and integrity, boldness and moderation, discernment and persistence in undertakings. The aim of our country, both domestically and internationally, should be this notion of prudence.

Thank you.

 
Home Books Photo Gallery About David Survey Results Useful Links Submit Feedback