canada’s commitment to tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law

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Canada’s Commitment to Tolerance, Democracy, and the Rule of Law

By Oleg Nekrassovski

Many Canadian policies affect other countries. But what are the key values that such policies

promote? As the present paper will strive to demonstrate, Canadian policies, that affect other

countries, tend to promote the values of tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law (Martin,

2010).

In 2001, Canadian forces landed in Afghanistan and began a campaign against the

Taliban, who were viewed as intolerant, authoritarian extremists; while simultaneously working

on establishing a more democratic government for Afghanistan. It soon became clear to

Canadian military and public officials that a new Afghani government, which they were working

on establishing, will require its own army if it were to remain in power unassisted. So Canada

became one of the first, among the NATO coalition forces, to adopt as a priority, the training and

mentoring of the new Afghan army (Lalani, 2010).

Consequently, Canadian operational mentor and liaison teams (OMLTs) managed to fully

train five brigades in Kandahar. In addition, a subsequent financing of this effort by the Canadian

government allowed a further training of 50,000 people for what came to be known as the

Afghan National Army. Moreover, the Canadian forces equipped this new army with modern

field weapons, uniforms, and other equipment (Lalani, 2010).

Also, in order to enforce the law in a country under a new, democratic regime, Canada

helped to establish a new Afghan police and became a leading contributor to the Law and Order

Trust Fund, which is responsible for the training and salaries of this new force (Lalani, 2010).


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Canada’s promotion of tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law, is also evident in

Canada’s relationship with China. In one particular case, a Fujian businessman, named Lai

Changxing, stayed in Canada and did everything in his legal power to avoid being deported to

China, where he was wanted for criminal charges. And despite a specific request by the Chinese

government, to deport Changxing to China, the Canadian government did nothing, and instead

explained that by Canadian constitution, the Canadian government cannot interfere with the

proceedings of the, sometimes slow, Canadian court system (Houlden, 2010).

Also, Canada, unlike China, is highly supportive and tolerant of all democratic

movements including separatism. This has been most clearly demonstrated by the fact that

Canada was prepared to allow its own province (Quebec) to separate if the majority of the

residents of that province decided that this is what they wanted. Hence, it is not surprising that

through a unanimous vote in the House of Commons, the Dalai Lama, a leader of the separatist

forces of Tibet, was given an honorary Canadian citizenship. This move, of course, annoyed the

Chinese government, which views the Dalai Lama as a traitorous separatist, and hence, for all

practical purposes, a political criminal (Houlden, 2010).

China was even more angered when the Dalai Lama was received, in Canada, at the

Government House by the governor general and by the prime minister in his House of Commons

office as if he was a leader of another official state; and even by the fact that the flag of the

Tibetan “government-in-exile” was placed on the prime minister’s desk (Houlden, 2010).

A similar situation concerns China’s views on Canada’s relationship with Taiwan. China

considers Taiwan an inalienable part of its territory, which managed to illegitimately break away

from the Chinese state. Canada, however, again in virtue of its support for most forms of


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separatism, saw nothing wrong with engaging in official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. These

relations, of course, clearly signified Canada’s official acknowledgement of Taiwan as an

independent state, and consequently enraged China (Ping, 2010).

But Canada’s relationship with China had its good times too. In the early 1960s, at the

height of USA’s war on communism, the officially communist China was struck by severe

famine. Canada decided to step in and help, and initiated Sino-Canadian wheat trade despite

great opposition from the United States, and despite the fact that it was a member of NATO, an

officially anti-communist military organization of Western countries (Ping, 2010).

Also, several years later, in 1970, with the war on communism still in full swing,

Canada’s then prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, made an iconic decision to establish diplomatic

relations with China. This made Canada one of the first Western countries to make an official

recognition of the People’s Republic of China (Ping, 2010).

Canada’s tolerance and democracy are also evident in its policies towards the various

wars waged by the United States. Unlike other allies of the United States, Canada was openly

opposed to the Vietnam War. And it even dared to provide refuge and protection to U.S. citizens

who were subjects to the associated conscription, but who did not want to take part in this war.

More recently, USA’s expectation that Canada would take part in, or at least support, the

invasion and occupation of Iraq, was firmly rejected by Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien

(Brahimi, 2010).

Canada’s commitment to tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law, is even more evident

in its role in the United Nations. The first UN peacekeeping force, it turns out, was created in

1956 by Canada’s then Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson. Moreover, Canada took part in the


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drafting of almost every major legal document produced by the United Nations, including the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Law of the Sea Treaty, the Nuclear Non-

Proliferation Treaty, and even in the UN charter itself (Fréchette, 2010). And of course, Canada’s

overzealous involvement in countless UN peacekeeping missions, especially in the early 1990s,

is legendary. In fact, in the early 1990s, Canada quickly stretched its limited military resources to

their absolute limit by eagerly taking part in numerous peacekeeping operations all over the

world including those in Cambodia, Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia

(Fréchette, 2010).

In a related incident, Serbia, due to religious intolerance, engaged in a great abuse of

human rights of its citizens in Kosovo. Consequently, Canada saw it as its humanitarian duty to

stop them, and as a result took part in supporting NATO’s aerial bombings against Serb targets

(Fréchette, 2010). However, Canada, which was always strongly in favour of the rule of law in

international relations, was very concerned during this episode that NATO’s actions were not

authorized by UN’s Security Council. Consequently, Canada soon began to work hard in favour

of setting up, in the UN, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty,

which was finally set up in 1999 (Fréchette, 2010).


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References

Martin, P. (2010). Canada and the Middle East. In F. O. Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.),

Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us (pp. 195-201). Montreal &

Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Lalani, A. (2010). Canada and Afghanistan: Regaining the muscle-memory of leadership. In F.

O. Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see

us (pp. 202-209). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Houlden, G. (2010). Canada-China relations: Growing connectivity and friction. In F. O.

Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us

(pp. 122-131). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Ping, M. (2010). Return to realism and restart the relationship. In F. O. Hampson, & P.

Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us (pp. 132-143).

Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Brahimi, L. (2010). Canada among [the United] Nations: A personal reflection. In F. O.



Fréchette, L. (2010). Canada at the United Nations: A shadow of its former self. . In F. O.



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