Green Party of Canada response to the
Canadian Council for International Cooperation
Gender Inequality
Alarming and disproportionate portions of those who suffer from poverty around the
world are women. The Green Party believes that increasing education opportunities and
fostering economic autonomy of women and girls around the world can reverse this
dangerous trend.
It is well established that when women and girls are educated, have access to primary
health care, political autonomy and economic power, fertility rates drop and poverty is
alleviated This has been demonstrated time and time again, in nations around the world.
One particularly instructive example is Saudi Arabia.
The Green Party would ensure that Canadian Overseas development assistance is focused
on meeting the needs of women and girls. This would include programs that concentrate
on alleviating gender discrimination, violence against women and girls, education
programs, promoting equal pay, and ensuring sexual and reproductive health.
The Green Party of Canada will work vigorously to ensure that gender equality is a
reality across the nation and abroad, and will attend to these inequalities as one of our
priorities in addressing the issue of global poverty. To that end, we will:
• Pass pay equity legislation, as recommended by the Pay Equity Task Force,
immediately implement full pay equity for women employed in the federal sector and
develop tax incentives for companies to meet the highest standards of gender and pay
equity.
• Establish specific job re-entry programmes for women with children who want to restart
their working life either part-time or full-time.
• Reestablish funding for Status of Women Canada and for a Women’s Program that
funds not-for-profit women’s groups that advocate women’s rights.
• Ensure that the criteria for a new independent agency appointing members to public
boards and agencies includes equal opportunity for women.
• Support greater engagement of women in the political life of Canada by advocating that
all political parties nominate, train and support more women candidates, so that gender
inequalities are adequately represented and addressed in governmental bodies.
The UN Development Goals
The Green Party not only supports the 0.7% goal but has also set an even more ambitious
target, by costing out a programme to meet the goal 0.7% of GDP no later than 2016. It is
very distressing that since its high of 0.45% of our gross domestic product (GDP) in
1992, Canada's Overseas Development Assistance programme has fallen victim to the
"programme review", deficit cutting era of the Chrétien Liberals and that since the Harper
government has come to power, Canada remains below 1992 levels. The government has
been silent as to Canada's obligations to alleviate poverty around the world and has not
committed to increase aid to achieve the target of 0.7% of GDP as set out by former
Prime Minster Lester B. Pearson when he chaired the World Bank Commission in 1969,
and to which Canada re-committed to at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. For the first time
since the late 1990s there are no new aid commitments and not even a mention of
international co-operation in the government's budgets.
It is evident that Canada must meet its commitment to allocate 0.7% of GDP to ODA in
order to meet the most basic of goals: making poverty history, cure disease, foster
democracy, and support ecologically sustainable economies. To achieve this Green Party
MPs would increase ODA by 0.05% of GDP to reach the target of 0.7% in eight years, by
2016. Furthermore, the Green Party would revamp the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) to focus more on such essential goals as poverty
alleviation, establishing programmes to combat and adapt to climate change, and
strengthening its Partnership Branch for the delivery of ODA. We must take action now
on this critical issue. The reason there is such inaction is because current and past
governments make declarations of support but do not integrate the support into the
budget, or they trade off the so called 'commitment' to other projects that they deem in the
short term to be to their political advantage. People in poverty can no longer be viewed
as expendable pawns. As Kofi Annan, former Secretary General to the United Nations
noted, "we are asleep of a fast-moving aircraft. Unless we wake up and take control, the
outcome is all too predictable."
The Green Party enthusiastically supports achieving the targets of the Millennium
Development Goals - eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary
education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal
health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental
sustainability and developing a global partnership for development - as a priority of our
international responsibilities. We agree with the UN in that "the MDGs are an agreed set
of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part." The Green
Party believes believe Canada must do its part and be a leader on this front.
The implementation of a Tobin Tax could ensure that the funds to meet the Millennium
Development Goals are available. Is a very small tax on each transaction, between 0.1% 0.25%, designed to be sufficiently small in order not to deter legitimate currency
transaction, but sufficiently large to take the profit margin out of gambling on very small
margins. The proceeds of such a tax would be approximately $300 billion a year, an
amount is more than the entire annual budget of the United Nations.
The Green Party of Canada would make the Tobin Tax a priority in international
relations. We would negotiate to have acceptance of a Tobin Tax brought within the
GATT as a prerequisite for admission to the World Trade Organization. It will not be
possible to implement the Tobin Tax effectively without every nation participating. The
focus on the Tobin Tax in multi-lateral negotiations is long over-due.
As previously stated, the Green Party also believes that Canada must, without exception,
meet its commitment to allocate 0.7% of GDP to ODA. This level of funding is essential
to meet the most basic of goals: to make poverty history, cure disease, foster democracy,
and support ecologically sustainable economies. This will make the world a better and
safer place for everyone. We would increase Overseas Development Agency funding by
0.05% of GDP ($650 million in 2007) to reach the target of 0.7% of GDP by 2016,
revamp CIDA to focus more on developing community-based green economies, on
poverty alleviation and programmes to combat and adapt to climate change, especially
strengthening its Partnership Branch for the delivery of ODA and fulfill our commitments
for the provision of HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs to Africa.
Food Crisis
The Green Party has long urged meaningful action in order to address the growing global
food crisis. The prices of key foodstuffs, such as rice and corn, have increased
substantially around the world, placing millions at risk of starvation. We believe that
there are fundamental solutions to this crisis that Canada can and must put forward in
order to address this growing humanitarian concern.
It is ironic that this past Government attempted to use food crops in a fraudulent effort to
fight climate change when it is climate change that is partly causing the current food
crisis. It is absolutely vital that we focus our aid on developing environmentally
sustainable agriculture, poverty alleviation and programmes to combat and adapt to
climate change.
The Green Party of Canada would take the following steps to address the food crisis:
* Increase the amount of aid provided by our government to developing nations from
0.5% to 0.7% of GDP by 2016.
* Take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
* Fund major efforts to assist developing countries adapt, particularly aimed toward
food security.
* Shift towards a fair trade model that emphasizes human and labour rights,
ecosystems, and the development of local economies.
* Invest in real biofuel alternatives such as biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol from farm
and forest wastes, rather than ethanol from crops grown directly for fuel.
The Green Party of Canada is committed to long-term strategies of sustainable food
production, and understands that a global food shortage has variations on a local level,
but that the local agricultural systems require assistance. In order to create a long term
solution, the Green Party of Canada is committed to working with international
governments and organizations to help nations reinvigorate their farming, creating work
plans for integrating the developing world into sustainable and diversified economic
pathways which are the correct scale for the locals as well as for their clients.
The Green Party of Canada understands that the food crisis, while a global issue, has
local implications, and would support agriculture as a sector at CIDA, or as a position
mandated within the regional divisions. We would also commit the resources needed into
order to assure that farming in developing regions is sustainable both to the economy, and
to the environment.
We strongly support international agricultural trade rules that respect the human right to
food, and would work to reduce the volatility of international food commodity prices by
promoting more sustainable, regional farming and food production practices.
The current crisis is a sign of things to come. Oil prices will keep climbing. Climate
impacts - such as drought and severe weather events - will worsen. Our solutions must be
grounded in this reality. Getting off fossil fuels, supporting women in developing
countries who grow most of the food, re-organizing our economies to put energy
efficiency and renewable energy at the top of our priorities, while increasing short term
food aid, must be at the foundation of our response.
Global Economic Justice
Canadians are proud of their efforts to promote human rights abroad, and the Green Party
of Canada strongly supports restrictions to protect international human rights. A Green
Party government would work with international bodies to help determine restrictions to
be placed upon developing-country governments and their citizens in the process of
determining the best domestic policies for development.
The Green Party of Canada strongly insists on an increased sensitivity by the
Government of Canada towards human rights violations of trade partners. A Green Party
government would oppose the proposed free trade agreement between Canada and
Colombia. It will absolutely be on the agenda to pursue a negotiated resolution to the
humanitarian crisis prior to further trade with Colombia.
The Green Party opposes the proposed free trade agreement between Canada and
Colombia. Colombia is simply not defending human rights and is one of the worst
violators of labour rights in the hemisphere. The on-going conflict with FARC
complicates the move to defend human rights, nevertheless it must be on the agenda to
pursue a negotiated resolution to the humanitarian crisis represented by the hostages in
FARC control.
At the recent Global Green Congress, Green Parties from 87 countries endorsed a
resolution calling for the Colombian government to pursue non-violent and peaceful
negotiated humanitarian agreement with FARC. The Global Greens condemn the use of
civilian hostages as "weapons" and also urge Colombia to refrain from violent means to
liberate hostages.
Peace and Security
The Green Party advocates re-balancing Canada's approach to foreign policy to reestablish Canada as a global leader in peace-making, conflict mediation and diplomacy.
We strive for a culture of peace and co-operation between states, inside societies, and
between individuals as the basis of global security. We believe that security should rest
upon co-operation, sound economic and social development, environmental safety, and
respect for human rights and not primarily on military strength. This vision a global
security system capable of the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts,
removing the causes of war by understanding and respecting other cultures, eradicating
racism, promoting freedom and democracy, and ending global poverty, as well as
strengthening the United Nations (UN) as the global organization of conflict management
and peacekeeping.
The Green Party would like to see a rebalancing of our role in Afghanistan. Canada's
mission in Afghanistan is heavily weighted to combat operations in the South and underweighted on appropriate development assistance and creative regional diplomacy. The
fighting fuels an escalation in insurgency as innocent people are killed, towns and
countryside ravaged and hatred of the foreign troops, including our very own men and
women who risk their lives overseas, grows.
Canada's role in Afghanistan must shift back to more diplomacy, appropriate
development and creative peace-building strategies. The Green Party does not support
further Canadian participation in the NATO-led combat mission to Southern Afghanistan,
but neither do we believe that all of our troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan.
We support a continued Canadian security presence in the Kabul area and the Central and
Northern provinces as part of the UN sanctioned "Blue Helmet" reconstruction effort.
This effort would focus on rebuilding critical infrastructure that was destroyed through
decades of war as well as provide continued training to Afghanistan Army and Police
Forces so that they can fully take over from international security forces as soon as
possible.
If elected, our position would be to give notice of Canada's withdrawal from the NATO
mission in Southern Afghanistan and subsequently press for an entirely new multi-lateral
approach, renouncing air strikes except in extreme specific strategic circumstances,
working with all parties and maintaining a ground force in peacekeeping and security.
We support the promotion Canada taking the lead in implementing a comprehensive
strategy to break the cycle of illicit poppy growing and violence that has kept
Afghanistan in turmoil for decades with a licensing and quota system for growing
poppies and selling the products to legal drug firms that produce morphine and codeine
for legitimate legal painkilling use. Furthermore, we need to invest in more robust
diplomatic efforts focusing on improving domestic governance mechanisms and
democratic institutions and protecting the slowly emerging democracy and civil society
in Afghanistan. Expand diplomatic and intelligence efforts to identify Taliban
strongholds in Pakistan and press the Pakistan government to act in concert with the UN
to bring Taliban insurgents to justice.
Democratic Governance and Global Citizenship
The Green Party of Canada understands the importance of Civil Society Organizations as
stakeholders in policy decision making. CSOs are crucial to a vibrant democracy and in
advocating on behalf of the Canadians who support them. To that end, the Green Party of
Canada would ensure adequate funding for CIDA to operate programs in a dynamic
environment with CSOs and other stakeholders. We would also work to see that any
reviews to CIDA’s International Youth Internship Program do not result in funding cuts,
but rather that the program works in an efficient and dynamic manner alongside Civil
Society Organizations.