by Barry Weisleder
Why did the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fail to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council? On June 17 it lost out to Norway and Ireland on the first ballot at the U.N. Canada needed 128 votes — or two-thirds of the voting members of the assembly. Norway passed the threshold with 130 and Ireland garnered 128 votes. Canada fell short with 108 votes.
The loss was Canada’s second consecutive defeat in a bid for a seat on the powerful body for a two-year term. The failure of the Trudeau Liberal government bid followed the loss by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper in 2010. Prior to that, Canada won six times in a row, roughly each decade since the creation of the UN in 1946.
Bourgeois pundits cited Ottawa’s low spending on ‘international development assistance’ and its reduced contributions to so-called UN peacekeeping missions as reasons for the rejection. Socialists see the outcome differently – that the regressive behaviour of the Canadian state on climate change, Indigenous rights, Canadian mining operations abroad, global trade issues, Venezuela’s sovereignty, and its staunch support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine proved negatively decisive.
Justin Trudeau promised Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu that Canada on the Security Council would be “an asset for Israel”. Trudeau’s slow, soft criticism of current plans by the Zionist state to annex over 30 per cent of the West Bank shows the precise meaning of ‘asset.’ Thus, Ottawa’s defeat at the U.N. was a victory for the Palestinian people and for all oppressed nations denied the right to self-determination.
According to a Canada-wide survey conducted in June by Ekos Research Associates, 74 per cent of Canadians oppose the annexation, and 42 per cent want Ottawa to impose sanctions against Israel. Still, the parties in Parliament trail far behind public opinion. Indeed, the authorities at all levels try to vilify, even to outlaw talk of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. They seek to ban the annual Al Quds march and to stop anti-Zionist free speech. Zionists and their friends in big business are in a panic. It is a sign of their weakness.
To support the growing campaign against Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank, please contact the Palestinian Canadian Community Centre – Palestine House at: palestiniancanadians@gmail.com .