Canada's Duplicity at the UN

A preliminary committee meeting to review the 1994 UN Cairo Conference on Population and Development (Cairo +5 [years]) was held in New York at the end of March.

REAL Women attended this meeting (we had attended the original UN meeting in Cairo) and we were, as usual, infuriated by the Canadian delegation's two-faced actions. For example, on the one hand, Canadians are told that the federal Liberal government has an open immigration policy, but at the UN, behind the scene, Canada is singing quite another tune.

On March 23^rd, the Canadian delegation's opening speech at this meeting dealt almost entirely with the problems of international migration. Canada urged the meeting to come to come to terms with this serious problem. In addition, Canada pressed for the implementation of reproductive and sexual rights (abortion and contraception) for women and adolescents (defined as anyone between 10 and 19 years of age) and that adolescents should have access to information and services without parental input or consent.

Canada also was the only nation to insist that protection on the grounds of sexual orientation be included in the document. Canada also insisted that the expression "families in all its forms," which is a code word for homosexual and lesbian marriages, also be included in the document.

The reason for the pushing of reproductive rights is that Canada, along with the other western countries, especially those of the US and the European Union, are scared. With their rapidly aging and declining population, these western countries are frightened of the growing population in the developing world. During this Prep Com participants were reminded many times of the fact that there are now an unprecedented 1 (one) billion young people in the world between the ages of 15 and 24 years of age. What was left unsaid, however, was that these adolescents mostly reside in the developing world. The west is frightened that these vast numbers will intensify pressure for migration to the west, and lead to the growth of nationalism, preventing western access to the natural resources of these countries.

Unfortunately for the west, previous UN population control policies have not been successful, largely due to cultural and religious resistance to them. Thus, a new approach to population control was initiated at the Cairo Conference in 1994. This approach focused on gender equality and the empowerment of women in the developing countries. This was a disingenuous concept based on the belief that once women are educated and economically independent, they will voluntarily separate themselves from the religious and cultural ties that bind them. Similarly, pressure for adolescent reproductive and sexual rights without the necessity of parental knowledge or consent was recognized as another method of breaking down cultural and religious barriers which will lead to a reduction in population growth.

If Canada and the other western countries were genuinely concerned about the women and adolescents in the developing world, they would have insisted, at this Prep Com, that other provisions dealing with women's and adolescent's rights to education, health protection measures also included in the Cairo Plan of Action be implemented. These important provisions, however, were ignored and reproductive and sexual rights were the main focus of their concerns at this meeting. Significantly, there was absolutely no reference to development policies which reduce growth of population by themselves. This supposed push for women's and adolescents' rights, however, is merely a cloak or disguise to cover up the west's real agenda to prevent the developing world from attaining its natural place in the world order and its eventual leadership role of it. The latter is inevitable in the new century having regard to their immense wealth, both in their numbers of people and their natural resources.

Canada's Vital Role at UN Conferences

Canada, unfortunately, plays a vital role at the UN and, in fact, a leadership role, in pushing the west's agenda there. This is due to the fact that the US is hampered at the UN because of the Republican-dominated congress which inevitably turns aside any of President Clinton's pro-abortion anti-family policies (Clinton chooses the delegation which is answerable not to him, but to Congress on foreign affairs). Moreover, Canada's reputation as an international peacekeeper and middle power is used to Canada's advantage at these conferences in that developing nations are not intimidated by our delegations. Moreover, and most significantly, the Canadian delegation, under our system, does not have to answer to the Canadian people. Our policies are developed by the bureaucrats and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, and his political advisors. They are never brought to the floor of the House of Commons for debate. Canadians remain blissfully unaware of our delegation's relentless pursuit of the anti-life, anti-family agenda at the UN. Whenever REAL Women or other pro-life/pro-family NGOs approach the Canadian delegation at these conferences, we are brushed off as inconsequential nuisances to be ignored, or at best patronized by these Canadian delegates. Yet our views represent those of many Canadians who are also paying the salaries and huge expenses of these delegates.

Their behaviour is disgraceful and unacceptable.

Please write to:

The Hon. Jean Chrétien
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street, 2nd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2
Fax: (613) 992-4211

The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Room 418-N, Centre Block
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 947-4442

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

and let them know your objections to Canada's policies at the UN and its failure to debate them in the House of Commons.

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