Team Canada vs. Team Finland, April 5, 2013, the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships. Photograph: Wayne Cuddington,
Ottawa Citizen
While there is plenty to say about hockey in
relation to Canada and Finland, it is debatable which nation tops the
other.
On the other hand, on the topic of mothers,
Finland clearly beats us: Save
the Children’s 2012 report ranks Finland
no.1 in the world for mothers; Canada trails at no. 22. What holds us back? No
universal daycare and shocking numbers of impoverished children—indeed, 4800 in
Thunder Bay (2006, Thunder Bay
Economic Justice Committee Poverty Report) [pdf]—whose mothers, unsurprisingly,
are also poor, contribute to our lacklustre ranking. A shocking 50% of
Aboriginal children in Thunder Bay live in poverty (2012,
LSPC) [pdf]. These shameful political and social realities reveal that on
supporting mothers in all our diversities, our government is negligent, lagging
behind Finland.
That is not to say that Finland is a utopia
for, like Canada, it too participates in the policies and ravages of neoliberal
economics. So Finland’s ranking as #1 for mothers must be seen in the context
of global-wide neoliberal cutbacks on social spending.
However, unlike Canada, Finland keeps
changing its national identity with an eye to a better world for everyone.
Finland strives not only to improve the well-being of its citizens but also to
spearhead positive change for the most deprived people globally.
This is especially evident in Finland’s progressive position on Palestine. Finland, along with
Denmark, recently granted full diplomatic status to Palestine, upgrading theirPalestinian missions to embassies. Finland, a member of the advisory commission
of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), focuses its monetary aid to
Palestine on education and improving water supplies and sanitation, along with
developing freedom of the press and a civilian police.
Since 1997, PALFEP,
the Palestinian-Finnish Education Programme, has worked on assisting the educational
goals of Palestinians. Even Finnish
Church Aid unequivocally assists Palestinians as part of their mandate of
“working with the poorest people, regardless of their religious beliefs, ethnic
background or political conviction.”
While some churches in Canada, such as the United Church,
have a progressive position on Palestine, the Christian Zionism of the
religious right has
sway over the federal government, buttressing a fervent support of Israel
even while Israel builds illegal settlements in the West Bank, dispossesses
Palestinians from East Jerusalem, and regulates and humiliates Palestinians daily
at checkpoints and the ‘security wall.’
Recently, Canada’s actions have served to bring
hardships to—even offend—Palestinians and their dreams of a self-determining
nation state. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird recently
met with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in occupied East Jerusalem. Nabil
Shaath, a former Palestinian foreign minister, called this action a “slap
in the face to the Palestinian people” and an “unprecedented offence that
severely damages” Canada’s relationship with Palestine and the Arab world.
Canada’s seven-year-long support of the
blockade against Gaza continues; a blockade which The International Committee
of the Red Cross and the UN Human Rights Council consider illegal. In 2012, Canada
strongly opposed granting Palestine non-observer status at the UN General
Assembly. Why? Baird expressed fears that Palestinians
will file war crimes against Israel in the International Criminal Court and
demand the stop of settlements.
This is nothing less than confounding: The Jewish
settlements on Palestinian land are illegal according to international law. Why
would we want to stop a nation from filing war crimes? Aren’t we for
justice? For using legal methods to get results?
This is also a contradiction as the majority
of Canadian aid to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank so far has
focused on security, prosecution services, and the criminal justice system,
including $50 m. for building a court house. We give them money to develop legal
and security infrastructure, yet we don’t support Palestine’s legal claims
internationally?
It seems we have no shame in exposing our
hypocrisy and, once again, scorning and abandoning international standards as
we see fit.
Canada’s training of Palestinian security forces is to the benefit of Israel.
(Issam Rimawi / APA images)
(Issam Rimawi / APA images)
But it is building security forces that Canada is most interested in; as Yves Engler, writing for Electronic Intifada reports, "Most of the Canadian aid money has gone to building up a Palestinian security force overseen by a US general," a security force which benefits Israel. Engler cites former deputy foreign minister Peter Kent as saying the bulk of the $300m. in aid went to security, and Canadian security personnel numbers in Palestine are the second largest deployment after Afghanistan.
The above aid, which also included private
sector economic development and lastly, flip to Finland’s humanitarian focus,
health and education assistance, expired in March. It is now under review. In
punishment for the Palestinians seeking (and gaining) non-observer state status
at the UN, Canada
suspended the renewal of $300 m. in aid to the West Bank Palestinians. Baird
has threatened that the Palestinians will have “consequences” if they take
Israel to the ICC. Baird also demands that the Palestinians “immediately resume
negotiations with Israel without preconditions.”
It is unclear why Baird believes Canada has the
global clout—or reputation—to demand acquiescence of another sovereign nation.
Does he believe that the Palestinians will bow to Canada’s demands in fear of
losing $300 m.? In light of the Jerusalem Post recently reporting that
PM Harper has transformed Canada into Israel’s most dependable ally, why would
Palestinians grovel for more slaps in the face?
Canada’s new global identity as arrogant
bully is troubling. On the other hand, one thing that marks Finland as
exceptional is its commitment to prescient thinking to enable peaceful global co-existence
for all peoples, including the Palestinians.
On the question of Palestine, Finland leads
Canada.
