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Trudeau inherits Canada’s fractured relations with Commonwealth group of countries

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gestures as he speaks during a news conference after attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila November 19, 2015.  REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gestures as he speaks during a news conference after attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Following a rock-star reception at the G20 and APEC meetings already this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make his debut at the Commonwealth group of countries later this week.

But Canada’s fellow former colonies may be looking for more than the new prime minister’s million-watt smile when heads of government gather in Malta on Friday for the three-day meeting.

Canada’s relations with the Commonwealth are in disarray.

The former Conservative government suspended voluntary contributions to one of the group’s funds to protest the decision to allow Sri Lanka to host the last meeting of heads of government and hold the chairmanship, despite the country’s dodgy human rights record. The suspension announced last year was retroactive to 2013 and funding has not been restored.

There has been no special envoy to the Commonwealth since former senator Hugh Segal’s term ended in 2013.

“Canada’s voluntary contribution to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation was suspended in April 2014. No decision has yet been taken on renewing this funding,” says John Babcock, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada.

Canada’s contribution to the fund amounts to about $10 million annually.

“The funds have been reallocated to projects aimed at upholding Commonwealth values, including efforts to address child, early and forced marriage, support for environmental sustainability, and to promote human rights, good governance and the rule of law in Commonwealth countries.”

Former prime minister Stephen Harper refused to attend the last meeting two years ago, sending a team headed by a parliamentary secretary to Colombo in his stead.

Canada’s boycott was not insignificant. This country is the second-largest contributor after the United Kingdom itself to the group ostensibly dedicated to promoting the rule of law and human rights in what are mostly former British colonies.

Canada still contributed $9.73 million in assessed contributions and almost $5 million in voluntary contributions to the Commonwealth of Learning for 2015-16, Babcock points out.

The 53 member countries are a diverse group of developed and developing nations including Canada, Australia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Pakistan. Collectively, they represent about 30 per cent of the world’s population.

Lewis Brooks, spokesman for the London-based Royal Commonwealth Society, says a new secretary general will be elected in Malta. That may go some way to assuaging the Canadian government’s concerns.

Brooks also notes that Trudeau has committed to improving engagement with international institutions.

“This is encouraging,” he says in an email exchange from Malta.

Canada should look to build consensus for practical action from the Commonwealth, Brooks says.

“This should form the basis of renewed engagement by Canada in the Commonwealth,” he says.

Brooks says Trudeau and his government have galvanized discussion around Malta already.

“What he has done has certainly proved to be an inspiration to young people and civil society that I have been speaking to. In many ways the diversity in his cabinet should be a lightning rod for the Commonwealth, in reinforcing the celebration of diversity that happens in the Commonwealth.”

Climate change is on the agenda ahead of the UN climate talks in Paris that begin Monday, as well as discussion about countering violent extremism.

“This has been an emerging agenda item since before the atrocities in Beirut and Paris,” Brooks says.

The meeting in Malta will be the first ever to include a women’s forum, an event that will highlight just how far many Commonwealth countries and organizations have to go in achieving gender parity, he says.