Trudeau secures Senegal’s vote for UN security council seat during Dakar trip

DAKAR, SENEGAL -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the world to do more to spread freedom Wednesday, as he visited a museum in Senegal that was once a centre in the African slave trade. But a few hours later, with Senegal’s president, he did not take an opportunity to publicly call out a law that criminalizes homosexual activity. Trudeau was sombre and pensive as he toured the House of Slaves on Goree Island, off the coast of Dakar, where African men, women and children were imprisoned at a final stop in Africa before being forced onto ships and taken across the ocean to lives of enslavement in the west.

He said we must admit we have not learned “all the terrible lessons of the past and continue to inflict horrible systemic violence on each other in too many places around the world.“We must pledge ourselves to remember and to act to move beyond this terrible part of our past and build a future in which everyone can live free and full,” he said. Trudeau went from Goree Island to the presidential palace for a meeting with Senegal’s President Macky Sall. The meeting was intended to pursue new education and economic connections but is also part of Trudeau’s bid for Canada to win a seat on the United Nations’ powerful Security Council in June. African support is expected to be pivotal as Canada, Norway and Ireland vie for two available spots.

Sall threw his support heavily behind Canada’s bid.“Canada has our support in this election,” Sall said in French, during a joint news conference with Trudeau after their meeting. He cited the many shared values between the two countries, which have a lengthy relationship as two French-speaking nations.

Sall said it is “very easy” to root for Canada and that he would speak with his African counterparts to encourage them to cast their ballots for Canada when UN members vote in June. Moments later, Trudeau was asked if he had raised the issue of LGBTQ rights with Sall. Trudeau said he always talks about human rights but pulled his punches about Senegal’s anti-gay law. “We recognize there is always more work to do everywhere around the world and Canada will be a friend and partner as we move forward, recognizing that in terms of values, in terms of democracy, Senegal is a country that has succeeded tremendously in showing a positive example in many many areas for other countries,” he said. Senegal is considered to be one of the most stable democracies in Africa, with several recent peaceful transfers of power after fair elections.........