Canada imposes Venezuela sanctions
Cites ‘Maduro regime’s ... abuse of its people’
OTTAWA • Canada imposed new sanctions on Venezuela Wednesday after a report on the regime of Nicolas Maduro accused the country’s leaders of murders, extra-judicial executions, torture and other human rights abuses.
The new sanctions on 14 Venezuelan individuals connected to the Maduro regime, including first lady Cilia Flores, are part of a broader effort by countries such as the U.S. to bring his government to heel.
“Nobody could do worse” at governing Venezuela, said Luis Almagro, the secretarygeneral of the Organization of American States, which is calling for the downfall of the Maduro regime.
Canada was the first country to welcome the recommendations from a panel of legal experts convened by the OAS, which over the past few months studied human rights abuses in Venezuela.
After hearing from victims, witnesses and experts on human rights crimes, the OAS panel found Maduro responsible for dozens of murders, thousands of extra-judicial executions, more than 12,000 cases of arbitrary detentions, more than 290 cases of torture, attacks against the judiciary and a “state-sanctioned humanitarian crisis” affecting hundreds of thousands of people, said former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, who was on the OAS panel.
One country now needs to sponsor the report — which would trigger a formal investigation by the International Criminal Court. An indictment by the ICC would put Maduro’s government on a par with regimes including Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan and Libya’s late Moammar Gadhafi.
“I would like to see the states from the G7 agreeing to refer the matter of crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court for a prospective investigation and prosecution,” said Cotler.
Almagro said Maduro and his allies are increasingly sealed off from the day-today economic and humanitarian plight of the country.
The prime minister has been cornered by his own overzealous regulatory changes — enthusiasm that shut down the Northern Gateway and Energy East options.
The strategy doubtless worked on the principle they would not be needed because the government would support Trans Mountain, which had regulatory approval and the support of the B.C. government. Then sand was thrown in the gears when John Horgan was elected NDP premier of B.C.
Trudeau has been animated about the need to protect Canadian values, but there is no Canadian value more important than the rule of law, the foundation of all the other values in society.
That value will now be challenged, not least by the leader of the third party in Parliament. Jagmeet Singh said he supports the rule of law and does not condone violence. “But it is important to understand that people protest when they are frustrated. I understand where that comes from,” he said.
Horgan said he encouraged pipeline opponents to make their voices heard but only “within the rule of law.”
Those words will probably fall on deaf ears.
Bill McKibben, the American environmentalist, writing in the Guardian, said Trans Mountain is shaping up to be another Standing Rock, the protest against a pipeline in North Dakota that saw armed soldiers and police in riot gear clear an encampment. “I’m guessing that making this petrocolonialism officially statesponsored will only harden people’s resolution,” he said. “The cutest, progressivist, boy-bandiest leader in the world is going fully in the tank for the oil industry.”
The pipeline news will stain Trudeau’s reputation in many Indigenous communities that have been supportive of the Liberals to this point.
“This is the moment in history where Justin Trudeau has revealed that he never cared about Indigenous rights or reconciliation,” said Will George, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in North Vancouver.
That view is not universal among Indigenous people. Trudeau quoted B.C. Chief Ernie Crey, who welcomed the news and said the livelihoods of the Cheam band people depend on it succeeding.
But that’s the point. A government elected on promises of positive politics and inclusiveness has taken decisions that have increased the polarization in this country.
People in New Brunswick are gobsmacked that the federal government has bought a pipeline, after engineering the demise of Energy East. Don Darling, the Saint John mayor, said Ottawa claims Trans Mountain is in the national interest because it will create jobs. “Those are the exact arguments we made for Energy East, but we couldn’t get any traction,” he said.
At one point in question period Wednesday, Trudeau chided the Conservatives for talking about Energy East, which was “old news.” Lisa Raitt, the Conservative deputy leader, shot back that this would be news to the Liberal MP for Saint John, Wayne Long, who was quoted in that morning’s paper saying he would be lobbying the prime minister to reopen the Energy East file.
The business community should have been supportive of Ottawa’s Trans Mountain intervention, but the confusion over enforcing regulatory approvals has resulted in a widespread negative sentiment.
“We are left questioning why any company would pursue large capital investment in Canada,” said a note to clients by GMP Securities analysts.
For many, the grievance is less the terms of the deal. As was noted Tuesday, if the pipeline is built, it could be sold at a profit by the government.
People who watched Trudeau orchestrate the purchase have no doubts about his resolve. “This was not the prime minister who crashed the wedding on a beach in Tofino. This was the boxing match version of Justin — stubborn and immovable,” said one person.
The sun will be beating down on the Trans Mountain terminal in Burnaby this summer, but there will be few signs of sunny ways.
THIS WAS THE BOXING MATCH VERSION OF JUSTIN.