Trudeau’s UN speech focuses on domestic issues
OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly Thursday focused largely on domestic issues, including his finance minister’s proposed tax reforms, but didn’t get much into geopolitics.
A heavy focus on his Liberal government’s handling of Indigenous issues was expected in this, Trudeau’s second speech to the UN’s plenary chamber in New York in as many years. Trudeau went into detail explaining his government’s policy and Canada’s difficult history with Indigenous peoples.
That’s a departure from last year’s speech, when the prime minister mentioned Indigenous issues but focused more on Canada’s general domestic policy goals, its welcoming of Syrian refugees and its commitment to multilateralism.
Although leaders use the UN as a platform to talk about their government’s work at home — such as Trudeau’s reiteration this year that he introduced a new child benefit and raised taxes on the wealthiest one per cent — it is also a stage for discussing conflicts, security and other global issues.
When asked by reporters why he dwelt so much on domestic issues and aired the country’s dirty laundry on a stage designed for international crises, Trudeau retorted that Canada’s treatment of its First Nations is an international issue.
In his speech he cited examples of his government’s efforts to improve life on reserves to bolster his main point at the UN: that Canada is ready to take on complex challenges, at home and abroad and deserves a seat on the Security Council.
Here are a few things he didn’t mention:
LITERALLY ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Aside from an early offer of condolences to Mexico after a major earthquake this week, Trudeau didn’t mention a single other member of the United Nations.
Not even the United States. He did mention “no country,” though, saying there is no country on the planet that can “walk away from the reality of climate change.”
THE SITUATION IN MYANMAR
Trudeau missed an opportunity to mention a crisis that has seized global attention in the past few weeks. Some 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh amid what a UN human rights official called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” earlier this month. Although he didn’t highlight the issue in New York Thursday, Trudeau’s government has issued statements expressing concern over the situation and he has, on other occasions, publicly urged leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a holder of Canadian honorary citizenship, to act.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY OR TERRORISM
There was no mention from Trudeau of terrorism; cyber-terrorism; ballistic missile threats from North Korea; ISIL; or the situation in Iraq and Syria. The word “security” wasn’t in the speech.
PEACEKEEPING OR THE MILITARY
Last year, Trudeau mentioned Canada’s commitment to NATO and UN peacekeeping missions but neither of these was mentioned Thursday. Canada’s military contribution leading a NATO force in Latvia was not on the table, nor its training of forces in Ukraine or its involvement in the coalition fighting ISIL in Iraq and Syria. Canada’s announcement earlier this year that it will put significant new money into its military did not earn a mention either.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
Although Trudeau called Canada a home for descendants of settlers and immigrants, he didn’t mention Canada’s refugee program or note that more people have been walking across the Canada-U.S. border irregularly.
FREE TRADE
Trudeau didn’t utter the phrase “free trade” in his speech. There was no fullthroated defence of the concept, although he said Canada will work on “progressive trade agreements” like the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, which went into provisional effect Thursday. Perhaps in an attempt to minimize clips that U.S. President Donald Trump might see on the news, there was no mention of the North American Free Trade Agreement.