C’wealth values, Latimer House principles govern Ottawa’s participation at CHOGM

Canadian Senator here to report on democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression, media freedom and northern social conditions

Canada still holds the position that events in Sri Lanka, particularly the impeachment of the Chief Justice, should be discussed by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), a visiting Senator said yesterday. “Our position hasn’t changed,” said Hugh Segal, Canada’s Special Envoy for the Commonwealth, who reports directly to Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird. “Our Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote a letter to the Secretary-General, to the other members of CMAG, saying we wanted to have a discussion on Sri Lanka, because of the impeachment of the Chief Justice.”

“We saw that as a core violation of Commonwealth values, of the Latimer House principles which is separation of powers and judicial independence,” he said. “That remains our policy, and we keep on pursuing every effort we can make to ensure there is a discussion of Sri Lanka, one way or the other, with Sri Lanka, hopefully, at the CMAG meeting scheduled for end April.”

Senator Segal, who was in Sri Lanka for five days, said he was a “fact-finder” for the Canadian Foreign Minister. His objective was “to get a sense on the ground of some of the issues that are important to the Commonwealth”. He described these as rule of law, democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of press and economic and social conditions in the North.

His assessment, in the form of a report, will be presented to the Canadian Government, “as it sorts out its level of involvement in the CHOGM scheduled for November in Colombo”.

Asked what he thought of the situation in Sri Lanka, Senator Segal said he was impressed with the diversity, mix of economic growth and opportunity that exists, as well as the tremendous progress that has been made since 2009.

He added, however, that there were two types of infrastructure. “There’s the infrastructure that is hard- things like roads, schools and hospitals,” he explained. “And then, there’s the infrastructure of civility, which may be soft, but is sometimes harder to achievefreedom, rule of law, human rights, the right to dissent, those sorts of issues.”

“I tend to be an individual who tilts towards balance,” he said. “I have found some things that are profoundly encouraging and important. And I have found other things that are a bit more troubling, and I will be formulating that mix, as I sort through different documents and information that I have picked up, when I prepare my final report.

Asked of what use his report would be, when his government had already decided to boycott the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, Senator Segal said he would like to clarify what the Canadian Prime Minister had actually said. In August 2011, on the same day the UN Panel of Experts Report was released- saying there was credible evidence of war crimes on both sides, a journalist asked the Prime Minister whether he would attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka.

“He said, ‘Based on what I know today, I have no plans to attend CHOGM in Colombo’,” Senator Segal related. “I’m not aware of a change in his position, but let’s remember what he said. He didn’t say, ‘Under no circumstances will I ever go to Colombo. He did not say, ‘I want Canada to boycott Colombo’. He’s never given that direction.”

“So we are now where the British are,” he said. “Assessing what the level of our participation would be, the level of our delegation, and that will be based on a series of variables of which my report will be one.”